《Return of the demon》


 -1 Cultivation stages

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    The cultivation system is complex. I can''t explain it without a table so there is a link to a pic which explains it.


    Also please read this as otherwise many things wont make sense. Especially in the beginning I just start mentioning cultivation stages.


    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ulZE0tUzFzbLaYuCClUzmHLyfv15rzey/view?usp=sharing


    Below is a link for the map


    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CVac5-aHyO7N8a1geOVJZSJQo5_pqPJ8/view?usp=sharing


    Only the major points are given. And this image is not to scale only as a general outline to see what is in which side of what. The distances and other major cities are not given.


    The first seven chapters are a preamble. It contains world building as well as some information regarding MC''s past life and cultivation.The story only properly starts from the eight chapter onward, but the first few chapters are important and they show the changes of the MC after his reincarnation, as well as his first step in cultivation. But if you don''t read them, you may be confused later on.@@

 1 Awakening

    The evening sunlight washed over Yellow Valley city making it look like it was on fire. In the orange after glow, the dancing shadows the trees cast seem to make the walls look like dancing flames.


    In one corner of the city there was a large mansion. The mansion existed outside the city, and on the slopes of the Blue Moon mountain range.In a corner of the of the mansion, a teenage boy was lying peacefully on a bed in a simple unadorned room. He wasn''t particularly handsome. It was the kind of face that if you saw in a crowd you would simply pass your glance by. Yet if you were to look at him again, you could see that his sharp features had a kind of charm that could hold your eyes in place. A middle aged lady was sitting next to him on the bed stroking his cheeks with tears in her eyes. A middle aged man was standing next to the two of them with a complex look in his eyes.


    "Let him rest. Come, let us go." He said to the woman.


    "But look at him. What if he needs us." She replied.


    "There is nothing we can do. You know his situation as well as I. Even though he is now fourteen years old, his mind is barely that of a four year old. We know that he is often muddle headed on top of that. It is not a big surprise that he fainted."


    "But how was he in the clan garden. He is very obedient. He knows not to wander about without us. He never goes outside and always spends his time here. What if someone did this to him. What if he fainted because someone attacked him." The woman was hysterical. She could barely keep her tears from flowing.


    The man chucked sadly. "Attack him. Why would anybody attack a mentally deranged child like him."


    The sadness in his eyes was apparent for anyone to see. If anyone who had seen the Iron Tiger Bai Mu like this, no one would be able to associate that fearsome figure with this frail man.


    The woman took one last look at young man and got up tearfully. "I am just worried about him" she said.


    "Don''t worry. With my resources and prestige, we can make sure that he lives an entire life without worries." The man replied with an iron voice.


    Suddenly the door opened and an old man in a long tattered robe walked in. Behind him walked a young man in a similar white robe holding a large suitcase. From the look of the frail body of the young man, it almost seemed as if he wouldn''t be able to lift the suitcase that was larger than him by two sizes, but he managed to do so easily. And along with the two of them came a thick scent of medicinal ingredients.


    The couple quickly stood up. "Doctor Mu, thank you for coming. There seems to be something wrong with Xiao Yun''s body." The middle aged man stood up and said respectfully.


    The old man, doctor Mu, sighed as he looked at the couple. As the head doctor for the Bai clan and the best doctor in the entire Yellow City, he had looked after the child for years. He knew exactly how much the couple cared for their child and just how bad his situation was. When the child didn''t grow up and behave like other children of his age it was he who had diagnosed the toddler with having a damaged soul and informed the couple. He remembered the lost and despairing look on their faces like yesterday. He also remembered that when he went to look for them the next day, the young and lively Xiao Mei had the very first wrinkle on the edge of her eyes, and the imposing Iron Tiger had his first grey hair.


    Then the two of them had said that they would have no other children and if necessary would spend the rest of their lives taking care of their child.


    The old man sighed and took the teenagers hand into his. He could feel the weak but vibrant life force in that body. He once again lamented that such a perfect physique suitable for cultivation was the body of such a mentally challenged boy. If not for that , this child might even become the most talented of all the younger generation in Bai clan, no the entire Yellow City.


    "Xiao Shi why are you lunging around such a large suitcase, don''t you have a space ring." The middle aged woman asked the young man. He was doctor Mu''s apprentice. Doctor Mu had a high requirement toward his apprentices. He had only taken three in his entire life. Not only did he require an adequate power of soul or spiritual force, he also required him to have a good heart.


    "No Madam Bai. Only master has one. Besides master says that the reason he wants me to carry it is for training." The young man replied.


    "Training?" they asked confused.


    "Master says that in case of a emergency, it is not always possible to use ones eyes. Sometimes when we are doing a procedure our eyes as well as spiritual force would have to be focused on the patient. We may not have any way to figure out which medicinal ingredient is which and where it is because of this, and may also be lacking in any assistants. Thus he wants me to figure out the medicinal ingredients and pills by smell alone, so that I can quickly react in an emergency."


    Understanding quickly appeared in the couples eyes. Then they turned towards doctor Mu with worry.


    For a short while longer doctor Mu sat down and probed with his spiritual sense. Then he let go of the teenager''s hand and stood up with a sigh.


    "There is no need to worry too much. His body is fine. His damaged soul on the other hand seems to be fluctuating."


    "Wha-what should we do." The middle aged man blurted out, worry obvious in his words.


    "Relax. Even though I have never come across someone who was born with a damaged soul like your son, I have indeed read about such cases before. The aren''t unprecedented. In such cases, sometimes the soul might start to fluctuate randomly. This while not usual, it is nothing to be alarmed about. It should stabilize in one or two days and then he will wake up. We can start worrying if he sleeps for longer, though it shouldn''t be the case."


    The couple seemed to calm down with the old man''s words. Even tough this was a new phenomenon, with their child being born sick, they had been prepared to face many strange situations.


    "Call me if his situation worsens or if he doesn''t wake up in a few days. For now just let him rest." The old man said as he stood up and left.


    The couple watched him leave and then turned towards the teenager. Then they turned towards each other and then a look of determination appeared in their eyes.


    As the two of them moved toward the door, they took one last look at the boy who seemed to be sleeping. After they left they took a look around them and saw a few servants who were standing around them. Among them stood a middle aged man in a black cloth who looked to be their leader.


    "Butler Fang, send all the people we have to buy any medicinal ingredient or pill that can help stabilize or heal the soul. Use all of our available resources." The middle aged man instructed.


    The butler who heard this was startled. He had heard what doctor Mu had said and was aware that the young master would wake up on his own.


    "But sir, is that necessary." The butler said. "Doctor Mu has said that this is normal. More importantly the Elders are quite dissatisfied with the way you have been spending all of the resources allotted to you on the young master, without using much for yourself. They are saying that these are to be used to raise your cultivation level, and not to be wasted on a cripple. If you were to do this they might react quite badly."


    "Hmph, I will handle the elders. My son is a member of the younger generation too, but after doctor Mu has said that there is no known way to heal a naturally damaged soul, they lost all the interest in him and haven''t given him his share of the resources he deserves. I haven''t talked to them about that yet. Besides, I am not using the clans funds, just my private funds. I will spend it as I wish."


    The butler could only nod.


    "Just buy them all as soon as you can. Also stay away from Yun-er''s room. Let him rest for now." The couple said as they walked away with a heavy heart.


    The servants looked at each other. They knew how much suffering their masters had gone through in the past years. Wordlessly they dispersed. Soon the area around the room quietened. All the servants had left. There was not the faintest sound, not even that of a cricket in the surrounding area.


    The shadows grow longer and they quickly covered the whole mansion. Due to the mansion being on the footholds of the Blue Moon mountains, the shadow of the mountain covered them before the sun set. But soon the sun also set. Even though the rest of the mansion was still in a hubbub, the area surrounding this room was in a complete silence.


    By now the moon had risen, but it was covered in clouds. An eerie feeling permeated throughout the land. Not just the Bai mansion, but the whole world was shrouded in a mysterious feeling. That night many people felt restless and quickly left their seclusion and looked at the stars. Some went and had drinks with their friends. Some fought. Some cried. Some held their loved ones close. All in all it was a very noisy night.


    But around that one room, it was as if all sound had disappeared. Even the trees outside the youngster''s room rustled quietly as if afraid of waking him up. In the glow of the stars, a youth slept in a stillness resembling death.


    Suddenly out of nowhere a wind blew through the courtyard outside the mansion. As the wind blew, it made the tress wave gently, as if they were listening to a piece played by a master musician. The leaves seemed to sing along with the wind. But somehow, before the sounds of the leaves could near the window of the room, the playful wind took them away.


    The wind resembled a naughty child. It seemed not to care about the thoughts of people. It moved to the left, then to the right. One moment it went up, then down. In frolicked in the air like a fish in the oceans, like a dragon in the clouds, like a child in the river.


    It suddenly shot straight up. It seemed to run around the mountain peeks before it ran to clouds, as if needed a playmate to play with and tugged at the clouds covering the moon.


    And with it one cloud moved just a fraction. But this opened up a crack in the clouds. This crack seemed to be a crack in the sky, leading to a new world. Through this, a single ray of moonlight shot down.


    This ray of moonlight passed the sky in an instant and approached the land. As it came close, the birds flying in the sky quickly got out of its way. The trees that were send swaying by the wind seemed to posses amysterious rhythm. They seem to move randomly and yet they all moved out of the way of the ray of light as if subjects parting before their king. This ray ray of moonlight passed by them in an instant, and entered the room of the youth through his window.


    And it gently fell upon his face as if it was afraid it would harm him.


    And the youth''s eyes flew open.

 2 Long Tian

    The youth''s eyes flew open and he sat up on the bed and clutched at this chest right at place where his heart was. His eyes were bloodshot and he was panting as if he had just run for an entire day straight.


    And in the instant he sat up, the sky across the world, from the Jade sea in the east to the Endless Void in the west, to the Frozen Sea in the north to Blaze Desert of the south, all turned red. The stars and the moon all disappeared for an instant, and the black sky was dyed red. This phenomenon lasted only for the briefest of moments, but it was enough for the strongest few in the land to notice it. They all stood stunned and wondered what could have caused the sky to change color, but no one could sense the source of that aura.


    But there was also one other thing that happened along with the appearance of the red sky. No, rather than along with it was better to call it the cause of the red sky. A boundless, endless killing intent covered the lands. The killing intent was so sharp and almighty, that it seemed to cover the very world in which they existed and reduce it to ashes. It seemed to look down upon all existence and was only filled with the boundless desire to extinguish everything in its path.


    But no one felt that killing intent. Or rather no one was qualified to feel that killing intent. Just like how an ant''s body would subconsciously choose not to feel the killing intent of a dragon, every single life form in the entire world chose to do the same. The highest person in this world was only at the third step. They were not qualified to even stand in front of this killing intent.


    Bai Yun suddenly sat up. His hand clutched at his heart as he suddenly started to pant heavily.Cold sweat broke out of all the pores in his body. Suddenly a memory of his head being crushed by the devil emperor as he flooded the inside of the devil emperor''s body with the essence of destruction dao appeared in his mind.


    ''What is going on? How am I still alive? I should have died along with the devil emperor after that desperate attack.'' The youngster thought.


    As his heart slowed down, the youth looked up. And the moment he did, he got another shock. The place that he was in was completely unfamiliar to him. He could not recognize anything here.Even more importantly every item here was of an unimaginably low grade. Even in the middle of the Grand War, where the resources were tightly rationed, he would never have used items of such a low quality.


    The second thing he noticed was that his body had no perception. Anyone who had ever stepped on the path of cultivation had a perception, no matter how weak. Even if they couldn''t sense the outside world due to their perception being weak, or their cultivation base damaged, it was still possible for them to sense the inside of their bodies. The fact that he couldn''t sense anything was as if he was a mortal again. Even when he was an infant, his father had given him special medicine that had allowed to step on the path of cultivation. This was a completely new experience for him.


    The third thing he noticed was his hands. His hands was completely unfamiliar to him. It felt foreign. They were different from his hands that had been hardened by war. The familiar scars had been lost and they were much lighter. Not knowing what was happening, a sense of panic arose in heart. Along with a moment of surprise, he quickly suppressed the panic. With his cultivation and will, it should not have been possible for him to panic because of something so simple.


    He saw a mirror in the room. The youth quickly pushed aside the sheets covering him and proceeded to stand up. And the moment he did so, he stumbled and nearly fell. A frown appeared on his face. He was not used to this body. The difference in strength was too much. He could not control himself.


    After taking a deep breath, the youth started to focus. Then slowly, step by step, he walked towards the mirror. And the moment he reachedthe mirror, he stopped and stared at it.


    The faced that looked back at him was completely different. In his past life, he was a strikingly handsome man, who had left many women heartbroken. His features were sharp and distinct, and his stature tall and broad. He stood like a god of war, imposing before all.


    But the face before him was ordinary. But he could still some traces of his former self in it. This led to startling opposition. At the first look no one could see anything special about him, but yet due to the traces of his former life,a person who looked closely, would be unable to look away.


    The youth fell into contemplation. He was Long Tian, the son of the God of Trinity, Long Ma. Being the son of one of the most powerful titled gods, and being born with a seamless body constitution, which allowed him to cultivate without meeting any bottlenecks. He was given many precious resources since he was young, and trained by the strongest and most mysterious of the masters since his youth. He was brought up far away from the mortal world, and raised in a bubble. And true to the resources given to him, he quickly rose through cultivation stages, and went on to become the youngest ever god in any cultivation system.


    But times change. Soon after he became a god, an army of aliens from outside the universe invaded. And thus the Grand War began. The army of devils, as the they were called, was not too large, but they were very strong and unpredictable. They also tempted many people in the universe to fight for them. In order to resist them, all the gods and titled gods banded together. But their leader, the Devil Emperor, was far too strong. He was stronger than anyone in the alliance army. The Grand War lasted for over thirty thousand years. But initially no one could find the location of the devil emperor. After he appeared for the first time in the beginning of the invasion, it was as if he simply disappeared. Many people thought that he was in seclusion because he was hurt after spending a huge effort to open a rip in the universe large enough to allow the devil armies to march through.


    As time passed, due to the tricky nature of the devils and their bedevilment methods, losses started to accrue on both sides. The devils magic was unpredictable. They also used evil methods to cause great harm to the alliance armies. But with the help of the titled gods, victory was in sight.


    And then the devil emperor left seclusion. He immediately started a large campaign against all god and immortal step cultivators in the universe. Over a dozen titled gods died in the span of a few years. Till then many gods and titled gods were sitting it out, thinking this was nothing more than a skirmish and a good way to train their disciples. It was only then that people started to understand the true nature of the war. Much of the devil army was hidden and its true size was not known. Theyalso realized that the devil emperor wanted to destroy them all and was much stronger than they imagined.


    Faced with no other choice, all the gods and titled gods came together and decided to fight together.


    During this time Long Tian was deployed to the rear of the army. Due to his age and inexperience, as well as the fact that he was seen as the hope of the future he was told to stay in a relatively safe location.


    After he cleaned up the battlefield, he decided to head to the front lines. But by the time he reached there the battle was over.


    He arrived to see a empty battlefield strewn with corpses. The devil emperor was standing in the middle of the starry sky laughing like a madman. He had lost an arm and a leg each and a major part of his head had also been blown off.


    Usually such an injury would be healed in no time, but the devil emperor was too drawn out for his healing to work. And the price they had to pay was also extremely high. Every single titled god, and most of the gods had been stationed here. But in the aftermath, there was only the devil emperor standing. In front of him was a giant rift in the sky giving off strange undulations. It was due to his great injury and this giant rift that he completely did not notice Long Tian approaching the battlefield.


    Suddenly Long Tian noticed an arm that was lying near him. Then his entire body froze. He recognized the arm as his mother''s. He could sense no life force from it what so ever. This would have never happened if she was alive.


    At that instance a strange rage took over his mind. Long Tian had grown up in a loving world. It was only after the war started that he saw his first ever dead body. The pain of all that he had experienced, along with all of the friends that he had made during the war who had died had pushed his mind to a breaking point long ago. His mother''s arm was the last straw for him.


    Suddenly he felt a membrane break in his mind and an intense desire for destruction welled up within him. Then he heard the voice of the heavenly dao whispering in his ear.


    When a god steps into the titled god stage for the first time, the heavenly dao will give him a title. This title could represent the dao that the person has walked, his path, his personality, his profession or a variety of other things. For example the reason his father was titled the God of Trinity was because he was the first person to become a titled god in all three paths of qi, body and soul. And once a title was given, only after the person who had received the titled had died and all traces of his existence been erased and forgotten by the universe and the heavenly dao, would another person be given that same title.


    As he stepped into the realm of titled god, He could sense the heavenly dao working around him, shrouding him, trying to decipher his name. This wasn''t a process that could be done in an instant, otherwise his father wouldn''t be called the God of Trinity, as when he first stepped on the titled god realm,he had only reached it in one system, and a person could only be given one title.


    In that second he moved. He reached behind the devil emperor in an instant. The devil emperor was looking ahead at the giant rift. He was too injured and did not have any strength to spare to keep track of his surroundings. But even then he should have sensed Long Tian approaching. But due to the heavenly dao shroud around him and the interference and strong heavenly dao waves coming out of the rift, he was completely invisible. Long Tian drew upon every drop of strength in him and stabbed it into the heart of the devil emperor.


    The devil emperor,who never expected to be attacked was stunned and couldn''t react for a moment. In that instant Long Tian converted every drop of energy into pure destructive dao essence and send it coursing through the devil emperors body. As the devil emperor turned around and looked at him, they could both see that he was corrupted by the destruction dao essence. His entire being was starting to crumble and it was only a matter of time before he died.


    Then a look of utter viciousness appeared on the devil emperors face. Then he stabbed his arm right through Long Tian''s head. And then without waiting for a moment the devil emperor blew himself up.


    Long Tian didn''t even have a chance to react before this happened.


    And that was the last thing he remembered before waking up in the body of Bai Yun.

 3 Reincarnation

    Long Tian opened his eyes after his contemplation. For a moment a complex look appeared in his eyes before he closed it. After a sigh he opened his eyes again. This time a thoughtful look appeared in them.


    He knew that there was no way for him to have lived after that explosion. He had used up every drop of energy in his body while delivering that strike. He could not have defended against the devil emperor''s counter attack. He should be dead.


    ''Whatever I should be grateful for being alive.'' Long Tian thought. But figuring out why he was alive was extremely important. If this happened naturally or by accident, then it was fine. But if it was done by someone with ulterior motives then the situation would change.


    He sat on the bed he woke up in and started to think. Without knowing the exact situation it was not suitable to walk around.


    After he thought for a while Long Tian could only think of four ways in which he would be in this body.


    The first was that someone had messed with hismemories. He quickly threw this out the window as doing so was pointless.


    The second was soul possession. During the explosion, his soul would not have died, but rather flown far away. But soul possession required one to be awake, and doing it unconscious was next to impossible.


    The third was reincarnation. But Long Tian knew that this was impossible, plain and simple. This was because once one entered the god step, they would be unable to enter the reincarnation cycle. This was because their soul would be branded by a heavenly dao god mark, and this made sure that any god who entered the cycle of reincarnation would have their souls destroyed. Besides he had not only reached the titled god level in qi, but also the god state in the soul system also, meaning that it was extremely difficult to kill him without completely destroying his soul.


    The fourth method was if someone reversed time, and saved him from the explosion. Then that person could have put his soul in this body. But to do so one would have to be at least a titled god. And this was only the starting condition. To save him from the self explosion of the devil emperor would require the strength of an incredibly powerful titled god. On top of this he wasn''t even certain if it was even possible to do so because of the terrifying heavenly dao undulations that were present at the time from the rift. Even now Long Tian had no idea what the rift was.


    Long Tian decided to delve deep into his soul to see if he could get to remember what happened on that day. Even though he could not remember them, as a titled god, his soul should automatically remember what happened. Even though it was a bit dangerous to delve into his soul''s subconscious, as someone who had once he reached god stage in the soul system, he was confident he had the required control necessary to pull himself out in case of something going wrong.


    Long Tian closed his eyes and started to meditate. As he stayed in that state, time quickly flew by. As the night went on, the entire city started to move. A few of the strongest people on the city had observed the mysterious changes that had happened to the sky earlier. Orders were quickly given out and people started to move in order to find out what had caused the change. Many people were of the opinion that some kind of great treasure had been born, but it''s birth had been quickly covered up by someone, and were now determined to find the truth.


    Time quickly passed by and the night turned into morning. As the first rays of sunshine arrived, Long Tian opened his eyes. Unmistakable shock could be seen in his eyes.


    The answer that he got by searching his memories surprised him by a great deal. He had actually reincarnated!


    It was truly a series of coincidences that led to his reincarnation. When the reincarnation cycle of the universe senses a god level dao mark, that soul is destroyed by it. Even though there are only three major systems of cultivation in the world, it was not like there are no other systems of cultivation existing. There was the blood cultivation system, or the circle system for demon beasts, or the nether cultivation system for sprites and ghosts, and even the ancient cultivating system of the now extinct celestial race.


    But the one common thing among all these cultivation systems is the god step and that the names and steps of the god step are the same for all the cultivation systems. And the dao mark that you get when you become a god is also the same across all cultivation systems.


    It was theoretically possible for people below the god step to reincarnate. But due to the overwhelming power of the reincarnation system, one needed their soul to be as powerful as a soul in the immortal step of the soul system at the minimum. Otherwise no matter how powerful one was, or even with a powerful treasure protecting you, their souls would be destroyed.


    And even then it was not possible for a immortal step soul cultivator to simply reincarnate. They had to take many steps before reincarnating. If you entered the reincarnation cycle after death, then your soul would be unconscious, and your unconscious soul wouldn''t be able to put up any defenses.


    Thus not only would you have to open a special path towards the reincarnation cycle, which requires the strength of a titled god, then you needed a soul treasure powerful enough to allow you to be conscious through the reincarnation process and also great knowledge of souls in order to remember their memories of their past lives.


    Long Tian only knew of one person who had successfully done it and reincarnated. He also knew that that person had spend ten thousand years in preparation for it.


    Many gods had tried to modify or hide their dao marks and enter the reincarnation once again due to many reasons. But without fail they had all died.


    But what happened with him was truly coincidental. When he died he had just broken through from a god to a titled god. Asresult his dao mark had been in the middle of upgrading to that of that of a titled god. As a result his dao mark had been in flux. But this alone would not have been enough to help him survive the reincarnation cycle. The similarities between his fluctuating dao mark and the god level dao mark would have been seen through by the reincarnation cycle.


    The true reason that the reincarnation cycle was completely unable to see through him was due to the devil emperor. When the devil emperor self destructed, in order to deliver the maximum damage, he didn''t just explode his soul or cultivation, he exploded his very existence, down to the last drop. He destroyed his cultivation, his body, his soul, his dao, memory and even his very existence. Long Tian did not even know that such a thing could happen until then.


    As he realized this, Long Tian broke out in cold sweat. He suddenly realized that he could not recall what the devil emperor looked like. He remember what he did, his laughter and his actions, but he was completely unable to recall what he looks like. He was even unable to recall his name, even though Long Tian could remember the devil emperor saying his name in front of him when he first arrived.


    A feeling of awe appeared in his heart. It took incredible ruthlessness to do so. Dying along with your enemy was one thing. But to erase your very existence in order to maximize the damage to the universe you were invading took a special brand of ruthlessness and determination.


    Everyone dies sometime. All that one leaves behind when one dies is memories of what they did. To be able to destroy even that was not something anyone could do.


    And it was this ruthlessness of the devil emperor that allowed him to reincarnate. When the devil emperor self exploded, he was too weak and barely had any energy left. Thus his self explosion was not as thorough as it should have been. Thus some pieces of his dao mark and some of his memories, aura, dao and energy was mixed along with the explosion. And since Long Tian''s soul was in the middle of transforming, it was in an unstable state, and it got itself mixed with the remnants of the devil emperor.


    The Devil Emperor was not from this universe, and thus his dao mark was quite different from that of this universe. The dao mark that was from the fusion of the two was quite different. Also the resulting energy protected the Long Tian''s soul and even though he was killed, it allowed his soul to be not completely destroyed, and thus enter the reincarnation cycle.


    As the reincarnation cycle could not recognize his dao mark, his soul wasn''t destroyed and he continued forward. But when faced with the terrifying pressure of the reincarnation cycle, his soul which had reached the soul god stage in cultivation created a protective covering for him. This protective covering not only held itself against the reincarnation cycle, it also kept his soul asleep while tending to the injuries he had suffered and allowing himself to heal. Thus his soul, which was injured, went through the reincarnation cycle, and healed in the meantime.


    As his soul healed and the protective covering weakened, he went through millions of reincarnations. As his soul was asleep during them, it appeared as if he was born with a damaged soul. Thus he quickly lived out his life and died in each of them, and continued on the reincarnation path.


    By the time he had reached his current life, his protective covering had thinned to an almost imperceptible degree. By his estimate, if nothing had happened, he would have continued on for three more reincarnations before the protective covering broke. Then he would have awoken at the moment of his birth and then he would have lived a life as normal.


    Long Tian frowned as he realized it. Even though the protective coating had grown thin, it wasn''t something that could be destroyed so easily. It was created to protect against the pressure of reincarnation. Even though its defenses against other forms of attack was weak, it did not mean that there was none. Only a powerful soul attack could have destroyed it.


    This confused Long Tian. His current life should have been that of an idiot. There was no reason for anyone to attack him. He was of no threat to anyone.


    Long Tian closed his eyes once again. He had to read the memories of his current life to understand the situation better. Earlier he had been reading his memories related to reincarnation and did not have the time to look into the situation of his current life.


    He closed his eyes and and delved deep. Due to the fact that his soul was damaged, he was unable to recollect all the things that happened in his current life.But he still had many memories and he went over them one by one quickly.


    A moment later Long Tian opened his eyes once again. A cold light appeared in his eyes. He finally recalled how his protective covering had been destroyed.


    The very last thing in his memories, was a small opaque orb rolling slowly towards him. It stopped in front of him. In curiosity, the current life of Long Tian, touched it and it exploded into many pieces, before he blacked out.


    Long Tian recognized that object.


    It was a Soul Shaking orb.

 4 Bai Yun

    Long Tian''s current life was called Bai Yun. He was born in the Bai clan of Yellow City.


    According to the history of this world, a long time ago there existed only a single plane of existence. The plane contained an unimaginable number of worlds of different sizes. The largest world in the plane, as well as the plane itself was called the The Grand Immemorial world and the Grand Immemorial plane.


    But a long time ago, long forgotten by the current world, the entire plane suddenly shattered. No one knew the reason. The Grand Immemorial Plane shattered into many pieces. Not only the Grand Immemorial world, but even most of the other worlds shattered.


    The single plane of existence was broken into four in a moment. In the lower plane, only people in the first step could exist. In the middle plane only people in the first or second step could exist. In the high plane, only people in the first three steps could exist. Finally a new plane was formed out of the largest piece of the The Grand Immemorial world and some of the largest worlds that existed before. This plane was called the Immortal plane, as only this plane could support the immortal step and higher stage cultivators. There were many worlds in each plane.


    Another thing that happened was that along with the birth of these worlds came many different pocket worlds. These pocket worlds were very tiny worlds, which were unstable and sometimes also drifted about.


    Along with the destruction of the The Grand Immemorial World, all the god step cultivators died in the explosion. Until then humans was the greatest dominators of the The Grand Immemorial World followed by the Demonic Beast race, which was headed by the Dragon tribe. But in their absence many other races rose and climbed to prominence. But with time, partially due to their high population growth rate and natural advantages, the human and beast races climbed back to the top. But many other races had also sculpted out their niches by then.


    He was currently in a high level world called the Howling Wolf world. This was because according to someone who drew the maps of this world, the shape of the largest continent on this world resembled a howling wolf.


    The different worlds in the universe had different shapes. Some were shaped like a disk or a plane like the world Long Tian was on, but some were shaped like a sphere or even weird ones like a ring and so on.


    Long Tian figured that the Shatter happened due to the explosion of the Devil Emperor. After all the world that he lived in was the The Grand Immemorial world. But what he could not understand was that why no one remembered the invasion of the devils. It was a great war that that ran for tens of thousands of years and slaughtered a great many cultivators. But no one even remembered about it.


    In the Howling Wolf world there are eleven supreme powers. The first are the six great empires, the Noth empire, the Pilgan empire, the Sky empire, the Dragon empire, the Scar empire and the Ocean empire. Then there is the three forces spread throughout the continent, the Little Merchant Association, the Hunter Union, and the Sky God religion. Finally there was the city which contained the major academies of the continent, the City of Scholars. On top these forces, there was also the dark forces and largest of which was the Crescent Moon organization, which is ranked alongside the other top forces.


    The ten forces were focused on the nine great cities. Other than the capitals of the six empires and the city of scholars, there was also the Holy City, the city of the Sky God church, and the Yellow City, where the headquarters of both the Little Merchant Association and the Hunter Union are in.


    In the Howling Wolf world there are two major mountain ranges running from west to east: the Blue Moon mountain range and theEver Green Hills. The Blue Moon mountains ran from the eastern tip to the center of the continent. The Ever Green Hills run from the center to the western edge and slowly turns into the plains of enlightenment.


    The Ever Green forests range was not very tall, but was very lush and filled with trees and interspersed with grasslands with many beasts living in it. The geography of theland and the large number of beasts made it so that crossing the land was extremely dangerous. At the same time there were many valuable medicines in the Ever Green Hills and many people often wandered in there in search of them.


    The Blue Moon mountains was the exact opposite of the Evergreen mountain range with sharp and dangerous cliffs and extremely deadly terrain, whose conditions could change from biting cold winds to burning heat in a heartbeat. The number of beasts that call the Blue moon mountains home was far lesser than that of Ever green mountains, but each one of them was far stronger. There were not many medicines here, but the Blue Moon mountains has many valuable minerals and ores and other such materials. Even after many years the two places still gave birth to many valuable materials, almost as if it has an unending supply.


    One important feature of the Blue Moon mountains was its red soil, while the Ever Green forest had a green soil. The color of the soil would return to normal when taken away from these locations for a while, while soil brought here from outside would change its color.


    Between the two mountain ranges there was a long and thin strip of yellow soil. This was called the yellow valley. The yellow valley was long and thin and it was also the only safe way to traverse from the south of the continent to the north. As a result the entire yellow valley became the most traveled route in the whole continent.


    In the middle of the yellow valley there was a great circular region. It was here that the most prosperous city in the continent, the yellow city, was located. Due to its location in the middle of the continent, and its close proximity to four of the six empires, the yellow city had a lot of trade going through it. Not only that, due to the geography of the region, yellow city was extremely had to attack, but easy to defend.Also as the beasts and conditions of the Ever Green hills and Blue Moon mountains got more and more dangerous as one got further away from the yellow valley most adventurers used the yellow city to enter and exit these regions. It was also the second oldest city in the continent after the holy city.


    All of these made the yellow city the richest city and also the only city not affiliated with any power. The city had two major powers that had the headquarters here. But the location of the city also meant that there was no way to grow any crops and all the resources that had be used had to be brought here from outside. Thus there were not many mortals in the city and the area of the city was quite small.


    Other than the Little Merchant Association and Hunters Union there were five other top powers in the yellow city. There was the Alchemist Union and Weaponsmith Union. There were also the three great clans of the yellow city. The three great clans of the yellow city were the Bai, Song and Gong clans .


    And Bai Yun was born to this Bai Clan. The Bai clan had existed for a long time and had their fingers in many pies and also throughout the continent. The three great clans all had one permanent spot in the elder council of the three unions and little merchant association. The current head of the Weaponsmith union was from the Bai clan, and they also has an extra spot other than the permanent spot that was reserved for the Bai clan in the Hunters Union. All in all the Bai clan was a powerful force in the continent whose power was only below that of the eleven major forces.


    His father Bai Mu was a powerful practitioner in the peak of the second stage. It was said that if it wasn''t for the illness of Bai Yun, by now he would have already broken through to the Dao seed realm. When Bai Mu was young he went to the Shadow Stream academy in the city of scholars and then went to travel the world as an adventurer after joining the hunters union.


    During these travels he had done many heroic things, earning him the title of iron tiger. Later he met his wife Xiao Mei-er and they decided to return to the Bai clan, after which Bai Yun was born.


    But after Bai Yun''s situation was understood, Bai Mu quit all of the family''s businesses to take care of his son. Even his cultivation suffered. And due to this the elders of the Bai can was very unhappy with him.


    After understanding all of this Long Tian simply grew more confused. Why would anyone ever attack him. It made no sense. He was of no danger to anyone, and even his father had quit all the power he had. There was no need to attack him, let alone to use something like a soul shaking orb.


    A soul shaking orb required someone at at least the dao mark stage to make it. It contained within it a powerful and violent soul force that would simply explode and attack on contact. Not only is it extremely difficult to make, even the resources needed to make it is extremely difficult to obtain. As for a person with a damaged soul, like Bai Yun was supposed to have, it would have been extremely fatal. Long Tian simply could not understand why anyone would do something do evil. As far as he could recall his family had no enemy within the Bai clan, and no one outside could have the influence to affect the Bai clan that much.


    Long Tian decided to put this problem out of his mind. This was a difficult problem and he knew that he could find out the truth in time.


    But now he had a bigger problem to face. How should he face his parents of this life.


    ****************************


    In a city somewhere, black haired young with blue eyes which contain a tinge of purple in its depth woke up. He held his head in his hand as he fought against the most horrible headache he has ever had.


    ''Ugh the same nightmare as before.'' he thought.


    Ever since he small small he has had a recurring nightmare. In his nightmare he would be forced to fight again and again endlessly. He had no idea who he was fighting or why. The only thing he could remember was the blood and gore and the body pieces.


    But tonight was different. Today it felt more real, as if it were his memories. He could see longer and even more clearer. and the headache that the nightmare brought along with it was sharper too.


    He looked up at the ceiling. The youth felt as if he was looking at some far distant sky for an instant, disorienting him.


    "Young Master, are you awake?" A young girl''s voice could be heard.


    "I''m coming" The youth replied with a smile.


    He got up and moved towards the door. Suddenly a voice screamed in his mind. "Whatever it takes, you have to kill him. No matter what happens." The youth stumbled. Then with a vein throbbing in his temples, he screamed in his mind. ''Kill who.'' But he knew there would be no answer. The voice filled with an ice cold resolve had no answer.


    The youth took a moment to collect himself. Then putting his trademark smile on his face, he continued on.

 5 Soul healing pill

    As Long Tian sat on his bed thinking of what to do he heard voices outside his room. He could hear the voices of his parents outside his room. He did not know how to face them. He was the son of the God of Trinity. And yet he was also the son of Bai Mu. He had all the memories of this life, and the feelings that came along with it. After all he was indeed Bai Mu''s son.


    Afraid of what they will find out, neither of his parents were extending their senses into his room. Long Tian closed his eyes and focused his senses outside.


    "... to do. What if he never wakes up?" Xiao Mei-er said.


    "You heard what doctor Mu said. He will wake up soon." Bai Mu said, trying to comfort his wife, even though he did not sound very convincing himself.


    "Do you think we can get the Soul Healing Pill? The Soul Healing pill that is being auction off tomorrow is a sixth ranked Dao class pill. Can we even afford it." Xiao Mei-er asked.


    "I do not know. I have already told the elder council that I''m willing to pay any price to get the Soul Healing pill. If we add all of our assets into the mix, we should be able to afford it."


    The moment Long Tian heard the name of the Soul Healing pill he was stunned. The Soul Healing pill was a famous pill. Some pills were randomly named by the alchemists and there would be hundreds of pills with the same name all having different effects. Most of the pills were like this as there were far too many alchemists and they would all come up with their own version of the pills and name them as they like. Yet there were also some that had standard names that were for specific purposes. These were some of the most popular, widespread and powerful pills. The Soul Healing pill was one such pill.


    The Soul Healing pill was not a single pill, but rather a class of pills. Depending of their effectiveness they could of the Qi, Soul, Dao, Immortal or God classes. All the pills were demarcated based on two criteria, their class and their rank.


    The class of a pill was represented by the effectiveness and the power contained in the pill. There were five classes of pills Qi, Soul, Dao, Immortal and God. Each class corresponded to a specific step in cultivation. Also for a person in some step of cultivation, taking a pill whose class was below that of their step would not result in much of an effect of the pill being shown.


    The ranks of a pill determined the difficulty in concocting as well as the power and effectiveness within a class. There were nine ranks to a pill. A higher ranked pill would be more effective than a pill of a lower rank but of the same class, but it will always be less effective than a pill of a higher class but lower rank. But the difficulty in concocting may not be going up as easily. According to the common knowledge, the difficulty in concocting only goes up by four ranks between two pills of the same rank but different class. For example a first rank Dao class pill will be as difficult to concoct as a fifth -rank Soul class pill and as difficult as a ninth rank Qi class pill. A much higher ranked pill of a lower class could be much harder to create than a lower ranked pill but of a higher class.


    Another thing that demarcated the strength of pills was the number of circles in a pill. The circles of a pill was determined by how precious the materials used in making the pill was. For example if a more powerful or older medicinal ingredient, or a more valuable medicine cauldron was used, then the pill would have more effectiveness and thus circles. Though most pills are mode with just the required ingredients and thus would usually only have one or two circles. Thus usually people would only specify the number of circles if it were four or higher as only then would it have a relevance.


    The Soul Healing pill had many formulas, and depending on its formula its rank and class could change. Almost all named pills had multiple formulas for multiple ranks and classes.


    Long Tian continued to listen. If he was able to get a Soul Healing pill, he could use it as an excuse for why he woke up. Even though it would be a waste of time and resources, he could also use its power to step on the path of soul cultivation.


    In the path of cultivation it was generally agreed that the Qi path was more favorable than the other two paths. This was because of two reasons. The first was the difficulty in practicing the three paths. The path where the talent played the most part was the soul path. It was almost impossible for people without absurd talent to walk this path. The path which required the least talent was the body tempering path. But this path required great amount of resources and often the body tempering path was filled with great pain and thus needed great willpower.


    But the qi path could be practiced by anyone as long as one was ready to put in enough effort. Thus it was the path followedby most people. Due to this many different styles and variations arose, allowing people to cultivate in different ways, and as long as one could cultivate using the technique that suited them the most, they could easily find themselves improving at an increased rate.


    The second reason was that in the early stages the qi path was more powerful than the other two paths. In the first two steps the soul stage was much weaker than the other two paths. This was because the soul cultivation was cultivation which is internally manifested, and it initially is not powerful enough to affect the outside universe. Thus what it could do in the beginning was limited. But once the soul cultivation system reached the dao mark stage then, the soul would be able to connect to the dao and thus its attack power would increase tremendously , even surpassing the qi, and body tempering systems. But it was still considered weaker, as its speed, defense and single target attack power still weaker. All of this would be solved and the soul cultivator would be as powerful as other paths in the immortal step.


    As for the other two systems, the qi system was considered superior in the first two steps also. This was because while the strength of the two systems was considered equal, the fighting tactics of the body tempering system was quite simple in the first two steps, while the qi cultivators had more range. This meant that it was easy to fight against a body cultivator while one had to figure out how to fight against a qi cultivator during the fight. But once a body tempering cultivator reached the dao star stage, they had to condense different dao stars into their body, and depending on which of the millions and millions of dao stars they had condensed, they would get different powers.


    Now that Long Tian had figured out a way to explain his awakening, he decided to put the problem of how to face his parents to later. The next step was to figure out what to do with the power of the soul healing pill. Even though the Soul Healing pill was a healing type pill and thus had much milder effects, as a dao class pill, its strength could not be underestimated. And wasting all that medicinal effects would indeed be a pity. But as someone who had reached the god stage in soul, he was confident that he could maximize his gains.


    As Long Tian thought about cultivating from the start once again, a smile came to his lips. In his past life he emulated his father, and cultivated in all three paths. He reached the god stage in the soul system, and in the final moment of his life he reached the titled god stage in the qi system. But in the body system he ended up having to abandon it.


    In the body cultivation system during the dao star stage one is supposed to resonate with a dao star and condense an image of it inside them in order to borrow their powers. But among the many dao stars there was one special star. No one knew its name, and thus everyone simply called it the Nameless star. To date no one had managed to condense that dao star. What it was, and what its powers are were a complete mystery. Anyone who tried died or at least had their dao path crippled.


    Being young and the most talented cultivator of his times Long Tian was also filled with arrogance. Against the advice of everyone he tried to condense the Nameless star. And he promptly failed. If it wasn''t for his father he might have even died. In the end he, who was at the eight star stage and about to condense the ninth star, fell all the way to the three star stage, unable to advance forever.


    The most frustrating thing was that he could not even understand why he failed. Some of the most formidable of the stars also had a special test one had to pass in order to gain its recognition. Long Tian knew that he had faced the test of the Nameless star. But he could not remember it at all. All memories of his regarding the Nameless star had been erased. It was almost as the dao did not want anyone to remember anything about it.


    He had all the knowledge he needed to cultivate to the top. Being born as the son of one of the eight great titled gods, he had access to a great number of cultivation methods and battle techniques. He had honed them in battle during the course of the Grand War.


    He thought about the fact that he could cultivate once again. The first thing that he would have to do would be to figure out who tried to kill him. And kill him first.


    The Long Tian of before the war would not have done so. He was brought up in a safe environment and simply cultivated. He was a naive and innocent youth. Due to his physique he never met with bottlenecks, and thus never left to temper himself. The first time he saw the cruelty of the world was when he went to participate in the war. He saw many of his friends die. He had to watch helpless as the people he swore to protect all fell. During the course of the thirty thousand year long war, he was slowly tempered into someone with an iron will.


    He calmed himself, and quickly fell asleep. He was not truly asleep, only his body. But to do so he had to close of all contact to the outside world. He decided that he would wake up either when the Soul Healing pill was given, or if it wasn''t, then after a couple of days.


    As he settled himself in, he decided to prepare for the karmic severing. Cultivators and mortals were different in the eyes of the heavenly dao, and each had a different karmic system. When a cultivator first stepped onto the path of cultivation, and created the first trace of cultivation, he would be given a dao mark by the universe. This would be updated as the cultivator progressed in his cultivation. Every step was further divided into three stages in every cultivation system. Every time someone stepped onto a stage for the first time the dao mark would be updated. But this would only be updated once per stage. For example if a person had already reached the foundation establishment stage, then the dao mark would not be updated again if one reached the muscle tempering stage or the fourth soul ring, the equivalent form in the soul cultivation system.


    As he thought of the karmic severing, suddenly his entire soul shook. He suddenly remembered something that he never thought would be necessary to him. Something he had forgotten about almost as soon as he did his part in creating it.


    The Dao Repository.

 6 Dao repository

    During the last part of the war, after the Devil Emperor awoke, it seemed as if the alliance may lose. At that time the oldest of the titled gods, the God of Death came up with a proposition. He wanted all the gods and titled gods to store their inheritances in a dao repository so that the future generations could carry on their inheritance even if they fail.


    Even though many gods were against it, in the end almost all the gods did do so. Even Long Tian placed his own inheritance in there.


    The gods did not want their inheritances to be lost, and at the same time easily destroyed. Thus the God of Death hid the dao repository in the heavenly dao itself. This meant that the invaders or anybody else could not find it. The God of Death was the strongest as well as the most knowledgeable of all the gods. No one else even knew how he created the dao repository. Being hidden within the folds of the dao, it was impossible to find it without having a level of insight into the dao similar to that of the God of Death. Being hidden in the dao also meant that it was possible to access it from anywhere and anyone could do so. And the way to enter the dao repository was a breakthrough in stage. When someone had a breakthrough in their stage, their dao mark would be updated, and when that happened, the heavenly dao would descend and through it ones consciousness could enter the dao repository.


    But the gods also had a high requirement for the people who would inherit their legacies. So they set up a condition. Only those people of cultivation base lower than the immortal step or breaking through to the immortal step could enter the dao repository. At the same time one needed immortal sense in order to enter the dao repository.


    Immortal sense was a special sense that only people of the immortal stage could have. The perception that one gains when one starts on their path of cultivation would strength itself over time and would become immortal sense when one reaches the immortal step. The greatest difference between perception and immortal sense was that while perception was formless and intangible, immortal sense had a tangible existence. It could be used to oppress or even kill enemies.


    Almost all of the people who entered the immortal step gained the immortal sense after becoming an immortal. Since they did not have the immortal sense during their breakthrough they would not be able to enter the dao repository.


    But every now and then a few people would be able to give birth to immortal sense while still in the dao step. These people were terrifying talents. Maybe even millions of years would pass by before such a person would be born. For example among all the titled gods other than the God of Battle all other gods managed to generate immortal sense before reaching the immortal step. But most of the gods did not. The people who generated immortal sense before the immortal stage could enter the dao repository during their breakthrough to the immortal step. But on every entry they could only chose one legacy.


    There were some people who could even generate immortal sense in the second stage of the dao step. These people could enter the dao repository twice. But this was impossibly difficult. Only two people had managed this so far. They were Long Tian himself and the God of Death.


    Long Tian currently had god sense. God sense is the evolved form of the immortal sense. During his breakthroughs he would be able to use it to enter the dao repository and gain a legacy. Not only that he would be able to enter the repository ten times in total.


    He did not need any legacy to help him cultivate. It was legacies that contained auxiliary skills that he needed. Also in the dao repository the stronger legacies, including all the legacies of the titled gods were towards the back. And the deeper you go, the more powerful the pressure exerted by the dao repository would become. You had to use your immortal sense to power through it. Even though what Long Tian had was god sense, without any cultivation to power it, he would be unable to withstand even the mildest pressure. Thus during his first entry he could only chose from one of the legacies in the entrance area. And those were the weakest kind. His own legacy was towards the very end of the god legacy region.


    Suddenly Long Tian recalled someone who had left their legacy in the entrance area. He had arrived late and just created his legacy without thinking about it too much and had left it in the front. And he knew a few skills that would be extremely useful for survival in this world, where he had to grow up without his fathers protection.


    Then Long Tian closed his eyes and waited for the Soul Healing pill. Time passed by and quickly two days had gone by. Long Tian was still in meditation familiarizing himself with his new body. Suddenly his soul felt a pure and gentle power flowing into him. Even though he had never taken a dao class Soul Healing pill before, he had taken an Immortal class Soul Healing pill before. Thus he was able to quickly recognize it.


    As he felt the power of the Soul Healing pill enter him, he quickly reconnected his soul to his body. He could see that no one was checking him. He sighed in relief and quickly gathered the medicinal power of the pill pooling around him. As his soul was not hurt, the medicinal power had nothing to do. He knew that after a while the medical power would simply waste away. So he had to act quickly.


    The process of cultivation was to cultivate the dao. But humans are not connected with the dao. The first two steps of cultivation exists to make ones body , soul or qi more suitable to comprehend the dao. During the third and fourth steps one would comprehend the dao and get close to it. And finally during the god step one would create their own dao, and be free of the bindings of the heavenly dao.


    In the first two steps of the soul cultivation system, one needs to strengthen ones soul. And the stronger the soul becomes, more and more rings would show up around the soul.


    After looking at the pool of power he quickly started absorbing them. The amount of power contained in a Dao class pill was huge. But this was not a cultivation pill and only a healing pill. If this was a cultivation pill, using his foundation, he could easily reach the peak of the second step in soul cultivation. Of course that would only make his soul cultivation unstable. Also if this was a cultivation pill, the energy would be far more violent and would most likely destroy his soul. As it is he could most likely only reach the three ring realm, the peak of the first stage in the qi step in soul cultivation.


    He started on the cultivation formula he practiced before in his previous life: The Infinitude Heavenly Thought. The cultivation process of the Infinitude Heavenly Thought was to create tendrils of soul which could exist independently. Each of these tendrils was a piece of soul and a piece of consciousness. This allowed one to split their thought and focus on more tasks at any given point in time. This was useful in battle, where one could fight ambidextrously and even focus their attention on other enemies. One could also merge the tendrils into one to increase their focus and their thinking speed if they desired.


    The drawback of this cultivation method was that the tendrils of thought are intangible and has no power in the first and second step. In the first two steps the tendrils were weak and only useful to more things around in combat. A person at the peak of the first step would be able to defeat a twelve ring realm soul cultivator training in the Infinitude Heavenly Thought. Even though Long Tian knew a few other soul cultivation techniques which were also top level cultivation techniques, he could not give up on the Infinitude Heavenly Thought. This was because this technique was created by his mother.


    Not only that, the Infinitude Heavenly Thought became more and more terrifying as one went higher in their cultivation. Once one stepped into the dao step the Infinitude Heavenly Thought gains a huge boost in strength and allows one to control their powers much more finely. In the Immortal stage each of those tendrils would be tangible and then it would be as if you are facing an endless army of soul cultivators. In the god stage, it would only bring despair. It was so much so that even though Log Tian was a half-step titled god even before the final battle, and one who pursued the strongest of daos, he was considered weaker than his mother who was only a peak soul god at the time.


    In the first two steps the number of tendrils represented the number of rings one had in the soul system. But as the cultivation became higher, the number of tendrils as well as the strength of each tendril goes up explosively. This also increased the difficulty of cultivation. It could easily be seen as even though his father had reached the mid titled god realm in all three cultivation systems previously, his mother was still stuck at the peak soul god stage.


    As the strongest god, his mother was at the forefront during the battle. By the time Long Tian had reached the scene of battle he could no longer sense his parents. He was certain that the two of them had already died.


    He quickly pushed these thoughts to the back of his head and started to absorb the power left here. As the time quickly passed, the pool of power quickly thinned. Nearly an hour had passed. A vague shadow could be seen appearing behind Long Tian''s soul. This shadow looked like a snake made of smoke. Then suddenly the smoke seemed to come alive and coagulated into a single thread like existence. The first tendril had formed.


    The moment it happened Long Tian felt an ancient and overwhelming power descending on him. Along with this power, a white ring suddenly appeared around him. Along with the appearance of his ring, he could feel a small mark slowly appearing on his soul. This was the karmic severing of the heavenly dao. In his past life, Long Tian was unable to sense this when it happened. But now thanks to the god sense, he could.


    As the mark appeared, Long Tian used his god sense to trace the power to its origin. He could feel the vast and endless heavenly dao behind it. Then he converted his god sense into immortal sense and touched upon the heavenly dao once again. Suddenly he felt something deep within calling to him. He allowed himself to be pulled along by this power.


    Long Tian felt his surrounding blur. When he opened his eyes he found himself at the base of a long flight of stairs. Most of the steps in the stairs contained a statue.


    He smiled. He was at the Dao Repositoty.

 7 The Assassins legacy

    Long Tian looked in front of him. An unending series of stairs stood in front of him. He could not see its end, as it seemed to fade into a darkness. He realized that he could only see a short path in front of him. Forget the region which contained the titled gods legacies, he could not even see the region which contained his legacy. Thankfully the legacy he was looking for was towards the front. With a sigh started to climb the steps.


    The steps were evenly tall, but quite wide. Some of the steps were empty, while some had people. The God of Death created it like this so that if someone later wanted to add their own legacies here, they could do so.


    As he passed over the gods whose statues stood in front of him, some familiar some unfamiliar, he was hit by a feeling of melancholy. He quickly shook it off and continued on. As he went on he started to feel a pressure weigh down on him. It was extremely faint, and nothing his god sense couldn''t handle.


    He walked past statues that looked like emperors, each one grand and imposing. He didn''t spare any of them a glance. As he climbed on, the pressure started increasing. Slowly beads of perspiration appeared on his forehead. Just as his mind started to feel the strain he stopped.


    He stopped on the hundred and thirteenth step. In front of him stood the statue of a middle aged man. This statue was different. It did not have the feeling of veneration the statues in front had. Some of the hair of the middle aged man hung loosely on his face, partially blurring his sharp eyes. His cloak draped over his crouching shoulders hung loosely. Nothing about him seemed remarkable. Anyone who would reach here would simply walk past this statue. It wasn''t that this statue had no presence at all. It was that it had just enough presence that it didn''t seem out of place. It was almost as if it was designed so that one would overlook this statue of an unremarkable person who became a god by luck.


    But Long Tian knew that the person was anything but. During his time, people would put their children to sleep saying that he would come if they were being bad. People would say his name in whispers, afraid to walk alone at night. He brought terror to the hearts of many. In the list people that they would not want to anger the most he ranked even higher than most titled gods.


    For this was the king of the night. The only person to have killed a titled god while still in the god stage. The Assassin God, Xu Song.


    The reason the Assassin God was famous was for the killing of the God of Storms. He sneaked into the residence of the God of Storms and Assassinated him without any of his followers noticing, and then walked out before it was discovered.


    Long Tian had no plans to train in the Assassin God''s assassination skill. There were two things that he wanted to learn from the Assassin God''s legacy. One was his disguise skill and second his movement skill.


    The Assassin God''s movement skill was known for its mysteriousness. Even Long Tian''s father said that it was better than his own. Not only was it incredibly fast, it was also very useful at fighting at short distances. But the most impressive thing about the movement technique was its ability to hide in the shadows and also to move in and out of restricted environments.


    And the disguise skill of the Assassin God was said to be so powerful that it could even fool titled gods. It was said that it was using this skill that the Assassin God infiltrated the God of Storms residence right under his nose.


    The reason his statue was in the front was also related to his skills. The Assassin God was the scout for the alliance as only he had the skills to get close to the Devil Army without getting noticed. Thus by the time he reached the dao repository, there was not much time left, so he just chucked his legacy in without caring where it went.


    Long Tian took a deep breath and touched the statue. He wondered what kind of test the Assassin God had put up. After all, just arriving here wasn''t enough to show that one was qualified to receive a legacy. Most Gods were particular about who got their legacy. Thus they would put up tests to check if the person was worthy, or of a similar mind. Long Tian himself had spend more time setting up his test rather than his legacy itself.


    Suddenly he found himself in a dimly lit room. In front of him was a chair. On the chair sat a familiar figure. The Assassin God.


    "Finally someone came. You are the first one to enter here." The Assassin God said.


    The moment he heard those words Long Tian was stunned. How was this possible. Sure the aura of the legacy was extremely inconspicuous, but the aura along with the look of the statue made it very suspicious. Even though not many people got the right to enter the dao repository, such an long time had passed that someone should have noticed this. Where the brains of all these geniuses made of mud.


    "You can just touch the ball in front of you to receive the legacy." The Assassin God continued.


    "Huh? Isn''t there supposed to be a test?" Long Tian was confused.


    The Assassin God laughed. "Finding this place is the test."


    Long Tian immediately understood what happened. The Assassin god used his ability to make his legacy hard to find. But it was only with respect to the immortal sense. In front of his god sense, it may as well as have not been hidden. Also there should have been people who noticed the legacy before. But they would have been the most talented of the cultivators and would have continued on to end to find better legacies, ignoring the ones at the front. After all, if he hadn''t known the Assassin God, he too would have continued on to find a better legacy.


    Long Tian closed his eyes and touched the ball. Suddenly the entire legacy started travelling through his soul into his sea of consciousness. Long Tian felt as if he was being ripped apart. A moment later he opened his eyes to find himself back in his sea of conciseness. In front of him a small black dagger was floating.


    He was stunned. The Assassin God had transferred his entire legacy. When Long Tian had set up his legacy, he had set it up in a way that depending on how one did during his test, differing levels of the legacy would be given. But the Assassin God only had one test and then he simply transferred his entire legacy over.


    Long Tian looked around. The pool of energy was still there. He closed his eyes and continued to practice the Infinitude Heavenly Thought technique. Soon a second tendril became visible, and then a third. After the third tendril came into being, Long Tian stopped. The pool of energy had become a puddle by now. It was not enough to condense even a tenth of the fourth tendril.


    He also knew that it was necessary to let some of the energy go. The probability that the amount of energy that was in the pill was the exact amount needed to wake him up was infinitesimal.


    So Long Tian let the rest of the strength of the pill go. Then he slowly opened his eyes.


    The first thing he saw was a beautiful middle aged woman sitting in front of him with worried eyes. Behind her stood a middle aged man with a similar look in his eyes.


    Long Tian had no idea what to say in this situation.


    "Are you okay." His mother asked.


    "Yeah" he replied.


    All three of them just looked at each other awkwardly. His parents were afraid to ask whether the medicine worked, and he did not know how to approach them.


    With a worried look his mother took his face in her hands. "Are you okay?"


    Long Tian looked around. He did not know what to say. He put a smile on his faceand said, "I am sorry for worrying you for so long mom. Its all okay now."


    The bodies of the two trembled. Suddenly the middle aged woman leaped towards him and wrapped her hands around him, pulled him into a tight hug. He could only hear her sobs as she hugged him with her head on his shoulders. The middle aged man started laughing uproariously while tears started falling from his eyes without him noticing.


    "Mom, I can''t breathe", Long Tian said.


    Xiao Mei quickly let him go. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you?" She asked.


    But before Long Tian could reply, they felt a wave pass through the room. They looked towards Bai Mu. He was floating in the middle of the room with his eyes closed. Above him stood a second transparent Bai Mu. This Bai Mu was sitting in a meditative stance and was slowly fading in and out.


    The moment he saw this Long Tian understood what was happening. His father was breaking through to the dao step. As they watched, the flicking speed of his father''s nascent soul became faster and faster, until it suddenly collapsed.


    The nascent soul started collapsing into a single point. As it collapsed, a small,spinning,spherical seed came into view. It slowly slowed its spinning and came to a stop. The moment it stopped, one could see mysterious spots etched into it. The ball turned grey in color before a grey fog appeared around it, enveloping and hiding it.


    The moment he saw this, Long Tian was stunned. Depending of the Dao used to achieve a breakthrough, there would be differences in the dao seed, as well as ones strength in the dao step. The Dao that his father used to breakthrough seemed to be the Dao of Endlessness, a Great Dao. Even though it was weaker than Lont Tian''s Dao of Destruction, which was one of the four most powerful Daos, it was still strong enough to rank in the top twenty.


    Suddenly a beam rose from the fog surrounding the dao seed into the sky. As they watched the sky became covered in clouds. It seemed to go on endlessly. This was the phenomena that arises when someone breaks into the dao seed realm with a great dao. Of course the phenomenon would differ depending on the Dao.


    After a while the sky calmed, and the dao seed entered his fathers body.


    As he stood there watching his father with dried tears and his hands being crushed by his mother, it all felt surreal to him. He could feel their love, and Long Tian could feel that he also love them. These feeling came from his soul who lived with them for fourteen years.


    Long Tian lived in a different age.All his family, friends and even his enemies had all died.All of a sudden he felt very lonely. As if he was the only one in the entire universe. As if he had no place in this world.


    ''Long Tian lived a great life. He reached the highest stage of cultivation. He died along with the Devil Emperor, saving the universe in the process. He even died and reincarnated. All that remains are his memories.''


    ''Let him die.''


    ''From now on there is only Bai Yun.''

 8 First steps

    Two months passed since Bai Yun woke up. In the first month after he woke up his mother barely left his side. When he initially brought up cultivation, his mother nearly locked him up. It took him a month to pacify her.


    But over the past month both of his parents had calmed down. After an incessant number of checks by doctor Mu, and being said that he was fine every single time, both of them finally accepted it. Finally they agreed to allow him to cultivate. But from the moment they agreed, it was as if a switch had been turned in them. They immediately became cold when it came to matters of cultivation.


    Bai Yun had told them that he had reached the first ring stage of soul cultivation, thanks to the soul healing pill. He couldn''t say that he had reached the third ring stage as that would have been suspicious. Also he could only show the strength of someone in the first ring stage even in the third ring stage due to the Infinitude Heavenly Thought. After they heard that they gave him a map to the technique library of the clan, a token for the library, a list of cultivation techniques, one each for each of the three cultivation system he wanted to cultivate in, a sword and a storage ring filled with many rations and water.


    At first he was confused by the rations, but a short while after leaving he understood the reason for them.


    He had set out on his grand adventure to the library yesterday morning!


    The clan''s technique library was just too bloody far away! Bai Yun had forgotten that this was a great clan that had even Dao step cultivators, and was the clan headquarters to add. He was no longer a titled god, but a mortal. He could only walk slowly towards the library.


    But none of the guards or any of the other people in the way stopped him. But some where looking at him weirdly. After a while he quickly understood the reason.


    When his father first broke through to the dao step, Bai Yun thought nothing of it. He had reached the dao step at a much earlier stage. But it was only later that he realized his mistake. In this current world, the density of qi in the air was much lower. This meant that the rate of absorption of qi as well as the amount of resources in this world was much lower. His father was considered to be the most talented person of his generation. Even though his cultivation had slowed down after Bai Yun''s illness, allowing others to catch up to him, he was still the only person in his generation to reach the dao seed realm in a great dao.


    Bai Yun continued on his way. As he walked, he had to stop every now and then to eat and rest. Thankfully there were many open courtyards in the Bai clan, which were left empty for general purposes. So this wasn''t much to him. The thing that was annoying him was the presence of the Butler behind him.


    Soon he arrived at the clan library. At the entrance of the library, there was a queue to enter. Bai Yun joined the queue. As he stood there, some of the people in the queue started to look back at him. Soon a murmur started to spread around him. He could see many people around him pointing at him and whispering to each other. Even though he was irritated, he simply ignored this. Even more people had pointed at him in his previous life.


    He reached the front of the queue soon enough. There a guard looked at his token, verified his identity and then allowed him to enter. As Bai Yun entered the library, he was surprised at its size.


    In his past life, all the books he needed were given to him, and the library that his parents build was a very high grade artifact. There was no need to physically enter it to get access to anything in there for him. So this was his first time entering a library. Bai Yun quickly made his way through the crowd, to the place where the three cultivation techniques were placed.


    The cultivation techniques that his father wanted him to cultivate where basic and simple ones. They were not very special, but they allowed one to build incredible foundations. Both his parents were of the idea that he could change his cultivation technique into a better one in the soul state.


    Bai Yun accepted it. After all he knew the importance of a firm foundation, and he too would have chosen such a path for himself under normal circumstances. But he knew there was no need for him to do so. For he had cultivation techniques created by titled gods.


    Cultivation techniques created by titled gods were complete, and had no need to change them. They were also much stronger and faster than all other techniques.The cultivation techniques created by gods were also this strong. No other techniques could compare. This was because, only gods were in complete knowledge of a dao, and thus any cultivation technique created by anyone below would always have a flaw.


    The qi icultivation technique that he was using was one created by his father called the Way of Harmony. It was especially effective in maintaining a balance between multiple powers for someone travelling in multiple paths of cultivation simultaneously. And for body cultivation, he was using the Undying Body created by the God of Battle.


    But he still had to get these in order to put up appearances. As he walked over he felt a perception wash over him. His own perception was still too weak to identify anything about it other than the fact that the person was stronger than him. And his god sense was unable to leave his body due to his cultivation. Besides this wasn''t the first time this had happened during the journey.


    Then the perception entered his body. The moment it did so, he got a shock. Because that meant that the perception was of someone from the dao step. His god sense quickly followed the perception back to its source.


    It was an old janitor. He was standing a short distance in front of him simply sweeping the floor, as people quickly walked past him. He was even being jostled about by them. It wasn''t that they were looking down on him, most of the people here did not even realize he was there.


    ''For the love of god, is there any reason to give me a heart attack. Why would someone in the dao tree realm do so. Is there anything wrong with your head.'' After cursing the janitor in his mind, and planning to the scare the crap out of him once he reached the god realm once again, Bai Yun moved forward, toward the old man, not giving him any sign that he had noticed him.


    Suddenly some old memories came into his mind. He remembered that some of the people he met during the war had shared a lot of stories of when they where growing up. A good number of them were people who struggled up from poor beginnings. He remembered one of them telling him that he was only a lowly disciple in some school at first before he met some strange old man. After taking care of the old man for a few months out of pity, the old man suddenly left, but not before giving him some god level cultivation techniques and some resources to cultivate. There were many others who had similar stories of meeting crazy old people. Bai Yun thought that this person must also be such a person.


    Even after recalling this, Bai Yun did not stop even for a moment. As he passed by the old man, he simply smiled and carried on. After all his father was at the dao seed realm. There was no need for him to do anything extra in order to get anything from him. The old man pulled his perception out of his after not finding anything different about him. Bai Yun had hidden his cultivation and everything else with his god sense. If a dao tree stage person could see through his god sense, he way as well commit suicide.


    Bai Yun quickly found the three cultivation techniques that his father had told him to find. As he looked through them, he realized that the cultivation techniques were focused on building a firm foundation. These techniques were not bad, most likely created by an immortal. But comparing them with the titled god level techniques was a waste.


    Now that he had cultivation techniques, all that he was lacking were battle techniques. In his previous life he had passed the first few steps too fast and did not study any fighting techniques then. He only studied them after reaching the immortal step. Even the techniques he read for inspiration was from the dao step.


    In his entire memory, there were only two techniques that could be used in the qi step. They were the movement technique he got from the Assassin God, Specter Steps, and the technique created by the God of Swords, Simple Sword. But the Simple Sword was a way of fighting rather than a true battle technique. It involved finding the opponents weakness as well disrupting their rhythm in order to gain an advantage. It was incredibly effective in fighting a lot of weaker enemies, as it didn''t utilize much energy. In the later stages one could use the essence of sword dao to create terrifying battle techniques, but as he didn''t follow that path, he had to find proper battle techniques in order to supplement them. Even then it was similar to the Infinitude Heavenly Thought, in that this technique was next to useless in the first few stages in terms of increasing fighting force.


    Since battle techniques could easily be changed, his parents told him to pick out the ones he liked by himself. Since he already had a movement technique, he decided to pick three techniques, alongside a dummy movement technique to hide the Specter Steps. He quickly found a technique called Shadow Walk, and decided to focus on the other three techniques he needed. He needed a sword technique, a palm, or fist technique in case he lost his sword and defensive technique. Even though body cultivation would increase ones defenses, since it focused on a holistic improvement, it would always be weaker than a defensive technique.


    All in all he spend three days looking around before he finished his selection. Thankfully the token his father got for him was of a high enough grade. The three techniques he took was the Moonlight Sword, a powerful sword technique that was very versatile, Lions Roar, a fist technique, and false armor, a defensive technique. He was happy with neither the power or coverage of False Armor, but all stronger defensive techniques required one to change or strengthen some part of ones body, and Bai Yun knew that such techniques would make body cultivation difficult later.


    The person in charge of the checkout who was supposed to make sure that the people who entered the library only took as many techniques as their identity allowed was surprised when he saw the seven techniques in Bai Yun''s hand. But he let him go after finding his identity. As Bai Yun stepped out of the clan library after three days the sunlight burned his eyes. After blinking a few time, he started walking home. In his hand he held the cultivation technique for Moonlight Sword, and started to ponder on it as he walked.


    "Hey idiot." He heard someone call behind him. Thinking it had nothing to do with him, Bai Yun didn''t stop.


    "Stop you cripple." While wondering who was making such a ruckus Bai Yun continued on.


    Suddenly he found a few shadows in his way. As he looked up he saw a few children in front of him.


    The one who looked to be their leader, a child who seemed to be eleven or twelve, looked up at him arrogantly before declaring. "Didn''t you hear me ordering you to stop you cripple."


    Bai Yun was confused. Suddenly realization dawned on him. He became exited.


    ''Is this that. It must be. This must be the legendary bullying!''

 9 The legendary bullying

    In his past life during the Grand War he met many people. For Bai Yun who was brought up in a sheltered environment, the stories that they said of their lives were very interesting. From them he had heard of many things that he never experienced, like competitions and tests.


    One of the common things that he heard from them was the so called bullying. This was completely new to Bai Yun. He had never seen this before.


    He was the son of the strongest god and one of the eight supreme titled gods. His teacher was the only person who reached the titled god using the dao of a weapon, the God of Swords. He was held in high regard and well liked by the most powerful of the titled gods, the God of Death. Even if one was brain dead, one would not bully Bai Yun.


    More importantly the only people he saw before he reached the god step were the maids, his parents or his teacher''s close disciples or friends. None of them had any desire to bully him. Even after he heard about this, Bai Yun did not want to harm someone just to understand what bullying was. Thus he had never even seen bullying, much less experience it himself. Also even if someone was bullying someone near him, they would stop as he neared in fear of offending him.


    So Bai Yun watched with interest at the person in front of him. The kid in front of him seemed a few younger than him. He was standing there as if he owned the entire place. This seemed weird to Bai Yun as he could sense many people in the first and second step around, while this kid was only in the fifth stage of qi condensation.


    Qi condensation was divided into nine stages. During qi condensation the objective is to create a qi condensation whirlpool in the dantian. Initially the whirlpool would only be a spiral. As one progressed in cultivation the number of arms of the qi whirlpool would increase. The higher the number of arms the whirlpool had, the higher the cultivation state. A higher cultivation state meant that one would have more and purer qi. But this was possible with a higher grade of cultivation technique also . Besides the qi whirlpool of the qi cultivation state was so simple that there was not much difference between a technique created by a god or an dao step cultivator.


    "Of course he couldn''t understand. He is an idiot. How could an idiot understand what geniuses like us are talking about." One of the posse following the leader said. Then they all started to laugh.


    "Hey idiot I heard that you are no longer an idiot. Is it true?" The leader asked.


    "Yeah." Bai Yun said.


    "An idiot thinking that he is not an idiot. What a joke." One of them said. The entire group started laughing.


    Bai Yun just watched them as if they were idiots. Suddenly the one who seemed to be the leader asked again. "What are you doing in the clan library."


    "I went to pick up cultivation techniques." Bai Yun was quite interested in seeing where this was going. It was not often that a thirty thousand year old like him could get to experience new things.


    "What are you doing that for? Aren''t you already fourteen years old? A person who hasn''t even started to cultivate by fourteen, how much can you do." The kid sneered at him.


    For a moment Bai Yun wondered what was the point of saying all this. Then realization dawned. ''This must be the so called trash talk.''


    "Who are you?" Bai Yun asked.


    "Are you telling me you don''t know who I am?" The young man asked incredulously


    "Have we met? I only remember the important people from before I was healed." Bai Yun replied honestly.


    For a moment the entire group seemed to be shocked. Just as Bai Yun started to wonder what he had said wrong, the leader''s face started to change color. In an instant it became red in rage.


    "How dare you." He roared, before lunging at him. His fifth stage qi condensation cultivation started rotating. In his fist a yellow glow could be seen. It could be seen that he was starting to use a battle technique.


    In that instant the world slowed down for Bai Yun. His thirty millennium of battle instincts kicked in in a moment. His three tendrils of soul quietly started to move. He quickly stepped to the his right side, getting out of the way. Since he had no cultivation, he was much slower than the guy who was lunging at him. So he had to use two tendrils of soul to steep himself up. As he did so, the third tendril reached the sole of the kid''s shoe.


    They were currently standing in the clan grounds. Due to the high number of people who walked by the street everyday, there were quite a bit of dirt on the ground. His soul reached the dirt onthe ground beneath the kid''s feet. And just as the kid was about to apply force to the ground to take the final step before punching him, Bai Yun quietly made the dirt roll beneath his feet.


    As the dirt rolled, the kid lost his footing, and fell face first into the ground. The force of his step was so much that he hit the ground face first and his nose started to bleed.


    For a moment silence reigned the field. No one spoke. Even the people who were simply watching it all was stunned.


    Bai Yun quickly brought his sword out from the storage ring. It quickly stopped near the kid. As everyone watched him, his back broke out in cold sweat. There were quite a few people around that noticed it. They all thought that it was because he was scared by the sudden attack and had acted without thought and by accident. But the truth was much scarier.


    He broke out in cold sweat because it took all of his will power not to cut off the head of the kid in front of him.


    During the Grand War he had fought and killed devils for thirty thousand years. In fact if he counted the time before the war, he spend more than ninety five percent of his life fighting. And in the war he had faced many devils, who all fought very unconventionally and dangerously. In time he incorporated that into his attacks. In fact this way disrupting the fighting momentum was first used against him in his very first battle.


    Being full of himself, he had charged into battle against the devils headstrong when he first met them. The devil he was up against used a simple force to disrupt his rhythm and send him flying into an asteroid. In fact if that devil wasn''t only in the immortal step, he definitely would have died. It took him dozens of fights before he started to mind his surroundings.


    While looking at the leader who was lying on the ground to guard against, he looked at the group from the corner of his eyes. They all looked stunned. Then they all started to race towards him.


    Bai Yun moved in an instant. All the ones coming toward him were in the second or third realm of qi condensation. Only the one in the middle was at the fourth step of qi condensation.


    For Bai Yun who soul was technically at the peak of qi condensation, dealing with a few brats at those cultivation with no experience was simply too easy. He send two of his soul tendrils out. The first tendril hit the fourth step kid in the head and pushed his head to the right. The second caught his feet and pushed it to the left.


    The next instant the kid started spinning. As the entire group was standing close to each other and had run forward without thinking, the spinning kid was promptly in their way. In a second they all got tangled up and found themselves on the floor.


    The kid who was lying on the ground started to get up with a bellow. But Bai Yun had always kept an eye on him. As Bai Yun started to step back, he immediately pushed his third tendril, which was on the leaders head, pushing his head into the ground once again.


    By now he was already a few feet away. Since he had no cultivation except in the soul system, even a casual hit from any of them would have easily defeated him.


    Out of nowhere a huge force attacked Bai Yun. Bai Yun immediately recognized it as an attack by a foundation establishment cultivator. This attack wasn''t at full strength, or he would never survive it.


    Bai Yun used the power of the three tendrils to propel himself back. The attack strengthened and caught up to him in a moment. Bai Yun coughed up blood before flying back.


    As Bai Yun looked up he saw a youth giving off a foundation establishment aura standing where he stood. He held his hand behind his back, and stood there with a look of indifference in his face.


    The leader of the group immediately jumped up. With a look of rage he turned towards Bai Yun.


    "Shan that''s enough. Haven''t you embarrassed the family enough." The foundation establishment youth said.


    "Big brother I only lost due to carelessness and his weird demonic magic. I will definitely defeat him and wash this humiliation away." The kid said.


    "It wasn''t any demonic magic, but the soul cultivation system. And from what I could see, he has only reached the first ring level, which is the equivalent of a third stage qi cultivation practitioner. Forget the fact that he was of a lower cultivation than you, you lost to someone who was an idiot only two months ago.You are to go home and enter closed door cultivation immediately. You should exit only after a breakthrough"


    "But ..."


    "No buts. That''s an order."


    Bai Yun looked at what was happening in front with astonishment. Anyone could see that the kid lost due to his lack of fighting experience. Why was he sending him into closed door cultivation, instead of trying to solving the problem.


    Then the youth simply turned around and started to walk away, without even looking at Bai Yun. Bai Yun called out. "Hey what the hell was that about?"


    The youth turned his head to look at him and, without breaking his stride, replied. "A small lesson for hurting my brother."


    Before Bai Yun could react he had already disappeared. By then the posse had all gotten up. "Count yourself lucky that my big brother showed up just now. Or else I would have beat you until you could no longer recognize yourself." A voice said.


    Bai Yun turned to look at the kid who was leaving. While wondering if this kid lost all his memories of thirty seconds ago, he shook his head. Suddenly the kid stopped and turned to him. "Since you can cultivate now, that means that you will be participating in the clan''s annual meeting. If you dare to show up I will make you regret what you did today." He then sneered at Bai Yun and left.


    For a moment Bai Yun was the only one standing in the middle of the road. He was surprised that no one came to stop him, or stand up for him. In a moment the crowd dispersed, while still talking about what just happened. This seemed to be a regular occurrence.


    ''It seemed that my understanding of this world is very different from reality. It seemed to be much crueler than the world I know. And that is inside the clan. How dangerous will the outside world be.'' Bai Yun thought while frowning.

 10 The clan meeting

    With a heavy heart Bai Yun was about to start on the return journey when he stopped. After spending a moment in contemplation, he went back inside the clan library.


    An hour later Bai Yun left the library. But this time he had taken three other books with him:A Historyof the Howling Wind continent, Geography of the Howling Wind continent, and Dangerous places and how to avoid them.


    After finding these books, Bai Yun started on his way back. This time no one called out to him, so he was able to travel with no problem. As he started walking, he once again drew his attention back to the Moonlight Sword. With his understanding of the sword he quickly saw through the key points of the Moonlight Sword. He continued to read in order to remember it properly as well use the book in order to modify it in order better integrate with his swordplay.


    Suddenly he asked. "What is the annual clan meeting." There was no one next to him, and he looked like an idiot, talking to himself. If anyone had heard him, they would have thought that he was crazy.


    "Old butler I know that you are here. Just stop hiding and tell me." He said once again.


    After a moment an old man appeared next to him. He was clad in a strange suit. A servant''s badge was on his chest, but its gold color indicated that it was of a very high rank.


    "How did you notice." The butler asked.


    Bai Yun realized his mistake. The old butler as at the soul tribulation stage. He had followed him while hiding, without informing him. It should not have been possible for Bai Yun to notice him.


    "I knew that mother and father would not let me travel by myself. It was highly likely that they would sent someone to watch over me. So I was always on the lookout. I sensed your presence during the fight." Bai Yun said.


    The butler nodded. "The clan is a large place. Its rules are strict, but fair. It gives the resources to people by considering their age and cultivation, disregarding their standing or their families power in the family. But it also highly regards talent and hard work and tries to reward them. Talent is not too important in the first step for a clan as powerful as the Bai clan, and isn''t taken into consideration when giving out resources. But cultivation as well as the combat ability of each person is also important and needs to be tested. That is what the annual clan meeting is for."


    "During every year during the clan meeting the most outstanding people are awarded. The clan meeting is divided into four. The people of the qi condensation, foundation establishment, core formation and nascent soul stages all fight against people in their own cultivation stages. The winner of the tournament and the top rankers all get more resources."


    "All the cultivators of a single stage are to fight against each other. Isn''t that unfair? People can''t show their true strength if their if their cultivation is low." Bai Yun asked.


    "True. But its not like the clan can make it extremely fair. It will take too much time and resources. Besides only the people in the top stages will actually register. People with lower cultivation only register to have fun."


    "Okay. So its just a fighting tournament." Bai Yun said.


    "Yes, basically." The butler replied.


    Even though he had never participated in a tournament. He had seen a few when growing up, while visiting as guests along with his parents. He had also heard about them from the people in the Grand War.


    "When is the next tournament?" Bai Yun asked.


    "Seven months from now." the butler replied.


    "So if I want to win, I need to be able to match up against top qi condensation cultivators in seven months."


    "You would think so, but no."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Last year all the top one thousand in the qi condensation stage exam was in the foundation establishment stage."


    Bai Yun stopped dead in his tracks. He looked up at the butler in astonishment. "What the hell? How is that possible?"


    "The qi cultivation tournament is a seven day event. For the clan meeting the cultivation is measured onthe first day. After that your cultivation doesn''t matter. And the battles only begin from the second day onward. So many people use this time to break through in the night. And then participate in the meeting as foundation establishment cultivators to increase their chance of getting to the top."


    "But even then isn''t a thousand too many."


    "This is the headquarters of the Bai clan. Consider just how many people there are here. And how many of them are young. Consider the number of people in the required age. Many people spend years in the qi condensation stage. And a lot of them suppress their cultivation in order to breakthrough after registering. In fact even though there were only a little more than a thousand foundation establishment cultivators last year, it is estimated that around three thousand people tried to breakthrough after registering."


    When Bai Yun thought about it, he realized that the butler was right. "How many people register for the tournament?" He asked.


    "Oven ten thousand people register each year."


    This seemed reasonable to Bai Yun. Thinking about fighting the foundation establishment cultivators, he wasn''t sure if only seven moths were enough for him to do so. Even with his knowledge, and the completely broken Simple Sword, he wasn''t sure if he could do so unless he reached at least the eighth stage of the qi realm, and a similar stage in body also. After all the people at the top weren''t going to be morons like the idiot from earlier. Suddenly Bai Yun remembered a question he forgot to ask.


    " Who was the brat from earlier?" He asked.


    "His name is Bai Shun. He is the great grandson of the ninth elder. The one who stepped in in the middle was his older brother Bai Song."


    "Why did he attack me?"


    Suddenly the butler started to laugh. "You truly have no idea." He asked.


    "No."


    "The tournament isn''t the only thing that happens during the annual meeting. Five months ago, during the previous meeting, he was determined to have exceptional talent. Ever since then he has been walking around as if he owns the place. At that time you were standing quite close to him. When you told him that you only remember important things, he thought you meant that he wasn''t important."


    "There should be people with greater talent in the clan right? Why does he think he is so special?"


    "There are indeed many talents in the clan. But we usually prop up the top few and keep them away from each other so they don''t feel threatened."


    "Why?"


    For a moment the butler wondered whether to tell Bai Yun the truth. But after looking at his eyes he acquiesced and told the truth.


    "Its a matter of confidence. If they think they are special, they will be filled with confidence and their cultivation will be smoother."


    Bai Yun understood. Heart was important, and it only became more and more important as one went farther. Otherwise his father wouldn''t have been stuck a the gate of the dao seed realm for so long.


    "If you think that this is bad, you should go to the Yellow City. The city is full of arrogant pricks that think they are gods gift to mankind."


    "Whatever. I will just consider that it was unlucky to run into him."


    "I don''t think so. He waited for you outside for two days."


    Bai Yun frowned. His mind quickly considered its implications. "Is ittoo much to hope that he was simply too bored?"


    "Yes. Most likely he was sent here to test you. One of those so called princes of the clan must have heard about you coming to the library, and sent someone to incite that moron to fight you as a test. That kid is easily agitated."


    "Why would they care about me?"


    "You''ll have to thank doctor Mu for that. The last few years, every time he got drunk, he would always say how much of a pity someone as suitable for cultivation as you would be born with a damaged soul."


    Bai Yun sighed. "One last thing. Why didn''t anyone try to stop the fight?"


    "It was a fight between members of the junior generation at the qi condensation realm. No one of the senior generation would step in to stop that. Fights between junior generation are to be settled in the junior generation. Similarly fights in the senior generation is to be settled by them and not be spilled over to the juniors.As long as no one died there are no problems. These are the rules. Besides there were a couple of people in the second step around. They would have stepped in if things became dangerous."


    "What about when Bai Song stepped in? He was in the foundation establishment stage."


    "It is still considered between younger generations. And technically he is younger than you by a year. Also he abided by the unwritten rules and only hurt you mildly. If he had attacked more heavily he would have been punished. But if you were in the outside world, the situation would have been different. You could have easily been killed for something like this."


    Bain Yun sighed. "This world is cruel isn''t it."


    "Cruel. Maybe. It s certainly indifferent towards you. The heavens are indifferent to the trials of man. Why should man be any different."


    Bai Yun stopped and stared at the sky. "Are the heavens truly indifferent?"


    The butler looked at him. "Who knows?" He said after a pause.


    Bai Yun then thought of a kind old man, whose pockets seemed to contain an infinite amount of candies. ''He probably knew.'' He thought. There was no reason for this thought.


    Bai Yun then thought of the problem at hand. The annual meeting. He needed to raise his cultivation by a lot to win. The problem was that he needed to raise his cultivation by eight stages in seven months to do so. It it was only in one path, he could probably do so. But the problem was due to the Way of Harmony, his three cultivation needed to be in sync. The soul cultivation was already too lopsided, that he absolutely could not do anything on that path until he reached the peak of the first stage in the other two systems.


    "Wait do I even need to participate in the damn thing. The registration is voluntary right. " Bai Yun realized.


    "True, but I am sure that the master would like you to participate in the annual meeting after this one. The resources given as rewards are incomparable to what is normally given. The winners also get many special authority given to the top few. There are many treasures given as prizes. The first prize even gets to chose anything they want from the clan treasury that they can control."


    "What. Anything?"


    "Yes. As long as it is something that that person can control, or can show an immediate use for, anything can be taken. But only the first place for each of the four stages can do this."


    The moment the butler said this, Bai Yun thought of an item that he needed for the plan he came up with over the last two months. An item too expensive that his parents who were broke and in debt after the purchase of the soul healing pill could never afford. An item a great clan like the Bai clan was sure to have.


    An item without which his plan would surely grind to a insanely slow speed.


    Which meant that he needed to win this time.


    Because by the time the next clan meeting came about he would have long since left Yellow City.

 11 Flames of origin

    If he wanted to walk far on the body cultivation path, a huge amount of resources were necessary. And the most important important of these resources were pills.


    And especially in the dao star realm. Almost all of the dao stars required a specific pill to resonate with them. Without that pill, finding the star you wanted in the ever changing sea of stars was impossible. Bai Yun knew which stars he should condense in order to maximize his gains. He was simply going to condense the stars that he did in his previous life, except this time he wasn''t going to try and condense the Nameless star. He knew a few other options for his final star that he should condense.


    And finding the stars he required without the corresponding pills was stupid. In that case he would have to waste years looking for them. Of course he could also try to condense stars that were nearby him, but that would reduce his strength, and Bai Yun was even less willing to do so.


    Since Bai Yun had condensed them all before he knew the formulas for the pills. Bai Yun could give the formulas to other alchemists and ask them to make them for him, but unfortunately all the stars he wanted to condense were the strongest of their type and thus only a god could help refine those pills.


    The pills themselves were not that difficult to refine, with only two being of the immortal class and others at the dao class, but the need for resonance with such a high grade dao star meant that only a god could do so.


    But Bai Yun could also do this. The resonance was created by adding the auras of these stars to the pills and then ingesting the pill. But Bai Yun had already condensed theses stars once before, and thus knew their auras, and could simply recreate them and add them to the pill, to cause a false resonance.


    But creating pills was difficult. Thankfully he had access to the dao repository. In Bai Yun''s plan he would try to get the God ofAlchemy''s legacy during his fourth visit. That would allow him to reach an acceptable level of alchemy before attempting the trials he would have set. Of course there was no way he could pass those. Bai Yun''s only hope was that the God of Alchemy had left a true soul incarnation, which had his memories and would remember Bai Yun and the favor he owned to Bai Yun''s mother. If so he could somehow find a way to get a part of legacy related to the dao star pills and it would help him greatly.


    And the alchemy path was extremely important to him. And other than medicinal formulas and medicinal ingredients, there were two other items that were important in the alchemy path.


    They were alchemy cauldrons and transcendent flames.


    Alchemy cauldrons were createdby weaponsmiths. It helps to keep the medicinal power from dispersing. It was not a necessary ingredient to creating pills, but the lack of one will make it much harder to create one. Higher graded cauldrons could even help in increasing the circles of a medicinal pill.


    As for transcendent flames, they were a special kind of flames, that were found in nature. There were different kinds of transcendent elements. There were transcendent flames, lightning, wind, water, and earth, and even strange things like transcendent wood, light and shadows and many more.


    The transcendent elements were formed either in nature or artificially. Depending on their formation and the ingredients involved they could all the of different types and natures.


    The first kind were the beast elements. When some beasts with strange or extraordinary bloodlines or some rare lifeforms were killed, it was possible to extract some transcendent element from them. For example it was possible to extractthe formless shadows from the nether race, unmelting ice from an ice dragon, and the extreme storm wind from the sand bird.


    The second kind were the earthly elements. These were generally formed by the agglomeration of a large amounts of a particular element. These could be formed in nature, or could even be artificially created. The molten flame, was created from large lave pools, and the demon gods blood was created artificially by killing millions of people and merging their blood.


    The third kind were heavenly elements. These were extremely rare, and often born out of chance events. For example there was the star streaking flame, formed when two meteors collide, and the undying lighting, formed when seven or more lighting bolts collide in midair.


    The transcendent elements could be strengthened after they were born. All elements had a natural limit to which they could grow, which was depended only on the transcendent element itself and not by how it was born. A star streaking flame that was born of the collision of two meteors would be much much weaker than one born of collision of two stars. But the limit of the two was the same. In fact a star streaking flame flame born of the collision of to meteors would even be weaker than a molten flame, but was considered much more valuable due to its growth potential.


    And the difference between the three kinds of elements was due to the difference in the way the were grown. Heavenly elements would grow alongside a person as he increased in cultivation. There was no need to specially grow them. But since they grew alongside a person, it also meant that if a god got their hands on a high potential element, but it was extremely weak, then he would never use it as it simply wouldn''t strengthen itself.


    For earthly elements the way to strengthen it is to recreate the conditions of its birth, or adsorb the ingredients involved and use it to strengthen itself. For example to grow the molten flame one had to absorb huge amounts of lava, and of a high grade.


    Finally to strengthen the beast elements, one had to kill the members of the race the beast elements were from and use them to strengthen the flames. But the beast flames did not have much potential. Even though it could be strengthened a bit, all beast flames would quickly hit a limit.


    Above the three kind of elements were origin elements. These were extremely powerful, such that only gods could use their full strength. And only a single one of those exist at any time. Which also made them incredibly rare. A second one would be formed only after the first was destroyed for some reason. Even though he knew a few people who had an origin element, in his entire life Bai Yun had only seen one in action: the Everburning Nether Flame of the God of Alchemy.


    It was said there were seven special elements even more powerful: primordial true yin, yang, fire, water, wind, lightning and earth. It was said that these were born alongside the universe. But no one had seen them since. Many only regard these as a legend, while many say that they degenerated into the different origin elements and that one had to merge all the origin elements of a particular kind to create the Primordial True elements.


    The special elements were in high demand as they all had different abilities, could help in comprehending the dao of that element, could provide special help in controlling the elements, and could even help in combat. As a result they went for astronomical prices. Even among them the transcendent earth and fire went for a insane amount. This was because of the extra uses these two had. But this price was not fixed, the transcendent water would be as costly as the other two in the ocean empire, and in the pilgan forest, any transcndene wood would cause even family members to murder each other.


    The transcendent earth could be used to build fortifications and other defensive treasures. It was also of great help to formation masters in laying down formations. This meants that all the major forces would try to collect a lot them. As for transcendent fire, it was essential for both alchemists and weaponsmiths.


    In both professions it was necessary to use fire to melt the raw materials and then merge them together. Even though one could use a flame generated from qi, but they were much weaker than transcendent flames. This meant that all the alchemists would go crazy over even the mere mention of a transcendent fire.


    Luckily for beasts the beast flames have some of their residual will in them, making them much harder to control. This meant that the alchemists had to spend some of their efforts to control the beast flame, lowering their chance of success. Even though it would help improve the circles if the pill was formed, no alchemist wanted to reduce their success rate and would rarely use a beast flame. Otherwise all the beasts and races that gives a transcendent fire might all have been made extinct by the crazy alchemists.


    The biggest difficultly in alchemy was the difficulty of splitting soul in different parts to control and refine different alchemy ingredients at the same time. It was possible to refine and merge ingredients one after the other instead of simultaneously, but this would cause the pill lose a majority of its strength. But this was not a problem for a Bai Yun as he had the Infinitude Heavenly Thought. In fact he was sure that once he reached a high enough realm he wouldn''t even need a alchemy cauldron.


    The Infinitude Heavenly Thought was such a cheat that even the God of Alchemy coveted it. The God of Alchemy not only agreed to make the pills that Bai Yun needed in the dao star realm, he even gave many other pills and even owed a favor to his mother before his mother allowed the God of Alchemy to study the Infinitude Heavenly Thought.


    The only thing Bai Yun needed was a transcendent flame. And he was sure that the Bai clan would have some in its treasury.


    He did not hope for a high grade one. There was no way they would put up a heavenly flame for the younger generation to pick. Even though it was said that the winners could pick anything they want, the most precious items would definitely be hidden. It was most likely that they would be hidden somewhere else in order not to raise suspicion and to make the younger generation think that the clan is extremely generous so as to increase their allegiance.


    It was possible that there would be an earthly fire in the treasury. Even a good enough beast flame would satisfy Bai Yun, since he could control them.


    But to get the chance to get them, he would need to be the winner of the clan tournament. Buying one was out of the question. And looking for one was not only time consuming, but also depended on luck. This was his best chance.


    He would have to change his plans for the next seven months. He no longer had enough time to slowly grow in strength.


    He had to win the clan tournament.

 12 The path forward

    Bai Yun contemplated how he should change his plan, as he started walking once again. He knew that reaching the late qi condensation stage and skin sewing stage simultaneously in seven months was going to be extremely difficult.


    The butler had left his side after he started to ponder. Bai Yun continued walking, while taking out the different books that he had gotten from the library and reading from them along the way. He kept on switching them around and at the same time polishing his plan in his mind.


    After spending over a day, Bai Yun finally reached home. Just as his hand touched the doorknob, his god sense started throbbing in warning. Bai Yun froze, and then opened the door anyway.


    The next instant Bai Yun felt an ungodly pressure descend on him. He felt as if a mountain was placed on top of him. Bai Yun instantly fell on one knee, and put both of his hands on the floor to prop himself up. His three tendrils of soul quickly went to work resisting the pressure placed on him. Sweat broke out through his entire body.


    With great difficulty he looked up. The front room of his house felt like a gateway to hell. All he could see in front of his was red and black. He felt a hot wave of air blast at him from inside the darkness. In the middle of the darkness he could see four spots of light. He knew that they were his parents.


    "I heard about the situation outside the library. Aren''t you ashamed to be defeated by someone who is younger that you?" His father asked.


    Bai Yun opened his mouth to answer. But his throat felt dry. No words would come out of his mouth.


    "Tell me what you intend to do."


    Bai Yun knew that he had to answer. They were trying to determine how he would proceed on his cultivation path. Under this suppression brought about by the state of existence, a normal person at the first ring stage would instinctively tell the truth from their subconscious. Perhaps even the person who spoke would not be aware of their true intentions until that moment.


    Bai Yun was a titled god. This did not have much effect on him. But the pressure brought about by their aura still caused his mind to crawl to a slow speed.


    Bai Yun also knew the importance of this moment. This would be where the dao of his heart would be decided.


    Suddenly Bai Yun thought of the Grand War. On the first day of the Grand War, after he constantly defeated by immortal step devils, he was very depressed. He remembered what his mother said to him.


    "I am not going to anything. The only person I intend to defeat is the me of yesterday."


    For a moment silence reigned. Then the pressure that was suffocating him suddenly lifted. Bai Yun fell on the floor, spread out and panting like a dog.


    "What do you intend to do from now? Old Hai told me you told him about the clan meeting. Do you want to participate in it?" His fathers voice sounded i his ears.


    Bai Yun raised his head and looked. The aura that seemed to be coming from the depths of hell had disappeared. His parents sat on two chairs at the end of the hallway. They were clothed in regal clothes, depicting their power and status, and not the casual robes they used to wear around the home when he was ill.


    ''Is there any need for all of this.'' Bai Yun thought. ''You could have just asked me and I would have told you the truth. You should try to solve problems with words. Are your mouths for biting people.''


    "I don''t want to participate. I want to win." Bai Yun declared.


    "It is good that you have targets. Based on what I heard your combat instincts seem to be good, you just lack experience. You should be able to win the clan meeting next year."


    Bai Mu had heard how his son fought. Everyone saw him attack people at their weak and unguarded moment and disrupt their rhythm. For a person who had never fought before, it would take incredible fighting talent to fight like this. When Bai Yun was still damaged Bai Mu would also tell him about the fights he had in his life as well as many fighting tactics when he was free. The tactic of disrupting the opponents momentum was also included in this list. They also saw how his body would shiver every now and then. They attributed this to the fact that he was reacting by instinct and was scared after he moved. All of this together created the misunderstanding.


    Bai Yun smiled in his heart. He probably had over a hundred times more fighting experience than both his parents combined. It was true that he was talented, but it was not to such an expend as the two of them believed. And the reason his body shivered was because he had use a lot of energy to stop himself from killing them all.


    "I don''t have time until the next year. I need to win in seven months."


    Bai Yun''s parents frowned. "It will be difficult for you to reach the foundation establishment stage in seven months."


    "I don''t need to reach foundation establishment, I only need to reach the peak of qi condensation as well as skin sewing."


    Bai Mu thought about this. With the skill shown by Bai Yun earlier, he might have a chance. "Are you serious about this. Walking both paths is going to be difficult. If you were to wait for a while it would be easy."


    "Yes I am. And the reason I can''t wait is also because of that. I am already fourteen. I don''t have a lot of time when it comes to the body tempering path. Soon my body would finish growing and body tempering would become even more difficult. I don''t have the time to wait for a year and a half before stepping into the muscle tempering stage."


    "And how do you propose to do that?"


    "There are two things I need to watch out for: improving my techniques, as well as maintaining the stability of my foundation. Staying here and cultivating will not help. Which means I need external help."


    "What are you thinking about."


    "There must be places in the Bai clan which will allow people to gain combat experience right."


    The moment Bai Yun said this his fathers eyes narrowed. His mother started to panic for a moment, but instantly calmed herself. Then a smile appeared in her face.


    "There are four places in the Bai clan that can help you. They are the beast garden, the prison mansion, the coliseum, and the spirit tower. But the spirit tower requires one to have a combat ability of foundation establishment and you can think about it later. All other other places where you can train the combat techniques or help improve your cultivation requires a lot of resources. And the places where you can go to for free are not as effective, and can only help you with only one of them at a time anyway."


    "The beast garden is a large area of the Blue Moon mountains that the clan has domesticated. In there many beasts in the first step are trapped. There are also many medicinal ingredients, resources and some legacies and so on there. They are hidden and depends on your luck to find them."


    "In the prison mansion, dangerous criminals from all over the world which the Bai clan has arrested are put in there. The deeper you go the stronger they will become. They also carry some cultivation elixirs with them. But they will also try to kill you to take the resources on you. This is a deadly place, where everyone simply tries to kill each other."


    "These two places are extremely dangerous. Even if you die no one will care. But you cannot clan members easily. If there is proof you could be punished severely. They are build so that people of the Bai clan who doesn''t have a powerful background, and thus cannot use may of the other facilities, also have a chance. In the Bai clan as long as you have money nothing is restricted to you. Since this is advantageous to the children of powerful people, these places were set to help those who were willing to risk themselves to have a chance."


    "As for the coliseum, it is a place where you can fight against monsters or other people and win prizes depending on how you perform. You can also place bets there. But the experience you gain there is much worse than the other two places. Also just stay out the golden section there. It is filled with rich pricks. You can get a lot of money if you just beat the crap out of them though."


    "Which of the three places do you want to go to?"


    "I don''t want to go the coliseum. In the beginning I will need some space to practice my techniques. So which of these two places is less dense."


    "That would be the beast garden."


    "The beast garden it is then. I will go after I reach the first level of qi condensation."


    "Fine. Just ask old Hai to take you there. Also if you go there that mean that you are not following the path we set for you. So don''t expect any resources from us. You will have to rely on yourself for it. We will help you go to places to collect resources, but you will have to get them by yourself."


    "Okay." Bai Yun nodded.


    "Fine." Bai Mu stood up and left passing by Bai Yun who had struggled to a standing position by now.


    As his mother reached him she stopped and asked in a concerned voice. "Are you okay?"


    Bai Yun was stunned. ''You''re the one who put me in this position.'' he wanted to shout. But he simply said "Yes."


    "You seem tired. You should take a rest. Drink lots of water okay." She said.


    ''Are you a crazy person.'' Bai Yun wanted to ask. Buthe just nodded.


    She kissed on his forehead, and then quickly walked away. Bai Yun just stood there stunned.


    "What the hell just happened old Hai."


    The butler appeared out of nowhere. "Its nothing. Now that you are fine they are simply reverting to their old personalities. Did you think your father got the name of iron tiger by being a soft person."


    "Then what about my kind and gentle mother."


    The old butler was doubled over in laugher. "Kind and gentle. Ha ha ha. Only you would call her that. When she was in the Shadow Stream Academy, she was the leader of all the female disciples there. She even caused them change their rules in her first year there using her fists. If any one who suffered under the demon queen of the Shadow Stream Academy heard you call her gentle, they just might murder you. The training plan that the two of them came up for you when you were born was so extreme that I was sure that you would be dead by now."


    For a moment Bai Yun thought that being mentally damaged was truly a beautiful thing.


    "But there should be other places in the clan that are not as dangerous as the places father recommended right. Why did he tell me to go the most dangerous of all the places."


    "Of course there are. But when your father was young, his father offered him the same deal, and his grandfather offered the same deal to his father and so on. This way of training has been followed for a long time."


    Bai Yun then understood. He was born in a family of psychopaths.

 13 First step into the garden

    Two weeks had passed since the day Bai Yun told his plans to his parents. He broke through to the first stage of qi condensation that night. He then spend the next three days mastering the Moonlight Sword, the Lions Roar and False Armor.


    He finished with the first movement of the lions roar overnight while the first movement of the Moonlight sword only took him an hour. He had to spend a lot of time to master the false armor skill, as it took too much energy, and he had to stop and recover energy. Only after having a high enough cultivation could he use this freely.


    But then he spend thenext ten days trying to master Specter Steps, but was completely unsuccessful. As expected of one of the most mysterious movement techniques in the world, he was barely able to trigger the first motion of its qi part. At first he was only interested in the Specter Steps ability to move unhindered out of restrictions and was planning to switch to his old movement technique after reaching the immortal step, but after studying it, he realized that the Specter Steps was even superior to his old technique!


    The qi part of Specter Steps was split into four motions, wind motion, soundless motion, traceless motion and ghastly motion. Even after spending a while, even with his understanding of the dao and experience, he was only able to rarely simulate the wind motion. If one mastered the wind motion, one could move freely in the wind, unpredictably and through the smallest of openings. The range of movement one could make would be unrestrained, allowing for a more varied attack pattern. Thissuited Bai Yun fighting style.


    But he did not study the wind dao in his previous life. He could barely comprehend part of the wind motion. In the end he just gave up and studied Shadow Walk ,which he easily comprehended.


    After Bai Yun left seclusion, he found the old butler and asked him to take him to the beast garden. The journey, which would have taken Bai Yun days to complete, was finished in a matter of minutes.


    In front of Bai Yun stood a wall hundreds of meters tall, and over a hundred meters in depth. In the wall, at regular intervals there were gates, so that people could go through.


    Bai Yun used the Assassin God''s disguising technique. Unfortunately he was not very good at it. Even though many details about the Assassin God was known, what no one seemed to have realized was that he was someone who had walked all three systems simultaneously and that he had reached the god level in all three. This was the critical secret behind his strength as well as the disguise technique.


    Since Bai Yun had not started on his body tempering path, there was no way for him to properly implement the technique. He only used some of the surface parts in order to change his face and skin so that no one would easily recognize him.


    Bai Yun passed through the wall and entered the beast garden. The places where the beasts were being held were still quite far away, the wall was build as a security measure. He picked a random direction, and started to walk. As he walked he saw that almost all of the people here were in groups and most of them were wearing much coarse clothing than the ones worn by Bai Shun and his group. Thankfully no one recognized him, and he was able to move freely.


    In the beast garden all the animals who were trapped inside were extremely ferocious. The reason for creating the beast garden was to give the people of Bai clan a chance to fight. Thus all the breeds were of ferocious beasts. Any gentle beasts would be quickly wiped out in the environment inside. On top of this, a special pill powder was regularly added to the water inside so as to keep the animals on edge.


    Usually it would be possible for people to tame demonic beasts and use them to fight. There was even an entire profession of beast tamers who were specialized in doing so. But it was impossible to tame any of the beasts in the beast garden. The best they could try to get was a cub or infant that had just been born and did not have the chance to be infected yet.


    Bai Yun quickly ran toward the vegetation. Soon he entered the forest, where the demonic beasts were reared. The moment he did so, the surrounding clamor from the people quickly quietened. The silence that permeated brought with it an intense pressure. It seemed as if the whole forest was watching you. This would immediately overwhelm people who were here for the first time, and would make them scared and unable to perform properly.


    Bai Yun felt comfortable. This reminded him of the time he was being chased by the devils during the Grand War. He had a feeling of being in his natural environment.


    He pulled out his sword from the storage ring, and started to walk forward, using the sword to cleave a path forward.As he walked he knew that the most important thing that he had to do in the next few weeks was to build up the muscle memory of the Simple Sword.


    The Simple Sword was an extremely powerful technique. Even though its usefulness fell as one progressed until the dao step, it would once again become very powerful at the god step. Butin order to use the Simple Sword properly, he had to integrate it into his muscle memory. Otherwise, there would be a slight delay while making a move which would often mean that the optimal time to attack would be lost. As a veteran of tens of thousands of battles Bai Yun would never make that mistake. The optimal thing would be if his body could react even before his senses had seen an opening.


    As he walked, he stopped suddenly. He could sense a life form in front of him, quite a distance away. Bai Yun hid hid his aura and started walking forward.


    In front of him stood a red wolf. Bai Yun had no idea what species this wolf was. There were many species of beasts in the garden and interbreeding of beasts was also common, creating even more variants. The wolf was munching on something. As he neared, the wolf stopped and stood up and turned towards were Bai Yun was. The wolfs eyes had a slight tinge of red due to the madness from the pill powder. Even though Bai Yun hid his aura, he was unable to hide his scent.


    Bai Yun exited from the shadow of the tree he was under. He saw that the wolf was in the first circle of qi step, and quickly got ready to fight.


    The demonic beasts cultivation was divided in a circle cultivation system. They had steps similar to the human cultivation system. In each step the cultivation was simply divided into nine circles. The higher the cultivation of a beast the more circles it had. A beast at the first circle of the qi stage was considered equivalent to a cultiavtor in the first three stages of qi condensation. But depending upon their mutation, variation or breed, a beast in the first circle might even be as powerful as someone in the sixth stage of qi condensation if one was unlucky. A dragon in the first circle might even trash someone in the seventh stage of qi condensation.


    With a howl the wolf proceeded to attack him. Bai Yun activated hs movement technique and started to move to the side.


    Immediately he felt something wrong. An instant later Bai yun found himself on the ground, lying face first. The wolf who was in mid air seemed to be as confused as Bai Yun and sailed past him in an instant.


    As he was lying on the ground, Bai Yun frowned. He had noticed what happened earlier. His battle instincts written deep within his soul had acted up, and he had moved the same way he would have when he was a god. Which meant that he subconsciously tried to move according to his old movement method. He neither had the cultivation, nor his body the experience for that. As a result he had tripped and fell.


    He had no cultivation until now, and in the earlier fights he had used his soul to fight. It was only now, when he used his body and qi to fight, that he noticed this problem. His priorities of what he had to do once again changed. The most important ting was to get rid of his habits from the past life. Bai Yun was starting to get tired of his plans having to be changed all the time, forcing him to speed up his timetable.


    All of this happened in an instant. Bai Yun used his soul to push the wolf away from him, as he leaped back. Using one of his soul tendrils to keep himself in check, Bai Yun once again took up the position. As the wolf, who was disoriented from the push readied himself, Bai Yun pushed himself forward.


    The wolf once again lunged at Bai Yun. He stepped to the side and spun past the wolf. As he did so, he gave it a slash. After the two of them passed by each other, they stopped. Bai Yun frowned. He could sense that his attack hadn''t left a deep enough cut on the beast. It seemed as if this wolf was a rather strong one among the normal first circle beasts, as it was equal to someone in the third stage of qi condensation. Thankfully it wasn''t a variant.


    Mutant beasts were beasts whose one aspect was changed due to chance at birth. For example a mutant bear could have stronger claws or a tougher hide, or even simply a thicker coat of fur. A variant was born from two different beasts, and their power somehow merged and created a new beast. The most famous example of this is the child of the heaven swallowing python and the hydra, the basilisk.


    Bai Yun kept on sidestepping the wolf, and the wolf kept on attacking. At he sidestepped, he kept on delivering slashes to the wolf. Even though each attack wasn''t very powerful, they quickly piled on to become quite deadly. Soon the wolf was fully drenched in blood. Bai Yun was also quite tired and sweating by now. In order to save the single spiral of qi he had in his dantian, he had used his body to move as much as possible.


    The wolf then looked at Bai Yun viciously. Then it broke into a run and leaped straight at him with a wide open mouth, intending to finish him off quickly. Bai Yun knew that the wolf was staking it all in a single move, and knew he had to attack in pull power also, as he wouldn''t have a chance to dodge at the speed the wolf was running. He quickly activated the first move of the Moonlight Sword, a single ray of Moonlight. A single ray of moonlight was about condensing all the energy into a single point and then attacked at full power. Immediately his sword was thrust forward, and the sword tip drew a beautiful arc in the air with a shining point drawing a trail behind it as it flew.


    His sword was pointed straight at the wolf''s mouth, and it went through and came out the back of its throat. As he stood there, his sword thrust out, the wolf swiped its paws forward in a desperate struggle. Bai Yun let go of his sword and stepped backwards quickly, but not before a single swipe had hit him and left a gash in his shoulder.


    As he held his shoulder and stepped back, the wolf looked at him one last time, before falling over dead.

 14 Skin sewing

    Bi Yun took out a bandage from his storage ring and tightened up the wound to stop it from bleeding. He could have dodged the attack if he had used his soul, be chose to only use his qi to battle in order to acclimate himself.


    He walked up to the wolf and cut its head to recover its demon core. The beasts in the first four steps of cultivation had a demon core in their body, that could be used by alchemists or weaponsmiths. There were many pills that required the wild strength inside a demon core as an ingredient, or it could be affixed on to a weapon to increase its strength.


    After taking the demon core, Bai yun put the body of the beast in his storage ring. The storage ring his father had given him was of a high quality and could store quite a bit of beasts. The beasts flesh could be used as food and its skin, bones, blood and other parts had many uses. The beasts that were killed during once stay in the beast garden had to be sold to the clan. The resources and demon cores could be sold or kept. The prices one would get if the beasts and other resources inside were handed to the clan was only half of what one would get if sold outside, but for most people who would come to the beast garden, going outside to sell the beasts carcasses wasn''t an option. And for most people only the medicines could be used freely, all other resources had to be sold anyway.


    By now Bai Yun had completely spend all his qi. After resting for a while to recover his strength, stood up. He then left in search of more beasts.


    For the next five days Bai Yun spend his entire time battling all kinds of beasts. He battle beasts from leopards to snakes and even some chimeras. He was currently sitting on a tree eating a demonic deer he had killed. Sitting alone like this was dangerous, and sleeping alone was even more dangerous. His father had given him an artifact that would alert him of danger, but only if he was sleeping. But since his god sense had a sixth sense which was even more sensitive to danger, he never used it. His entire body was filled with cuts and bruises and he had lost so much blood that he was slightly pale. The only reason he could continue was due to all the demonic beast meat and blood that he had eaten.


    But the last five days hadn''t been without its benefits. His qi spiral had completely stabilized, and the traces of the second spiral was beginning to form. He was sure that he could form it in another week at most. And this was due to the Way of Harmony, an inferior technique would not be so effective.


    Bu the most important fact was that he had finally managed to keep his old instincts in check. It was thanks to his god sense and y spilling more blood than his body could handle that he finally managed to do it so quickly. Even though he still hadn''t reached a state where he was happy with his body''s responses, at least he was no longer in danger of making a mistake.


    Not only that, due to practicing the Undying Body everything he got hurt and had to heal up, his skin had started to absorb some qi, and had begun to strengthen. Today he had finally reached the threshold of skin sewing, and could officially begin his cultivation in the body tempering path.


    Of course as a price for this he looked more like a mummy than a human.


    In the skin sewing stage the cultivation was not broken up like the qi condensation stage. It was much simple. The point of skin sewing was to use the qi as a needle and carve mysterious patterns into the skin. The more patters and the more area the pattern covered, the stronger a person would be. The human body could support up to ten patterns only. But most people wouldn''t look at the number of patterns in skin sewing, as due to the difference in nature it could be wildly misleading.


    Any person who had even one pattern could technically break through to the muscle tempering stage, but no one would do so. The biggest obstacle in the body tempering path was that only the muscles beneath a pattern could be tempered, thus covering as much of the skin possible in mysterious patters was essential. Even further down the lane, only the locations beneath the mysterious patters could be tempered.


    Most techniques would do their best to use up all ten patterns as well as cover as much of the area as possible. Even the technique Bai Yun used in his past life had ten patterns and covered over ninety nine percent of the area. Even all god level techniques but a top few could only do this much. The reason was that if two patterns touched then their power would be mixed, and thus a gap had to be left between all the patterns and all these gaps would be weaknesses. There was no way to eliminate this. Different cultivation techniques tried to hide these gaps in different parts of the body , so that it would be difficult to notices and find out someones weakness.


    Even god level cultivation techniques had this weakness. The reason they were superior was that they would have more profound patterns which would end up making one stronger, and reduce the uncovered area as much as possible. It was also possible to create a resonance between patterns and allow a person possess some extra powers.


    This was the accepted norm for trillions of years until the God of Battle showed up. He came up with a crazy idea: what of instead of ten patterns, only a single pattern was used. Many people had tried this before, but since a pattern had to be completed in one go, and the larger a pattern was, the effort needed and the pain in carving it would go up explosively. It was impossible for anyone to complete a full body pattern in one go.


    What the God of Battle did different was to split up the single pattern into ten. He used the first nine mysterious patterns as a base, and used the tenth to tie them all together to make them into a single pattern. This meant that there would no longer be any weaknesses in the body. But by doing so the power during the first nine pattern would be much lower and one would also be not able to get any powers by resonance between the patterns. Also each of these patterns were much harder to make than a pattern from any other technique.


    The God of Battle was someone who dual cultivated in body and soul. in order to test his theory, he put off body cultivation and started on the qi path. He reached the immortal step in the qi path firstand then even studied formations and mysterious dao to a very high level before he created his technique and started his cultivation.


    After the God of Battle succeed in his path many others tried this method. But the God of Battle''s technique which he polished through his life as still considered the best. It was rumored that the God of Death created a better technique, but Bai Yun only managed to see the Undying Body in his life after his father exchanged the Way of Harmony for Undying Body with the God of Battle after the Grand War begun.


    Bai Yun looked at a map he had gotten from his father. After he looked at it he quickly found what he was looking for. Near to where he was was a place called weed valley. Similar to demonic beasts there were also breed, variants and mutants among plants also. The valley was filled with a variant breed of weeds that was taller than a human. Walking through weeds as tall as bamboo was extremely dangerous.


    But among these weeds some would mutate, and create strange fruits every now and then. These strange fruits would be of different kinds, and depending on the color would be of help to qi, body,soul even other cultivation paths. But since they were from weeds no matter how powerful the mutation, they could only be used by low level first stage cultivators.


    But the greatest number of fruits there were the kind that could be used by demonic beats. Thus the place was filled with many demonic beasts. Not only were there many first circle beasts there, there were even some second circle beasts there.


    Most importantly due to the special property of the weeds all the senses including perception was limited in the valley. As a result it was very common to be ambushed by people as well as demonic beasts there. And since it was extremely likely that no one could find ones body, or for there to be witnesses there, it was a common spot for murder. Thus not a lot of people would go the valley unless they had a high cultivation or were in a large group. It was only due to the sixth sense of the god sense that could only be hindered by a god step powerhouse that he dared to go there.


    Bai Yun got his bearings and started to move toward they weed valley. As he walked, he started swinging his sword. The sword was moving in a strange rhythm, as well as in weird and strange poses. Sometimes he would simply flick his wrist multiple times in an instance. Sometime they would come from strange positions, and take weird arcs. Some were simple thrusts and slashes. No one could see any sense in the movements.


    Bai Yun was using Simple Sword and was trying to integrate the technique into his body. He was using shadow boxing techniques and fighting against an imaginary enemy. As a result for anyone who was looking at him, it would look strange. After all he was the only person who would have the guts to practice a technique in the middle of the beast garden, while every else would be on the lookout for a sneak attack.


    Currently all three of Bai Yun soul tendrils were at work. One was scouting all around him, one was focused on the Simple Sword and the last one was trying to feel the wind. Ever since his failure to comprehend the wind motion, Bai Yun had taken the issue to heart, and spend all the time on it. Even when fighting beats and travelling through the forest, he would always be using one tendril of soul to comprehend the wind. As a result his understanding of the wind motion had gone up by a lot. By now he could trigger wind motion successfully about half the time he tried. But he was still unable to execute it properly or understand any of the intricacies involved.


    As he walked through the forest , he reached the entrance to the weed valley. He had faced a few more beasts on the way. By now the only place of his which wasn''t injured was his eyes. There were scratches even on his face. He looked like a walking mummy, fully covered in bandages.


    He had run into a few people on the way. The weed valley was not too popular due to the high mortality rate, but it had more people than the forest in general. All the people who he had met had stared at him in shock. He simply walked past them. He could hear people muttering behind him. He even heard a group deciding to leave the beast garden after meeting him.


    As he neared the weed valley he stopped. He stood on a cliff and looked at the field of green below him. He was unable to see any thing but the top of the weeds, and a few wiggles here and there, which he assumed were people or lifeforms. The field of green completely hid the danger inside.


    "Oh my look. Even a dead person is here." Bai Yun heard someone say, followed by a raucous laughter. Something about the laughter annoyed him, so he turned to look. Immediately his eyes turned into slits.


    In front of him were Bai Shan and his posse.

 15 Enemies crossing path

    ''Annoying flies never leave.'' Bai Yun thought.


    Last time they met, Bai Song had made Bai Shan go into secluded cultivation after loosing to him. And now it seemed as it Bai Shan had lived up to his name as a genius and has broken through to the sixth stage of qi condensation. But it could be seen that he had broken through with pills and had an unstable foundation. And he had run over here straight away after exiting without even waitng for his cultivation to stabilize. ''Idiot.'' BaiYun strengthened his assumption of Bai Shan.


    Bai Yun simply stared at them. They were standing around looking pretentious and making fun of everyone they see, saying stuff like how their clothes were of bad quality, or they were dirty and so on. Bai Yun stayed on top of the cliff for a while to see if he could spot any demon beasts or anything of the like, but was unable to. He gave up on scouting and decided to enter the weed valley.


    "Hey, dead guy." He heard Bai Shun call out to him.


    Bai Yun turned to look at him.


    "What are you doing? If someone like you goes in to the weed valley you are going to die. You better not go in." One of the people following Bai Shan said.


    While wondering if they had nothing better to do with their lives, Bai yun continued on his way.


    "You, how dare you ignore my me."The kid darted at him.


    Bai Yun quickly stepped out of his way. Then he send a couple of jabs to the brat''s back, and he fell face first into the ground.


    "How dare you." The rest of the group roared and darted at him. Just as Bai Yun was getting ready to fight, he heard a voice behind him. "Let him go."


    Bai Yun turned to look at Bai Shan in shock. He was not the only one. Bai Shan''s group and even the other people around was in shock. For a moment Bai Yun thought he saw a look of glee in Bai Shan''s eyes. But he was not sure.


    "But leader he attacked me when I just wanted to be kind and give him a warning. How can we just let him go." The kid on the ground said.


    ''I see. Their entire group must have been in an accident and gotten the memory center of their brains damaged. Poor souls.'' Bai Yun thought.


    "Justtake a look at him. He is so injured that he would die if you just poke him accidentally. There are so many people around. Are you going to kill him here. Besides weaklings like him would simply die in the weed valley anyway. So just let him go to his death."


    ''So he has a brain cell after all. His parents must be so proud. I feel like crying.''


    "Hmph. Thank the boss you are getting out of here alive." The moron group said.


    Ignoring the morons Bai Yun walked into the weed valley. His sight was quickly covered up by the vegetation. He used his sword to part the weeds as he walked. As he walked forward he also used his soul tendrils to search the region around him, but frowned when he realized that there was a suppressive force around him. He picked a random direction and started walking forward.


    Suddenly he thrust his sword to the right. A small snake was embedded on the tip of his sword. This was only a weak first circle demonic beast, and was easily disposed of by him. In lands like these snake type beasts were the most common. This was because there were quite a good number of them and they were harder to spot, as well as had a greater mobility in the grass.


    As he walked, he kept his perception on the air. But soon he started to frown. Even in such a dense area, wind was flowing. Not only could he see that there was wind above the weeds, even between the weeds, air moved. Bai Yun had a feeling that there was something important in this, and focused his entire attention on the air.


    A few hours later, he had quickly reached quite far inward. Till now he had yet to encounter anything dangerous. In the weed valley your result depended almost exclusively on luck. So Bai Yun had simply walked around, often changing his direction.


    Suddenly his perception felt an empty are in front of him. He quickly got out of his thoughts and focused his perception in front of him. He could see a clearing in front.


    In the weed valley clearings were rather rare. Only in two cases would they appear. Either a powerful demonic beast had done it in order to keep its home safe from surprise attacks, or a strong mutant weed or a group of mutant weeds had absorbed all the nutrients in the surrounding area.


    Bai Yun hid his aura, and parted the weeds in front of him. As he peeked into the clearing, he could see a mutant weed in the middle, with three fruits on it. There was two large fruits for qi and body cultivation, and an unripe fruit which could be used by demonic beasts.


    Even though Bai Yun was overjoyed, he did not lose focus. He stayed there and kept watch for a while, in case there was some danger. Even after waiting for an hour, there was no danger.


    It was already afternoon, Bai Yun knew that he could not wait for much longer. In the dark his eyesight would be much lower, and if he came across some beasts, he would be in a lot of danger without his sight. In the qi step, perception was not as effective as sight.


    He moved towards the fruits slowly. He stood in front of them for a moment and then reached towards the body fruit. As his hands clasped around the body fruit, a smile appeared on his face.


    His god sense sensed the danger before he ever could. It started to scream from the approaching danger. A second later his perception caught something moving much faster than him towards him. Bai Yun realized that he would not be able to dodge it. A fear of death washed over him.Instinctively he gained some power from the depths of his body, and launched wind motion, shooting backwards in an instant.


    Bai yun had launched wind motion with all his strength, and had somehow managed to activate it under pressure. But the movement was crooked and as a result he ended up falling on the ground. He used the momentum to roll away, and then stabbed his sword into the ground. He used the sword to stop himself, and entered into a kneeling position. He could sense that his left ankle was slightly swollen. It wasn''t twisted, but he seemed to stepped a little too hard on it when he landed. He knew that his movement was severely compromised.


    As he looked up, Bai Yun''s back broke out in cold sweat. In front of him was a meter long snake. The snake was blinking at him, almost surprised that he had managed to get away. It seemed to be guarding the demon fruit until it was ripe.


    Bai Yun recognized the snake immediately. It was a grey rock python.


    A grey rock python was a snake he had known about even in his past life. A grey rock python had a trace of god bloodline, and could even reach the immortal step in the future. When he had started training in battle techniques in his previous life, he had battled a grey rock python, so he knew how formidable one was.


    The one in front of him seemed to be only inthe second circle of the qi step. And one that had just entered the second step to boot. But Bai Yun knew that this little snake was extremely strong. It could easily wipe out Bai Shan and his group. If it was at the peak of the second step he should just have tried to run. Even with all his experience he would still find the grey rock python a difficult opponent. This was because without the destruction dao essence , his fighting style primarily depended on disrupting the opponents rhythm to fight. This allowed him to fight against even stronger opponents. But this would not work against something as strong and fast as the grey rock python.


    The grey rock python did not have any venom. In order to compensate, it was extremely fast and flexible. Its scales were exceptionally hard, and its tail was very strong.


    Bai Yun placed the body fruit that he still had in his hands into his storage ring. Bai Yun placed his weight on his right leg. The earlier attack by the python was so fast as it had laid in wait for a while, it would not be so fast in regular fights. He took the sword in his right hand, and crouched and turned his body to reduce the exposed area. Then Bai Yun started walking towards the snake.


    The snake that was surprised by its failure had recovered by now. It lunged at Bai Yun once again. Bai Yun sent two tendrils of soul into his sword. The technique of sending a soul into the sword was a dangerous one. It allowed him to react faster and move his sword faster in order to target the snake more efficiently. This way he could target the snakes weakness more, and even with its flexibility, he could still keep up. And for the grey rock python, its only weakness were its eyes and mouth.


    But this technique also had its weakness. Since his soul was merged with the weapon, every time it collided with the snake it would hurt his soul and give him a headache. And if it was struck too hard, it could even damage the soul tendrils, forcing him to cultivate them again.


    Bai Yun thrust his sword forward rapidly. It struck the snake repeatedly at an angle, changing its direction and sending it flying in the air. Along with this Bai Yun''s soul started hurting and he had a headache.


    The grey rock python was angry. It started to simply spring itself at Bai Yun. In response he struck it away. But soon he had to stop as the headache was getting worse. Thankfully by now he had gotten an understanding of the pythons rhythm and he stopped forcefully changing its direction. Bai Yun simply used the edge of the sword to glide along the pythons body, and flick his wrist to gently change its direction just enoughso that the python would slide past his body at a safe distance and couldn''t flick his tail at him. As he was doing so he started moving towards the center of the clearing, so the python would not have any chances to attack him from the weeds.


    The python seemed angry at his tactics. It stood on it tail, and screeched at him. Then coiling it''s tail it flew straight towards Bai Yun with an open mouth. A cold light flashed in his eyes. Immediately Bai Yun ran the qi spiral in his dantian and send four rays of Moonlight at the snake. His sword controlled by the soul tendrils, had struck the same scale in the snakes forehead repeatedly. He also had to pay a huge price for this. His eyes were bloodshot, and blood could be seen in the corner of his mouth. After the snake, that had been send flying back stood up and felt the blood tricking down from where it scale used to be, it screeched even louder, and this time, slithered to Bai Yun, and turning his body, struck at him with its tail.


    Bai Yun had almost used up his qi and only had a trace of it left, He used every thing he had to Jump in the direction of the strike, mitigating most of the strike. He still threw up blood in mid air and then rolled on the ground before getting on one knee.


    In his right hand he held his sword. In his left hand was a blue fruit.


    It was the qi fruit.

 16 Second stage of qi condensation

    Bai Yun knew from the beginning that he had no chance in hell of defeating the grey rock python. His energy reserves were low and none of his attacks were powerful enough to break the toughness of the python''s scales.


    Bai Yun had only two attacking moves he could deploy, Moonlight Sword and the Lions Roar. He had only mastered the first movement of the Moonlight word, while the Lions roar only had one punch. But the first movement of the Moonlight sword focused on speed and did not have much strength. On the other hand he Lions Roar got stronger and more explosive the more qi was added to it.


    Bai Yun also knew thateven if used all the energy in his qi spiral to launch lions roar, it would still not be enough. It would only hurt the python and not kill it. He also knew just how strong the scales of a grey rock python was. The only way to hurt the python was if he could somehow destroy some of the scales of the python.


    Thus from the moment the fight began Bai Yun had two objectives, get strong enough to kill the python, and destroy some of its scales. The power of the Lions roar was too dispersed, and straight forward, that he couldn''t use it destroy the scales. The only way to kill it was by using a huge amount of qi, which he had to get his hands on. Then he also had to dislodge the scales.


    His chances of running away on a wounded leg was next to impossible. He knew that victory was impossible even with his current strength. He needed more strength. And thankfully he was near a bottleneck in two of his cultivation paths. He also had the body fruit in his hands. But skin sewing took time, and couldn''t be completed in ashort while in the middle of battle. His only option was to get his hands on the qi fruit ,and use its strength to break through.


    So Bai Yun made aplan even before he moved. The were first thing he did was to send a tendril of his soul out and carefully allow it to approach the qi fruit. Then he made sure that the attention of the python was always on him and that the soul tendril was completely hidden.


    When his soul tendril wrapped around the qi fruit, he knew that he had to do everything in his power to create a distraction. The grey rock python was a superior breed. It would notice if the qi fruit went missing. He also knew that if he got his hands on the qi fruit, the grey rock python would stop looking down at him.


    So he had to distract it. And at the same time weaken it. So Bai Yun staked everything he had, and struck at the same point in the python''s forehead with a tremendous force, at the intersection of three scales. But the result of this atatck only broke three scales, and bled the python a little. As the python was angered, Bai Yun quietly pluck the qi fruit and dropped it to the ground, a little far from him. If he had send it flying towards him, the python would have noticed it and intercepted. Thus he used the pythons attack to fly towards the fruit, and used the soul tendril to move it the final short distance to his hand.


    The grey rock python was stunned. It turned to stare at the mutant weed in astonishment. Bai Yun''s ankle had turned purple, and his head felt like someone was cutting into it. But he had no time to spare. He quickly ate the fruit while the python was distracted.


    The python turned his head towards Bai Yun. The qi fruit turned into pure energy and flowed through him. He could feel a huge amount of power residing in him. Anyone else could only absorb as much as their body would allow them to and then let the rest of the energy flow out, letting a huge amount of the energy inside go to waste. But Bai Yun quickly used the god sense to trap asmuch of the power inside him as he could.


    He allowed a part of the power to flow into his dantian, quickly replenishing his spend qi spiral. Once it was filled, he pumped more energy into into it. He knew that with his leg being the way it was, he could not afford to move much. He quickly got into position, just as the python once again attacked him.


    Bai Yun continued to send the python flying again and again, but this time adding some force to his strikes with qi. The qi spend was quickly replenished by the qi fruit. Soon a new rhythm of qi flow was set up inside his body, with the energy lost being replenished by the qi fruit.


    Bai Yun could feel that the qi spiral in his dantian had been saturated, and he could feel it trembling, all signs of an impending breakthrough. During the breakthrough from first qi stage to the second qi stage, the qi spiral would split up and give rise to two qi spirals.


    The python stopped its attacks after figuring out that they weren''t hurting him. As he watched, it slowly slithered towards him. Bai Yun instantly went on alert. He grit his teeth and once again send the power of all three soul tendrils into his sword.


    The python struck forward with its mouth open. bai Yun immediately used a ray of moonlight and struck at the place where the scales of the snake had been dislodged.


    Just as his words was about to hit its forehead, the snake turned its head away, and used the force of the sword to forcibly bend its body. As the snake turned, its tail lashed at Bai Yun. His eyed narrowed into tiny slits.


    The most dangerous body part of the grey rock python was its tail. It contained a huge number of muscles, and the snake could use it to launch a terrifying attack that could crunch the bones of body tempering practitioner at the same cultivation level. Bai Yun knew that without enough energy to activate the false armor, there was a good chance that he would be severely injured, and soon after that, dead.


    Seeing no chance to dodge, and his sword not having enough force to stop it, using his left hand Bai Yun immediately launched Lions Roar with every drop of qi he had. A pale yellow glow covered his left hand. The glow was barely visible, almost transparent. A moment later, his hand collided with the snakes tail.


    While attacking, Bai Yun had launched backwards. The moment the his attack connected, a loud snap could be heard. Bai Yun found himself flying backwards quite far. He checked his left arm with his god sense. There were tiny cracks in every single bone in his body. Bai Yun knew that the only reason none of his bones had broken completely, was because he had distributed the strength of the attack evenly across his entire arm.


    Just as he was about to curse out loud, he felt a snap coming from his dantian. His qi spiral had split. He had reached the second stage of qi condensation. Bai Yun quickly send all the energy the qi whirlpool could handle without rupturing into it.


    Bai Yun landed on the ground and he used the power of the the three soul tendrils in order to stabilize himself quickly. The python did not dawdle about this time, and had come chasing after him.


    Sending all his energy into his right hand once again, Bai Yun thrust his sword at the python.


    The python was mere inches away, it saw the sword coming towards him and used the side of its head to hit it away. The moment it did so the python realized its mistake. There was no power behind the sword. It had already left Bai Yun''s hand and was now simply gliding past the pythons head, obstructing it s vision.


    A second later the sword passed by it, and what greeted it was the sight of a fist covered in a yellow glow.


    The yellow glow, was different from the previous time. Even though it was nearly the same size as the last time, it was no longer spherical. The front of the glow was flatter, while its sides protruded out a bit.


    Bai Yun had used the Lions Roar with everything he had. His hand was clenched in a fist with his middle finger protruding out a bit. As he thrust his fist outward, two of his soul tendrils as well as much of the qi he could gather was firmly located in the protruding point of his middle finger. His third soul tendril was firmly locked on to the exposed skin on the pythons forehead.


    In an instant his hand collided with the forehead of the python. He felt as if he had punched a steel plate. His middle finer had landed on the exposed skin, and perfectly went through it. His fist ripped the skin apart and quickly went through the skull and into the brain.


    A moment later a scream could be heard coming from the clearing. It sounded as if it was coming from the depths of hell.


    Bai Yun was lying on the floor. His entire body was a mess. He was struck by the backlash of his attack as well as the dying thrashes of the grey rock python.


    His left ankle was throbbing in a painful purplish hue. The bones of his left arm had many breaks in them. His eyes were completely red and even had a few blood vessels ruptured. His muscles and veins were squirming like worms. A trail of bool could be seen at the corner of his mouth. His organs were shivering. His right hand had broken in many places. It was covered in blood. A few scales could be seen pierced into his hand. He could sense that one of his soul tendrils had been damaged slightly.


    Bai Yun sat up with a frown. He had won and lived. But he knew that this was mostly due to luck, and the python underestimating him, as well as not changing its strategy quickly. He send the rest of the energy left in the qi fruit to his dantian, filling it halfway. He slowly sat up, vomiting a final bit of blood. After he put his sword back into his storage ring, it was too painful to hold, he walked towards the python.


    Just as he was about bend over and touch the python, he felt his god sense scream danger. Not having ay strength left, and his perception left barely flickering, Bai Yun simply let himself go and allowed gravity to do his work for him in getting him out of harms way.


    Bai Yun hit the ground face first. Adding on to all the injuries he had, he felt pain shoot through his entire body startling him awake, yet left wishing he had passed out.


    As he fell, he felt a sharp object fly past his body. He knew that it was a dagger, and that someone had ambushed him in his weakest moment. So he knew that this wasn''t the time to faint. Enduring the pain, he turned his head, and looked at the direction the dagger had come from.


    The next instant a rage he rarely felt flooded his body.


    Standing with his arm outstretched in a throwing pose, with a disbelieving look on his face was Bai Shan.

 17 Escaping the morons

    Bai Yun stood on his knees. He was panting as he stared coldly. The terrifying killing intent that was hidden deep within, burst out for the first time since he woke up.


    Bai Shan felt cold. He felt as if he temperature had fallen to below freezing. His body trembled involuntarily. He felt a fear, as if his natural predator had locked his eyes on him. He then shrugged off the thought, thinking that it must be impossible. How can he, a genius of the Bai clan, be scared by a cripple.


    Bai Yun trembled and asked hoarsely. "Why?"


    Bai Shan said. "What do you mean why. Ever since you hurt me outside the library, I have been looking for a chance to kill you."


    Bai Yun was stunned. His face was not only covered by bandages, he had also deployed the Assassin God''s disguise technique. If it could be seen through this easily, it did not deserve its fame.


    Seeing the shock in his eyes, Bai Shan started laughing. His posse started laughing along him.


    "Did you think that you could hide from my greatness just because you hid your face. After all morons will always be morons. How could you hide from my great intellect. I noticed you a long time ago. After all I am..." Bai Shan started prattling on about his greatness.


    Bai Yun frowned. Bai Shan hadn''t even realized about the disguise technique. This means that he made a mistake. He had to rectify it. "How?" He asked.


    Bai Shan stopped talking and grinned. "Even if you covered up your whole body, you still have your old storage ring. Idiots like you would never have thought of it. Why do you think I let you go back then. I followed after you right after you entered the weed valley."


    Bai Yun immediately understood the problem. He decided to rectify it, and hide the storage ring when he was around other people, or at lest wear a different one.


    "Aren''t you afraid of being found out that you killed me." Bai Yun asked.


    "Of course not. We are in the beast garden. No one will know that you are dead. And even if they did, how will anyone know that it was I who did it. " Bai Shan replied confidently.


    ''We are in the presence of royalty. All hail the king of morons.'' Bai Yun thought, elevating Bai Shan''s status in his mind.


    If he died, his father would eventually realize it. Then, he would definitely come in search of him. The powers of someone who had reached the dao step was simply unfathomable to someone like Bai Shan. Since he had already told the butler the main places he wanted to go to in the beast garden, his father would definitely look here. For someone in the qi condensation stage, the weed valley might be incredibly large, buta dao seed stage cultivators could cover this entire valley with a look.At that time, even if these morons could kill him, he would definitely find out that Bai Yun was killed by a cultivator and not a beast. The chances of him letting it go was non existent. Even if a dao stage cultivator could not turn back time like a immortal stage cultivator could, he had multiple ways of finding the truth, along with the fact this moron was seen near here at the time.


    On top of it all, add the fact that this moron would definitely brag about this to someone, and that there were over a dozen of his underlings here, with at least one of them being a spy for a prince, his death was all but written. All that is left would be a single question. Who would kill him.


    Would it be Bai Yun or his father.


    If the king of morons,thought that just because he had made a breakthrough in his cultivation, and because Bai Yun was in such a horrible state, he would be easy to kill, then he would be severely mistaken.


    Bai Yun quickly took stock of his injuries. His right arm was useless. His left arm had many cracks, but it was still usable. One of his soul tendrils was damaged, and temporarily unusable. His eyesight was blurry, and his perception nearly unavailable. His qi whirlpool was only half full, and his organs were only settling down from the attacks of the python.


    He had to retreat.


    "You were nearly killed by such a tiny snake. Man you are weak. I would have killed it one strike." Bai Shan said looking at the grey rock python. "But I must thank it. After you entered the weed valley, why would you change your direction so much. We lost you immediately. If it wasn''t for that scream, I would have been unable to find you."


    ''Next time I find a grey rock python, I will definitely let you fight it.'' While cursing Bai Shan to death, Bai Yun started creeping back, at the same time keeping an eye on the posse.


    Thankfully true to the name of the moron group, they hadn''t spread out to cover him, but simply walked behind Bai Shan with a snicker on their faces. This gave him a lot of room to retreat. He was currently in the middle of the clearing. Once he reached the weeds, he could definitely escape successfully.


    Suddenly he saw one of the group members, a third stage qi condensation cultivator, who was glancing at the grey rock python stop and a look of terror appear in his face for a moment. Bai Yun realized that the kid had recognized the python. He got ready to fight it out, after cursing in his mind. His only chance to escape was because these idiots would be looking down on him. If the kid said the truth then he would lose that chance.


    But a cold look appeared in the kid''s eyes, and he simply grinned and said nothing. Bai Yun was confused for a moment, but then understood. This kid must be the spy. Immediately his rank on the kill list went to the second place, behind Bai Shan only.


    Bai Shan suddenly laughed. "You must be planning to use your soul to fight right. After I was send into seclusion, I studied a lot on soul cultivators and I came up with a defense." The next second, a flimsy blue aura, appeared around him. It covered his entire body, and almost seemed to be flickering.


    Bai Yun recognized it. It was false armor. But being in the most barest of stages, as well as not having enough energy it looked nothing like an armor. But the interference caused by this would be enough to make his previous tactic of pushing him out to be useless.


    But this was unnecessary, as Bai Yun''s soul tendrils was hurt, and one of them was even damaged. Of course Bai Yun didn''t tell that to them.


    Suddenly Bai Shan roared and rushed towards him. Once again a yellow glow appeared around his hands. "Demon subduing solar fist." He roared as he lunged forward.


    With a single look he could see that this technique was of a much lower quality than Lions roar. ''The moron must have chosen the technique purely based on its name.'' While wondering why he screamed out the name, Bai Yun spun himself out of the way of Bai Shan''s fist.


    His sword appeared in his left hand. He knew that he would be unable to do much damage to Bai Shan while he still had false armor on. So pushed off against Bai Shan using his sword, jumping away at the same time.


    The posse had caught up by now. While shouting out nonsensical things, like telling him to stay still, they thrust their swords at him. Bai Yun quickly started using Simple Sword. He was like an impenetrable fortress, not a single sword even getting close to him. But every time his sword collided with another, he could feel the vibrations shaking up his arm, making him clench his teeth in pain. He knew that he could not let the situation continue. He had to escape while the moron king, was standing back and shouting instructions.


    Suddenly his perception could sight of the the spy. He send a dagger flying towards him from a dangerous angle. It seemed as if he was more skilled than the rest of the group combined. But this was of no danger to Bai Yun. He simply turned his head and allowed the dagger to glide past him.


    The moment the dagger went past him, he felt a vague wind pressure coming from the dagger. It was sharp, but slid past him, following his contours. For a moment Bai Yun was distracted, and allowed a few of the attacks to nearly hit him. He quickly came back into focus, and used his sword to block them, but his focus was on the wind that was generated by the swords. He heard in the back of his mind, the moron king complementing the spy for distracting him.


    Bai Yun suddenly understoodthe key of the wind motion. He was wrong all along. It was in the sharpness of the wind, as well as its fluidity, that allowed it to be everywhere. Bai Yun knew that from now on he would be able to use wind motion successfully, but not well enough. But since he already understood the key behind the technique, it would only be a short while before he mastered it.


    Bai Yun spun his sword around in a mysterious pattern. He immediately caused the swords of some of them to collide with each other, breaking their rhythm, and at the same time causing them to fight among each other. In an instant, with the reduced pressure, he blasted a way through the encampment, and launched wind motion, escaping through the narrow gap.


    In an instant under the stunned eyes of the moron group, he quickly reached the edge of the clearing and entered the weed valley. Unlike before, he did not have to launch the motion one step at a time, and could run continuously using ti.He didn''t stop on account of the searing pain all over his body and quickly ran away.


    "What are all of you standing around here gawking for. Go after him." He heard the moron king shouting at his subjects, and then a commotion followed him inside.


    Bai Yun used his god sense to tie up his aura. Unlike in the past this was far more thorough. Not only his aura, even his scent and sounds produced inside his body were hidden. After running short while, he suddenly dropped to the ground and started crawling on all flours, while careful to not disturb the weeds as much as possible.


    Bai Yun quickly traveled a short distance. He could still hear noises behind him, but he wasn''t sure if they were real of a hallucination. By now his eyes could barely sere, and his senses seem to be failing him. He was completely drained of qi, after using it to blast a way through the group as well as to use wind motion.


    As he crawled by he felt someone run past him. These morons were simply running around, and didn''t even look at the ground. The person who ran by even stepped on his fingers, but went on his way without checking.


    Veins throbbing, Bai Yun bit into his lips in order not to scream. He then kept on crawling.


    Bai Yun feel his consciousness fading. After what felt like ages, he could only hear deafening silence around him. He felt as if he had shaken of the pursuers, but could not be sure. So he forced himself to continue. Suddenly his hand went through the soil, and he followed tumbling down a hole.


    A darkness was the last thing he saw as Bai Yun lost his consciousness after his head the sides of the hole.

 18 Starting on body cultivation

    Bai Yun woke up after what felt like ages. His head felt like someone had used it for hitting practice. The only place on his body that didn''t hurt was his right leg.


    He looked around him. He seemed to be in a burrow. It was large enough for him to sit here comfortably. Based on the few hairs that he could see, it seemed to be created by a rodent type beast. And a large one at that. But seeing that the hairs seem to be quite old, as well as the state of the burrow, it seemed as if it hasn''t been here in a while. It was most likely already dead for a long time. Otherwise Bai Yun would be dead by now.


    Bai Yun knew that he had to rest for a while and heal up. He decided to use this burrow as a base until he healed up, and killed the entire moron group. The moron group was not very strong, with only three people in the group being worthy of mention. They were Bai Shan, the spy, and the guy with the cultivation at the fourth qi condesnataion stage. He knew that if he was at his peak, he could easily deal with them. It was only due to the grey rock python that he was in such a state.


    The moron group could clearly see that he was severely injured. If the moron king had any brains, he would definitely send someone to hide and keep watch on the entrance to the weed valley, while they would keep looking. There was no way they would tell what happened to anyone. It would only tarnish their reputation, if they couldn''t even defeat a cripple who was severely hurt to boot. On top of that it would only bring trouble to them. So they would definitely hide what they were doing from everyone. So he had to kill them all soon, before one of those morons told the truth to anyone else, and he would be suspected of their death.


    But based on his current state, he could definitely not kill the moron king. So he had to raise his cultivation, and also heal himself. Thankfully he had the body fruit. Based on the energy of the body fruit, It would be possible to place three patterns, for someone who had not even started on the body tempering path. But Bai Yun knew that the energy would only be enough for two patterns inUndying Body.


    Bai Yun removed the bandage that was covering him, as well his shirt. Anyone who saw him would definitely be terrified. All of his body was in different colors due to his injuries. He took out the body fruit.


    The first nine mysterious patterns of the Undying Body were to cover as much of the body as possible. The first four covered his limbs, the fifth his head, and the final four covered his back and chest. But there was no order in the way the patterns had to be placed. It was only that the final pattern had to be placed last.


    Bai Yun decided to start with one pattern each in his arm and leg. He needed the strength boost provided by the pattern to kill Bai Shan, so placing one on his left arm was necessary. But since his right arm was hurt, placing one there would not be of much use in the short term. Thus he needed to place one in his leg to increase maximum efficiency and speed. Bai Yun chose to start with his right leg first, as his left ankle was still hurt.


    Bai Yun quickly ate the body fruit. As its energy filled his body, he quickly split it into two. After carefully considering the energy required, he took a little bit of energy from the two blobs out. Based on his calculations the energy he had was slightly larger than what was needed for two mysterious patterns. He send the leftover energy into his left hand, ,so that it could help in healing. He felt the arm becoming slightly stronger, while also being slightly healed. Even though it was almost imperceptible, since every little part counted, he did it anyway.


    Bai Yun controlled the smaller of the two blobs of energy, while locking up the larger one tightly with his god sense. During the laying procedure for the mysterious patterns, all the attention must be placed on it. If he did so some of the energy of the body fruit would definitely be leaked during the process for someone without god sense. This was enough to show how much more demanding the Undying Body was. The power in the body fruit was enough to make three patterns for any other technique even with energy leakage, but was only barely enough for two if no leakage occurred in the Undying Body.


    While wondering if the body fruit was the most powerful one in the valley, Bai Yun started on the mysterious patterns. After all the energy inside this fruit was much larger than what was said in the guide, and also the clearing around the mutant weed was quite large. No wonder even an animal like the grey rock python was lying in wait around it.


    Bai Yun started in his fingers and started to work his way up. The first pattern went up from the tips of his fingers to just a few inches short of the shoulder. The most important thing in skin sewing was controlling the energy. In skin sewing, one had to control the energy into a thin thread, and the tip of it as a pin, and use it to slowly leave marks across the skin. As one laid the mysterious patterns one had to leave some gap between the threads of energy. This was because during skin sewing, one had to start from one end of the mysterious pattern, and work your way to the other end, then go back from that point to the starting and the pin will finally pierce the point where the sewing started and finish the pattern.


    This entire process had to be done in one sitting, and if interrupted, then it could mean that one would not be able to lay another pattern there, and would also lose one pattern in the skin.


    Thus control was very important. The thread of energy had to be exactly the same size from the start to finish, and the distance between each thread of energy also had to be exactly of this width. For many people this would be extremely difficult. Not only was this extremely difficult, such precision as nearly impossible. Even in his past life he had some tiny gaps in his patterns. But these were almost impossible to notice, and did not hinder his further path unlike gap between patterns.


    But for the current Bai Yun, who had god sense, the experience of a god as well as three soul tendrils of Infinitude Heavenly thought, this was simplicity in itself. The threads he weaved were extremely fine, but terrifyingly tense. He used his god sense to direct his soul, and in just under an hour he was done.


    The energy only had a single loop to go around before it reached the starting point and completed the pattern. He had a little bit of energy remaining, as he had overestimated the energy he would need by a bit. This much concentration was a bit taxing on Bai Yun and he his persistent headache had become much worse by now.


    The moment he finished Bai Yun gave a sigh and withdrew his soul back, intending to take a short rest before he started on the second soul tendril.


    Suddenly a startling pain assaulted his soul. Immediately his eyes followed suit. It felt as if someone was gouging out his eyes and burning them at the same time. This was the greatest pain he had felt in his current life, but Bai Yun did not scream, as there were still people looking for him outside. He silently clenched his fist and curled up until he trembled.


    Suddenly he felt an incredible aura rise up from within him. Bai Yun was stunned when he recognized the aura, it was the aura of the devil emperor!


    Bai Yun felt a force forcibly open his eyes. The moment he did so, the pain vanished. But what happened next completely stupefied him.


    From his right eye, he could see the hole he was hiding in, illuminated only by a few steaks of moonlight streaking in from the entrance. But his left eye was showing a completely different picture!


    In front of his left eye was a field. It seemed to be a cultivation chamber. He could see a few dummies standing in front of him. The first dummy in the front was severely beat up, and there was a saber stuck into it.


    Suddenly the vision in front of his shook, as if he was shaking his head. ''No,'' Bai Yun realized with a start, ''whomever my sight is connected to is shaking his head.''


    Suddenly a terrifying pain assaulted his eyes and Bai Yun closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the pain had disappeared along with the vision.


    For the first time in his life, Bai Yun felt something he had never felt before. Fear. Hopeless and all consuming fear. Even in the midst of battle, or when he saw the devil emperor after the final battle he had not felt such fear.


    Because he had felt the power of the devil emperor right before the vision started. And he finally figured out just how dangerous the devil emperor was. And he knew that there was nothing he could do in front of him.


    And most importantly he had no idea what the hell just happened.


    ------


    A black robed youth with blue eyes stood panting in front of a practice dummy. With a final yell he thrust his saber forward. A red glow appeared around his saber, and then it was thrust deep into the dummy. He stood with his hands on his knees, panting. ''I finally managed to use the technique'' he thought with a smile.


    Suddenly a horrifying pain assaulted his head. He felt as if someone was burning his mind. Then an equally terrifying pain attacked his eyes. He felt as if someone was disintegrating his eyes.


    Then a horrifying power surrounded him. He felt as if the power was the nemesis of everything in existence, something that desired to destroy the whole of reality itself. It was the purest aura of destruction he had felt.


    Then his eyes were forcibly opened and the pain went away.A look of shock appeared in his eyes. His left eye was working fine, but the image reflected in his right eye was not what was in front of him. He saw a curled up body lying in a dark room. There was barely any light, and he could only see from the waist down. What he saw horrified the youth. The body was injured all over, with most of his body being in different colors. He shook his head in shock trying to clear the vision he had.


    The pain that had gone away returned after a few moments. Then his sight went back to normal, and the pain also went away.


    The youth laid on the ground panting. The power that he felt earlier terrified the youth. He felt as if even the strongest person he knew could not last an instant against that power. He heard a patter of steps approach him. As he sat up, a young girl wearing a red dress ran up to him. "Young Master I heard you scream. Are you okay?"


    "I am fine. I just got a little exited when I succeeded." The youth said. The girl could tell that he was lying.


    ''Who was that. He seemed to be severely hurt. I hope that he is fine.'' The youth thought, while trying to pacify the little girl, who seemed determined to examine him for injuries.

 19 First kill

    Bai Yun silently put his head through the soil. Only his eyes could be shining through in the dark. It was already night time, and Bai Yun had completed the second pattern in his right leg. He was now looking out from his burrow, to see if there was anyone around, before he went in search of mutant fruits that could heal him.


    Bai Yun had decided not to worry about the vision he had. Worrying about things involving the devil emperor without any cultivation was pointless. He decided to get to the bottom of the problem after he had gotten stronger. Much much stronger.


    Bai Yun climbed out of the hole after making sure that there was no one near him. He had rested for a while, and also had enough food and drinks, so his eyes and insides was back to normal. The only thing that plagued him was his insane headache. Bai Yun covered up the hole and started to look around.


    Bai yun crouched low and started to move about carefully. He was aware that people were watching him, and he could not let anyone find him. Unlike earlier, he was no longer simply walking about carelessly, relying simply on luck. He was also looking with his perception, which only increased his headache.


    Bai Yun was moving on all fours, so as to try and reduce the pressure in his ankle. He slowly circled the burrow, moving further and further away. In the night not a lot people would be moving about the beast garden, and especially so for a place which suppressed perception like the weed valley. They would simply group up and stay together, after clearing an area of weeds for safety.


    Bai Yun spend the entire night searching for healing fruits. He did find afew fruits, but more than half of them were not useful for him. And every single one of them was of a much lower grade than the one ones Bai Yun had ingested previously. Thankfully he also found two fruits which would help him heal, and he quickly ate them. He had used its entire power to heal his leg. It was still a bit bruised, but would no longer hinder him.


    By now it was nearly dawn. Bai Yun decided to find the camp of the moron group, so that he could have an idea of how to take them all down. He knew that he had to kill them all, and with his current strength as well as situation, killing them all would be very difficult.


    Bai yun had not run into them all night. This confused him, as he had not run far during the chase. Hehad a moment of epiphany, and went hack to the clearing where he fought the grey rock python. Sure enough the moron group had used that place as their base.


    Bai Yun closed his aura, and crept close to the sentries who were supposed to keep watch. The two of them were chatting and not paying much attention outside.


    From their discussion, Bai Yun realized that it had been two days since the fight. He must have passed out for longer than he thought. After realizing that they still hadn''t understood his true strength, and that the python''s corpse had disappeared, Bai Yun frowned. Most likely, the spy must have doubled back during the search and stolen it. The corspe of a grey rock python was very valuable.


    After a while one of the sentries got up and decided to stretch his legs. He was only in the third stage of qi condensation. Since most of the animals here were only in the first circle, an entitled person like the brat in front of him, who was wearing a rather powerful defensive robe for his cultivation and other top tier artifacts, he would be hard to hurt. To the people of the moron group,this place was simply a playground.


    For a moment Bai Yun lamented over the fact that, even though his background was higher than that of any of them, his parent didn''t give him anything other than the storage ring, which even he had to admit, could last him until the Dao step. Bai Yun quickly decided to follow the moron in front of him.


    Most people who entered the weed valley would be very careful, and not like the moron who was walkng without the slightest caare in the world. He was fully expecting the robe and other things he was wearing to protect him.


    Bai Yun knew that if he could kill the moron, and get his storage ring, there would definitely be many things inside that could help him heal. And with his leg healed, and a strengthened left hand, killing him would not be a problem. With how far the moron was from the group, he could even escape easily. The problem would be if these people got spooked after realizing that he was hunting them too, and some of the cowardly ones bolted.


    Bai Yun pondered for amoment. Then he took out one of the carcasses of the beasts that he had killed, a tiger like demonic beast. He quickly ripped of the claws of the beasts, as well as its teeth.


    Cutting the skin of the claws away, Bai Yun quickly attacked them to the soles of his shoes. He then took a fang of a saber tooth demon he had killed and held it in his hand.


    Bai Yun quietly crept around to the moron who was by now making some noises. He had found a demon beast and was playing around with it. Bai Yun crept up behind him, grabbing the fang tightly.


    Then he allowed the fang to be controlled by two of the soul tendrils that he could use. He then stood up slowly, areful not to make any sound. Suddenly his left hand shot forward, and covered the morons mouth, and while he was still surprised quickly stabbed the fang deep into his throat.


    The moron seemed to take a while to understand what happened. Then heseemed to activate the defense mechanism in the robe. It created a shield that immediately send Bai Yun flying back. Bai Yun disappeared into the weeds. The moron seemed to be surprised. Then he slid down to the ground, dead.


    The commotion had been heard by the other sentries. But they were still chatting and laughing and also walking over slowly. Bai Yun knew that they would be here in a minute. He sprung into action. he used Lions Roar to break the robes shield. Without being powered by qi, the shield was extremely weak. Bai Yun then used the teeth to separate the arm of the person he just killed, at the same time using the teeth and claws to create other marks on the body.


    The attacks were simply random, and was just to hide the objective. Even Bai Yun, whose only experience with dead bodies with beast marks were from the Grand War, could tell that this looked wrong. Any experience cultivator could see through this. But he knew that these people had no experience at all.


    Bai Yun then ran as fast as he could without making any noise. But they were slower to react than Bai Yun thought. Even after he reached the burrow, Bai Yun did not hear any noise behind him.


    As he calmed down, Bai Yun realized that this was the first time he had killed a human. During the Grand War innumerable number of devils had died under his arms, but no humans. When he heard about the cruelty of this world, Bai Yun had expected that he would eventually have to kill some people. But even he did not realize how easy it came to him. He just thought that he must have been simply desensitised to death.


    But the truth was that there was a much more powerful force that had forced him to feel apathetic towards death. When the devil emperor self exploded, some of his soul had also merged with Bai Yun. And he had gained some of the devil emperors ruthlessness and indifference. It was this that made Bai Yun kill someone so easily. Even Bai Yun could not tell just how much the devil emperor had influenced his actions.


    Bai Yun went through the storage ring in his possession. It mostly contained some wealth as well as some pills and some weapons and even some talismans.


    Bai Yun quickly removed the money, as well some pills that he could use from the storage ring. Then everything else, including the bottles the pills were kept in, were put back in the storage ring. Bai Yun then found some small beast, made it swallow the storage ring, and hypnotized the beast and send it on its way far from here. Even if he was killed, Bai Yun wouldn''t believe that there was no tracing mark on at least one of the items in there.


    Bai Yun quickly popped some of the healing pills in his mouth. He spend nearly a half hour to digest all of its power. Finally his right arms bones and muscles were set. Even though they were still not completely healed, it at least wouldn''t hurt every time he moved, and hinder him.


    Now he needed to figure out how to kill the entire moron group. In a one on one he was confident in killing every single one of them. Even if they were to fight as a group, now that he had mostly recovered, and his cultivation stabilized and improved, he could kill them all. The problem was that once he started to kill them, the rest would definitely run away. He could not allow that. If even a single one ran away, he would be in trouble. He couldn''t let anyone know what he was planning.


    With the strength of Bai Shan and the false armor, it would definitely take some time before he could kill Bai Shan. His only option was to sneak up on Bai Shan and kill him without anyone else finding out.


    Suddenly Bai Yun sat up with a start. He realized that he had made a grave mistake. He had overlooked something. Something extremely important.


    The Assassin God''s legacy. The legacy wasn''t simply all the techniques he used. His fighting experience, and most importantly all of his assassination experience was there too. Since Bai Yun did not expect to be an assassin, he had completely ignored that part of the legacy, and focused only on the two techniques he knew about.


    Bai Yun ate a lot of food, as this might take some time. Then he closed his eyes and descended into his sea of consciousness. He stared at the little black dagger, in front of him. Then his entered the dagger, and started looking through the Assassin God''s legacy.


    Time passed by quickly . Three days and two nights passed by since Bai Yun started on reading the legacy. Bai Yun had become much thinner by now. Just as the third night danwed, Bai Yun opened his eyes.


    The normal warm eyes that he had were no where to be seen.


    An indifferent darkness swirled within these eyes.


    These were the eyes of a predator.


    It was at this point that he realized that the most important item in the legacy might be the experiences.

 20 Preperations for the slaughter

    After he woke up from looking through the legacy, Bai Yun ate nearly an entire demonic beast before his hunger went away. Bai Yun had looked through everything the Assassin God had to say about assassinations in the qi step.


    In order to make a stable foundation, the assassin god had separated his teachings into various steps. Not only him, but all the gods and titled gods had done so. This was because if someone worthy, but lacking in the basics, or who did not walk the same path as the one giving the legacy, were to inherit the legacy, then a path for them to fully comprehend the legacy was necessary.


    It was only now that Bai Yun realized how inefficient he had been when he sneaked up on the moron he had killed. He found a lot of ways to creep up to a person without being spotted, and withoutmaking sounds. He also found recipes for may pills, powders and smokes, that could be used for a variety of purposes, including killing, hiding ones aura, and putting targets to sleep. The most important factor was that his comprehension of wind motion as well as the disguise technique had improved a great deal.


    Bai Yun knew of many materials that could improve his efficiency, but unfortunately, none of them were available to him. He decided to stalk out the groups territory tonight and then prepare a plan and strike at them tomorrow. He might also get lucky and find some things that might help him.


    When he reached the camp he found more sentries than the previous day, which was normal after the attack. But the sentries seem to be tired, and a few of them were even sleeping. And other than the three sentries keeping watch and chatting, not even loking at the weeds, the rest seem to be asleep.


    After reaching the edge of the weeds, Bai Yun listened to them with his perception. Even though there were techniques in the assassin gods legacy that allowed him to get closer to the group, he wasn''t proficient enough in them to actually implement the techniques.


    Bai Yun sat in silence without moving for hours. Over the course of their discussion, he learned that everyday the person who was keeping watch at the entrance to the weed valley would change. The group had spend two days searching for the beast that killed Bai Qing, who seemed to be moron that was killed by him.They had found and killed all the beasts nearby, and also took a lot of fruits. They partied the whole day in celebration for their achievement and after that all of that the were tired. This came as such a shock to Bai Yun that he was startled and the weed shook, but the morons didn''t notice. He couldn''t believe that some people had the guts to party in the middle of the weed valley.


    After midnight the moon had set. The moron sentries were still here, but tiredness seem to be taking over them. The fires in the camp was lit, but without the moon, there were shadows everywhere. Bai Yun slowly crept into the camp, and then started to walk around, taking the shadows for cover. He knew that he could kill all of them as they slept right now. Every single one of them was completely defenseless.


    But Bai Yun knew that he could not do so. He had no idea where the sentry int the valley entrance was hiding at. He knew that he had to find his location before he did anything. Otherwise suspicion would come his way after their death.


    Bai Yun wandered around the campsite in the darkness. He looked inside every single one of the tents, and memorized who was inside each tent. For the tents whose entrance was lit by the fire, he cut a small hole and looked inside, before covering up the whole. Afterwards he entered Bai Shan''s tent, and made sure to observe his every defense.


    Bai Yun stole some rope and other small items, like some steel rods and cups and so on from almost every one of them, but not enough that they would notice, and slowly walked around, confirming the locations of everyone. He made a note of the people he had to kill first, as well as the paths between them. Anyone who saw Bai Yun now would only think of him as a seasoned assassin.


    Just as he was about to leave he got an idea. Bai Yun went back inside. Then using some charcoal that he found on the fire, he carefully drew on the faces of some of the morons, without waking anyone up.


    Afterwards Bai Yun went back to his burrow and spend the entire day making traps using the ropes and other small items he stole. As dusk neared, Bai Yun went back to the campsite. He knew that every evening the person on the look out at the valley entrance would change, and he had to go and follow the person who would be dispatched today in order to find the place where the lookout was hidden.


    When he reached the camp, the camp was in disarray. Many of the people in the group had been fighting each other, and Bai Shan was simply watching all of this excitedly. They took the drawings as a prank by someone on the group, and just fought each other trying to find out who did it. For the group who had been staying here for a week, without any luxury, this was a great entertainment. After a while Bai Shan calmed the group down, and told them to think of this as a joke. He then declared that they would leave if they couldn''t find Bai Yun by tomorrow night. This got unanimous cheers from the group, while the spy and another member of the group seemed to be dissatisfied. Bai Yun figured that that person must also be a spy.


    After a while Bai Shan sent one of the people who were fighting to take over the lookout. Bai Yun followed behind him silently. The moron was someone he had drawn on last night. Right now he was walking quite agitated.


    As they neared the weed valley entrance, Bai Yun got the shock of his life. The lookout that the moron group had placed, was simply standing on top of the cliff overlooking the valley entrance, and enjoying life in general. Bai Yun realized that he had given Bai Shan too much credit. He didn''t even bother to hide the lookout out of concern that Bai Yun might kill him. Bai Yun felt regretful that he hadn''t checked this out.


    A while later the two people changed places. Bai Yun watched as the two spoke to each other and the new sentry filled the old one on what had happened. Then the old sentry walked back into the weeds laughing. Bai Yun followed after him, and after making sure that he had entered the camp, covered the surrounding of the camp with traps. He also placed some small obstacles, tangled up some weeds, some pits and other things. This wasn''t done in order to hurt them, just delay the people so that he could catch up to them. He also made sure that they would make some noise if triggered in order to alert him. Since the group had killed all the beasts nearby, he didn''t have to worry that anyone would trigger them accidentally.


    After this Bai Yun went back to the valley entrance. He waited until the moon was low, and then exited the weed valley. He kept close to the ground, and making sure that he was outside the line of sight of the lookout, not that it mattered as the lookout wasn''t even serious, and slowly crept up behind him. Making sure that his face was covered, in case someone was watching, Bai Yun took out a dagger he had brought with him in order to cut apart beast carcasses, and quickly slit the throat of the person in front. He also made sure to givehim a couple of hits to the head to disorient him, in order not to start a final throttle, and quickly finished him off with a few other quick slashes to his major arteries.


    The lookout fell down dead. This was a much easier kill than before thanks to the Assassin God''s memories. Bai Yun slipped his storage ring out, and then quickly positioned the lookouts body in such a waythat no one would be able to tell that he was dead. After this he quickly slid back into the weed valley.


    Bai Yun had changed his clothes by now. He also applied the disguise technique to change his appearance and aura. Even though he was not too proficient in it, and it required a much higher cultivation to be perfect, at least no one inthe same stage as him would be able to notice. He could truly display the powers of the disguise technique thanks to finally starting on all the cultivation paths.


    Bai Yun covered his face as a precaution. Then he quickly entered the camp through the gap in the traps he had laid out, before filling up that gap also.


    By now the moon had set. The people in the camp had fallen asleep much more deeply. There was only a single sentry on the lookout today. It seemed his plan of getting the group exited had worked perfectly. They spend the entire day fighting and had lost much of their energy, and had fallen into a deeper sleep than last night.


    Bai Yun checked the storage ring of the lookout that he killed. There were some money in it, which he took for himself. He also used up the healing pills inside. An hour nearly passed before Bai Yun woke from his meditation. By now his right arm had almost fully healed. He knew that if he could find some more pills from them, he would be able to fully heal his arm. Now the only part of his body that was still damaged was his soul. But Bai Yun did not expect to find any soul healing pills on any of them.


    Bai Yun crept into the camp, easily circumventing the one sentry. He went through all the tents once more. It seemed as if some of the people had put up some sort of traps in the front of their tent doors in order to catch the culprit who drew on their faces last night. If Bai Yun wasn''t careful and looked through the side of the tents first, he would definitely have alerted them.


    Bai Yun went through all the tents and made sure of all the targets. There were Bai Shan, the fourth stage qi condensation cultivator, and the two spies who were at the top of the list. Then ignoring the sentry there were thirteen others sleeping. Bai Yun quickly consulted with his memories and realized that the grouponly had nineteen members every time he saw them.


    Bai Yun slowly crept up behind the sleepy sentry. Then he used his right arm to cover the sentries mouth and slit his throat at the same time. As the sentry began to struggle, he quickly used two of his soul tendrils to hit his temples to disorient him. At the same time his left arm quickly slit across all the major blood vessels, killing him in an instant.


    As the sentries body fell to the ground, so did Bai Yun. He had used his damaged soul tendril to make some noise among the weeds in order to cover the sound of the assassination. This made him feel like his head was about to explode.


    After an hour, Bia Yun stood up once again. He had recoverd somewhat. It was now midnight.


    It was the time to begin the operation.

 21 The red nigh

    Bai Yun slowly slid into the tent of one of the morons. He did not go after one of his high priority targets first. He knew that there were sixteen people left in the group. He also knew that it was nearly impossible to kill Bai shan quietly. Thus he had to kill as many people as possible before going for Bai Shan. But if he delayed too long Bai Shan might wake up due to the smell of blood.


    Bau Yun looked at the sleeping moron. He had not even made any traps and was sleeping soundly. Bai Yun used his qi, to create a very thin needle. This was extremely thin and not very long, but was extremely sharp. This needle was one of the techniques he had found in the Assassin God''s legacy.


    If was to simply slit the throat of the sleeping moron, without any methods to quieten or subdue him, Bai Yun might not be able to hide the sounds that he would make at the moment of his death. But if was able to quietly let off some blood, then he could hasten the process and lessen the time it would take for him to die, as well as weaken him in the process.


    Bai Yun used the qi needle, and prodded at some of the major veins and arteries in his body. None of the morons were following the bod tempering path, so it was much easier to kill them. Bai Yun watched for ten minutes as the blood slowly pooled beneath the sleeping moron, adding other probes to increase the flow if the wound closed up. As the moron started to pale and stated to wake up, Bai Yuns right arm quickly slit his throat, while his left covered his mouth, and snapped his neck at the same time.A very mild snap could be heard, as he killed him. A moment later the body of the moron slumped down, dead.


    All in all Bai Yun had spend nearly fifteen minutes killing him. After he was done, Bai Yun made sure that he had no blood on his body. Any cultivators were sensitive to the smell of blood and he did not wast to wake anyone when he walked into their rooms. Bai Yun slowly walked out of the tent, while covering it up as securely as possible so as not to let the smell of blood out.


    After this Bai Yun slowly walked to the next tent and continued his process. It took him an hour and a half before he killed seven more morons, all without anyone being none the wiser. He had killed some people who were in deep sleep so that they would not make any noise, and also the old sentry, who was not here yesterday, and thus was not sleeping as deeply. He didn''t want him to wake up due to some small noise that might be made.


    Now that he had killed eight people in all, he could smell the blood very faintly. He was sure that none of the morons would be able to smell it, and neither would any beasts thanks to their beast subjugation operation. Bai Yun truly didn''t expect that a simple action by him would have such drastic effects, helping him greatly. He decided to go for his major targets.


    He wanted to keep the two spies for interrogation, so he could not kill them. He decided to start with the fourth stage qi condensation moron, and then kill Bai Shan. He was sure that the commotion of Bai Shan''s death would surely attract some people and then he would get a chance to kill them all in a moment.


    When he entered the tent, he found that the fourth stage qi condensation moron had a breakthrough. But his cultivation was incredibly unstable. Bai Yun took some more care, going slower than usual, as a person in a higher cultivation stage would be more sensitive, and it took him twenty minutes before he killed the moron. Just as he was about to die, he came to and stared at Bai Yun''s hidden face for a moment. As realization dawned, he was about to scream for help, when Bai Yun twisted his neck. The shock of his neck breaking stopped him from calling out, and he slumped over dead a moment later.


    After this was done, Bai Yun slowly crept into Bai Shan''s tent. He closed the tent flap behind him carefully, and proceeded to his side. He once again created the qi needle and stabbed him at multiple points.


    As he watched Bai Shan slowly bleed Bai Yun kept his perception focused almost entirely on him. As his face went pale, Bai Shan suddenly started to stir. Bai Yun''s hand moved in an instant. His right hand slit his ring finger, where Bai Shan kept his storage ring, off of him, and his left arm slit Bia Shan''s throat and vocal chords in a single swipe. Bai Yun even launched wind motion in his arms in order to speed them up. Bai Yun was not too proficient in the Assassin God''s techniques and did not want to give Bai Shan a chance to either call for help or eat any pills that could heal him.


    As Bai Shan sat up, clutching at his throat, Bai Yun tried to attack him again. But he launched false armor, and Bai Yun had to take a step back. Bai Shan stared at him, and tried to find his storage ring, but Bai Yun had already sent it flying away by using his soul tendril. Bai Shan then ran at him, while launching the demon subduing solar fist. Bai Yun, who was standing in front of the tent entrance, simply stepped aside at the last moment using wind motion. After reading the Assassin God''s legacy, Bai Yun''s wind motion had become much more efficient and sharper. Bai Shan sped through the tent and fell in to the area in front. His demon subduing solar fist landed on the ground and caused a huge boom. A moment later the commotion ended. Bai Yun peeked from inside the tent, and saw Bai Shan lying in the ground, dead.


    The remaining six people ran out of their tents. They ran into the common area, only to see Bai Shan''s body lying on the ground. They all simply stood around like headless chickens, not knowing what had happened.


    After seeing Bai Shan''s body, every single one of them was severely startled. After a moment they noticed that there were only six of them there. Every single one of them was startled and did not know what to do. By now a few of them had noticed the smell of blood and was starting to freak out.


    Bai Yun slowly started to move the moment they ran out. Bai Shan had flown quiet a distance and all the people who had arrived was standing with their backs to Bai Shan''s tent. Bai Yun used this moment to sneak out and approach the group, while utilizing the shadows the group was making. He stood up right behind two of them and, holding a dagger in each hand, swiped it towards the two of them.


    "Careful, he''s behind you" he heard someone shout. But it was too late, the daggers had cut deeply into their necks. Bai Yun quickly put away the daggers in his hands and took out his sword. Two of the remaining morons had taken out their weapons and had attacked him. He used his sword to swipe them away, and stabbed his left elbow into the throat of one of the morons he had hurt, worsening his injury. He was standing here stunned and had no chance to dodge at all. He crumpled to the ground in an instant.


    Bai Yun was now facing three attacks from around him, and he quickly used the Simple Sword to defend. At the same time he attacked them using Lion''s roar. The other person who had been injured was struck again, making him fall to the ground. As the two injured kept on trying to eat pills to save themselves, Bai Yun kept on interrupting them , thus making them unable to recover.


    The bleeding throat along with the attacks that Bai Yun kept on sending purely to them soon caused both of them to die. Just as he was about to attack the rest of them, one of them screamed "Run", they all ran away in four directions, almost as if they had coordinated this.


    Bai Yun took out two daggers from his storage ring and threw it at the two spies. The two of them were simply running without even looking back or being aware of their surroundings. The daggers went through their knees, and they fell down and started to crawl towards the weeds as fast as they could, not even daring to look back.Bai Yun quickly chased after one of the other two who was fleeing. Due to the slight delay in stopping the other two, the two of them had almost reached the weeds by then. Just as Bai Yun caught up to one of the fleeing ones, he turned and attacked him. Bai Yun easily dismissed his attack using the Simple Sword, and Lions roar thrust forward from his left hand. As he was sent flying by the attack, Bai Yun passed by his side quickly, a ray of moonlight drawing a beautiful arc in the air. Bai Yun chased after the other person who was there immediately, without looking back. The one he had attacked stayed still for a moment before his throat spurted blood, and he fell down dead.


    Just as Bai Yun was chasing after the other one who got away, he heard a clamor from the direction of the two spies. He knewthat one of them must have activated a trap. He smiled. But after a while he still couldn''t find the other person who had run away. Just as he was about to give up and head to the valley entrance to wait for him, Bai Yun heard a pitfall breaking just in front of him. Bai Yun quickly caught up to the last moron and, while he was still stunned by the fall, finished him off.


    Bai Yun sped off in the direction of the trap he had heard earlier. He found traces of blood nearby, and quickly discovered one of the spies. After he knocked him out, he went in search of the other spy. The other spy was quite careful and hid himself well, and did not try to run away after hearing the others fall into traps. But thanks to his great perception, and the trail as well as smell of blood, Bai Yun still found him after half an hour of searching. He tied up the two spies and put them in one of the tents after making sure that they were completely passed out.


    He then went around making sure that every single one of the moron group was dead, including Bai Shan, stabbing into their heads for good measure. Then he went into the tent where he kept the two prisoners, changed his appearance back to that of Bai Yun, removed his mask, and woke them up.


    The two spies were completely stunned as well as terrified when they saw him.


    "Let''s talk shall we." Bai Yun said with a smile.


    To the two spies, that smile seemed to belong to that of a demon from hell.

 22 Evidence cleanup

    Bai Yun was speeding back to the weed valley entrance. He felt like cursing. The entire operation had taken place a few hours ago, and he had also finished the interrogation of the two spies. It was due to the information that he got from them that Bai Yun was running back to the weed valley entrance.


    It was not by chance that Bai Yun had come to the weed valley at this point of time. There was a rumor going about that someone had seen a supreme weed fruit in the weed valley.


    A supreme weed fruit was a mutation of the weeds that produced a special fruit. It was formed when a powerful mutated weed was not found for an extremely long time and slowly, all the fruits that it created would pile up near it and would all decay and would give birth to a supreme weed. The supreme weed fruit was extremely powerful. Powerful enough that even people in the late qi condensation stage would be interested in it. But the most impressive thing about the supreme weed fruit was that it was applicable to any cultivation system. Its powers was the purest form of energy, generated by mixing the powers if all the mutated fruits, and that also meant that he could use it to simulate any fruit in the valley.


    The power of the supreme weed fruit was such that not only would it allow him to reach the third stage of qi condensation and condense the third mysterious pattern, he could also use its energy to use it as a substitute for the soul healing fruit.


    Every kind of fruit was available in the weed valley. If the demonic beast fruit was the most populous fruit then the healing fruits would be about the least. The soul fruits were even less, he had only found a single one after going through the entire storage ring of all the morons as well as his own findings. If you ignore the fruits that were used by people following archaic or race specific cultivation systems, then the smallest number of fruits would undoubtedly be soul healing fruits. He even found a nether fruit, but had yet to find a soul healing fruit. And for Bai Yun, the soul healing fruit was the most important one. It was extremely difficult to heal a damaged soul without any external resources. Thus the supreme weed fruit was like a pile of coal in the winter for him.


    Of course the rarest of them all was the supreme weed fruit. According to the records that he got the last time a supreme weed fruit was seen was over a hundred years ago. Of course anyone who got a supreme weed fruit would not publicize it. But even then Bai Yun guessed that the maximum frequency of the supreme weed fruit appearing was once in a decade.


    Bai Yun only came to know about all of this when he interrogated the two morons. He had only done so in order to find out who had planned against him, and to figure out if they had informed anyone of the moron group running into him. After he found out their names and positions, they were princes as he expected, and knowing that the two of them did not have a chance to send any messages to them,Bai Yun asked them to spill out what they knew simply in order to increase his general awareness. He did not expect to come across such an important information.


    For the last week or so there had been a rumor going around that there was a supreme weed fruit in the weed valley. Apparently someone had run across the fruit while searching in the weed valley, but the fruit was not ripe. The supreme valley fruit would only ripen on the day of a full moon, and the next full moon was in four days. Bai Yun decided to stay around and look for the supreme valley fruit until the full moon, and then leave if he could not find it.


    It was due to this rumor that Bai Shan and the rest had decided to come to the weed valley after hearing about the supreme valley fruit. He had heard about it right after leaving seclusion, and called it fate. Thinking that he could find it easily he had come here without any backup. Also the number of people in the weed valley had grown over the past few days as the news spread, but Bai Yun had not run into any of them, as Bai Shan had kept them all away from his campsite. Also Bai Yun often made a move in the night, where all of them would be staying still and not moving around. In fact if it wasn''t due to necessity as well as the Assassin God''s legacy, even Bai Yun would not be moving around in the night.


    Bai Yun was running to the weed valley entrance in order to cover up the body of the person he had killed. If the body was discovered, then considering the status of the group, there would definitely be an investigation. If that happened, the entire weed valley would be turned over and then the corpses of Bai Shan''s party would be found inside. Bai Yun''s plan was to run away to some other place in the middle of the night before this happened, so that no suspicion would fall on him.


    But the situation had changed now. He could not let anyone disturb the weed valley. Thus he had to make it seem as if it was a mystery, and the group might still be alive. That way the investigation would be delayed and he would have the time to find the supreme weed fruit.


    When he reached the valley entrance he was happy to find out that no one had disturbed the moron. But some people had reached the valley entrance, and not wanting to enter the weed valley in the night, had set up camp outside.


    Bai Yun had to move him soon. There were only two hours left until sunup, and the chances of people finding thetruth would increase a lot by then. The problem was figuring out a way to move the dead body without anyone finding out. But thankfully he had a way.


    Bai Yun sneaked up to the body. Then he put the body inside Bai Shan''s storage ring. It was the only storage ring other than his which could fit a dead body. And he didn''t want to have the stench of death in his storage ring in case he was ever interrogated about this. A person with a high enough cultivation would be able to tell if someone had been inside the storage ring or not. Even though living things could not be put into storage rings, dead bodies were of no problem.


    After this Bai Yun changed his appearance to resemble that of the dead moron. It was not perfect enough, and people would find faults if they were to look closely, but it was more than enough in the darkness. He would only be able to perfectly copy a person once his cultivation base improved. He also put on the dead mans clothes, while making sure to keep the blood stained portions hidden from the people outside. He spread his limbs, pretending to have just woken up, cursed aloud about being bored, and then calmly, in front of the entire group, walked into the weed, while pretending to be quite pretentious. Bai Yun was careful not to leave any evidence behind, including the blood stains on the ground and other items he had touched.


    Once he did so, he quickly went back to the moron camp. Since the camp was isolated by Bai Shan there was no danger of people finding out about it. Bai Yun put all nineteen bodies into Bai Shan''s storage ring. Then he found all the traps he had deployed and piled them on to another storage ring. One after another every item was put into various storage rings. Thankfully each and every member of the moron group was from an influential family, and thus had their own storage rings, even if they weren''t as good as Bai Shan''s. Bai Yun then packed up the tents and other utensils and even the bloodstained dirt and weeds into the various storage rings.


    As he was doing this Bai Yun was cursing himself for going far beyond what he had to do and making too many traps, giving him too much work right now. In order to destroy all the evidence, he even put the money he had stolen from them back into their rings. He was conflicted at first, but decided to do so in the end. If he had run away after the deed was done, he could have said some something and gotten away with it. But now security was the key. He had to be able to account for everything on him.


    After all this Bai Yun spend the entire day dispersing the storage rings. He gave some to demonic beasts in the weed valley. He even buried one deep in the earth. He then left the weed valley in disguise and ran around the beast garden hiding various rings in various beasts, or in some dangerous places, like deep inside a lake, or feeding it to a fish in a river, or throwing one down a cliff and so on. Some rings were not fed to beats but rather put inside their bodied using surgery. He even hypnotized a small bird using his meager soul powers, worsening his headache, and sent it off god knows where. Usually for soul cultivators illusions and hypnotism are easy, but the Infinitude Heavenly Thought walked a different path.


    As for Bai Yun''s storage ring, which contained the dead bodies of the moron group Bai Yun was very careful. He first fed it to a small demonic beast, then fed that demonic beast to a second circle demon python. Even after doing all of this he was sure that a Dao step cultivator could find out all the storage rings soon enough. But a first or second step cultivator whose perception could not enter a body would not be able to find them. But since they were only missing right now, by the time the items were found it would definitely take a while. Also the beasts might be killed and their bodies taken out of the beast garden by then, making it even more difficult. Bai Yun was hoping for the delay to operate properly.


    By the time he had done disposing of the evidence, it was already the afternoon. He then returned to the weed valley, this time with a new appearance, and returned to the camp. Bai Yun spend an entire hour making sure that no evidence was left behind that the camp site was the site of a mass murder by hiding all the blood stains and small scuffle marks and so on. He then smoothed out the ground and but then left some marks, that suggested that the camp had been packed up and the group had moved on.


    As night fell Bai Yun finally ended his great undertaking and returned to the burrow. He was not veryhappy with what he had done. He had done his best in cleaning up the scene, but Bai Yun knew that it wasn''t enough. It was possible for someone at the Dao step to trace the trails with their perception and then find the storage rings. Even he with his legacy might be able to do so.


    Bai Yun had found many methods in the Assassin God''s memories to get rid of evidence. But he neither had the resources nor the cultivation necessary in order to employ them. After this was over Bai Yub decided to head into Yellow city in order to collect the items necessary.


    Bai Yun then laid down to sleep after a long day, getting ready to start the search.

 23 Call me Bai Long

    Bai Yun woke up from his sleep a little after midnight. His headache had gone down a little, but was still very distracting. Bai Yun once again left the burrow and decided to wander about to find the supreme weed fruit.


    After he left the area controlled by Bai Shan, Bai Yun started to run into others. The number of people here was indeed much higher than the first day. He ran into a few groups on his journey. Not only where there more people, he even ran into stronger and stronger people too. He even found a person in the seventh stage of qi condensation in the valley. Other than the supreme weed fruit, there was no other fruit that could entice a person in the seventh stage of qi condensation in the weed valley.


    And along with the increase of the people, the demonic beasts in the valley seemed to be increasing as well as getting stronger too. Demonic beasts could sense things like the supreme weed fruit. This only increased his assurance that the supreme weed fruit was real. Bai Yun came across two second circle demonic beasts on the way. Thankfully they were not as troublesome as the grey rock python, and he was able to deal with them with some effort.


    Bai Yun spend the next few days searching for the supreme weed fruit. But he had no luck so far. Today was the full moon and the supreme fruit would mature. Once it matured, then the fragrance of the fruit would quickly spread until it was plucked and then people would be able to find it soon enough. If one was unable to pluck the fruit a few minutes within the time it became ripe then every one would be able to find out about the fruit and then a great fight would occur. Bai Yun had a much lower reserve of qi than all the other people here and he wanted to avoid a prolonged battle as much as possible.


    In the last few days Bai Yun had come across many instances of people fighting beasts or each other. When it happened, if it seemed as if someone was about to die, Bai Yun would lend a hand. Thanks to all of this Bai Yun had gained a lot of fame. Last night he had heard someone call him a guardian angel. The fact that he was wearing a bandage mask to hide his identity only added to his fame.


    It seemed as if people had noticed the disappearance of Bai Shan''s group, but no one had been alarmed by it yet. They all seemed to think that he had found the supreme weed fruit and was preparing to take it, or attack the people that had them. Basically no one was suspicious that he had died. Which was a good thing for Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun moved through the weeds. His perception was much stronger than that of anyone else as he had walked in all there paths of cultivation. So even with the suppression brought about by the weeds he could cover a larger area and thus had run across almost the entire weed valley. Right now he was nearing the edge of the weed valley.


    The weed valley was surrounded by mountains on three sides and a large river was flowing behind it. The river was very treacherous with numerous under currents that made crossing the river very dangerous. And beyond the river was the region belonging to foundation establishment cultivators.


    As Bai Yun moved through the weeds he sensed two people in his perception. He quickly moved towards them. He had been doing this for the last two days. By sneaking up on people after hiding his presence by using both the Assassin God''s techniques as well as his god sense, it would be incredibly difficult for anyone to notice him. He had started doing this in order to see if any of them had found the supreme weed fruit, but he had had no luck so far. But he did hear an awful lot of gossip as well some general information about the the clan and the surrounding areas which ended up being very useful for him. Bai Yun did not expect to hear anything important this time too but he did it out of habit anyway. He had finally found out that his greatest weakness was the lack of information. Even though the rumors about the supreme weed fruit had been going on for a few days when he entered the weed valley, he had no idea of it. If it wasn''t for a series of lucky and unlucky events he would have missed it for sure.


    "What should we do about the supreme weed fruit. Bai Hao had already blabbed to everyone about us finding it." Bai Yun heard a female voice speak.


    Bai Yun was surprised by the development. He did not expect to hear anything good. He could not believe his luck. He quite quickly inched closer to the couple. He saw two people sitting in a small clearing, eating something. It was a man and a woman. Both of them were sitting facing each other, and Bai Yun was standing at a right angle to them. He simply peered out from the weeds, not taking a step into the clearing.


    "What can we do now. Considering that there were three supreme weed fruits, we decide to share them between ourselves and not let anyone else know of them. Their location is so secluded that other than luck there is no chance in funding them. Who would have thought that Bai Hao would start bragging about finding them."


    "By now a lot of people had found out about them. But as long as we don''t let anyone know that we know about the supreme weed fruit''s location, we can go to the cave and collect them when it nears midnight."


    ''A cave!'' Bai Yun thought in wonder. The only was there could be a cave in the weed valley would be near it''s edges on the cliffs, and even then there were weed in the way to hide them. It would take supreme luck to find such a cave.


    Bai Yun decided to follow the duo in order to find the location of the supreme weed fruits. And when they were ripe, he could sneak in and steal them. Since there were three supreme fruits, and a person could only eat one of them, as the second one onward would not be of much effect, he could take one and leave two for them.


    "It definitely wont be easy for him. If Bai Hao were to go to the cave now, I suppose he would be surprised by the three third circle lava spiders. I know that their group hasn''t been to the cave in order not to tip anyone off."


    The moment Bai Yun heard the name of lava spiders, he frowned. Lava spiders were a special kind of demonic beast that could even reach the immortal realm. Of course they were a far cry from beasts like the grey rock python, which had a trace of god''s bloodline. And most importantly the most annoying thing about the lava spider was its defense. It was quite slow and clumsy. While its attacks were deadly, it was not that difficult to dodge. With three lava spiders protecting the supreme weed fruit it would be more difficult to steal them, but not impossible. There was no way any of them could break the defenses of a lava spider. All he had to do was sneak in when the group was fighting and take the fruits. Bai Yun''s plan had no change until now.


    "But Bai Hao has already joined prince Qing''s group. They will definitely be there tomorrow. Even though they are searching a little far off in order to confuse everyone, I am sure that prince Qing would bring someone to get the fruit, leaving behind most of his group as a distraction." the woman said.


    "I bet that Bai Hao started the rumor on purpose. After all it is not easy to join the group of a prince. And once the rumor spread, someone like prince Qing would definitely come to hear of it as he is in the exact cultivation to use the fruit. And then it would be easy for someone of his position to find the start of the rumor and find Bai Hao."


    "I don''t mind that he did it. It is better for people like us to become a subordinate of a prince. It would mean that we would be able to get better resources. Even I would give up the supreme weed fruit if it meant that I could join a princes group. It is a much better choice in the longer run. But what I cannot forgive him for is that he suggested that the prince kill us in order to hide the location of the fruit. If it wasn''t for the fact that we were careful and fled when we heard that they grouped up, we would be dead by now." The woman said venomously.


    The frown on Bai Yun forehead deepened. He did not expect to hear a familiar name here. Prince Qing was one of the two princes that had a mole in the moron group, and also the one who had Bai Shan sent to the library that day.


    The princes of Bai clan was not an official title. It was said that a long time ago a clan leader of the Bai clan declared that the most talented member of the clan was the little prince of the clan while talking to some one else. Nowadays a person is considered as a prince of a clan if either the clan leader of a great elder declares it in front of people. Since then the title of prince had become popular and even other clans had adopted it.


    The title of a prince did not come with any power or responsibilities. It was simply given to the younger generation of the clan to show that they have they potential to be nurtured in he future, and might be in a position of power later. Many people in high positions in the clan used to be princes when they were younger.


    There were three critical criteria to be considered as a prince: talent, brains or leadership and ambition or service to the clan. Bai Yun''s father Bai Mu, even though he was extremely qualified, was never given the title of a prince. But when he joined the Shadow Stream Academy every one started to call him a prince anyway. And none of the other princes from his generation has reached the dao step yet.


    There were currently eleven princes in the Bai clan. Bai Qing was the only prince in the qi condensation stage. There were two in the foundation establishment stage, one of which was Bai Song. The rest were all in the core formation stage, as it takes a while for people to be aware of their talents or gain enough merits.


    The presence of Bai Qing threw Bai Yun off a bit. But he thought that he could continue with the old plan of following them to the fruit and then stealing it in the confusion. Bu the more he thought about it, the deeper his frown became. He started seeing problems with the plan that did not exist before. Finally a wry smile came on his face.


    ''So what did we learn from all of this.'' Bai Yun thought. ''Plans are useless. Boycott all plans. Burn them in hellfire.''


    Bai Yun made sure that his mask was on place, and then made use of the disguise technique in order to change his appearance and then parted the weeds and stepped into the clearing. The two people who were sitting there stood up in a moment. They took out their weapons and turned to him in a battle stance.


    "Who are you?" The woman asked.


    BaI Yun was about to give his name when he stopped. A smile appeared on his face. Then he declared.


    "Call me Bai Long."

 24 Negotiations

    It was not without reason that Bai Yun decide to introduce himself to the couple. He had no choice. He quickly realized a major flaw in his plan.


    Bai Qing was on the seventh stage of qi condensation. It was already at the upper end of what Bai Yun could handle. No matter how much better the techniques he trained in was, it was impossible for him to fight anyone else while he was handling Bai Qing. After all no matter how powerful his battle techniques were, other than the Simple Sword, which did not increase his pure battle power only battle insight, he was not proficient in any other techniques at all. On top of this, all three of his cultivation techniques were ones that focused on building a perfect foundation to improve his strength much later down the road. Finally Bai Qing was a prince, and would definitely not be as stupid as Bai Shan and be much more powerful at the same cultivation state.


    Bai Qing would definitely bring some of his followers with him. And his followers would definitely be much stronger than the morons that followed behind Bai Shan. Even if he would leave behind most of them in order to confuse people, he would bring at least a few sixth stage or maybe seventh stage qi condensation cultivators with him. And there would also be that Bai Hao who would be there to guide him. Based on the two in front of him, Bai Hao would be at the seventh stage of qi condensation also.


    Even if he could get his hands on the supreme weed fruit while they were fighting the lava spiders Bai Qing''s group would definitely come after him. It was easy to ditch the slow lava spiders. His chances of escaping from them successfully was not high. It would only get worse if Bai Qing put someone to be on the lookout. Basically his chances of escaping after stealing the fruit was much lower than he would like.


    That was why he was forced to work with these two. If he could get their help in distracting the group after he stole the supreme weed fruit then he could easily escape from their hands and get the fruit. And he was certain that they would be more than happy to help him. After all there were three fruits and each of them could have one. There were no other way for them to get the fruits. Also they could get revenge on Bai Qing.


    Of course Bai Yun wasn''t simply going to accept them. What was coming was not only a negotiation but also a test. Working with them was only an option. If they proved to not be capable enough then he still had methods to get to the supreme weed fruit. It would just be more troublesome and dangerous. Besides the supreme weed fruit was not only the only thing in his mind.


    The moment Bai Yun stepped into the clearing the two of them stood up and drew their weapons at him. Bai Yun smield at them. Of course it was hidden beneath his mask. He even put on a hood for good measure, and to look mysterious. He stood at the edge of the clearing, part of his body hidden by the weeds, so that he could step back and escape if the two of them were to attack him.


    "Who are you." The woman asked.


    Bai Yun was about to give his name when he stopped and realized that he was in disguise. He smiled. He knew what name to give.


    "Call me Bai Long." He replied creating a name out of his past and present names.


    "What do you want." The woman asked again.


    Bai Yun understood their apprehension. If a stranger suddenly appeared while you were discussing such secrets you would be apprehensive too. Not only that there were stories of people being killed by strangers in the beasts garden recently.


    "Don''t you want to get the supreme weed fruit. You guys were talking about going there until just now."


    The two of them tensed up immediately. The man stepped forward with his sword raised. Bai Yun raised his hands and held them open to show that he meant no harm, chuckled and said, "Hey I mean no harm. If I wanted to hurt you or find out the location of the fruit, I could easily do so, or simply follow you to the cave."


    "No." The woman replied after a moment.


    " I''m sorry." He asked.


    "No we don''t want the supreme weed fruit."


    "Why not? Weren''t you planning to to the cave to get you hands on the fruit."


    "We have no desire to get the fruit. The few months of cultivation a supreme weed fruit can help us save is not worth making enemy of a prince." the man replied.


    "Then why are you here. You were even thinking about going to the cave. Don''t tell me all of that was for nothing."


    "We were simply curious."


    "Curious huh. Don''t tell me your curiosity is bigger than you desire to live. The best thing to do would be to stay in the clan so that Bai Qing would not be able to kill you and you would be able to tell him that you had no desire to compete for the fruit."


    The man didn''t know what to say. They just stayed there in silence for a moment while Bai Yun waited for their answer. Then the woman replied.


    "It''s because of hope. Hope that maybe something happens and we can get a chance. There is no reason to do nothing and simply sit back."


    Bai Yun grinned internally. This was what he was hoping for. He wanted someone who had the ambition as well as guts, but also had the self awareness to hold back when necessary.


    "Then help me get the supreme weed fruits. There are three of them. We can easily split them between us."


    "No" the woman replied.


    "Just no. Don''t you at least want to hear my plan."


    "No. First of all you are going after the supreme weed fruit, which means that your cultivation is not higher than ours. Second you proposed splitting the fruit three ways, meaning that you are alone. Third the fact that you came to us means that you are not capable enough to do this on your own. Fourth, we don''t know you, so we have no reason to trust you. Fifth the risk of offending a prince is not worth the reward at all for us. Sixth we are not involved in this at all and has no desire to change that." she continued.


    Bai Yun chuckled "All excellent points. Except for the last one. You are already involved in this."


    The two of them frowned.


    "I already know that you know about the fruits location. So does Bai Qing. Even if you don''t go to the cave where the fruit is, all I need to do is find Bai Qing and follow him. Then I can get to the fruit, and steal it while he is fighting the lava spiders. And since you are the only people who know the location of the fruit, he will definitely suspect you. You cannot escape this."


    The couple started to panic. Of course Bai Yun was bluffing. He had no idea where Bai Qing was. He didn''t even know what he looked like. It was impossible for him to find Bai Qing in the following time. But the couple didn''t know that. They immediately assumed a battle stance.


    Bai Yun chuckled. "If I have confidence in escaping from Bai Qing, I can escape from you two. Give up, you have no chance in stpping me. And as for trust-"


    Bai Yun removed his hood. His face covered in a black mask came into view. The two of them were startled.


    "Excuse me, but are you the guardian angel that everyone has been talking about." The male asked.


    "People have taken to calling me that I suppose." Bai Yun said as he removed his mask. A never before seen face appeared in their view. This was the face Bai Yun had decided to use alongside the name of Bai Long.


    "Showing us your face means means nothing. There are simply too many people in the Bai clan. With a face and a name, it is impossible for us to identify you." The man said.


    "Maybe, then what about this." Bai Yun asked as he raised his palm. As he focused, a small gash appeared in his hand, and two drops of blood appeared above his palm. A few golden letters could be seen floating in the two drops of blood. "Don''t dodge." He said before the two drops of blood propelled towards the couple. After the two drops left his hand he looked a bit pale.


    Of course the couple tried to dodge the drops of blood, but Bai Yun used his soul tendrils to curve their trajectory, and the drops of blood entered their foreheads perfectly.


    Bai Yun''s father in his past life had created a very exhaustive collection of books in his library. He had referenced a great number of cultivation techniques in creating the Way of Harmony. All of these techniques were stored in the library. Not only that he had many disciples and friends who had also stored their techniques in his library. His collection of techniques were probably third only to that of the God of Death as well as the Dragon race.


    Just now Bai Yun had taken two god level techniques from his memory and imprinted on the two drops of blood. Usually doing this would be impossible for someone at the first step of cultivation. But Bai Yun was able to use his god sense to write the cultivation techniques into his blood and them send them to others. Only in the higher realms would one be able to communicate with perception.


    Of course Bai Yun did not give them complete techniques, but only the part related to the qi step, but even that would be far better than the techniques people in the bottom of the Bai clan was using. He watched as the two of them went through the two techniques.


    "Tell me is this enough?" Bai Yun asked


    "No. But what it represents is." The woman replied.


    "Meaning?"


    "This can''t be just for the supreme weed fruit. What do you want?"


    Bai Yun smiled. He liked talking to intelligent people. It made the whole process easier. "I spend most of my time in cultivation. So I need someone who can tell me of what is happening in the clan, and major events or rumors. And I want loyalty."


    The two of them froze for a second. Bai Yun didn''t mind that they took their time. He was not afraid that they would betray him. The technique could be considered as payment for the information. If they rejected his offer then it would end there. They had no idea who he was, and they would go their separate ways.


    But things would change if they were to accept his deal. He had put a karmic spell in the blood. If they were to betray him later, then they would suffer the retribution of karma. It was the karmic spell that actually drained him.


    The woman turned to him finally. With a resolute look on her face she said. "We accept."


    Bai Yun smiled. Things had resolved as he hoped.

 25 New plan

    Bai Yun looked at the pair happily. This had gone exactly as he wished.


    "What are your names?" He asked.


    "I am Bai Ling-er. This is Bai Shi."the woman replied. She seemed to be the leader of the duo.


    "Before we begin I want to tell you something. If you were to betray me I would definitely be able to find out. And you would definitely not enjoy it." Bai Yun said coldly.


    The moment he said that he exuded his killing intent. The couple both paled, and they felt as if they were being watched by the grim reaper. They felt as if they could lose their lives if they made a single bad choice.


    Bai Yun retracted his killing intent. He watched as the looked at him in horror. He smiled


    "Take me to the cave. I want to reach there first and refine the plan I have. I will tell you about it on the way." Bai Yun said.


    The couple had recovered by then. They started to walk towards the cave, with Bai Yun following. A sthey walked he explained his plan to them. When they heard the complete plan, they were horrified.


    "No way! If we do this we would be in a lot of danger. We can handle that. But we would be the biggest suspects. We would be in trouble with prince Qing for the rest of our lives." Bai Shi said in a panicked voice.


    "Sometimes the most dangerous place is also the safest place. They would suspect you they momentthey saw something going wrong. Unless you took the initiative to be slightly suspicious, and also not fight when you are captured, it will not end well for you. Do not worry, I will make sure that they don''t do anything to you. They wont act until Bai Qinq is free, and by then a commotion would definitely be made, and people would gather." Bai Yun explained.


    "But the risk is too much. There are too many variables. Anything can go wrong."


    "There are variables in every plan. What we need to do is to handle them appropriately and make sure that things don''t deviate from our plan."


    "But-" Bai Shi started.


    "We will do it." Bai Ling-er replied. "We are in trouble from the very existence of the plan. But if we see this through we have a slight hope."


    Bai Shi opened his mouth to say something but closed it again when he realized that Bai Ling-er was right. He was dejected. He wasn''t one to take unnecessary risk, and the entire plan seemed dangerous to him.


    They spend the entire afternoon perfecting the plan, as well as laying preparations for it. As dusk arrived Bai Ling-er took him to the cave and showed him its location. It was in a very difficult location, and the entrance was also too narrow. Unless someone knew that there was a cave at that exact position, it was impossible to find it.


    Bai Yun had decided to split from them early on and wait for Bai Qiing. He handed them some items that they would need for their part of the plan. "Don''t lose even a single hair on the items I have left with you. Or else."


    The two of them nodded in acceptance.


    "We wont get a chance to talk after this. Where should we meet up after all of this is over?" Bai Yun asked.


    "Let us meet up in the clan three days from today. In the clan there is going to be places we can meet up without raising any suspicion." Bai Shi replied.


    "We can''t meet up in public. After this Bai Qing is sure to put the two of you on surveillance. If he sees me meeting up with you, then that will not end well for any of us, trust me. And if the two of you were to escape his surveillance, it would make him shift his suspension on you completely." Bai Yun replied.


    "Then what should we do. Are we not going to meet up at all. If we were to wait too long for the suspicion to be lifted, then it would not be good. All the effort we put in this would be wasted."Bai Ling-er replied.


    Bai Yun smiled. "There is no need to wait for so long. I can easily slip past the surveillance of Bai Qing. After this is over, go to your homes. Then three days should be enough for them to think that you are getting annoyed by the surveillance. Make them believe it too. They will not do anything too excessive in the clan to protect Bai Qing''s image. Then one of you should go to the others house, and I will slip in somehow. Just give me a map to your house."


    Bai Shi took out a piece of paper and quickly drew a map to his house. Bai Yun took a look at it and frowned. The place that they lived at was quite far from the beast garden. It was towards the end of the Bai clan area.


    "It will take a long time to get there. When should we meet up." Bai Yun asked.


    "Depending on the bus and its availability, it could take anywhere from one day to three to reach there. Why don''t we meet up in the fternoon exactly one week from tomorrow. Huh, is something wrong." Bai Shi asked, when he saw Bai Yun frown.


    "Nothing." Bai Yun replied. Bai Yun was frowning when he thought of the bus. Due to the large size of the clan, for people at lower cultivation, it would be difficult to get around by themselves. Thus the clan operated buses inside the clan at regular intervals. When Bai Yun was send to the clan library, his parents didn''t mention one word about it to him, makinghim spend four days walking. He only learned about the bus when he was spying on the people in the weed valley. Everytime he thought of how he wasted all these days, his face would start to twitch.


    After confirming with them on when to meet up Bai Yun sped up inside the cave. He had only seen the location of the cave, and not actually gone in. Bai Yun crept inside at a snails pace, making sure not to leave any traces or make any noise.


    The cave was narrow, but not too long. But after a while, it suddenly expanded into a wide circular area. It was most likely a crack naturally formed in the cliff, but was later excavated into a cave by a demonic beast.


    Bai Yun stood at the edge of the cave and looked towards the center. The cave did not have any weeds in it. He saw the bodies of quite a few demonic beasts littered around the cave. In the centre of the cave stood three red spiders. The three of them was standing around a small, single stalk of grass. The grass had three bright red fruits hanging on them.


    Bai Yun sneaked a peek at them from the weeds in the crack. The three lava spiders completely did not notice him. There were many scratches on the three spiders body. It was obvious that they had been through a very tough fight from the bodies of the various demonic beasts that covered the cave. The demonic beasts had a much better sense for things like the supreme weed fruit, and many had found it. But it was obvious that none of them could breakthrough the lava spiders terrifying defense.


    The cave was much larger than the clearing Bai Yun had fought the grey rock python in. It was much deeper, and tall too. At the peak of the cave, it tapered into a conical shape, and had a small opening at the top through which light could peek through.


    Bai Yun frowned. The cave was in a state of near dankness. The opening at the top was barely large enough for enough light to pass through, and the crack was filled with weeds. The near darkness was okay for demonic beasts, who specialized in it, but fatal for humans who could not see properly. It would be alright if it was something large and clumsy like the lava spider, he could still manage with his perception. But if something small and agile like the grey rock python were to attack at a critical point, he would not be bale to react in time.


    As he thought of this Bai Yun''s frown deepened. There was no way for the slow lava spiders to kill all of these beasts. When he took a closer look at them , his suspicion was confirmed. It seemed as if only some of the beats were killed by the lava spiders, and most of them were killed by each other. Also with the lava spiders fighting in its slow manner there would definitely be beasts that have escaped. They too would be coming at midnight to fight for the supreme weed fruit.


    Bai Yun had initially expected that not many beast could find this place, but it seemed as if he had underestimated their senses. The couple had also not mentioned seeming so many corpses. The addition of the beasts along with Bai Qing, would only make this more dangerous. He had to act accordingly, and only at the right moment. If he chose a wrong moment then he might even die. In the coming battle, the most important thing was timing. He had to slip in past all the challengers during the ruckus, steal the fruits and then run away.


    Bai Yun spend the next hour wandering around the cave. It would have been extremely difficult normally, but the carcasses of various demonic beasts gave him excellent cover. He also checked them to see if any of the beasts were still alive, or if anyone was hiding behind them too. But he didn''t go near the lava spiders in the off chance that they discovered him. Even with the skills he had, it would be dangerous if he underestimated his foes. He was also looking for some places to hide in, away from the crowd. After looking at the situation, Bai Yun moved to the side of the cave and hid in a crack there. There, not only was there a few demonic beast corpses to hide behind, his position was also hidden in the darkness.


    As he waited he carefully observed the lava spiders. They seemed to be focused on the cave, especially the entrance, and not too tired. Having insane defense and high stamina, they were terrifying tanks in battle. In a situation like this, when they are defending a stationary target, it makes them very hard to get through.


    Bai Yun was extremely focused on the lava spiders. He spend hours watching them. In that time, two more demonic beasts had found the cave. One of them, who rushed in, was easily killed by the lava spider, while the other, after sparring for a while, immediately ran away when it found out that he was no match for the lava spiders. This made the frown on Bia Yun''s forehead deeper.


    Finally less than an hour before midnight, he heard voices coming from the cave entrance.


    "Prince Qing, please come this way. The supreme weed fruit is just ahead." He heard a sleazy voice say.


    A cold light passed through Bai Yun''s eye.


    Bai Qing had arrived.

 26 Bai Qing

    Bai Yun watched as a group of men came out of the crack and stood in front of the weeds. There were seven of them. The one in the lead was a young man who seemed to be only twelve or thirteen. He was wearing a golden robe and stood there with his head held high. It was obvious from the first look that he was their leader. On his back he carried a saber. Even though it was sheathed, it could easily be seen that it was of a high quality from its hilt alone. In fact every object on his body was of a high caliber. Bai Yun realized that this must be Bai Qing. This look of affluence and arrogance was typical of a prince. Even though it was said that anyone could be a prince of the clan, without sufficient background it was impossible to achieve.


    He was followed by a young man who seemed to be fawning all over him. Bai Yun figured that this must be Bai Hao. There was five other people beside the two.


    Bai Yun used his perception to quietly prod them for their cultivation bases. The answer that he got only increased his worry. Other than Bai Qing and Bai Hao, there was one other person in the seventh stage of qi condensation. The rest of them were in the sixth stage of qi condensation. This was a formidable line up. By himself, it would be difficult to get away from them.


    Bai Qing was inspecting the situation in front of him with a frown. He looked at the unexpected scenery in front of him.


    "Bai Hao, why didn''t you mention anything about the lava spiders. Or any other beasts. From the looks of things it has been a while since the cave has been found." One of the people following Bai Qing reprimanded Bai Hao.


    "I don''t know what happened. When I came here last there were no beats." Bai Hao explained in a panicked voice, afraid that Bai Qing will look down on him.


    "There is no need to panic. It is just as I expected."Bai Qing reassured him which calmed Bai Hao down. "Demonic beasts have much higher sensitivity to such things compared to us. It would be a surprise if not even one demonic beast had found the fruit. Why do you think we left an hour before midnight, when it took less than ten minutes to reach here from where we were searching. The reason we came late was to make the people spying on us less wary and make them think we don''t know where the supreme weed fruit is. For that it it would have been better to leave as late as possible. But we left early in order to kill the demonic beasts that have gathered and be in a position to grab the fruit as soon as it matured. Bai Hao you have done your job. From now on you can join our team. But be warned, the rules here are extremely strict. I will not ask you to do the impossible, but if you don not try your best, I will definitely kick you out." Bai Qing said.


    Bai Yun was impressed by Bai Qing. He explained everything to a follower and also reassured, and mildly threatened at the same time, Bai Hao. He was like a natural born leader. Bai Yun was sure that he could never be like that.


    Bai Qing turned to the lava spiders with a frown. Currently the two groups were simply staring at each other. Bai Qing knew just how bad a battle with the lava spiders would be. As for the lava spiders, they also knew just how strong the group in front of them was and did not rashly launch an attack.


    Bai Qing frowned at them and said, "I never expected that the beasts here would be lava spiders. This makes things quite troublesome. We should not start a fight immediately."


    "We should have send someone to take a look at this place earlier." The unknown seventh stage qi condensation practitioner said.


    "How. You know just how many people were spying on us. If we had send Bai Hao here, at least one group would definitely find out and follow him here. Even now we had to be extremely careful and had to spend the entire night in order to trick them in to get here quickly without anyone finding out. Other than the large number of scattered hopefuls, there were three large groups following us. If any of them had found out about the location of the fruit, then we would have had to share it with them. And we cant fight because if we did that it would damaged the prince''s reputation. It was simply not worth it." One of the group said.


    "Not to mention that there is also Bai Shan. No one knows what he has been up to in the last few days. He may be an idiot but his brother is not. Most likely he send someone over in order to manage Bai Shan. We have to be wary of him too." A scholarly looking one among the sixth stage qi cultivators replied.


    "What about the other two people who discovered this palace along with Bai Hao. Could Bai Song have found them and used them to find this location." The seventh stage qi condensation practitioner asked coldly.


    "I don''t think so. Bai Hao was quite smart and spread the rumor that he found the place by himself. Even we only came to know of them after meeting up with Bai Hao. There is no way for anyone to know about them. Also they were spotted about an hour from here a while ago." the scholarly boy replied.


    "Are they trying to get their hands in the supreme weed fruit. How dare they!"


    "Most likely not." Bai Qing replied. "It is likely that they saw the lava spiders and is staying around because of them. The maybe hoping that they could get the fruit after the lava spiders and us kill each other. Or maybe offer help at the critical point to get some resources. Either way I am sure that they are nearby."


    " Hmm if they were to interfere then-" the seventh stage qi condensation practitioner said.


    "You have my permission to kill them then. Now let us focus on the problem in front of us." Bai Qing cut him off.


    Bai Yun was impressed by Bai Qing and his group. Not only did he figure out their intentions, he also knew to be ruthless when necessary. And his followers were also quite smart for their age. They were only eleven or twelve, but their thinking was extremely precise, very different from him back then. Even when he was eighty and become a god, he was still unable to think like this. It was only after fighting next to grand generals and tacticians of the alliance army for millennia, that Bai Yun learned to think as meticulously as that. He had a feeling that Bai Qing would go far in the future.


    Bai Qing decided not to start the fight immediately. There was still so much time before midnight and they would all be tired if they were to fight now, and would not be able to get the fruits. And breaking through the defenses of three third circle qi stage lava spiders was nearly impossible with the firepower they had now. And he also needed enough energy in the reserve to handle other beasts or enemies that could turn up.


    He moved a bit further inward and stayed there opposite the lava spiders. He didn''t want to get caught up if some other beast were to charge in from the entrance. As for the lava spiders they had no desire to start a fight either.Everyone knew that the most important moment in the battle would occur after the fruits ripened, and no one wanted to start the battle beforehand. If they did they would only tire out by the critical point.


    Bai Qing had chosen to stay near the entrance at a perpendicular to the entrance. He didn''t want to move too inward as otherwise it would be difficult for everyone to escape after one of them got their hands on the fruits. Bai Yun was currently hiding in a hole almost directly opposite to the group. He was hoping to make the group move to the end opposite to the entrance of the cave so that the lava spiders would interfere if they were to chase after him. Two of the lava spiders moved around to face the group, and one of them remained facing the entrance to defend against any one else who might come.


    As the group waited, Bai Yun sent his soul tendril towards the entrance. He placed his eyes squarely on the group. And just as they started to focus on their weapons, and the three lav spiders were also focusing on the group, Bai Yun rustled some of the grass at the entrance, and made a few sounds.


    There was a reason for this. Bai Yun knew that since he had hidden himself here inside the cave the suspicion of how he got here would definitely fall to the couple he met earlier. After all they were the only people other than Bai Qing''s group who knew the location of the cave. Thus he had to make it so that they would believe that he followed them here. But even if Bai Yun were to tell him outright Bai Qing would never believe it. His pride would refuse to admit than someone like him did not see anything the whole time he was being followed. So he had to give some signs that will make him suspicions. That will make him sure. Just enough rope for him to hang himself with.


    Bai Qing frowned and looked around. So did the lava spiders. They all felt that something was wrong but couldn''t quite pinpoint it. They tried using their perception to look around. Bai Yun simply smirked at their useless attempts.


    "What was that?" Bai Qing asked.


    "Huh did something happen?" One of his followers replied.


    "I thought I felt something come in. We need to check if anyone is here." Bai Qing said.


    "How is that possible. With all of us here no one could escape our eyes and enter-" Just as he started to retort they heard a rustling sound coming from the entrance. This time everyone, including the stunned Bai Yun turned towards the entrance.


    A second later a large wolf like demonic beast at the peak of the second step burst through the weeds and entered the cave. It was growling with spittle running down its mouth, and all of its fur standing on its end. After it entered it saw the lava spider as well as Bai Qing''s group. The two groups stared at the beast for a few seconds. The next instant, it stood up straight, it fur fell bank and its tail started to wag. It then barked cutely a few times, turned and ran back even faster than it came.


    After a moment the group started to laughing. "You are amazing boss. You sensed it coming such a long time ago." One of them said after they finished laughing.


    "Perhaps." Bai Qing replied. He still continued to look around just in case. Bai Yun smiled in satisfaction. Even if the wolf hadn''t entered at the current point, he still had ways to hide if they started a search. But this saved him quite a bit of effort.


    The two groups waited around for a while. A few more demonic beats came in during this time. Mostof them chose to return, but a few chose to fight. They were all quickly dispatched by either the lava spiders or Bai Qing''s group.


    Soon there was only ten minutes left till midnight. Bai Qing''s group finally got into position. The three lava spiders also turned towards them.


    Bai Yun started to watch them curiously. It would soon be time for him to act.


    The battle was about to begin.

 27 Supreme weed blooms

    Bai Qing looked at the three lava spiders and made his move. He knew that it was impossible to defeat the lava spiders.


    "Listen up this is our plan. It is impossible for us to kill the lava spiders. So we need to distract them long enough to steal the fruits after it ripens. I shall handle one of them. Bai Hao and Bai Lin shall take two of you and handle one each. Bai Lin, you are the fastest among us aside from me. When the time comes, we shall launch an assault on all three of them and you shall have to quickly grab on to the fruit and we shall make our escape."


    They nodded and moved towards the lava spiders. The lava spiders turned towards them and quickly raised their front legs.


    Lava spiders were a type of spiders that lived in the earth. They lived close to volcanoes, underground, and thus their skin took on a red glow from being in close contact with lava, making their skins very thick, and difficult to penetrate. Their carapaces would usually be used to create defense armors, especially ones with great heat resistance.They were able to send out sticky web that could entrap any foe that was caught in it. They would also use their front legs to skewer enemies. The only downside to them was that it was not that difficult to escape their attacks due to their speed.


    Just as Bai Qing''s group got ready to attack, the three lava spiders lined up in a line. They charged at them, at the same time spitting web at them also.


    Bai Qing was sitting at the left most edge of the group. Since this location was the farthest from the entrance, he chose this position to fight. Bai Lin was the other end to not get caught up in the middle of the spiders when he went for the fruits. Bai Qing moved in an instant, cutting the web and thrusting his sword at the spider. The sword bounced off the spider''s skin. It barely left a scratch on its hard skin.


    The spider lunged towards Bai Qing, its legs sweeping from the right. Bai Qing stepped back and dodged the attack. By now all the groups had started to fight. All three spiders were attacking with all they had in order to quickly defeat the enemies.


    Bai Qing once again attacked the spider unsuccessfully. The lava spiders only weakness was the inside of its mouth. But the only time they open their mouths were to spray the web. Thus the chance to kill them was very difficult to get hold of.


    Suddenly the spider''s mouth puffed up. Bai Qing got ready to attack the spider in the opening after it spit the web. The moment the spider spit out the web at Bai Qing, he dodged to the left and approached the spider in an instant, thrusting his sword at the spider. The spider immediately stabbed its left forelimb at Bai Qing. If Bai Qing was to continue with the attack, both of them would be wounded. Bai Qing did not want such a situation so early in the fight, so he retreated.


    Bai Qing wanted to get past the spider, and close to the weed if possible. But the moment he tried to go past the spider, it would attack him in a frenzy, simply refusing to allow him to go past it. Bai Qing retreated backwards. The spider tried to catch up with him, but its speed did not allow it to do so.


    Bai Qing tried to use a longer curve to get past the spider. Suddenly it spit a web at Bai Qing''s path. The web the lava spiders spits out becomes wider the further it traveled, thus by the time it reached Bai Qing, it had become too wide for Bai Qing to run past. He withdraw from his path, turned around and tried to go the other way, only to be stopped by another web.


    Bai Qing looked around, and suddenly realized that he had moved quite far to the left in his fight, and thus much inward. And it was same for the other two groups too. He realized that all the attacks that the spiders had send to the right where a very close call, forcing him to move to the left to dodge, while the attacks to the left where a bit wider, allowing him to stay still and dodge easily. This forced his entire team to move quite a bit into the cave.


    Bai Qing frowned. He did not like the way the fight was progressing. He inwardly praised the spiders intelligence. The spiders were attacking their right side repeatedly, forcing them to move left in order to dodge. This was making them move further inward.He did not want this to happen. They were going to get trapped with the spiders between them and the entrance. They would have to spend a huge effort to break through their defenses even if they get the fruit.


    Bai Qing tried to take a step to the left once he reached the other end of the cave. Then suddenly the spiders lunged at him to his left, forcing him to his right, and back to the center of the end of the cave. Seeing this Bai Lin, who was standing at the other end of their group, tried to step to the right, only to be pushed to the left, and forced to stay there.


    The current situation was extremely unfavorable for Bai Qing and his group. They were stranded in the other edge of the cave, on the opposite side of the entrance. The three lava spiders surrounded them and attacked. They did not have much room to maneuver in this setup. It was extremely dangerous to fight three beasts with high defense and attack in an narrow space. Thankfully due to the slowness of the spiders and the existence of the three seventh stage qi realm cultivators they were able tohave enough space to not be in danger.


    While Bai Qing was trying his best just to stay alive, Bai Yun was having the time of his life. It was needless to say that Bai Qing''s current situation was entirely his doing.


    Bai Yun had no interest in letting Bai Qing have an easy time. It was due to this bastard that Bai Shan looked for him, and all the other mess happened as a result of it. If Bai Qing had any intention other than to probe a potential enemy, and wanted to harm him, then he would have been dead by now.


    The first thing he had to do in order to escape from Bai Qing here was to make sure that the lava spiders were between the entrance and the group. Even if he stole the fruits and ran, and both groups tried to chase after him, the lava spiders would definitely attack that group also since he was a human. They would assume that he was with them and make the attack on them too. This would help to slow them down.


    This was why Bai Yun interfered in the fight between the two groups to make sure that they moved in the right direction without getting caught himself. He could only use his soul tendrils to affect the fight from this distance. So he focused one tendril each on the two spiders at the end and manipulated their attacks. He couldn''t forcefully change the direction of their attacks as that would alert the lava spiders. He manipulated the soul tendril to simulate an attack to the lava spiders coming from the direction he did not want the group to move, so that the lava spiders would attack that direction, forcing the group to move in the opposite direction. Of course he maintained a balance such that Bai Qing''s group had enough time to dodge. He did not want either group to be harmed. It was only due to his battle experience that he was able to maintain such a delicate balance.


    Bai Yun had moved a bit closer to the supreme weed by then. He used the dead bodies of beats to hide his tracks and move quietly and only when all of them where in the middle of an attack. But he did not move too close to the weed. Both groups were keeping half an eye on the weed, and the fighting had not reached a desperate stage yet. Of course Bai Yun did not need to get right next to the supreme weed. He only needed to get close enough to use his soul tendrils to get the supreme weed. The only problem was that since there were three fruits, and he could only use two soul tendrils comfortably, he had to cut the supreme weed and take it all with him.


    Bai Yun watched the two groups fight and interfering in the fight while cheering inside. Time passed in this manner.Suddenly Bai Yun''s eyes jerked upwards. The time was exactly midnight. Through the long and small opening in the top of the cave, the full moon could be seen peeping through. The moonlight fell from the top and down onto the supreme weed fruit below.


    Perhaps by chance, the moonlight fell onto the supreme weed fruit in a conical shape. As it did, perhaps because of the fruit, or perhaps the cave, it took on a magical quality and seemed to turn silver.


    The supreme weed started to sway, even though there was no wind. The three dark red fruits on the weed seemed to come alive.


    As it started to sway, every single person who was here, human and beast, started to watch, enchanted. They saw the fruits swinging like bells in the wind.


    Then a single piece of the skin of the fruit peeled off. A dark red, paper thin piece of skin started to float about in the air next to the fruit, like a child afraid to leave its mother. Beneath the patch of skin that was peeled of a blood red color could be seen peeking out. One by one patches of dark skin started to peel off of the three fruits. But the pieces did not leave the cone of moonlight, and stayed around the supreme weed fruits, dancing along an invisible wind.


    As the fruits ripened, small multicolored markings started to appear on the fruits. The three red fruits swayed in the silver backdrop in astonishing beauty captivating the audience. So much so that every single being present missed the slight swoosh as an object cut through the air.


    Bai Qing''s eyes narrowed in an instant. "Watch out." he cried out.


    A single dagger broke through the air in the silent night. A pale sharp line was drawn through the air, cutting the stalk in two.


    In an instant the magical atmosphere broke. As they watched, the stalk flew towards the front of the cave. This change was so sudden that every single person there was stunned and couldn''t move for a short while.


    As they watched, a shadow emerged from behind one of the demonic beasts carcasses. In an instant the supreme weed reached the hands of a figure completely clad in black. Only a pair of bright eyes could be seen from beneath the hood that covered his face. The figure continued to charge forward, leaving the whole place behind.


    "Thank you for the present prince Qing." A cheeky voice sounded out.


    The entire group watched in stunned silence as the figure reached the weeds at the entrance of the cave, and quickly ran outside. He was hidden from their view before any of them had a chance to react.


    Every single person stood there in stunned silence.


    The supreme weed fruits had been stolen.

 28 Escape

    Bai Yun ran out of the cave as fast as he could. Behind him he could hear the group making noices, and Bai Qing ordering the people behind to chase after him. A second later he heard someone run behind him. He knew that it was Bai Qing. It would be easy for them to dodge the lava spiders. It was just that they had no desire to do so until then. The fact that Bai Yun was no longer interfering in the fight also helped.


    Bai Yun ran out of the cave in an instant. He caught three people fighting in his perception. Of the three people, two of them were ganging up on the third person. He smiled. Bai Qing had indeed left someone behind as he expected. He had instructed the couple to attack the person Bai Qing had left behind at exactly midnight.


    Bai Yun ran towards the trio. The couple was clad in complete black clothes and robes that covered every part of their body, other than their eyes, just like Bai Yun. Then this person turned to look as he felt Bai Yun approach, but his expression quickly turned to that of despair when he saw Bai Yun''s clothing. He started to fight back with even more vigor, but considering that he was at the same cultivation stage as the other two he was easily being suppressed.


    Bai Yun closed the distance quickly. Then just as the other person used a powerful attack to knock back the couple and turned to face him, he used wind motion to close the distance in the blink of an eye. Bai Yun had appended in the sentries blind spot too quickly, and before he could react, Bai Yun send him flying away with Lions roar.


    Bai Yun checked up on the sentry and knocked him out using the Assassin God''s technique. He turned towards the couple, and walked up to them, and waited. A few seconds later he felt Bai Qing exit the cave. Since he wanted to lead Bai Qing away before the complete group could regroup, he had gone slowly on purpose.


    It was time for the escape plan to begin. He walked up to them and pretended to talk to the couple. Since his perception range was larger than Bai Qing''s he waited until Bai Qing found them, looked up, and said "Scatter." In the next instant all three of them ran off in three directions.


    Bai Yun turned his attention towards Bai Qing''s group. He saw that other thanBai Qing the four sixth stage qi condensation cultivators had also followed behind. This confused him. Bai Yun knew that some people had to stay behind for a short time so that others could quickly escape the enraged lava spiders. But he expected him to bring the two seventh stage qi cultivators as they would be faster. The people at only sixth stage of qi condensation couldn''t keep up with any of them. But the realized that Bai Qing did so because he probably didn''t trust Bai Hao considering what happened, and was also banking of the sentry. Bai Yun smiled. This was better for him anyway.


    Bai Qing paused for a second, and then the group split into three. The four sixth stage cultivators split into groups of two and chased after one of the couple respectively. Bai Qing chased after Bai Yun himself. This was exactly as Bai Yun predicted. Bai Qing''s pride would be hurt that he was unable to notice him and would chase after him to heal that hurt pride.


    Bai Yun quickly ran away from Bai QIng, but he was gaining upon him quickly. Even after Bai Yun completed the skin sewing for a leg, he was still slower than Bai Qing. But just as Bai Qing started to get close to him, Bai Yun used wind motion to widen the distance.


    Bai Yun looked at Bai Qing who was advancing towards him. Bai Qing also used his movement technique to get close to him. But Bai Qing seemed to not be very proficient in the technique, which meant that he was still slower.


    But Bai Yun could not keep up with this too much. Wind motion took up too much energy. So he slowed down, and as Bai Qing neared him, turned around and attacked him with his sword. Bai Qing reacted immediately and send an attack back on his own. But Bai Yun did not want to fight with Bai Qing. Even though he had the confidence to walk out alive in a life or death battle, he wasn''t sure of his chances of defeating Bai Qing in a straight up fight. Also the other two would soon shake off the lava spiders and come to reinforce Bai Qing. He had to escape as quick as possible.


    So Bai Yun used Bai Qing''s attack to send himself flying back by borrowing its force. He felt a mild jolt hit him. Bai Qing immediately caught up once again and attacked, forcing Bai Yun back. Bai Yun felt his energy reserves running low.


    Bai Yun took out a qi fruit. He had collected a lot of them in the recent days. Even though the use of a qi fruit was to increase cultivation, Bai Yun with his god sense could use it to recover some energy. But this was extremely dangerous, as the small qi fruits did not have energy which was pure enough. Thus it was possible for its energy to contaminate his qi whirlpool, and making it impure as well as weaker. It would be very difficult to get rid of the excess impure energy.


    But Bai Yun had no choice. He used the power left in him to quickly run away.


    "Do you have have to chase after me so badly. I am not interested in you that way. Why don''t we just go our separate ways, and let bygones be bygones. Didn''t Buddha say to show kindness to your enemies. Let us walk the path of non violence brother." Bai Yun said. In exchange Bai Qing simply attacked him harder.


    Soon the two of them established a strange rhythm, with Bai Yun running away and Bai Qing chasing. But Bai Yun''s face was slowly getting paler due to the increasing impurities in his qi whirlpool. Bai Qing noting what was going on, was in no hurry to finish. He had pills to recover energy, which as much better than fruits. He took his time, and chose to slowly whittle his opponent down, as he was wary of an all out attack.


    Suddenly Bai Yun stopped running. In front of him was a tumultuous river. The waves of the river rose dangerously and the spray hit him in his face. This was an extremely dangerous locations for a qi condensation stage practitioner, the river at the edge of the weed valley.


    "What can you do now?" Bai Yun heard a voice behind him. He turned to see Bai Qing standing just a short distance from him. "You have no where to run anymore. Hand over the supreme weed fruit, and I will let you go. Else you will not survive the night."


    "Why do you think that you have won?" Bia Yun asked.


    "How do you propose to escape. You are breathing so hard. It is obvious that you have no strength left. If it wasn''t for that strange movement technique of yours, I would have caught up to you a long time ago. Its over." Bai Qing replied.


    Bai Yun smiled cryptically. "Let me give you a lesson Bai Qing. Just because you cannot do something, don''t assume others cannot either. Nothings never over until you die."


    With that Bai Yun leapt back into the river in a single bound. Under the astonished eyes of Bai Qing, he fell into the river, and quickly submerged, and was hidden from view.


    "You bastard! If you want to kill yourself, then at least have the decency to give me the supreme weed fruits first." Bai Qing screamed. After waiting there for a minute, he quickly took off back to the cave.


    As Bai Qing was leaving the river, at a place a few hundred meters from where he jumped into the river, Bai Yun was lying on the shore of the river panting.


    The river beyond the weed valley was extremely dangerous. It contained extremely dangerous currents and whirlpools, making it very dangerous to cross. No one in the first stage of the qi step would be able to cross it. In fact when he was explaining his plan to the couple, he had told them that he would be able to outrun Bai Qing. He even showed wind motion to them in order to make them believe it. Bu the truth was that with his pathetic amounts of qi, he would never be able to do so. He would run out of qi, before he could get out of Bai Qings range.


    Thus the only way was to make him think that he had died. And the river was the best place for this. Even if Bai Qing thought that he was alive he wouldn''t chase after him. The truth was that the dangers of the river was mainly due to the unpredictability of the current and the dangerous whirlpools. If he got caught in a powerful current, it could only sweep him far away. And the whirlpools that suddenly appeared out of nowhere was the greatest danger. In fact it was the whirlpools that killed people, not the currents.


    It was due to his god sense that he managed to escape. The precognition ability of the god sense allowed him to notice the whirlpools before they formed and also to dodge the currents that would take him away from the shore.


    But even then it was extremely dangerous. In the twenty seconds he stayed in the water his precognition activated thirty times. He had to use wind motion and all his powers in order to reach the shore. Even though there were no damages, there was not a single cell in his body that was not trembling in exhaustion. He even used his third soul tendril, giving him a horrendous headache.Even then there were nine times he was sure he was dead.


    At this moment Bai Yun was scolding himself for jumping nearly ten meters far into the river, instead of simply taking one step back and falling near the shore. He had done it in order to look cool and only to look cool.


    After promising himself to never again look cool ever, Bai Yun slowly stood up and bit into a qi fruit. As the energy flowed inside him, he frowned. By now the energy inside his body had turneda little impure. A stomach ache had joined his headache. Bai Yun quickly changed his clothes, and ran towards the cave.


    Bai Yun reached the cliff side a little farther from the cave. It was far enough that Bai Qing''s group could not sense his presence. He took outpiece of the cliff as if it was a brick. Inside was a hollow space, from which Bai Yun pulled out a bundle of weeds. He quickly ripped the bundle apart to reveal his storage ring.


    A quick probe inside the storage ring and he found the three supreme weed fruits inside them. Bai Yn smiled after he verified that nothing had been touched.


    ''Good.'' He thought. ''They did as required. Now it is time for my part.''


    The first part of the plan was over. It was time for the second part to start.


    *---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    *


    I don''t like the fact that I am using stage to describe both qi condensation and the steps inside qi condensation. For example till now it was third stage of qi condensation as well as qi condensation stage of qi step. Thus from now on it will be that each step is divided into three realms. So for all the chapters from now on it will be third stage of qi condensation realm in qi step. I will use the weekend to both clear the queue as well go back and change it in previous chapters over the weekend.


    (It was at this point that the author realized that he had no life)


    PS: putting it here as this is too big for authors thought

 29 Bai Ling-ers though

    Bai Ling-er watched as a man she had never met before walked into the clearing she had made.


    At first when she found him she was simply wary of him. But after he told her about the fact that he overhead them she started to panic. They initially thought about ignoring the entire thing or reporting it to Bai Qing, but they realized that neither were an option to them. It was only when he gave the cultivation technique that she started to consider joining forces with him.


    After he explained the entire plan to them Bai Ling-er was finally sure that maybe there was a chance that it would work. For the first time Bai Ling-er felt hope. Hope that not only would it be possible to get the supreme weed fruit, but it might even be possible to change their lives.


    The plan that he came up with was simple, but it covered almost everything due to it being flexible enough. Once the plan was set in motion, the most important thing was to stick to the main points. As long as they were kept, it would be fine.


    The trio spend the entire afternoon preparing for the plan. As they made various traps and false trails necessary for the plans, the stranger also explained on different techniques necessary for the plan. The movement technique that he explained was much simpler that the one spread by the clan for low leveled people in the clan, despite being much faster. But even though it as simpler, only Bai Ling-er was able to properly learn it by the time night came. Since she was already faster than most people of her cultivation stage, this meant that she was much faster that almost everyone in the clan by now.


    Surprisingly Bai Shi quickly took to a technique that hid one''s presence. This technique was also necessary to the plan. With the two of them practicing the new techniques, it was up to thestranger to plant the traps and trails. Once it was done, he gave them a pair of dark robes that hid their appearance very well. Since the perception of qi step practitioners were not strong enough, this could easily hide their identities.


    When it neared midnight, after mildly threatening them on what would happen if they tried to double cross him, the stranger went inside the cave. As Bai Ling-er and Bai Shi stood outside the cave, they started to wonder if the plan was indeed a good idea. But they had no choice at this point. They had made a deal with the devil.


    Bai Ling-er quickly made way to a place near the cliff edge. Then, using the cliff, they climbed a little to the top, until their heads were almost out of the grass canopy. They were trying to spy on anyone who would be coming to the cave. It was possible to see any movements in the grass and see if was caused by a person. The important thing was that they had to see when Bai Qing was coming as well as whether he had left someone behind as a scout. It would be disastrous if the stranger was to be trapped at both ends when running away.


    "Do you thing that this will work?" Bai Shi asked.


    "I don''t know?" Bai Ling-er replied. "But if it failed, we are all going to hell anyway. At this point we have no choice but to co-operate."


    "But what if he failed to get the fruits. Or is caught by prince Qing."


    "If he fails then thats that. But if he is caught, then we are all dead."


    "Can we trust him."


    "Of course not. I guarantee you that his name is a lie, and how exactly are we supposed to find a person just by his face from the entire clan. The only consolation for is that if everything fails, then we can deny everything, and prince Qing probably wont kill us. He is much more tactical and less brutal than some other princes."


    A somber mood fell upon them as they contemplated the results of their actions. As they waited for Bai Qing to show up, they took turns keeping watch and practicing their techniques.


    A while later, they saw some movements in the grass. The movements stopped for a while before it headed towards the cave. The couple took a deep breath, and strengthened their resolve. Bai Qing had come.


    The couple waited for a while before Bai Shi started to quietly move towards the cave. He was going to check if there was a scout. He used the newly learned technique to approach the area. After a while, Bai Shi found a scout standing near the cave entrance. He was at the seventh stage of the qi condensation realm. The two of them waited for a while after that, keeping watch on the scout from the cliffs.


    As they watched the scout, they saw him stopping some of the beasts that were on their way to the cave.But due to the large number of beasts that were trying to enter, only a few ended up being stopped. Most of the beasts that entered quickly came running out anyway.


    As the moon started to creep towards midnight, they finally moved from their position. With only a few minutes left till midnight, the duo finally made their move.


    They quickly ran up to the scout. Since the two of them were no longer concerned about hiding their presence, they were quickly found out. The scout turned towards them and shouted, "Halt. Prince Qinq is carrying out an operation here. Leave immediately."


    The duo simply disregarded the threat and attacked him without any warning. As people who had grown up poor, they had reasonable fighting experience. The two of them attacked as one. They had a lot of experience working together and did not have any problem coordinating their attacks.


    The scout was also pretty decent. Even while shouting a warning he had gotten into battle mode, and responded to their attack properly. There were no useless ones in prince Qing''s entourage. "Do you know what you are doing. Once we find out about your identities, yourlives will be a living hell."


    The duo ignored the words and continued the attack. Bai Shi attacked the person from the front while Bai Ling-er supported him by attacking from the sides. This was a pattern that they had used for a long time. They quickly included the new techniques that they had learned into their attack pattern.


    Living up to him name of being a follower of Bai Qing, the scout was still stronger than either of the duo. But Bai Ling-er was much faster than before, and her quick succession of attacks left not much time for him to focus on Bai Shi. And once Bai Shi was given enough time, he would use his new technique to hide his presence and then suddenly deal a strong blow to the scout, which he had to hastily defend against. Thus their combination left the scout in a perilous situation.


    Since the couple knew that their only job was to tie up the scout, they two of them simply held their advantage and did not press for more. As midnight came and went, the three of them maintained the balance and did not make any drastic changes. Suddenly they heard some noises coming from the cave entrance.


    As the trio watched, the young man who made plans with the couple suddenly emerged from the cave. Of course the only thing that they could see was someone was rushing towards them. As the trio watched the black clothed person rush towards them, they smiled under their robes. From his speed it was obvious that he had succeeded in securing the fruits.


    It only took a second for the person from prince Qing''s group to understand what happened. A look of determination flashed in his eyes, before which he forcefully pushed aside the couple using an extreme force. Then he quickly turned to face the stranger.


    The stranger closed the distance with the group in an instant and then, before any of them could react, blew the scout away. The scout, who was tired after fighting the duo for so long was unable to stand up to him. He was down in a second.


    The stranger slowly walked up to them. He took out a storage ring and passed it to them. As they waited, in a short while, a few people came out of the cave. They could sense Bai Qing as well as a few others. The moment they entered their range, the three of them split up and ran in three directions. As they hoped when the plan was hatched, Bai Qing went after the stranger, leaving the weaker ones for them.


    There were four sixth stage qi condensation cultivators after them. After they split up, the group was stunned for a while before they also split up into two groups and each followed one person.


    Bai Shi ran near the cliff edge, hugging it. He ran straight towards the meetup point. They had set up some fake trails in the afternoon so that the people chasing them would be misled.


    Bai Ling-er on the other hand had run away from the cave in a different direction to the meet up point, drawing the pursuers behind her. She ran util she reached the place where the fake trails had been set up and then sharply changed the direction towards the meet up point. As she ran through the new route, she pulled a rope behind her.


    The stranger had set this up during the night. If she had run through the weeds at full speed to escape the pursuers, then the weeds she passed through would have been damaged. This trail of destruction would lead to them and when caught, they would have no defense.


    So during the night the stranger had set up things so that the route was partitioned and there was a path for them to run through to reduce the damage to the weeds. Once they did so, they simply had to pull on the rope that held together the contraption and the route would close up behind her and the proof would disappear along with her. Of course it was not perfect and an expert tracker would easily find the truth.


    Both Bai Shi and Bai Ling-er had been of. the opinion that all of this was unnecessary. The group, even though were made of very intelligent and competent people, had grown up in the clan itself and had no tracking abilities what so ever. They were sure that simply with the new techniques taught to them they could easily escape the pursuit. But the stranger had wanted to be safe and did it anyway.


    The new techniques taught to them allowed Bai Ling-er to be much faster than before, and also helped Bai Shi to hide his presence very well. They could easily escape the search area of the group and move on.


    As she ran, she heard some noises as well as some shouting from behind her. They had fallen into some of the traps that they had placed along the fake tracks. Bai Ling-er smiled as the sounds persisted. It seemed that there was a tracker with them, and it had worked against them.


    The fake tracks, the traps and the new techniques were all there so as to buy them time to group up and prepare for the next part of the plan.


    The two of them reached the meet up point at nearly the same time. They both quickly changed out of their black robes, and stuffed them as well as the ropes inside the storage ring, and hid it inside a bundle of weeds that they had plucked just minutes before. Then the entire bundle was stuffed inside the cliff, into a deep hole that they had excavated earlier, and then closed up the entrance of the hole with the rock they had broken off. The cliff side had gained some resistance to perception due to the years it had stood beside the weed valley. Along with the bundle of weeds, it made it very difficult to find the storage ring.


    Once this was done, the couple walked away, and did not look back.


    It was time for the second part of the plan to begin.

 30 Capture

    Bai Ling-er and Bai Shi walked towards the scouts that were on the way towards them in search of the thieves. It was time for the second part of the plan to begin.


    It was time for them to be captured.


    No mater what they did, it was a fact they they were they only ones who knew the location of the cave other that Bai Qing''s group. Not only that, they were also in the vicinity. It was impossible to avoid suspicion. Then they may as well cast themselves into the heart of the enemy.


    Of course they were not handing themselves over to Bai Qing on their own. They were simply going to act naturally, and see if they are caught. If they weren''t caught, then that''s that.


    As they walked a short distance, they felt a few auras coming towards them, following the fake trails that they had set up. The duo had walked close to the trails, but was still a short distance from it. As the group chasing the trails came by, they also noticed the duo. One of them kept on following the trails, while the other turned towards them.


    The couple waited with a frown on their faces as a sixth stage qi condensation realm cultivator appeared before them. He was one of the members of Bai Qing''s group.


    "You two, did you see anyone pass by here?" He asked.


    "Why does it matter to you?" Bai Ling-er replied curtly.


    "I am asking as a representative of prince Qing. Answer immediately." He said forcefully.


    Bai Ling-er''s face contracted in anger for a moment before it was released. "We felt someone run by nearby a while ago. I have no idea who it was."


    The cultivator from prince Qing''s group frowned before saying "Follow me back to meet princeQing."


    "Like hell we will. We were just standing here. Why should we follow you?" Bai Ling-er retorted.


    The person from prince Qing''s knew who the couple was. He had seen portraits of them from the time the group was looking to silence them. There was no way he was going to let them go.


    As the three of the stood there staring at each other, they felt another presence approach. A moment later, Bai Lin, the seventh stage qi cultivation cultivator who had followed Bai Qing inside the cave came out.


    Bai Lin stared at the two of them, and then attacked them in an instant without waiting. Both Bai Shi, and Bai Lin-er responded quickly, and send him flying back with a combined attack.


    "What the hell was that?" Bai Lin-er asked. Bai Shi had stepped up into a fighting stance silently and his qi circulated quickly.


    "You bastards, you dared to steal what we were after. Do you think that we would let you go?" He roared back.


    "What do mean steal! Dont accuse people as you please." She said.


    The other person from Bai Qing''s group immediately got between. "Wait. Its not guaranteed that they are responsible for this. It is true that they are suspicious, but we have known about them for a while. Also the trail doesn''t end here. We should take them back with us to our camp and interrogate them there."


    Bai Lin frowned. "Take them back to the rendezvous. I''ll keep on following the trails." He disappeared after saying this.


    The person from Bai Qing''s camp turned to them and said, "So do you want to come with us, or do you want to make this complicated."


    The couple frowned and then swallowing their anger, asked him to lead them to their camp. As they walked, Bai Ling-er asked "What happened. Did someone steal the supreme weed fruits?"


    The person refused to answer. But as they walked, he thought that he saw a hint of smile at the corner of their mouths, which annoyed him.


    They had to be very careful when they walked. None of the members from Bai Qings camp wanted them to be noticed when they came in as they did not wan to publicize what had happened. The couple had no choice but to go along with the plan either.


    They soon reached the camp. Bai Qing''s camp was set up in a large clearing, which they had made by themselves.


    After the trio reached the camp, they waited for a while. One by one the other people who came to collect the fruits returned with a dejected face. Bai Ling-er was worried when she saw the scout enter, but it seemed as if he had not recognized them.


    Soon Bai Hao returned to the camp. When he saw the couple, he nearly jumped out of his skin. "You did this." He shouted.


    "Shut up you bastard." Bai Ling-er responded. "We had nothing to do with this. Don''t accuse others for no reason you back stabbing bastard."


    Just as Bai Hao was about to attack them, the rest of the member s of the group calmed him down, saying that the entire thing would be resolved once Bai Qing returned.


    They waited for a while. When anyone tried to speak, the person who had escorted the duo stopped them, saying that it was better to wait for Bai Qing to arrive before anything was said. Of course it did not stop whispers, and murmurs. The entire camp soon knew of what had happened, as well as the situation with the couple.


    After hearing some whispers, and getting a better idea of what happened,the duo simply waited silently. Once some time had passed, Bai Qing walked in. From his mood, it was obvious that things had not gone well. The duo was happy when they sensed it, as it meant that the stranger had not been captured.


    "What happened." their captor asked.


    Bai Qing glanced at him for a moment, before turning to Bai Shi and Bai Ling-er. "Are they involved." He asked.


    "I don''t know. I told them to come as they were in the vicinity."


    "What happened to the people you were chasing." Bai Qing asked once again.


    "The trails I chased leadup the cliff and then suddenly disappeared. I couldn''t follow them after that." Bai Lin said.


    "The ones I followed led to a marsh and then disappeared. I have no idea where that person is. There were many traps along the way, it delayed us a lot. It seemed that they had been preparing for a while." Bai Hao also said.


    "Did you find out anything from the traps."


    "They were made with the weeds and common items found in the garden. They weren''t very powerful or dangerous, just meant to slow us down. We couldn''t find out anything from them.


    Bai Qing frowned, his mood worsening. "What happened to the person you chased after." One of them asked.


    "Dead." Bai Qing said. "He jumped into the river."


    Every single person there was stunned. A look of shock appeared in all of their eyes. Bai Qing had kept his eyes on Bai Shi and Bai Ling-er while he said this. After he could only see genuine shock from their eyes, and no worry or panic, he started to think that maybe they weren''t involved.


    Of course the couple wasn''t worried. They knew where the fruits were hidden. They could simply go and get them some time later. And there was no one left to expose their involvement in the matter anyway.


    "Search them," Bai Qing sudden ordered.


    "Prince Qing, we did nothing wrong, why should we be- "Bai Ling-er started to object, but then stopped. Bai Qing had said nothing, he simply stared at them. Just that glance was enough to silence the couple. They felt as if they had stepped into the lair of a lion, and that there was no way out.


    Slightly regretting their choice, they went with members of Bai Qing''s group, to be searched. Once it was done, and they were deemed to not be carrying anything suspicious, Bai QIng glared at them once again. He could not believe that someone shadowed him without his knowledge. He wanted to believe that they told the thieves of the location of the cave.


    "Don''t let them go." Bai Qing said. "Keep them here for a while." Bai Qing wanted to see if they would crack and let up under pressure. If they were involved, they would definitely tell him of it in time. By now it was no longer about the supreme weed fruits, and more about his pride. He wanted to find the person who stole from him ad punish him.


    Both of the duo''s faces paled. Just as they were about to start to panic, the group heard the grass rustle. As everyone stared, a young man walked out of the weeds. Even with the entire crowd looking at him he was still very relaxed.


    "Hey there Bai Qing, I heard that you got a supreme weed fruit. Can I buy one from you."Bai Yun asked cheerfully.


    Bai Qing''s face changed color in an instant. He looked as if he had met his mortal enemy.


    He knew who Bai Yun was. He stared at him for a long time. "I don''t have any." Bai Qing replied.


    "There is no need to lie. I have heard from very reliable sources, that you caught the person who have been spreading the rumor that he found the supreme weed fruit." He said with a a smile.


    The entire mood seemed to become darker in an instant. Bai Qing looked as if he was going to eat Bai Yun alive. "I. Don''t. Have. Any." He said only that.


    "Hmm." Bai Yun said. He looked at the whole clearing, and finally caught the somber mood. "Don''t tell me. You lost it." Bai Yun said incredulously.


    Bi Qing stood up with a murderous look on his eyes. Bai Yun went silent, and took a step back. But after a moment Bai Qing grunted "Get lost."


    Bai Yun let out a breath and turned to leave. Just as he was about to leave, he turned, smiled and said"Don''t worry if I find out who took the supreme weed fruits, I''ll try and get one for you." And then he left without waiting for Bai Qing''s reply.


    For a moment there was silence. "Why did we just let him go." Bai Lin asked.


    He stared at the group for a while. Then he said "Let the two of them go."


    "What." Bai Hao asked." Are you sure. They are very suspicious."


    "Yes. Go." Bai Qing said.


    The couple looked at each other for a moment, before the two of them quickly ran off. The did not even look back and directly left the weed valley in a hurry.


    After a moment Bai Qing said. "It''s not like we can harm him. None of us would be able to handle the fallout. Also that bastard raised quite a success on the way here. The other groups that were looking at us must have gotten the information by now. They would have heard what he said. Dammit."


    "And as for the other two everyone know that they are here. If we held them now, it would only harm our reputation. Bai Lin, send someone to keep an eye on them will you. Keep them under surveillance for a while."


    "Yes" Bai Lin then left to take care of it.


    "If only that Bai Yun hadn''t arrived at that precise moment and ruined our plans." One of the members of the group said.


    "Yes. If only."


    Bai Qing''s eyes had become much colder than before.

 31 The troubles that brew

    Bai Yun left the weed valley after his meeting with Bai Qing. His entire body was in a state of severe damage due to the river. The worst of it was his qi spiral, which was quite impure. It would take him a lot of trouble to fix it. Thankfully he had the supreme weed fruit, and thus could fix as much as possible.


    He had stayed in the garden for a nearly two weeks. The clan gathering was only six months away. He had to increase his strength as much as possible by then.


    Bai Yun left the beast garden and took a bus direct to his house. Due to his status, he was able to quickly catch a clan bus and reach his home in a manner of hours, where as walking the entire way would have taken him days.


    The moment Bai Yun stepped inside his house, he felt a wave of energy roll over him. He was immediately immobilized by the aura and stood there rooted, sweating. He was forced to one knee to withstand the pressure.


    A second later the huge pressure was lifted. "There you are Yun." His father said with a smile.


    Bai Yun realized that the wave of energy he felt earlier was not intentionally directed at him. It was simply the energy that spilled over from his father unintentionally. But even the unintentional pressure given of by a third step cultivator was not something that he was capable of withstanding right now.


    Bai Yun slowly stood up. His father was standing over a table in the middle of the room. On the table he could see a large map of the continent spread out, with some special spots marked on it.


    "What is going on?" Bai Yun asked. For his father to be so concentrated that he did not even notice him approach, the situation must have been quite serious.


    "Its nothing, since I haven''t done anything for so long, those old bastards at the council are asking me to do some troublesome work. Its nothing to worry about."


    Bai Yun walked up to the table. On the map, there were some places marked in multiple colors. There were also some numbers and dates marked on the map. The funny thing was that the oldest of the dates went back as far as over a hundred years ago.


    Bai Yun looked at his father and raised his eyebrows. Based on the fact that the entire thing was laid out on the front door step, he was sure that the affair wasn''t classified.


    "Don''t tell anyone what I am to tell you. Those old bastards will be after my ass if I caused a panic in the clan. Well its not as if it could be kept as a secret for long anyway." His father said with a sigh.


    "The places that are marked are places a particular incident took place. The places marked red are where the caravans of our clans were attacked, while the different colors represent different major forces of the continent. The white ones are where small villages or forces where attacked."


    Bai Yun looked at the map. Even though there were many dots on the map, they were spread over a large area. It was also over a long time, and attacking many different forces.


    "Due to the nature of the attacks, and the fact that no one wants to let others know that they were attacked, most of the information was kept secret by each force. We did not know of the scope of these until very recently."


    As Bai Yun looked at the map once again, he realized that the attacked initially were even farther apart by a few years, but they were getting more frequent inthe later years. There were over a dozen attacks in the last year alone.


    "It was only when the frequency of the attacks increased that we noticed the pattern a few years ago. Even then we only started to exchange information on the attacks in the last month or so. As a result of all this, not a lot of people outside the dao step cultivators of the top forces know of this."


    "What happened?" Bai Yun asked with a frown.


    "It is truly horrific." Bai Mu said with a sigh. "Small groups, a hundred or so in size were attacked and all of them were killed. Then their blood was drained. When the corpses was found, all of their blood was gone without exception. Even the blood of mortals was taken in some cases."


    "Was it the work of blood cultivators?" Bai Yun asked with a frown.


    Blood cultivators where a special type of cultivators. They followed a different system from the three main systems. At the same cultivation a blood cultivator was superior to a person in any single system of the three main systems. But the blood cultivators fought using blood, and also used the blood of their enemies to cultivate, thus they were looked down on and even hunted down in some cases. There were many cases of blood cultivators going wild and killing people to increase cultivation.


    Bai Mu shook his head. "No. The traces found does not support blood cultivators. Not only that even other races like vampires or ghouls could not have anything to do with them. We couldn''t find out anything on who could have done this."


    Bai Yun frowned as he thought about this. Suddenly his body shook as a memory emerged in his mind. ''It can''t be'' he thought.


    "Since we had no idea what it was, we ignored it for a while. But then someone from the city of scholars send the details of the incident to the Immortal Plane. And then they responded. Apparently it is something that came from the previous epoch, the fourth epoch."


    ''No, don''t say it.''


    "Apparently it is something called a..."


    ''No. Please no.''


    "Devil Ritual."


    Bai Yun felt like a lightning storm went off inside his head. He heard a name that he had not been expecting. A word that should have been erased. A word that brought back his worst memories.


    Devil rituals were rituals used by the devil army to give powerto the humans that followed them. Using devil rituals it was possible to forcefully increase ones cultivation without suffering any backlash. Even people who reached the limits due to their talents could breakthrough using devil rituals. But the cost was the lives or sufferings of far too many humans.


    He had seen many kinds of devil rituals during the war. There were many that killed people and used their blood, or souls or body parts to complete the rituals. There were even rituals where people where tortured and their resentment was used to cultivate. The devil rituals that he had seen where some of the worst things that he had seen in his life.


    Bai Yun did not hate the devil emperor or the devil army too much. They mostly fought very bravely and fiercely. And even when they killed their enemies, they did nothing disrespectfully.


    The ones he hated the most where traitors who betrayed the army for the devil rituals. He knew many people who did so. And without question, anyone who used devil rituals would go very far in their cruelty. Even the devils who gave them the rituals treated people better than they did.


    For a moment Bai Yun had no idea what had happened. There was no mention of the grand war in his memories. And after the devil emperor self destructed, he thought that even the memory of the devils where wiped out.


    But he soon realized his mistake. The destruction of the Devil Emperor only removed all memories of him alone. And the devil army and other things related to them would not be forgotten. The reason no one here knew of them was simply due to the passage of time. At least the devil rituals remained. Also there seemed to be people in the Immortal world who knew the truth. It seemed as if someone had found some devil ritual and was using it to cultivate.


    "What exactly is going on?" He asked his father.


    "We don''t know much. Apparently the devil rituals were developed in the fourth epoch. Devil cultivators are extremely cruel, and considered an enemy of the world. It was said that we should kill all of them. And if we find the devil ritual, we are to destroy it. The Immortal Plane even offered us rewards for their capture. So all the forces are actively participating in the search."


    Bai Yun looked over the map even more closely. After making sure that the spots picked for devil rituals did not make any dao patterns, he was satisfied. A truly powerful devil ritual could even require one to make sacrifices in specific locations so as to maximize the ritual. But this seemed to be only a low level ritual. He smiled. His father should be able to handle such people.


    "I initially thought that the whole thing was just a headache when those asses dumped all that work on my head, but after seeing some images of the attacks, I want to murder the bastard that did it. I wanted to show you the images, but your mother thinks its unnecessary. Maybe when you are stronger I will show them to you."


    ''Yes. It is unnecessary. More than you will ever know.'' The only time Long Tian had ever vomited, was when he saw the aftermath of one of the devil rituals for the first time.


    "Your mother and I are going to the City of Scholars to meet up with the various forces and device a plan to find the culprit. I was waiting to inform you before we left. Do you want to come with us. You can apply to one of the academies there."


    "I will go there after the clan competition is over. There is something I want from the clan treasury."


    Bai Mu raised his eyebrow for a moment, then nodded and turned to leave.


    "Be careful during the next few months. Since we won''t be here, you can simply ask anything you need from old Hai. I have already told you of the basics of cultivation. As long as you practice without destroying your foundation, it will be fine." Bai Mu said as he left.


    Bai Yun stood there and though about what he had heard just now and its implications. If some devil cultivators was roaming here, he would definitely slaughter them all.


    But he was too weak right now. A simple swipe from them was enough to turn him into a puddle.


    Bai Yun smiled. In the end what he had to do was simple. Become strong enough to slaughter the trash.


    With a smile he went to his courtyard to consume the supreme weed fruit.

 32 The light at the end of the tunnel

    A week had passed since his father had left for the City of Scholars. Bai Yun had used this time to break through to the third stage of qi condensation as well as the third pattern in skin sewing. Bai Yun placed the third mysterious pattern on his right arm. Right now, his right leg and both arms were covered with mysterious patterns, making them much stronger.


    He used the remainder of the energy of the supreme weed fruit in order to heal his soul and body. He had finally repaired the damage done to his soul. Now he could use all three of his soul tendrils properly. The only thing left for him was that he could not completely remove the impurities in his qi. But he had gotten rid of most of it. The remaining impurities would not hinder him. And he could soon get rid of it with regulr cultivation in due time.


    It was time to meet up with the couple, so he decided to leave. He asked old Hai to deliver him close to the address. He did not want t o travel the entire region in the bus since he was unfamiliar with the area.


    "Young master did you hear what happened with the supreme weed fruit. I heard that someone stole it from Bai Qing. You were there. Did you see anything." Bai hao asked after he dropped him off.


    "I don''t know anything." Bai Yun replied with the innocence of a newborn.


    As old Hai left, Bai Yun wondered whether he asked such a question because he suspected something.


    After he left old Hai, he turned back into Bai Long. As he walked through the region following the map, he heard discussion coming from all around him by people on the supreme weed fruit. Even though the details weren''t publicized, it seemed as if everyone knew that someone stole the supreme weed fruits right underneath Bai Qing''s nose.


    Bai Yun reached the vicinity of Bai Shi''s house. He looked around silently after merging with the shadows. He saw two people who were covering the house, spying on them. One of them was looking at the front door, while the other covered the back door. Bai Yun slowly moved, out of everyone''s vision.


    He hid around the back and waiting until the shadows grew longer. This would have been easy if he had been of a higher cultivation, but unfortunately, he was not. He kept his eyes locked on the person who was watching the back door. No one could keep watch without making a mistake for a long time unless he was specially trained for espionage. But the people that Bai Qing arranged were far from it. Especially since a week had already passed since the theft occurred, and they had gotten sloppy.


    Bai Yun only waited a short while before the person made a mistake. For a short moment he took his eyes off the door. Bai Yun may have missed it. But not the Assassin God. In the blink of eye, he covered the distance to the door, opened the door and entered the house without making any noise, all before anyone noticed.


    Once he entered he confirmed that the couple was indeed in the house, and that it was empty apart from them. Once he did so, he started to move towards them.


    "When would he come?" He heard Bai Ling-er ask.


    "He said in theafternoon today. He should come soon. It is not easy to shake off the surveillance on the house." He heard Bai Shi reply.


    "What if he didn''t come? Aren''t you worried at all?"


    "If that happened, we can only say that we had poor eyes and nothing else. Do you expect to find him and ask for the fruits."


    Hearing this, Bai Ling-er pouted. With a smile, Bai Yun revealed himself from the other room.


    "It seemed as if someone doesn''t trust me. I am sad." He said.


    The two of them stood up quickly and turned to face him with a smile.


    "Of course not. We trust you very much." Bai Ling-er said.


    Bai Yun studied the pair in front of him. Bai Ling-er seemed to be the hyper type, while the Bai Shi seemed to be a quite type who seemed to not talk much with people who he was unfamiliar with.


    "Can I ask you something?" Bai Ling-er asked just as he was about to speak. Bai Yun nodded.


    "Is listening in on people speaking your fetish?"


    Bai Yun was stunned as he looked at Bai Ling-er. Bai Shi covered his face with both of his arms. He decided to ignore the question.


    "Here are the two supreme weed fruits I promised." Bai Yun said, tossing them at the couple.


    "Thank you." Bai Shi said.


    "No need to thank me. It was what I promised you."


    As the two of them took the fruits, he smiled. Now it was time to move on to other matters.


    "As you can guess, I didn''t come here for this alone. I want to ask you for a long term cooperation." Bai Yun said.


    The moment he did so, the looks on their faces changed. The two of them became much more serious in an instant.


    "What do you intent to do?" Bai Ling-er asked.


    "I need information. Information on anything that happens in the clan. There is no need to make it into a large scale network. I am planning on going to the city of scholars after the clan meeting, so a large scale network would soon be abandoned. I would also require you to follow me there and support me. In exchange I am willing to provide you with the best techniques as well as resources for cultivation." Bai Yun said.


    As the two of them started to converse, Bai Yun waited. They had no idea what he meant when he said the best techniques. All of the techniques that he knew where of the god step, thus every one of them were extremely powerful. They were all much more powerful than the ones they could find in the entire Howling Wolf World. Of course, he had no desire to tell them of it.


    After a short discussion the duo came to a conclusion. "We would like to accept the offer, but we are not confident enough that we could get into the same academy as you when you go to the City of Scholars. The restrictions there are quite strict." Bai ing-er said.


    "I intend to enter the Shadow Stream Academy, which allows one to bring subordinates inside. You can simply follow me."


    Bai Shi frowned and said "The Shadow Stream academy is extremely difficult to get into. Do you have any confidence to get in there."


    "Relax. "Bai Yun smiled. "I will surely get into the Shadow Stream Academy. If not I will simply return to the clan. All other academies are worthless anyway."


    BAi Yun was not simply saying this. The biggest reason people went to these academies are for the high level techniques that were available only there. But all of that was unnecessary to Bai Yun who had his memories.


    As for resources that were available in the Academy he could easily acquire them in the Bai clan also.


    But the Shadow Stream Academy was different. His fatherhad once mentioned of a particular item that was available in the academy only. Something that could help him very much. Thus he had no choice but to go to the Shadow Stream Academy.Also the style as well the resources available there also suited Bai Yun''s needs.


    Thus if he could not get into the Shadow Stream Academy, he might as well not bother.


    After the two of them heard him, they looked at each other and then nodded. Turning to Bai Yun, Bai Ling-er said "We accept. We will follow you." After which they bowed towards him.


    Bai Yun grinned. He had found two suitable followers. The very first thing that he proceeded to do was to give them the complete versions of their cultivation techniques. After which he told them not to tell anyone of their techniques no matter what happened. If any of the higher ups where to find out that techniques much superior to theirs were in the hands of these two, it could be problematic. Since they did not know of the true value of their techniques, They did not think much of it


    "First of all, where can I sell the various materials that I got in the beast garden." Bai Yun asked.


    "If you want to sell in the clan, there are a few places. But it is better to sell in the hunter union if you can. The items will get better prices there. Especially if you have a high authority rank."


    Bai Yun nodded. He was planning on joining the Hunter union anyway. He stood up. "I will go to the hunter union tomorrow to sell some items and buy some things that are necessary for cultivation. I will come by once I have something else to do or give you."


    "Yes lord Yun" Bai Ling-er replied.


    "Then I shall see you later." Bai Yun replied. As he turned to leave and reached the door, he paused. Then he very calmly turned around to face the couple with a smile.


    "What did you call me?" He asked sweetely.


    "Lord Yun." Bai Ling-er replied with an equally sweet smile.


    "But my name is Bai Long."


    "Okay lord Yun, I understand."


    The two of them smiled at each other very sweetly, as if they were long lost lovers. For some reason though Bai Shi seemed to find something very interesting about the roof. He was studying it as if his life depended on it.


    Bai Yun sighed, and his face switched back from that of Bai Long to Bai Yun.


    "How did you find out?" He asked with a sigh.


    Bai Ling-er smiled cheekily as she replied. "I knew the moment you came into the clearing of prince Qing. Most of the people who were at the weed valley are only ten or eleven years old, like us. Which meant that not a single person is as tall as you. It was highly unlikely that there would be two very tall people at the qi condensation realm at the weed valley at the same time. Also even though you said that you will let people know that prince Qing has lost the fruits, and goad someone into coming there, we never thought that you would be able to do something like that. So the only possibility was that it was you yourself who came. Even Shi was able to notice it."


    As they both turned towards him, Bai Shi, who seemed to have decided to spend his life studying roof tiles, nodded imperceptibly.


    Bai Yun looked lost for a moment. Then he suddenly looked up with a start. "Do you think that Bai Qing noticed. I mean, I was wearing a large robe to hide my figure when I met him."


    "Almost certainly. He wouldn''t miss something as obvious as that."


    "Then my plan-"


    "Was a colossal waste of time." Bai Ling-er said with a wide grin on her face. It seemed as if she was taking revenge for all that he did to them during the fruit incident.


    Bai Yun felt as if all that he did was truly useless. He felt a darkness overcome his senses and a sense of hopelessness that he had never felt in two lifetimes. Bai Ling-er''s attack was more effective than a dragon''s breath.


    "The light at the end of the tunnel is truly beautiful ah." Bai Yun sighed.


    "Please don''t run away from reality." Came the finisher from Bai Ling-er.


    This was probably the first time in all of history that a titled god seriously considered suicide.

 33 The hunter union

    Bai Yun was walking through the streets of Yellow city. He was going to go and get a licence from the hunter union.


    The hunter union was established a long time ago. It was probably the oldest institution in the entire world. It was said that the hunter union was established by the three great heroes of old many millions of years ago. Then the three heroes finally ascended to the Immortal World. It was only due to the non aggressive nature of the union that it managed to last until now.


    No one knew what the three heroes did to be called as heroes. Some people said that they defeated an evil tyrant, while some others said that they defeated some other extra world monster who drifted in from the endless void. The only thing that people knew was that the fight happened in the Bay of Heroes. The truth was lost in time, probably only known to the highest levels of the hunter union.


    The hunter union played an important role. They where the contact point for people who needed services and mercenaries who could provide the said services.


    Anyone who needed any item or needed a job done could simply contact the hunter union and place a job offer there. And anyone who has registered as a hunter could take it up and get the job done for a reward. Of course the hunter union would take a small cut depending on the authority of the person who undertook the order.


    The biggest contractor for the hunter union was the Little Merchant Association. Since a huge amount of their raw materials came from dangerous places, they needed powerful hunters to collect them. In fact even the items that people who simply walked in and sold at the hunter union was actually sold to the merchant association. They had opened a counter at the hunter union. This was because when they tried to open their own counter at the merchant assassination, not many people wanted to go all the way over there, even if the price was same. Thus the new situation came up. In exchange the merchant union would only place their orders at the hunters union. Besides, selling items at the hunter union would also allow one to get union points. This encouraged people to sell items here.


    Union points was a special property of the hunter union. In the hunter union, the resources you could buy, special events and regions you had access to as well as the the discounts were all based on an authority system. The authority was given to the cards one would get when someone registered as a hunter. But since each card was tied to a person, it was next to impossible to take some one else''s card. Thus a card, for all intents and purposes represented a person.


    There were nine levels to the system, counted in one to nine stars. The union elder council and chairman and all only had a seven star authority. Eight stars was for the the hidden background of the union, the people who would usually stay in the secret realm of the hunter union. The ninth star, or the highest tier, is said to have only three accounts: one for each of the founders. But those cards are said to be lost in time also.


    Not only that the first six stars were also divided into three tiers further, bronze, silver and gold. Six silver stars was the highest any person not affiliated to the hunter union could rise their card to, as the six gold stars was only to upper echelons of the hunter union management.


    The authorities was not decided by the cultivation levels, but by various other factors, like contribution to the hunter union, and fighting strength or potential. Thus technically even a qi step cultivator could have a sixth star authority.


    Bai Yun was going to the hunter union to register as an official hunter. He wanted to get a hunter union license. This would allow him to have an identification in addition to help him take up various jobs, which could give him give him a source of income. Also the dangerous jobs could help him improve him techniques or cultivation. Moreover the union cards were also a source of pride. For example his father had a rare six silver star card, which was the source of envy for pretty much everyone.


    Being the place where the headquarters of the Hunter Union was, the Yellow city hunter union was very busy. But qi condensation cultivators would not go there except on special occasions. There were a few other locations in yellow city for lower level cultivators. Bai Yun was going one of such locations. There was even one in the Bai Clan, but he did not want to go there due to various reasons.


    Once Bai Yun reached there. He walked into the entrance and looked around. He wanted to get a id and sell as much of the items he had collected in the beast valley.


    He asked around, and quickly found the office for new registrations. There were a few people waiting to register. Since most people registered early, there were a lot of people registering in the hunter union here everyday. Bai Yun had to wait for a while in the queue before it was his turn. Since most of the people were in the qi step, he did not stand out at all.


    Bai Yun walked up to the counter and gave his name. When they found out that he was from the Bai clan, and especially that he was the son of the famous Bai Mu, they were surprised to say the least. They were justifiably confused as to why he did not register at the hunter union office in the Bai clan. Bai Yun escaped the inquiry by saying that his mother would worry if he registered as a hunter right after he was healed. They seemed to accept the reason. It seemed as if they have never heard of the demon queen of the Shadow Stream Academy.


    Once they took down his important information, like his age, his cultivation, other details etc, they issued him a card in his name. The card of the hunter union could be used world wide. It could not only function as a identity but also as a bank card. The merchant union operated a bank which had branches across the world, and a hunter union registration automatically opened an account with the Little Merchant Bank.


    "This is an important identity card. Each person can only own one, as the card is tied to your personal aura and soul signature. This also means that a person can have only one card each. That is why the card is considered as a good identification tool. It cannot be faked. Well that''s not true. Maybe there are ten people in the world who could fake a union card." The person who was in charge of registration said, laughing as he did so.


    There were many counters where he could sell items in the hunter union. Bai Yun joined a queue in one of the counters. This queue was much longer than the one for the new registrations. Also unlike that line, this was made up of mostly veteran hunters.


    As a result sometimes some arguments would break out between hunters over their place in the queue. Some would even try to cut the queue if they could.


    As he stood in his queue, a person at the ninth stage of qi cultivation,walked up to him. "Oy move over." He shouted.


    Bai Yun was not hiding his cultivation, as he was in his real identity. Thus seeing his age and cultivation at the third stage of qi cultivation, the person must have thought that he was an easy mark.


    At first he wanted to simply give the spot. But he quickly rejected that thought. He was currently in his real identity, and people who knew who he was were watching. He truly didn''t want to imagine what would happen if knowledge of what happened would reach the ears of his parents if he did so.


    "Get Lost." Bai Yun said staring coldly at the man.


    "You-" Just as he started to speak, Bai Yun concentrated his horrifying killing intent onto that man. Even though he could only utilize a small part of his true killing intent, it was enough to silence the man and leave him stunned.


    "Anything wrong here?" Suddenly the hunter union employee who registered him appeared out of nowhere.


    "Nothing." The man said. "I''ll deal with you later." He murmured to Bai Yun in a low voice. He then left to the back of the queue.


    As the hunters union employee started to peak, Bai Yun waved his hand to dismiss him, and continued to stand in the queue.


    Bai Yun reached the front of the queue soon. He then went inside an appraisal room to sell the different items that he had in his hands. Some of them were hunted by himself, while other items came from the moron group. He had taken a few items that he could sell after claiming that he had hunted them from their storage rings.


    But he did not sell the corpse of the grey rock python. The animal was far too strong for someone at his cultivation stage. Since he was selling on the hunter union, it could cause questions to be raised, as no one would believe that he had killed the snake. For Bai Yun, whose middle name had become caution after going through the Assassin God''s training, this was unacceptable. He would have to find some less legal paths to sell the snake.


    Once Bai Yun finished with the sale, he left and walked a off. He walked for quite a long while, changing directions occasionally, and making it look like he was simply wandering. But as time passed, he seemed to be heading to less populated areas.


    In less than an hour he had reached a very sparse area. Bai Yun then stepped into an empty alleyway without anyone noticing. A few minutes later a stranger wearing completely different clothes walked out of the alley. If Bai Ling-er or Bai Shi saw him now, they would be surprised. It was Bai Long!


    Bai Yun smiled as he remembered the words of the registration officer, that there was only ten people who could create fake identities. ''Sorry, but now there are eleven people who can do so.'' He thought.


    If he could not do so with both God Sense as well as the Assassin God''s techniques, the Assassin God might climb out of the grave to strangle him.


    Bai Yun walked towards a different hunter union building this time, after verifying his location. It was time for him to start creating fake identities. This was the real reason he had chosento go out of the clan to register at the hunter union. It would not be good if all of his actions were traced back to his real identity.


    A few minutes after Bai Yun left a scream came from the alley. The police reached and cordoned off the area in a short time. Soon enough rumors of what happened started to fly.


    It seemed as if a body with no identification had been found in the alley. The police was involved because it seemed to be a professional hit, and they were trying to identify the man so as to catch the killer.


    It seemed as if the man had died with a single slash to the throat from behind, even before he had the time to scream for help.

 34 Fakes as far as the eye can see

    Bai Yun spend the entire day creating fake identities. All in all he created thirteen fake identities. Each of the fake identities had different ages, cultivation, personalities and looks. He even gave some different cultivation systems.


    In order to do all of this he had gone all over the city buying up various clothes, all in various identities. In order to not be tracked, a habit he picked up during the Assassin God''s inheritance, he used various strange places to change his identity. Once he changed in the middle of a store, inside a restroom, and even in the middle of a jam packed bus.


    Of course all of these weren''t for nothing. Among all the identities that he had created he had two that he was intending to use often. One was the identity of an aspiring alchemist. Since he had already decided to take the alchemy path in this life, he had no choice but to create an identity for this. He might be able to say that his main identity was also an alchemist, but it was better to have a back up just in case.


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    The other main identity that he created was to use in the underworld. He knew that it was impossible to avoid the underworld if he wanted to improve quickly. Also as an assassin, it was where his skills would shine the most. And under no conditions could he use his main identity in the underworld. Of course due to the nature of the underworld, he had taken multiple identities that would be used in the underworld for various purposes.


    But most of the identities that he had was backup in case something happened.


    Bai Yun also vowed to make a few more identities. It was not good that all of his identities was focused on only one city and created on the same day. As he traveled, he had to make more fake identities from multiple places. He could also try and acquire some old identities if possible.


    But this wasn''t the end. Bai Yun was planning to create one final identity. This would be the main identity he would use when dealing with the hunter union. Since there were some things he wanted to do as soon as he got the identity, he was forced to put it off until now.


    Bai Yun walked into a hunter union registration office. He was wearing an unassuming black set of clothes. On his back was a rather decent sword he had bought earlier. It had cost him more than half of all the money he had to buy it. He looked just like any other cultivator, except that his face was a little more handsome than usual.


    "Name." The person in charge of registration asked.


    "Long Tian." He replied with a smile. It was time for his name to shine once again.


    The worker took down his name and other details quickly. Hecreated the card and transferred it it to Bai Yun as fast as he could.


    As he looked at the card that held a familiar name, Bai Yun felt nostalgic. But he shook it off quickly, and turned to the registration officer.


    "Excuse me." He said.


    "Yes." The man clearly looked annoyed at having his work increased.


    "I would like to challenge the gold test please." Bai Yun said, surprising the officer.


    The gold test challenge was a special test that could be taken only once by a card holder. It allowed one to raise their card to the gold star level without any other contribution. Not only that, it would keep the card at the gold level until the fifth star level whenever the cards authority increased. It required one to take part in a grueling competition for the prize.


    The officer wasn''t surprised that there was someone who wanted to attempt the gold test. After all almost all veteran hunters have attempted the gold test at one pint or other. But only the most skilled of hunters or cultivators would attempt the gold test. It was almost impossible to see a no name person attempt the test. To see how difficult it was, there were only three people in the entire Bai clan who passed the gold test in the qi step, even less thanthe number of princes.


    His father was the who told him to get the gold card. He himself was a gold card holder and wanted Bai Yun to be one too. Of course he meant that Bai Yun should get the test much later. But he decided to take it for his alternate identity as soon as possible in order to get as much discount as possible. Even if he failed, he had could try as many times as he wanted anyway.


    The officer was surprised for a moment, but he approved it anyway once Bai Yun paid the necessary registration fees. It didn''t matter to him what happened to others.


    Once he got the approval, Bai Yun was shown the way to the gold test area. The gold test did not happen here, but rather in the main headquarters. But the test would happen for different cultivation stages at different places.


    But before he went for the test he went and sold the corpse of the grey rock python. Since by now the night had fallen, the queue at the counter had reduced by a little. And thankfully no one came to annoy him this time. But there was still a few problems. The appraiser did not know what the snake was, and tried to pass it on as a regular animal. It was only after Bai Yun pointed out the mistake, and a senior appraiser was called in and confirmed the species of the snake that the sale went through. Since situations like these happened every now then due to the large number of species of demonic beasts in the evergreen hills, with the volume as well as the location of the hunter union, it did not raise much commotion.


    In order to reduce traffic, there were transportation portals between the various buildings of the hunter union. Bai Yun went through one of the portals, and upon reaching the main headquarters, was directed to the testing area for the gold test for the qi condensation stage.


    Once he reached there, his card and storage ring was taken from him and kept for temporary storage. The only thing he was allowed to keep was his sword. In exchange he was given a ring that contained some potions and some space to keep the items he would acquire during the test.


    Bai Yun was directed to wait in a hall by the receptionist who took his items. The test would begin once the necessary number of people had arrived. When Bai Yun entered the hall there were only a little over ten peple waiting there. As he stood in a corner of the hall, another habit from the Assassin God''s teachings, he saw many people enter one by one. About half of them came here as a team, while the rest seemed to be lone hunters. Even then it seemed as if most of them knew each other, or where interested in making teams. Many people moved around to socialize. Of course, no one bothered to socialize with Bai Yun after seeing his I''ll kill you if you get near me aura.


    Once two hundred people arrived in the hall, it was closed. Soon after a woman with a clipboard appeared and confirmed the names ofeveryone on the list. After this they were asked to follow her to the testing grounds.


    "I am sure that everyone knows that the gold test is split into three parts. For people who do not know of the test, I shall explain the rules of the test." Bai Yun had heard about the rules of the test from his father before, but he listened to the rules once again.


    "The test is divided into three parts. The first part eliminates a hundred people to leave only a hundred participants. The second part eliminates sixty eight people to get thirty two people. The final thirty two people are the only ones who are eligible for the gold card and will participate in a knock out tournament."


    "One important thing to note is that your entire test will be evaluated. The number of gold cards given is not fixed. But it is only given to the people who have reached the final round. There are many times when no gold card is given to anyone, even the champion of the test. Also there was a time all thirty two finalists got the gold card also. It is also possible that qualified people can lose out by not making it into the final round by bad luck. That is also a criteria of the test."


    "But that doesn''t mean that you should not try hard in the final test. There is a lot of weightage given to your performance in the test. Also you can get special prices if you win top positions."


    Saying so the woman led them to a large area.


    "This is the region for the first test, Survival."


    Saying so she passed around a set of tokens for each of the participants. Each of these tokens contained a small button on them, along with their hunter card registration number.


    "Keep these token with you. These tokens are essential to your survival in the first test. If you think that you can no longer hold on, you can simply press the button on the token, and you will be teleported here. Of course, once you do so, you will have considered to have lost."


    "To a hunter the most important thing is survival. Only by surviving can one start to get stronger or earn a living. If you die then everything else ends. Thus the most important mission in the first step is to simply survive."


    "In the first test, each of you will be teleported into a random location in the field. In the field other than each of you, there are also many demonic beasts from the first to third circles of the qi step. Your objective in the first test is to survive."


    "During the first test the enemies will not only be the beasts, but also the other hunters. The only objective for the first test is that the number of deaths is kept to the number required. We do not care how you are eliminated. So note that other hunter might be trying to kill you too."


    "By deaths we mean that you are kicked out. It is suggested that each and every one of you immediately use the token as soon as it gets dangerous so that you do not die. The button of the token can even be pressed by others in order to help someone leave. We will also forcefully eject someone if we find someone who is in imminent peril but is unable to defend himself. Also please note that if we find someone who is purposefully killing people off, without allowing their opponent to press the button, that person will also be eliminated."


    "That said we know that accidental deaths are understandable, and wont be punished."


    "So all of you good luck."


    She said, and all of the participants were immediately covered with a white glow.


    A moment later Bai Yun found himself in the middle of a grassland.


    The first test had begun.

 35 Survival

    Bai Yun immediately fell to the ground, barely raising his head above the grass. Once he did so, he started to look around.


    The object of survival was to simply survive until the end. There were many ways to do so. One could either simply hide somewhere until a hundred people were eliminated. For Bai Yun who liked to stay away from others and train by himself this sounded like a good idea. But he knew that this was not a good option. Because he knew some inside information on the tests courtesy of his father.


    This was because the gold cards were awarded based on your performance in all three rounds. And people who hid or ran away would only get the minimal number of marks from the evaluates.


    The evaluates even called the first test by a different name, the hidden hunt.


    So Bai Yun could only hunt as many people as possible in order to pass the test. And give a good performance as he did so.


    Once he confirmed that there were no enemies in his immediate range, he stood up. The area around seemed be a small valley. He looked around. Even though the rules for the gold test remained unchanged, the places the test took place often changed.


    He was surrounded by rolling hills interspersed with trees. The grass here only came up to ones knees. Bai Yun frowned at this. He would have preferred a place with more shadows.


    Bai Yun had reached both the third stage of qi condensation as well as the third mysterious pattern stage. But his true strength was much greater.


    Even before his recent breakthrough he was able to content against Bai Qing who was then at the seventh stage of qi condensation with one of his soul tendrils damaged. Of course he was much stronger than a normal seventh stage cultivator. But the improvement that he got would only allow him to win against an eight stage qi condensation practitioner at the most. The difference betweentwo cultivation stages increases greatly with each stage. He was sure than even if he reached the fourth stage in both qi condensation and skin sewing, he still would not be the match of a nine stage qi condensation realm cultivator.


    Of course there is also the fact that the people who were here were not average. People who were not confident in their skills would not come for the text.


    To add an extra hurdle more than half of all the people who came here were people who came in teams. And most of the others had also formed temporary teams. Other than Bai Yun,all of the people who were moving alone were the strongest people in the test.


    If the environment was a forest or other such areas with lots of cover, he could have at least ambushed and killed some people using the Assassin God''s techniques. But even that was not possible for Bai Yun in the current state.


    So to sum it all all up, he was the weakest party in a region he could not exhibit his true strength in, and had to actively try and kill as many people as possible, all for something he could easily obtain in a few months once his cultivation rose, and had no particular use for right now.


    If there was a God of Recklessness, he would immediately abdicate and give his seat to Bai Yun!


    But at the same time his blood was boiling in excitement. A chance to sharpen his skills could not be lost at all. He looked as if he could not help it. The blood of psychopaths that flowed in his body was screaming at the challenge.


    Bai Yun started to move up a hill nearby. He simply walked up a short while and started to look around. He knew that the current time when people had not yet met up with their teammates was the best time for him to attack. It would only get more dangerous as time went on.


    Bai Yun quickly moved through the grass, and laid down on the hill top. As he looked around, he saw someone who was moving along quickly. A quick look and Bai Yun realized that it was a young man in the eight stage of qi condensation.


    Bai Yun knew that his situation was quite dangerous, but he decided to move anyway. He calmly walked down the hill towards his target, without even bothering to hide himself.


    Even though he started using the Assassin God''s techniques quite often, Bai Yun ,or Long Tian, was not someone who originally did such things. Long Tian was someone who would charge head on into battle, without any hiding around. The only reason he used the techniques of the Assassin God was because he was still weak.


    With each step he took, Bai Yun could feel Long Tian returning. The soul which bred terror into the hearts of devils was once again starting to scream in excitement.


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    When he was halfway down the hill, his target seemed to have found him.


    "Well hello there?" He said turning to Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun calmly walked down, swinging his sword along the way. "It seems as if one of us needs to be eliminated. You wouldn''t happen to be a sport and quickly go away would you." Bai Yun was currently pretending to be someone at the seventh stage of qi condensation by using his god sense, so as to not frighten his enemies, as well give a reasonable justification for his strength.


    The other person laughed, "I shouldn''t fight before I meet up with my teammates, but I guess I will kill you first." Saying so he then lunged towards Bai Yun. He attacked him with an outstretched arm sending a punch straight to his head.


    Ba Yun stepped out of the way, and used his sword to slide the attack out of the way. Immediately the other person used his knee to send a kick to Bai Yun. Bai Yun caught the kick easily, sliding backward in a moment. His attacks were too strong for Bai Yun to stop easily with his current strength. Bai Yun was using this time to slowly polish his sword techniques.


    One after the other the two of them continued to exchange blows. But Bai Yun was barely holding his opponent back. The only reason for his success was the Simple Sword. His attacks were well timed in order to break the opponents momentum. Every time his opponent tried to start a powerful attack, he would interrupt it with an attack.


    The entire fight was very uncomfortable to the other person. As a young and talented man, he was used to ending fights with his signature moves. But Bai Yun was giving him no chance to do so.


    At the same time Bai Yun was enjoying this fight. Simple Sword could only be said to be mastered if his body reacted to the threat even before he noticed it. There were three levels to the simple sword, sword following the eyes, sword following the soul, and soul following the body. In sword following the eyes, one sees an attack coming an moves to intercept it. In sword following the soul, one can predict an attack and move to intercept it. And in sword following the body, the attack would be intercepted before his brain registered it. Bai Yun had mastered the simple sword and reached the sword following the body in his previous life, but he had to do the whole thing again starting from scratch, and he needed to engrave the technique into his body. Even though there were a few mistakes, his body was slowly learning his fighting style.


    Bai Yun started to push his enemy, slowly gaining an edge, but he knew that he could not keep it up for long. His qi reservoir much much smaller than his enemy.


    Since he knew that he could not maintain the current state for long Bai Yun started toattack more aggressively,but he was unable to find any opportunities.


    As the fight progressed, it was not only Bai Yun that wanted to end it soon.


    Just as Bai Yun started to wonder if there was anything else to do, his enemy used one of his attacks to fall back. The force of the attack as well as his own push caused his some injuries and blood started to trickle down his mouth. Bai Yun''s eyes flashed with a cold light.


    Bai Yun had seen his opponents intent to jump back but was unable to react to it in time. He could not let his opponent gain time to use a special skill. The damage he would take in blocking such an attack once it was fully charged would be tremendous. Even if he would be fine and was able to killhim, his further fights would be affected. Bai Yun charged forward using wind motion. He had not used it before in order to make the opponent misjudge his speed.


    "Damn you bastard." The young man screamed. A white glow appeared above his right hand. He had finished charging his attack.


    Bai Yun charged straight at him with his sword. He used a ray of moonlight, closing the distance in an instant. A brilliant ray of light lit up the tip of his sword, drawing a perfect line in the air. He held his sword to his side moving up quickly.


    Bai Yun''s increase in pace caught his enemy off guard. He quickly brought his hand down in front of him, aiming at Bai Yun''s head.


    Bai Yun stopped the his charge immediately, cancelling wind motion. Due to the high speed he was under, he grunted as the force of his body nearly harmed him. Since his opponent charged up with his hands above his head, when he attacked, his hands came from above. Bai Yun stopped just short of his attack, letting it fall in front of him.


    His opponent smiled watching his. Since Bai Yun had to stop to dodge, he was too far away to attack, and his sword would lose its momentum. With the added pressure of the sudden stop, he would not be able to react to his next attack.


    Just as the opponent was about to start his next attack, he heard a soft bang coming from somewhere. Thinking that it was probably an enemy, and wanting to end this fight quickly, he pulled his fist back for an punch. The next instant, his right shoulder ha been pierced through by Bai Yun''s sword.


    What happened was that when Bai Yun came to a stop, he did not end his attack. He let go of the sword, an and at the same time, he used his palm to send a blow to the base of the sword to increase its power. This was the bang that his enemy heard. IT was hidden by his body that was leaning forward. This should have normally deactivated a ray of moonlight, but he used the power of his sword tendrils to keep it bound until it worked and went through the shoulder.


    The young man landed in an awkward posture and took a moment to gather his strength. "You bastard-" He shouted looking up. But before he could say anything, a head appeared in his vision. The next second Bai Yun rammed into him with full force, his shoulder perfectly aligned with the young man''s heart. At the same time he grabbed the hilt that was sticking out of his shoulder.


    In an instant the young man flew back, tumbling and rolling as he did so. The hit to his heart had disoriented him quite a bit. But the moment he came to he froze as he felt the tip of a sword againsthis neck.


    "Now be a good boy and press the button." Bai Yun said while smiling.


    To the young man it seemed to be the smile of a devil.

 36 Shadow Leopard

    After he send the young man out, Bai Yun looked around. There were no other contestants or beasts nearby.


    Most of the people in the first test were trying to find their teammates. Being alone was dangerous, and teamwork was especially important in the second test. Most of the people would have brought in some items to locate their teammates. Thus they wanted tomeet up with their teammates before they started their campaign, thus the first test would go on for a while.


    Bai Yun started to walk forward, rubbing his shoulders as he did so. His right shoulder still hurt from the ram, as he hadn''t done skin sewing there before.


    Bai Yun had a good start. He was in no hurry to find another opponent. He had wasted quite a bit of energy in the fight just now and knew that he had to recover as much as possible before he started his next fight.


    The region he was walking through was dangerous, and it was already late in the evening when the test had begun. By now the sun was starting to set, and a grassland was a dangerous place in the night. Thankfully it seemed as if there were not many beasts in the grasslands, and Bai Yun''s exceptional ability, assassination techniques and god sense gave him an edge in the night.


    Bai Yun moved slowly getting himself used to the situation. Along the way he only met up with a single first circle beast. But he knew that this situation would not last for long. As time went on, more and stronger beasts would be send here.


    Bai Yun decided to find a base to rest temporarily until the morning came. He looked at the territory and decided to sleep in a large tree rather than on the ground. Unlike many other, he had not brought any comping equipment, or detection equipment, making the ground a poor choice.


    After an hour of searching, he found a tree to his liking. By then he had killed another two first circle demonic beasts and a second circle demonic beast. Bai Yun climbed onto the tree, and cleared it of all the unnecessary twigs, and secured a place for him to sleep. He fell asleep almost immediately.


    Bai Yun laid there in relative peace until the morning light came. As it did so, suddenly as a small light started to envelop Bai Yun, he rolled over, and fell down straight into the ground.


    Bai Yun''s eyes opened just a moment before hit the floor. In front of eyes, a green field was getting closer and closer. Bai Yun tucked and rolled, reducing the impact. The light that covered him had gone by then. Bai Yun had caught glimpse of the light. It was the light triggering the automatic withdrawal of participants in case of extreme danger.


    The moment he stopped, he looked up at the tree, but he could not find anything there. His eyes narrowed. There was nothing not only in his vision but even in his perception. But he knew that he would not have fallen out of the tree for no reason. His god sense had acted up in that instant, Which meant the he had come very close to death. So whatever it was that attacked him, was very good at hiding. Not only that it must be fast too.


    Bai Yun stood up and looked around. A good mobility was needed to fight a concealed and fast opponent. As he stood up, his sword had appeared in his hands and he had taken a defensive posture. As Bai Yun stood there waiting, he felt an attack coming from his back.


    Bai Yun rolled forwards, at the same time he kicked up, sending his attacker flying. As the beast sailed over him, he caught a glimpse of it. In an instant Bai Yun''s eyes narrowed and he send one of his soul tendrils out almost subconsciously to wrap around the beast. He rolled over and came to a stop standing. As he did so, he looked at the small black leopard that was looking at him. It was a shadow panther.


    A shadow panther was a strong demonic beast on the same league as the lava spiders. But unlike the lava spiders, they were fast and agile, and its main ability was concealment. It could even be considered among the strongest beast in its league. Thankfully this shadow panther seemed to be only in the second circle. If it was in the third circle he would have ran immediately. There was probably no one in the qi condensation realm in the entire howling wolf world who could handle a third circle shadow panther.


    Bai Yun smiled wryly. "You moronic, donkey headed, monkey brained idiots. Whyy are you sending a Shadow Panther in to the test. And in the night to boot. Is this survival or murder." He roared at the sky.


    Even the shadow panther, which was surprised by his two missed attacks was startled by the shout. It jumped up before staring at Bai Yun calmly.


    Unbeknownst to Bai Yun, at the same time in thecontrol room, there were a group of people who were looking at the screens and analyzing the fights. Currently all of their eyes were on Bai Yun.


    "Hey not bad, that brat actually dodged the panther. Even though I send the panther to him because I was pissed at how easily he was napping, I did not expect him to actually dodge the attack. It seemed that the activation of the teleportation function was not needed. He must have some artifact that warns him of danger." A well build middle aged man wearing a floral shirt and shorts and eating popcorn exclaimed.


    "And it seems he knows what his opponent is. Though there seemed to be a few insults included in that report of his ." Another man who was sitting next to him said while laughing.


    "That''s understandable. Anyone would be pissed if they were surrounded by a couple of Shadow Leopards." Saying so the middle aged man put down his popcorns and leaned forward, interacting his perception with the controls in front of him. But in an instant his power was cut off by someone.


    "Bell." A sweet voice said from behind him. "I hop you are not planning on doing something, are you? An examiner sending a Shadow Leopard is bad enough, but sending even more. Just how many of them do you think we have." It was the lady who had guided Bai Yun and company to the testing grounds.


    "Nope boss. I was just making sure that I could react in time in case things got dangerous." He replied while shaking his head. A chuckle went around the room.


    The lady smiled. "I came to head the test this time because I heard that we had a few celebrities here. But it seemed as if we might also have a few diamonds in the rough."


    "Speaking of the celebrities, look there." One of the people in the room pointed at a screen.


    The woman looked at the screen. There a young girl could be seen walking in the direction of Bai Yun and the Shadow Leopard. She smiled. "It will be fun if they meet. One of them is a famed genius from a major force. While the other person is simply impressive. Even though he clearly knows what he is facing, he isn''t frightened at all. In fact he is smiling."


    Bai Yun was indeed smiling. For others, the Shadow Leopard might be a terrifying opponent, but not so for Bai Yun. The shadow leopards biggest advantage was its concealment ability as well as its sped. But now that Bai Yun had tied one of his soul tendrils around the shadow leopard, its concealment was all but nullified. And the simple sword would be a nightmare for anyone who only had speed but no strength or technique.


    Of course if it was too fast for Bai Yun to react, then any technique would be useless. But a second circle shadow leopard was not so fast. But Bai Yun was still annoyed about something. If this was an contestant, he could have at least reduced the number of enemies. But any beast was worthless in the first test. The only thing he would gain would be cuts and bruises.


    Bai Yun looked at the animal closely. He had calmed down after the shout. After promising to personally strangle the test takers, he moved towards the beast once again.


    Bai Yun did not make a move and waited for the leopard to approach. It did not disappoint. After a moment of hesitation, it leaped towards Bai Yun once again.


    Bai Yun was reminded of the attack of the grey rock python. But the leopard, even with its increased cultivation, was still slower. He simply used his sword to deflect the leopard and send it flying.


    The leopard tuned around and ran at him. It was shorter than Bai Yun , but it could match up to him by standing on its two legs. Bai Yun simply used his sword to block the leopards attacks, while using his left hand to send a punch at its face. In response the leopard jumped back, receiving the punch in its chest to minimize damage.


    The leopard moved back and the attacked Bai Yun once again. This time Bai Yun crouched down, sending a slash up at the beast. It used its outstanding agility to dodge the close attack, butnot before it had a small cut on its rib.


    As the two of them drew back once again, the beast looked down at its torso and saw the blood slowly drip down. It seemed to make it mad as it turned to Bai Yun and roared.


    "What are you mad?" Bai Yun chuckled, even as his sword tip lit up with a small light.


    As the leopard attacked him, Bai Yun thrust his sword forward. The leopards eyes narrowed as it saw the light at the sword tip. It roared, and its muscled flexed. Knowing that it was too late to dodge, it put all of its strength into it''s forearm, and swiped at full force.


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    As the two attacks collided, the two of them flew back with a bang. Bai Yun balanced himself and swung his arm that had started to throb a little bit. The leopard on the other hand had a cut up its leg, and was bleeding quite well. It turned to Bai Yun and growled in a low posture.


    Bai Yun grinned and got into an attack mode once again. As he was preparing to face off against the beast once again, both he and the beast felt someone enter their perception. As Bai Yun looked towards his left, he saw a little girl in a red dress enter the field. On her hip, she was wearing a small green whip.


    "Waa, what a cute kitty." She exclaimed.


    Bai Yun wondered whether it was only the ones he met, or whether all the women in this world were crazy.

 37 Magical Beasts

    Bai Yun looked at the newcomer. She was a young girl who was staring at the beast with a look of wild joy at her face. She seemed to be only about ten and from the looks of her clothes, quite rich.


    The shadow panther looked at the newcomer warily. It seemed to be wondering what it was, just like Bai Yun. The girl stared at the beast for a while before extending her hand out and beckoning the leopard towards her. The leopard seemed to stare at her for a while, before slowly walking over to her. The little girl seemed to be delighted upon seeing its actions.


    As Bai Yun watched the beast walk over, he was stunned. The girl had not usedany beast taming skills, or any soul attack, and had simply called out for the beast. There was no way a simple call would be enough to work on the shadow leopard. Bai Yun was about to warn the girl, but he stopped himself. Not only was she an enemy, he had a feeling that there was no need to do so as she seemed to have a high a high cultivation base. No matter how powerful the beast was, it was only at the second circle. And in the worst case, she would only be teleported out. This would be a great learning opportunity for her.


    As he expected, the leopard slowly walked toward the girl. When it was a few steps from the girl though, a vicious look passed through its eyes, and it suddenly leapt right at her with a roar. The girl seemed to be stunned, before reacting quickly. She didn''t seem to have enough time to pull out her whip, so she simply jumped back using her movement technique. As he watched, Bai Yun was quite impressed. The movement technique she used was quite good, even better than the one he got from the clan library. And the little girl seemed to be quite proficient in it too.


    "What a bad kitty." The little girl exclaimed. She pulled out her whip, and swung it straight at the beast.


    Bai Yun''s eyes narrowed as he watched the swing. His sword swung up in an instant. A second later, the tip of his sword collided with the tip of the whip.


    "You blocked my attack?" The little girl seemed to be surprised. She had used a special skill to hide the trajectory of the attack and make it change the direction midway.


    Bai Yun simply smiled. All that the little girl used was a simple attack that hid the true target and made the whip turn sharply in the last moment to surprise the opponent. This was only a basic whip skill. It seemed as if the girl had mastered only a single change of direction. This was nothing to Bai Yun. Even though he had focused on the sword, he had tried his hand at multiple weapons in his life. Especially during the great war, he had to use whatever he could get his hands on in the beginning before his true sword was made. Even he could easily reach a few dozen change in directions using the whip. Even if that was not the case, he had faced far too many whip users who could easily reach tens of thousands of change of directions in their attacks. If he could not even see through this, he would have died a long time ago.


    Both the little girl adn the shadow leopard seemed to be surprised both at the change of direction as well as the fact that she had targeted Bai Yun first. With a snarl, the beast disappeared. The shadow leopard had not tried using its concealment ability on Bai Yun. It wouldn''t have worked due to his soul tendril wrapping around it. The beats had instinctively known that the concealment wouldn''t work, even if did not know why.


    "Why did you attack me?" he asked the girl


    "Because we are enemies. Also you hurt the kitty. "She replied. "Huh, where did the kitty go?" She was stunned as she looked around, not knowing what had happened. Bai Yun did not know what to make of this. This was the first time he had met someone who was angry over him harming a random beast that had nothing to do with themselves.


    "Whatever. I''ll beat you first, and then look for the kitty." She said turning to Bai Yun. Then her whip made a snap as it attacked him. Bai Yun calmly used his sword to strike at the tip of the whip, neutralizing the attack. Even though the technique that the girl had studied seemed to be good enough, it was obvious that she had not practiced it well. All of the strength of her blow was focused on the tip of her whip, allowing him to easily disperse the attack. If he had tried this method with any of the whip users in his past life, the whip would have slid around his sword, and then gone right through his heart.


    Suddenly Bai Yun grinned. He cast wind motion, and dodged the whip instantly. At the same time, he swung his sword behind him, striking the shadow leopard that had appeared behind him to sneak attack him when he was busy fighting the girl. Even though it knew that it would be pointless to attack him, it could not leave him due to the anger it felt as it was wounded by him.


    The beast was send flying once again, gaining a small cut in the process. It quickly hid itself to initiate its next attack. The beast then went to attack the little girl next. After what happened with Bai Yun she was prepared for the sudden attack, and quickly protected herself. Bai Yun used the gap in her attacks to approach the leopard, and attacked it along the little girl. Seeing the disadvantageous situation, the leopard ran. Bai Yun then turned his attention back to the little girl, who was quickly struggling to keep him at bay. Thankfully the leopard continued its attacks on Bai Yun, allowing her some chance to pause and get back the initiative.


    For a while the three maintained this balance, with all three of them attacking each other. But Bai Yun knew that he could not let the fight continue. Evan though he was using as little qi as he could, he was still running out. A determined look flashed through his eyes. As he waited, the shadow leopard once again pounced at him from behind. "Go kitty." The little girl cheered it on.


    Bai Yun waited longer that he usually did. The beast had gotten too close. He then suddenly turned, ignoring the whip that was approaching him and fell backwards to the ground. A sharp pain shot through him, as he felt the whip graze his shoulder. He had turned too late, and now there was a long cut on his shoulder. It wasn''t a deep cut, and wouldn''t hurt his range of motion, but would hurt quite badly nonetheless.


    Bai Yun thrust the sword at the beasts neck. The beast was airborne and had no way to dodge the attack. A look of fear entered its eyes as it realized the its impending death.


    As they watched the sword get closer to the leopards neck, a while light suddenly covered the beast. In a second it was teleported out of the testing grounds by the examiners. For a moment the couple left behind was stunned. They had not heard about the beasts being saved. Bai Yun then stood up with a chuckle.


    "What the hell! Why did they save the kitty?" The little girl was stunned by the development and had forgotten to continue her attack.


    "Of course they would save the beast. Its a Shadow leopard. There is no way the Hunter Union are rich enough to simply let a Shadow Leopard that could reach the immortal step die." Bai Yun said while applying some medicine to his shoulder . The Shadow Leopard was a beast that could reach the Immortal step. Not only would the Huter Union gain a lot by raising the beast before killing it for its various materials. It would also be possible to tame it and get a powerful guardian beast. In a plane where the strongest was only the Dao step, such a beast was extremely powerful. Even the Lava Spiders that had appeared in the Bai Caln would have been long caught by the clan by now.


    At the same time Bai Yun was wondering if there was a curse on him. Not only had he met the Shadow Leopard and Lava Spiders by now, he even met an even more terrifying Grey Rock Python. In a low level plane it seemed to be insanely unlikely to meet all of these beats in a short time.


    "What! That was a magical beast! Wow we won against a magical beast!" The little girl seemed to be stunned.


    Magical Beast was the term given for demonic beasts that had gained enlightenment and gained true intelligence and could communicate with other races. Since all demonic beasts would undergo enlightenment when it reached immortal step, they would all be considered as magical beasts. Thus it was said that the true rulers of the demonic beats race were the magical beasts.


    It did not mean that every magical beast was of the immortal step. There were four classes of beast that could be called magical beasts.


    At the highest class were the beasts that were of a god race, like the dragons and phoenixes. Such beasts were born enlightened, and was considered as magical beasts the moment they were born.


    The next class were the beasts with a trace of gods bloodline, like the grey rock python. Such beasts would undergo enlightenment when they reached the soul stage. The third class of beasts were called gods descendants and would undergo enlightenment when they reached the Dao step. The final class consisted of beast like the shadow leopards and lava spiders that could reach the immortal step. Each class was significantly stronger than the class below it, and had a higher chance of reaching the immortal step.


    Also this did not mean that all the beasts of that race could reach the immortal step. This only meant that the beast of these races could reach the immortal step without any eternal aid. For beasts of other races, unless one was born as a variant, they would need some heaven changing opportunity to change their bloodline to reach the immortal step.


    "Wow I defeated a magical beast. I am awesome!" The little girl yelled while spinning around.


    Bai Yun sighed while looking at the clearly brain damaged girl. "Its not a magical beast. It only had the potential to be one. If it was a magical beast we would be long dead by now."


    Bai Yun wasn''t exaggerating. It if was a magical beast at the qi step, it would have to be a god race. Even with his powerful techniques, he had no way to match a god race beast. His powers were only about that of a gods descendant. He might be able to match a beast with a trace of gods bloodline at the same rank thanks to his incredible fighting experience as well as god level battle techniques. The only reason he was able to kill the grey rock python was because it was simply playing around at first and then it lost its reason after it was injured.


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    Bai Yun looked at the girl. The test was not over.He was tired after the long fight, and his qi reserves were running low. He had to either run or defeat this girl quickly in order to advance.

 38 The vast universe

    The girl was still spinning around in the high that she had defeated the great magical beast. She had almost completely ignored Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun started to analyze the girl closely. The whip that she was using was of an extremely high quality. His new sword was already starting to break. The whip was of the same quality as the sword that was given to him by his father. Not only that, the movement technique as well as the whip art she was using was of very high standard. But from the way she was usingit, it was quite clear she was very inept at the techniques. Which made sense considering her age. She also seemed to not have any life and death experiences.


    Bai Yun concluded that the girl was probably from a large clan or force and was sent here for the experience for tempering.


    Even though he would normally have attacked an opponent in such a defenseless state, he decided to spare the naive and carefree little girl. Bai Yun ripped out his sleeve and tied up his wound as he watched the little girl. As he was checking the mobility of his arms, the girl finally turned to him.


    "You are still here?" She seemed surprised.


    "Where else would I be?" He asked, amused.


    "Good. You did not run away. Now you finally can witness my, Song Hui''s true strength." The girl declared.


    Bai Yun watched her posturing with a smile. The little girl was probably from the Song family, one of the three great families of the Yellow City. She must also be quite high up in the clan to have such a precious weapon.


    But she was no problem for Bai Yun. The biggest threat she could give was her whip technique. He had already seen through it. Even though she was in the ninth stage of qi condensation,she seemed to be quite easy to handle. Of course this was because of his experience. Any one else would easily be defeated by her whip.


    But it wasn''t that easy for Bai Yun either. His sword was nearly broken. It would be nearly impossible for him to break through the little girl''s defense. It was impossible that she did not know a defensive whip technique. And with his qi half empty, he had no chance at all. But it was also nearly impossible for her to defeat him too. She hadn''t learned how to properly transfer her strength to her whip yet.


    "Why don''t we simply call it quits. It doesn''t seem as if either of us could win." He said. There was no way the examiners hadn''t seen his performance just now. He simply had to wait it out until a hundred people was eliminated. So he had no need to fight.


    "No way!" Song Hui'' said, while attacking with her whip.


    Bai Yun casually parried the attack. This seemed to completely infuriate the little girl. She kept on attacking with increased vigor. Each attack was stronger and stronger than the last. But Bai Yun was an impenetrably fortress, perfectly deflecting each attack.


    But Bai Yun started to frown. Based on the little girl''s laughter, it was as if she had found an interesting toy and it didn''t seem likely that she was going to stop soon. But for Bai Yun it was a race to see whether his qi would run out first, or if his sword would break first.


    Bai Yun knew that he had to do something. In an instant, he took a deep breath, and then directed his killing intent towards the little girl. This would be useless against anyone with even a modicum of experience as they would all be trained not to react under killing intent. But from the moves of the little girl, it was obvious that she had gone through nothing like that. He was waiting for the opening that would appear when she was flustered by the killing intent.


    One by one, the seconds passed by. But the little girl did not react even in the slightest, almost as if she had not even sensed the killing intent. Bai Yun could not understand what happened. Suddenly he broke out in cold sweat. ''Could it be that she is actually a terrifying existence that had already become indifferent to life and death and is playing a role in order to trick me.'' Bai Yun thought.


    Bai Yun cast wind motion and ran back at top speed in order to make distance between them. He almost fell over in his haste. He looked back at the little girl who was looking at his with her head tilted. Her whip was lying in a line between them.


    "Why did you run away? We were having so much fun?" The little girl asked.


    Bai Yun focused his eyes on the girl. He looked at the little girl closely, checking out her stance, the way she carried herself and her reactions. Bai Yun was soon terrified. How was this the stance of an expert. He could see nothing but openings. It was impossible to hide the aura of an expert from the way one stood in front of the enemy. But he could see no such thing from the girl.


    He fell to his knees in astonishment. ''How could she only have openings. Is her understanding of fighting at such a high level that I cannot even see through her stance.'' He thought, as he lost all color in his face.


    "Are you okay big brother. Did I hurt you?" The little girl asked, with concern in her voice.


    ''It can''t be. Its impossible for such a person to exist. The only explanation is that she is an amateur. But how could she not react to that killing intent. Did she not sense it. But that''s impossible. Its an instinctive part of life. Even a rabbit would be able to sense it.'' Bai Yun jerked his head upward, as he looked at the girl.


    One of his soul tendrils sneaked over to the little girl who was staring at him in concern. He quickly wrapped it around the girls ankles and pulled, making her lose her balance and fall over with a cry.


    The little girl jumped up in a moment. "Who was that, show yourself. Don''t attack from behind you coward!"


    Bai Yun was stunned. He had gotten hold of the girls ankles. Any cultivator should have had enough instincts to react when someone attacked, unless the attack was deliberately hidden using some methods, which he had not done. It was impossible for a peak qi condensation cultivator to not notice it. Unless that person had no instincts.


    With that Bai Yun confirmed that the little girl, no the strange creature, in front of him truly had less instincts than a rabbit. It was the first time in his two lives that he had come across such a curious situation. It made him question everything he knew about life itself.


    ''The universe truly is filled with endless marvels.'' Bai Yun thought.


    Bai Yun stood up with a sigh. He had lost all motivation to fight the strange creature. "Lets stop." He said.


    The strange creature turned to him. "Okay. I need to find the person who pulled my leg. I need to beat him up." She said.


    Bai Yun shuddered while looking at the strange creature. He started feeling some fear towards it. He swore to never admit to what he had done. ''What an incredible creature to make even a god afraid.'' He thought.


    What Bai Yun did not know was that right now all the people in the command room was doubled over in laughter.


    "I can''t believe he tried to distract her with his killing intent. That reaction of his was funny." The man on the floral shirt said.


    "I wanted to take a picture of that look of despair. It was perfect." His partner was on the floor by now.


    The boss was trying to main a straight face, but her shoulders were shaking. "Ther''s no need to laugh. Which one of you wouldn''t be surprised if your killing intent was simply ignored. But that kid is very impressive. Not only did he not react when he was hurt, just his killing intent was quite terrifying. I don''t think any of us had a killing intent like that when we were his age. I wonder how he trained."


    The room went silent. The boss had made a valid point. If they knew that what he had shown was only a tiny fraction of Bai Yun''s true killing intent, they would have been completely terrified.


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    "I''ll inform the Hunter Union to keep an eye on him." The man in the floral shirt said.


    Soon after that Bai Yun and the strange creature parted ways, with her still crying out for the unknown attacker. He walked a good distance, and then sat down for a while once he found a secluded place. Bai Yun had spend a lot of qi in the fight earlier, and needed a place to rest. Of course, in a grassland, a secluded space was simply a large tree.


    By now the sun had risen completely. He sat there for a while until noon, slowly recovering his qi and looking back on the fight he just had. He realized that his body still wasn''t properly responding to his instructions. The wound on his shoulder was the proof of that. He would have to adjust his reactions properly, and then slowly hone his body.


    As noon came, Bai Yun opened his eyes. In front of him he could see a young man. He was wearing a black robe and had a spear in his hand. His entire bearing was the opposite of Song Hui''er and was staring straight at Bai Yun with battle intent in his eyes.


    ''He is strong.'' Bai Yun thought.


    "I hope you are strong. All the others were too weak for me to learn anything." The stranger said pointing his spear at Bi Yun.


    Bai Yun stood up with a sigh. He could see that the young man was a battle maniac, and probably one of the strongest in the test. Only one of them would survive the upcoming fight. He closed his eyes and took out his sword. As he opened his eyes, an intense desire to battle appeared in his eyes.


    The black robed young mans eyes shone. "Here I come." He said, before lunging at Bai Yun.


    Suddenly a white light covered the two of them. As their eyes widened in surprise, they found themselves being teleported to the large hall they were in previously. Bai Yun looked around and saw quite a few people in the hall, including the strange creature and the spear youth.


    "Congratulations." He heard a voice in front of them. It was the lady who had led them to the test. "The number of participants in survival has reached one hundred. You have all passed."


    "From now on the second round will beginning. The second round is a group round. Since we are hunters, and we have to hunt together in a group very often, the second round is geared to test the ability of a person in participating as a group. The participants will be separated into twenty five groups of four each, and then the best eight groups will be chosen for the final thirty two. Either your entire group is chosen, or none of you are."


    Bai Yun knew of the rules for the second round. During the second round the choices were much more than the first. Depending on the scenario, both the rules as well as the objectives would vary a lot. He had heard about all of them from his father.


    "The scenario for the second round is..."


    ''Please let it be hunt. Please let it be hunt.'' Bai Yun prayed silently.


    "... War."


    "Shit." Almost the entire room including Bai Yun cursed as a collective. Only a few people like the strange creature who did not know the rules looked confused at this.


    Only the staff seemed to be happy about the rules.

 39 War

    The Hunter Union had conducted many surveys on its gold test. For the gold test when asked which was the scenario that one wanted to get the most in the second round, the answers varied from person to person depending on their or their team''s skills. Scenarios like Hunt, Search, or Labyrinth usually took the top spots.


    But when it was asked which was the scenario that they wanted to encounter the least, there was no top three list. There was only the first. Every surveyor unanimously gave the same answer.


    War.


    War, or as everyone fondly called it, the Civil War. It was possible to fail the objective of war. In the other scenarios, the objectives were team based. For example, in Hunt, the teams had to hunt demonic beasts for scores and the teams with the best scores win. In labyrinth, the first eight teams to find the exit would pass. And so on.


    But the objective of War was a common objective. If the common objective was not met, then every single team could fail. And it was incredibly difficult to pass. Thus War boasted a spectacular ninety nine in hundred chance of failing completely. And even if by some miracle the main objective was cleared, rarely did thirty two people pass the test.


    In other scenarios if even a single member of the team died, by which it means that they ere teleported out, the team would be disqualified. In War it was possible for a team to partially pass even if some of members of the team died. Otherwise the chance that a team would pass War was less than one in ten thousand. Even with this rule it was difficult for thirty two people to survive till the end.


    The rule of War was exceptionally simple. The base of operations of the participants was a city with a white flag in the center. The city was under attack by the demonic beasts.


    The objective of War was to go into the base of the demonic beasts and destroy the black flag that was there before the white flag in the city was destroyed by the beasts. If the black flag was not destroyed, or the white flag was destroyed first, War was considered to have failed.


    This means that some of the participants would have to stay behind to defend the city, while some others had to go and destroy the black flag. The only rule was that the entire team had to move together for the same mission. Thus either the entire team stayed behind to defend or the entire team went to attack. It was not possible to split up a team.


    These rules gave rise to a lot of problems. First of all, who defended the city and who attacked the beast den was left entirely up to the participants. There was no leader selected too. Thus if some disagreement occurred, and if everyone wanted to defend or everyone wanted to attack, or someone objected to the plan, it was far too easy for a fight to start. And since fighting between participants were not prohibited, it was common for participants to fight and kill others. According to legends, there were quite a lot of times, when the entire group but one was eliminated by the infighting, and seeing that it was impossible to both defend and attack at the same time, the last participant would simply kill himself to save time.


    Also in a situation like War, it might be necessary for some special skills like scouting or healing. Since the entire team had to move together, it was possible that people with no skills in scouting had to scout, increasing the chances of death. Also if a person with a good or useful ability was there, the attacking and defending teams might fight over that team, all increasing the chance of failure.


    Not only that, in case more than thirty two people passed War, the final thirty two was chosen by the examiners based on their performance in War. Thus there was usually a fight to get posts that people thought would give them an advantage.


    But no one complained about War, as this was the only scenario where it was possible to get resources during the round. But the resources that one could get was different depending on the positions. This was another point of contentions.


    All in all there was a much higher number of War cases where infighting occurred than those without. In War it was more likely to be killed by others rather than beasts. All of this contributed to war getting its nickname, Civil War.


    Many people had tried to change the rules of War, or to simply eliminate it from the gold test entirely. But this did not seem to work. The sadistic bastards in charge enjoyed War the most, and thought of the whole thing as a game. Thankfully War had a very low chance of happening or no one would come to take the exam.


    As the team watched the participants rage and complain, they simply smiled as they were used to this. They then quickly explained the rules to the people who did not know of them. But since War was probably the most well known scenario, almost everyone knew of its rules


    "The second round would start tomorrow morning. It is currently noon. We have prepared rooms for all of you to stay in until then. Please wait while the teams are decided. If you do not mind which team you are put in, please go through the door on the right so reach the accommodation. If some of you would like to move as a team, please wait here for a while to give your names so that we can try and make it so. Also please note that the maximum number of people that can be in one team is four. Also please note that this is not a guarantee, and we will only try to make teams as per your request, and teams might be broken up if necessary."


    Bai Yun did not care too much about where he ended up and then simply left. But most others did not do so. Only the strongest or the stupidest would not care where they ended up in War. If there was a divide in the team on what to do between the various roles, a Civil War might break out within a team itself.


    As he left, he noticed that three others were leaving with him. They included both the spear youth as well as the strange creature. There was also one other person who was sauntering off to the exit.


    Bai Yun was stunned as he looked at him. He was wearing a robe that seemed to have as many colors as possible and blinded one when you looked at it for the first time. The robe came together in an insane fashion almost making one unable to tear ones eyes away from it. That person might as well right the words target on his forehead. To top it all off, he even had a rose taped on his chest.


    ''An idiot.'' Bai Yun made a snap judgement. But it did not matter to him at all. So he directly left the hall and went towards his accommodation, choosing to meditate and practice his skills as he did so. As he trained, Bai Yun felt that he was getting close to the second move of the moonlight sword, rain under the moonlight.


    As Bai Yun trained, the control room was in a rigid discussion. Usually the entire team making exercise was an easy thing, where they simply grouped people randomly. But this time, the process was a bit different as there were three celebrities in the group. If their backing was unhappy with the groupings, then they might put some pressure on them. Even though they were unafraid ofit, it might get annoying.


    "So there are four people that we need to watch out for. Gong Ming, Song Hui, Zhunge Zi and Long Tian. We cannot put them all on the same team. But at the same time we cannot put them all in different teams. I propose that we split them into two teams." The boss said.


    "That''s fine. But how are we going to separate them. The two teams will definitely be split in attack and defense. If there is any hope for them to win, one of their teams will have to go for the attack and the other defense. And considering their strengths, they will definitely be leaders of their teams. So we will need people who are smart enough to lead."The man in the floral shirt said.


    "From what I saw, Long Tian behaved quite well, and is quite capable. His fighting style is well thought out, and he also seemed to quite intelligent and knowledgeable. He even recognized the Shadow Leopard. Other than the fact that he seemed reluctant to socialize, he seemed to be quite fine. He can easily be a leader. And as for the other three, well I am quite certain that Song Hui has no brains in her head. And Zhuge Zi only has muscles inside his. And as for Gong Ming, he is, he is...." The boss started to speak, but then ended with clutching her head in her hands, unable to finish her thought.


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    "Its fine boss." One of the people there tried to console her. "You nephew will be fine. Even though his personality is, to put it mildly, problematic, he is quite intelligent. He will do well as a captain. And anyway we cannot put Zhuge ZI and Song Hui in the same team anyway. Zhuge Zi will definitely want to attack the demon base, and Song Hui has no idea how to pace herself. If she is put in the attacking team, she will certainly die quickly."


    "So how should we split them up." The floral shirt man asked. "Is it Long Tian with Zhuge Zi and Song Hui with Gong Ming, or Long Tian with Song Huiand Gong Ming with Zhuge Zi."


    "Dont put Gong Ming and Zhuge Zi in the same team. Zhuge Zi has no respect for Gong Ming. They will certainly fight if they are together."


    "So its decided." The boss replied. "We will split them up as Long Tian with Zhuge Zi and Song Hui with Gong Ming. The rest of the teams can be decided at random, with preference given for the lists that were submitted."


    The team quickly dispersed, after deciding on the formalities. The night passed relatively quickly, with all the participants preparing for the second round tomorrow.


    Bai Yun stepped out of his room at daybreak and headed towards the hall. Only less than half of the members had arrived by then. In the middle of the hall the list of the teams were displayed.


    It was time for War to begin.

 40 Start of the second round

    Bai Yun looked at the list that was displayed on the screen. Pictures of the candidates were put up alongside their names so that team members could identify each other. Bai Yun was surprised to see that the spear youth was one of his team members. He had no idea who the other two were.


    As he looked around, he noticed that the other three members of his team were already here. It seemed as if the two people that he did not know where fawning over the spear youth. Bai Yun took a look at him. From his clothes and weapons, it was obvious hat he was from an influential family.


    "There you are. Who do you think you are, making lord Zhang wait." One of then said angrily as he approached.


    Bai Yun was stunned. This was the first time he had experienced something like this. Who would ever ask him who he thought he was even in this life, let alone his past life.


    He saw Zhang Zi frown upon hearing this. Bai Yun figured that he was someone who lived to fight. He had his spear out even in the hall, while people like Bai Yun usually kept their weapons inside their storage rings. Bai Yun had seen many such people in his past life. Such people often fell quickly, but if they did not, they would reach quite terrifying cultivation levels. He could recognize such people with one look.


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    Bai Yun looked at the two people who were here. He had seen their names, but after seeing their actions, he simply decided to call them lackey one and lackey two.


    He proceeded to ignore them and walked up to the group.


    "Too bad we didn''t get a chance to have some fun yesterday. I hope to fight you sometime later." The spear youth said as he approached.


    Bai Yun laughed. "Likewise. I am Bai Yun." He said introducing himself.


    "Zhang Zi." The spear youth replied.


    "Hey, did you not hear me." lackey one asked angrily.


    "Any idea when they will start the second test?" He asked, completely ignoring the two lackeys.


    "They simply asked us to gather here in the morning. They did not specify a time. Most likely, when everyone arrives." Zhang ZI replied.


    The two lackeys started to simmer in anger. But since both Bai Yun and Zhang Zi had ignored them, they couldn''t say anything. So they simply stood there plotting their revenge. Bai Yun knew what they were thinking of. He had met quite a few such people in his past life.


    Since neither Bai Yun nor Zhang Zi were the talkative type, they simply waited while meditating. A short while later Bai Yun opened his eyes. He could see that almost everyone had come. Just now he opened his eyes when he felt the strange creature enter. He was filled with curiosity towards her.


    The strange creature looked around after entering, almost completely ignoring the test team list. Then her eyes lit up when she looked at his group, and then ran up to them. "Big brother Zi, Big brother sword hi."


    For a moment Bai Yun was stunned. ''Am I big brother sword.'' he thought.


    The strange creature ran up to them. Zhang Zi opened his eyes and looked at her while smiling. "Its been a while Hui."


    She turned to Bai and asked "Big brother we meet again. What''s your name?"


    "Bai Yun." He replied.


    "Hui what are you doing here. This place is dangerous. Why did you sign up for it." Zhang Zi asked.


    "Big sis told me about it. I thought that I would come and have some fun here." She replied.


    Bai Yun looked at the two of them. Even someone like Zhang Zi who was a battle maniac seemed to care for the strange creature. She seemed to be like a rabbit, radiating an aura that made someone look after her. Bai Yun realized that even he did not attack her when her defenses are down.


    ''I wonder if it is some defensive ability that the creature developed.'' Bai Yun thought. ''Further research and a larger sample is necessary.'' He concluded.


    Suddenly Zhang Zi froze. He pulled Song Hui behind her and pulled out his spear. "Be careful. He is here." He said very seriously.


    "Huh who is here?" Song Hui asked curiously.


    Bai Yun stiffened. ''Did some enemy slip in without me noticing. Impossible.'' He looked around sharply.


    "Hello there my lady." A voice was heard. "Your beauty radiates like the midday sun, blinding all that see you. Would you please accept my rose as a token of my surrender."


    Bai Yun looked around. The multicolored young man from yesterday was sitting on one knee in front of Song Hui, offering one rose towards her. "Thanks." She replied accepting it.


    "Gong Ming you bastard." Zhang Zi said pulling Song Hui away. "Have some honor, you eel."


    Zhang Zi was standing there with his spear pointed straight at Gong Ming. He seemed to hate him with a passion.


    Suddenly Bai Yun realized something. He had not sensed Gong Ming approach. Of course, since there was no hostile intent towards from Gong Ming, his god sense had not reacted. But even then to slip past his perception was no easy matter. And even a wary Zhang Zi did not notice him. Not only that, he was one of the people who left early yesterday.


    ''He is strong.'' Bai Yun concluded.


    Gong Ming slowly stood up, and patted his robe. He then turned toward Zhang Zi and said. "If it ain''t old Zhang. Long time no see. How have you been?" he asked cheekily.


    "Why are you even here you eel. I thought you would be off trying to pick up girls."


    Gong Ming took out a small fan and started to fan himself, not forgetting to pose. "I heard the birds sing that today was an auspicious day. So I came here to get a gold card. It is very useful in impressing beautiful women."


    "Excuse me but are you even old enough to care about women." Bai Yun asked.


    Gong Ming smiled then put his arms upward and turned his head towards the sky. "Romance has no age." He said.


    "Don''t say things that are said by criminals you bastard." Zhang Zi shouted.


    Just as Zhang Zi was about to throw his spear at Gong Ming, a voice was heard through the hall. "Now now, there is no need to fight. If everyone would please quickly gather in teams." It was the woman who was in charge of the test. She appeared and quickly dissolved the situation.


    Both Gong Ming and Song Hui was in the same team, so the two of them left to meet up with their teammates. "Don''t you dare harm Hui, you eel." Zhang Zi shouted as they left. Gong Ming simply waved his hand in response. The rest of the participants also moved towards their teams.


    "I hate that bastard." Zhang Zi said through clenched teeth.


    "Why, because he isa womanizer?"Bai Yun laughed.


    "He is no womanizer." Zhang Zi replied. Bai Yun was startled. "He would not be considered as a prince of the Gong clan if he was. And I would only look down upon that bastard, not hate him. Everything about him is a lie. His clothes, his mannerisms and even his words. That''s why I hate him."


    Bai Yun''s eyes narrowed as he looked at the young man sundering off. If this was true, then he was indeed terrifying.


    A short while later the teams had been formed. Then the organizer smiled at them. "Well it looks like all of you are ready. Good luck and try not to die." With a wave of her hand, the entire group disappeared.


    As the participants disappeared, the boss smiled. "The best of the generation of both the Song and Gong clan are both here. Too bad Bai Qing is not here or it would truly would have been a battle between the top clans."


    For a second Bai Yun'' eyes were completely filled with white. A moment later he opened his eyes, and was greeted with the sight of a city. As he watched, one by one, the others also started to come to.


    As he stood there, an electric shock went through him. A familiar feeling washed over him. His blood started to boil in expectation.


    Long Tian had spend nearly all of his life in war.


    He was back in his element. He closed his eyes, and stood there savoring the feeling.


    "Hello everyone." Bai Yun opened his eyes when he heard a voice. It was Gong Ming. "I believe that all of you know that we need a leader for the battle. The siege will begin in a few hours. I believe that I will be a good leader. So I nominate myself for the post."


    "You are correct prince Ming." Someone in the crowd replied. "Only you can be the leader of our group."


    "Yes prince Ming. Only you can be our leader." The rest of the participants quickly agreed, sucking up to him.


    Bai Yun looked at Zhang Zi from the corner of his eyes. Even though he seemed to be fuming inside, he did not say anything in protest, confirming that even he accepted Gong Ming as a leader.


    "Aren''t you afraid that he will do something to you in his capacity as the leader?" He asked.


    "If he did that I will kill him. Besides he might be a reptile, but he isn''t the kind to put his personal interest over the larger picture." Zhang Zi replied grudgingly.


    As they watched, Gon Mig smiled as he heard the cheers. He stopped them soon after. "Thank you for all of your support. I will try to do a good job. But I can only be the leader of the defending team,I suggest that Zhng Zi be the leader of the attacking team."


    The crowd applauded Gong Ming''s suggestion, but it was apparent that their enthusiasm was much lesser than when Gong Ming nominated himself for the leader positions. It seemed as if Zhang Zi was not very popular here. But Zhang Zi did not seem to care about it at all.


    Bai Yun had inferred their background by listening to the various conversations by then. Gong Ming and Song Hui were direct descendants of Dao step elders of the Gong and Song clan, while Zhang Zi was the grandson ofthe chairman of the council of elders of the Little Merchant Union. While it might seem as if Zhang Zi should have more prestige considering his background, the three clans were extremely powerful in Yellow City. Not only that, Zhang Zi was also not someone who tried to get other people''s favors.


    Once the leaders of the two teams were decided, the next job was to figure out who would be in each of the two two teams. Since Zhang Zi was the leader of the attacking team, this had nothing to do with him. Soon after that fights started to break out between people who wanted to be part of a particular team. Zhang Zi simply watched all of this impassively, but Gong Ming intervened and stopped the fights. Thanks to him, a battle hadn''t broken out yet.


    As he watched the proceedings, Bai Yun frowned. Gong Ming was trying to be leader, but it seemed to be too much to expect a spectacular performance from a child, no matter how good he is. Not only had he not split the participants into teams by now, he had also missed the most important matter that had to be addressed. Bai Yun knew that he had to speak up. Time was flying and there was none to waste. Bai Yun sighed and spoke up.


    "Before we split into attacking and defending teams, shouldn''t we at least send a scouting party to figure out what we are dealing with."


    The group went silent and turned to him.

 41 Scouting the terrian

    Bai Yun looked at the crowd. They were all staring straight at him in hostility.


    "Who gave you the right to speak. Shut up and listen to prince Ming." One of the participants cursed at him.


    Bai Yun simply glanced at him, and then turned back to Gong Ming who was frowning after thinking of this. "He is right." he said. "We need to know what kind of demonic beasts we are dealing with. Depending on the beasts, we will need to make changes to the plan. So, is there anyone who is willing to go out and be the scout?"


    The entire group went silent, and for good reason too. Nobody wanted to be the first to scout. The terrain as well as the dangers were unknown. Simply because the siege had not begun, it did not mean that there were no demonic beasts running around. If they died ,then it would be all over for them.


    Bai Yun fell back upon seeing this. He went up to Zhang Zi and whispered, "Do you want to go and scout out the enemy?"


    Zhang Zi was startled. "Why should we be the ones to go?" He asked.


    "If not us then who else?" Bai Yun replied.


    Zhang Zi thought for a moment and then nodded his head. He then turned towards the other two members of the team, "Do you have any problems with it?" They simply shook their head.


    After getting their response, Zhangi Zi stood and said, "We''ll go and scout out the beasts." Everyone seemed to be surprised by this statement. They were all prepared for a long and messy fight to choose the sacrifices, scratch that scouts. Gong Ming nodded after thinking about this for a moment. The team checked their gear, and quickly got ready for the journey.


    Bai Yun had not suggested this trip out of the goodness of his heart. He had a reason to do so. War was special among the different scenarios of the second test. In war it was possible to get resources, and take it out of the test or use it for yourselves during it.


    And Bai Yun desperately needed a sword.


    The sword that he was using was damaged by Song Hui''s whip. It was only something that he had purchased yesterday and was not a top weapon. By now he was not sure how much longer he could use it. Not only that, he also needed a strong weapon to fight in the last round. In the city there was a place where you could exchange achievement points that you got while killing the demonic beasts for various pills and weapons and so on. And outside the city there were many precious herbs and minerals that could be found.


    This also createda difference in the kind of resources that one could get in war. Since most of the demonic beast would only appear of after the siege had begun, and there was no way to escape or enter the city once the siege began, the attacking team would have to leave early. This meant that they would not be able to get any of the more precious items that could be bought in the city. And since most of the precious materials would be inside the beats den, the defending team would not be able to get to them either. But during the hours before the siege, both teams would usually wander about in search of beasts or raw materials so that they can get their hands on something before the battle began.


    And that was why Bai Yun needed to go and get his hands on some demonic beasts before he left for the beast den. He wanted to kill as many beasts as possible so that he could get a better sword. Not only that, if he could end this mission quickly, then the time for free hunting would be longer.


    As he was leaving Bai Yun realized that the participants for the test had no experience whatsoever at all. They were likely to simply waste the time, or squabble it away. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he asked Zhang Zi to tell Gong Ming to use this time to scout the city and find locations that they can defend easily, or to put blockades and such so as to delay the beasts. Zhang Zi took a long look at him upon hearing this, but then went to tell Gong Ming about it. Once it was done the entire team left for the scouting mission.


    As soon as they stepped outside, the environment changed drastically. The city that they were in looked like an abandoned city, with small houses and a central plaza where the flag was located. Right outside the city walls was an entire region. This place looked like a forest. Even though it was not completely thick so as to be untraversable, the forest was dark enough for Bai Yun to use the Assassin God''s techniques. He smiled as he though of this.


    "Should we split up, or stay together?" Bai Yun asked.


    The rules of war stated that the entire team had to move together as one. Of course this did not mean that the entire team had to move as one. It only meant that the entire team was either in the attacking or defending side, and they also had to have the same job. For example all of them must be scouts, or healers, or long distance attacks and so on. It would be idiotic to make a team with four healers and ask them to stay together in one spot. As long as the job that the entire team did was the same, it was fine. There were many who tried to take advantage of this, and assigned a team to do one thing, while some of the team members did something else, but such teams where punished.


    "Lets go separate ways." Zhang ZI said. "If we split up, we can get a better understanding of the beasts, and have a higher chance of finding the beasts."


    Bai Yun nodded. They split into three groups, with both Bai Yun and Zhang Zi deciding to move alone. They decided to meet up after half an hour no matter what. They did not have much time to scout, and it was better to add more members to their teams rather than to blindly search if they were unsuccessful.


    Bai Yun walked for a while. The forest he was in did not seem to be too old. The trees were young, and very fresh. There were already a small number of dead leaves covering the floor. But no matter how far he walked, he was unable to find any demonic beasts.An eerie silence permeated the entire forest.


    Bai Yun decide to slow down and calmly walk forward instead of rushing headfirst into danger.


    He was unable to find even the smallest animals here. More importantly all the trees that were here were the normal kind. Nor was there any herbs that he could find.


    Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks. On one of the trees in front of him he could see a small bite mark. Bai Yun smiled when he saw this. He had finally found a trail. He was afraid that he would have to go empty handed, but at least that wasn''t the case.


    As he stared at the bite mark, something triggered in his memory. It seemed as if he had seen similar things before, but he was unable to place it. So he simply ignored them. As he walked forward, he sent out his three soul tendrils to seek out any other traces that he might have missed. A short while later he stopped, ad blew away some of the leaves that were on the floor. As he did so a small foot print was visible on the floor. He did not recognize the footprint, so Bai Yun decided to follow the trail again. As he walked forward, more and more sign started to appear.


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    After walking for a while he stopped once again. He could hear some chewing sounds coming from a short distance in front of him. Bai Yun pulled out his sword, erased his presence and walked forward, and peered out from behind a small tree. He saw an ant eating a small fruit.


    The ant in front of him was not a normal ant, but a demonic beast. It was a little more a foot tall and seemed to be in the first circle of the qi step. He watched as the small ant kept on eating the fruit, one bite at a time. Bai Yun smiled as he saw the animal. It seemed as if the scenario they got was ant colony.


    There were hundreds of possible scenarios that war could take. Depending on which of these scenarios came to pass, the strategies that had to be deployed would change. His father had informed Bai Yun of some of the most powerful as well as common scenarios in war.


    Among the ones he had heard about was ant colony. It as one of the stronger ones, but not among the mot dangerous. The ants in ant colony was mainly beasts in the first three circles of the qi step, and each of them were even weaker than the usual demonic beasts. The only annoying thing about them was their vast numbers. There were nearly an inexhaustible number of ants.


    As he thought of ant colony, he smiled. It seemed as if the organizers did not want to make things too difficult for the participants. There were three grandchildren of dignitaries in the group. With the strength that the three of them and Bai Yun had shown, it would not be too much for the team to pass. Of course with the large number of ants, it was not possible for the four of them to save everyone. More than half of the participants would definitely be killed. Bai Yun figured that it would satisfy the celebrities involved.


    Bai Yun quietly walked up to the eating ant, and swung his sword down at it. It noticed Bai Yun at the last minute, but by then it was too late. The beast was bisected in a single swing. Even a normal first circle beat would be easily killed by Bai Yun, not to mention a weak one like a demonic ant. Bai Yun watched the beast die, and then pulled out his token, and confirmed that he had received one achievement point.


    In war you received one achievement point for each first circle demonic beast that you killed, two for a second circle beast, four for a third circle beast and thirty for a fourth circle beast. If multiple people joined together for the kill, the achievement points would be split between them. Thankfully a fourth circle beast would only appear in the top three most difficult scenarios of war, or else it would be impossible to clear it.


    A scenario like ant colony which had a large number of weak monsters was heaven for Bai Yun who could rake up a large number of contribution points. The simple sword was almost tailor made for this.


    As he stood there, he heard a buzzing sound behind him, which was getting close. He figured that it was a second circle beast, the flying ant. He turned around to face it, only to be faced with a stinger flying straight at his face.


    His instincts acted up without thinking. He dodged the flying beast by rolling to the side and stood up in an instant. After this he confirmed that the beast in front of him was indeed a bee.


    This confused Bai Yun. He did not expect to see a bee in ant colony. Then his back broke out in a cold sweat as he realized his mistake. This was not ant colony.


    He was probably in the ninth hell of war.


    Insect World.

 41 Scouting the terrain

    Bai Yun looked at the crowd. They were all staring straight at him in hostility.


    "Who gave you the right to speak. Shut up and listen to prince Ming." One of the participants cursed at him.


    Bai Yun simply glanced at him, and then turned back to Gong Ming who was frowning after thinking of this. "He is right." he said. "We need to know what kind of demonic beasts we are dealing with. Depending on the beasts, we will need to make changes to the plan. So, is there anyone who is willing to go out and be the scout?"


    The entire group went silent, and for good reason too. Nobody wanted to be the first to scout. The terrain as well as the dangers were unknown. Simply because the siege had not begun, it did not mean that there were no demonic beasts running around. If they died ,then it would be all over for them.


    Bai Yun fell back upon seeing this. He went up to Zhang Zi and whispered, "Do you want to go and scout out the enemy?"


    Zhang Zi was startled. "Why should we be the ones to go?" He asked.


    "If not us then who else?" Bai Yun replied.


    Zhang Zi thought for a moment and then nodded his head. He then turned towards the other two members of the team, "Do you have any problems with it?" They simply shook their head.


    After getting their response, Zhangi Zi stood and said, "We''ll go and scout out the beasts." Everyone seemed to be surprised by this statement. They were all prepared for a long and messy fight to choose the sacrifices, scratch that scouts. Gong Ming nodded after thinking about this for a moment. The team checked their gear, and quickly got ready for the journey.


    Bai Yun had not suggested this trip out of the goodness of his heart. He had a reason to do so. War was special among the different scenarios of the second test. In war it was possible to get resources, and take it out of the test or use it for yourselves during it.


    And Bai Yun desperately needed a sword.


    The sword that he was using was damaged by Song Hui''s whip. It was only something that he had purchased yesterday and was not a top weapon. By now he was not sure how much longer he could use it. Not only that, he also needed a strong weapon to fight in the last round. In the city there was a place where you could exchange achievement points that you got while killing the demonic beasts for various pills and weapons and so on. And outside the city there were many precious herbs and minerals that could be found.


    This also createda difference in the kind of resources that one could get in war. Since most of the demonic beast would only appear of after the siege had begun, and there was no way to escape or enter the city once the siege began, the attacking team would have to leave early. This meant that they would not be able to get any of the more precious items that could be bought in the city. And since most of the precious materials would be inside the beats den, the defending team would not be able to get to them either. But during the hours before the siege, both teams would usually wander about in search of beasts or raw materials so that they can get their hands on something before the battle began.


    And that was why Bai Yun needed to go and get his hands on some demonic beasts before he left for the beast den. He wanted to kill as many beasts as possible so that he could get a better sword. Not only that, if he could end this mission quickly, then the time for free hunting would be longer.


    As he was leaving Bai Yun realized that the participants for the test had no experience whatsoever at all. They were likely to simply waste the time, or squabble it away. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he asked Zhang Zi to tell Gong Ming to use this time to scout the city and find locations that they can defend easily, or to put blockades and such so as to delay the beasts. Zhang Zi took a long look at him upon hearing this, but then went to tell Gong Ming about it. Once it was done the entire team left for the scouting mission.


    As soon as they stepped outside, the environment changed drastically. The city that they were in looked like an abandoned city, with small houses and a central plaza where the flag was located. Right outside the city walls was an entire region. This place looked like a forest. Even though it was not completely thick so as to be untraversable, the forest was dark enough for Bai Yun to use the Assassin God''s techniques. He smiled as he though of this.


    "Should we split up, or stay together?" Bai Yun asked.


    The rules of war stated that the entire team had to move together as one. Of course this did not mean that the entire team had to move as one. It only meant that the entire team was either in the attacking or defending side, and they also had to have the same job. For example all of them must be scouts, or healers, or long distance attacks and so on. It would be idiotic to make a team with four healers and ask them to stay together in one spot. As long as the job that the entire team did was the same, it was fine. There were many who tried to take advantage of this, and assigned a team to do one thing, while some of the team members did something else, but such teams where punished.


    "Lets go separate ways." Zhang ZI said. "If we split up, we can get a better understanding of the beasts, and have a higher chance of finding the beasts."


    Bai Yun nodded. They split into three groups, with both Bai Yun and Zhang Zi deciding to move alone. They decided to meet up after half an hour no matter what. They did not have much time to scout, and it was better to add more members to their teams rather than to blindly search if they were unsuccessful.


    Bai Yun walked for a while. The forest he was in did not seem to be too old. The trees were young, and very fresh. There were already a small number of dead leaves covering the floor. But no matter how far he walked, he was unable to find any demonic beasts.An eerie silence permeated the entire forest.


    Bai Yun decide to slow down and calmly walk forward instead of rushing headfirst into danger.


    He was unable to find even the smallest animals here. More importantly all the trees that were here were the normal kind. Nor was there any herbs that he could find.


    Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks. On one of the trees in front of him he could see a small bite mark. Bai Yun smiled when he saw this. He had finally found a trail. He was afraid that he would have to go empty handed, but at least that wasn''t the case.


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    As he stared at the bite mark, something triggered in his memory. It seemed as if he had seen similar things before, but he was unable to place it. So he simply ignored them. As he walked forward, he sent out his three soul tendrils to seek out any other traces that he might have missed. A short while later he stopped, ad blew away some of the leaves that were on the floor. As he did so a small foot print was visible on the floor. He did not recognize the footprint, so Bai Yun decided to follow the trail again. As he walked forward, more and more sign started to appear.


    After walking for a while he stopped once again. He could hear some chewing sounds coming from a short distance in front of him. Bai Yun pulled out his sword, erased his presence and walked forward, and peered out from behind a small tree. He saw an ant eating a small fruit.


    The ant in front of him was not a normal ant, but a demonic beast. It was a little more a foot tall and seemed to be in the first circle of the qi step. He watched as the small ant kept on eating the fruit, one bite at a time. Bai Yun smiled as he saw the animal. It seemed as if the scenario they got was ant colony.


    There were hundreds of possible scenarios that war could take. Depending on which of these scenarios came to pass, the strategies that had to be deployed would change. His father had informed Bai Yun of some of the most powerful as well as common scenarios in war.


    Among the ones he had heard about was ant colony. It as one of the stronger ones, but not among the mot dangerous. The ants in ant colony was mainly beasts in the first three circles of the qi step, and each of them were even weaker than the usual demonic beasts. The only annoying thing about them was their vast numbers. There were nearly an inexhaustible number of ants.


    As he thought of ant colony, he smiled. It seemed as if the organizers did not want to make things too difficult for the participants. There were three grandchildren of dignitaries in the group. With the strength that the three of them and Bai Yun had shown, it would not be too much for the team to pass. Of course with the large number of ants, it was not possible for the four of them to save everyone. More than half of the participants would definitely be killed. Bai Yun figured that it would satisfy the celebrities involved.


    Bai Yun quietly walked up to the eating ant, and swung his sword down at it. It noticed Bai Yun at the last minute, but by then it was too late. The beast was bisected in a single swing. Even a normal first circle beat would be easily killed by Bai Yun, not to mention a weak one like a demonic ant. Bai Yun watched the beast die, and then pulled out his token, and confirmed that he had received one achievement point.


    In war you received one achievement point for each first circle demonic beast that you killed, two for a second circle beast, four for a third circle beast and thirty for a fourth circle beast. If multiple people joined together for the kill, the achievement points would be split between them. Thankfully a fourth circle beast would only appear in the top three most difficult scenarios of war, or else it would be impossible to clear it.


    A scenario like ant colony which had a large number of weak monsters was heaven for Bai Yun who could rake up a large number of contribution points. The simple sword was almost tailor made for this.


    As he stood there, he heard a buzzing sound behind him, which was getting close. He figured that it was a second circle beast, the flying ant. He turned around to face it, only to be faced with a stinger flying straight at his face.


    His instincts acted up without thinking. He dodged the flying beast by rolling to the side and stood up in an instant. After this he confirmed that the beast in front of him was indeed a bee.


    This confused Bai Yun. He did not expect to see a bee in ant colony. Then his back broke out in a cold sweat as he realized his mistake. This was not ant colony.


    He was probably in the ninth hell of war.


    Insect World.

 42 Insect World

    In war there were twelve scenarios that were considered as impossible to pass. These were called as the twelve hells of war. Among these only the sixth hell had ever been successfully passed once. And that had happened when eleven prince level people had participated in the test at the time. None of the others had ever been passed before.


    In insect world there were many different kinds of insects. Thus one had to fight against all of these insects in order to win. The strength of the insects were not much different than an ant of the same stage, but the problem was the numbers and sheer variety of insects. Each of these insects specialized in a different aspect of fighting. As a result sooner or later one would definitely end up facing an insect that you are weak against. And from then on, your defeat was all but guaranteed.


    Bai Yun quickly put the thoughts of these matters out of his head, and decided to focus on the beast in front of him. The bee had turned around and was on the way to kill him once again. Bai Yun gripped his sword in his hand, and got ready to attack. As the bee closed in on him, he used his soul tendrils to attack the bees wings, destabilizing its flight. As the bee started to waver, Bai Yun once again cut the beast into two with a swing.


    Bai Yun leaned against a tree and started to think of the issue. The problem was the number of insects in the beast den. Since they were all quite weak, Bai Yun figured that he had a more than fifty percent chance of successfully invading and destroying the flag. This wasn''t unfounded optimism. With his strength and triple cultivation in body, soul and qi as well as fighting experience, there was nothing that he was particularly weak against. He could also handle large number of insects due to the simple sword. And when it came to slipping in quietly and destroying the flag, the Assassin God''s techniques were unparalleled.


    Bai Yun knew that the biggest problem was the defending team. It would be best of his team was the only one to go, and the rest of them stayed back to defend against the insect siege. But they would never agree to that. They would request a good number of people to go for the offense, weakening the defense. But no matter how many went, it would all be only paper dressing. So he had to convince the crowd to send as few people as possible.


    As Bai Yun was coming up with strategies to reduce the number of participants, he heard a noise coming from before him. Thinking that this forest would not give him even a single moment of rest, he got ready to fight. But he was quite surprised when lackey one and lackey two walked out of forest in front of him.


    "What are you doing here?" He asked them. The pair had set off in a different direction from him and he had walked straight. If these two had appeared here, it meant that something had gone wrong.


    The two of them stared at the two corpses in front of them. "You killed two insects." Lackey one laughed. "It looks as if this is going to be an easy round." It seems as if the two of them did not know about Insect World. This was normal. After all, he too would not have known of the dangerous situation if his father hadn''t told him.


    "You know, you are quite unlucky." lackey two said. "You died on such an easy scouting mission." Bai Yun frowned while looking at the couple. After a moment he understood. These two morons had come here to kill him.


    "Why?" He asked them.


    Their faces twisted in rage. "Who do you think you are, pretending to be such a big shot. You should simply shut up and be a good little fellow and listen to what we say." Bai Yun was stunned. He didn''t expect them to be so narrow minded so as to try and kill him for such a petty reason.


    "But you are indeed lucky. You won''t die here, only be disqualified. When you are in the outside world, use what you have learned here and behave properly from now on, you bastard." lackey two declared.


    "You are right. Lucky indeed." Bai Yun murmured.


    "Huh. Speak up. What happened to all your courage earlier." Lackey one seemed to find this amusing.


    Bai Yun smiled. He looked at the two of them. They each seemed to be decently strong, but not particularly so. If he had to guess, he would say that they were both slightly weaker than the first guy he met in the first test, which made him wonder how they made it here. But they were both clearly much worse that that guy in their bearing. Even this close to the enemy, they were completely unguarded against him, confident in their victory. After he finished his analysis, he decided to end them in an instant.


    Bai Yun pushed off the tree tree he was leaning against and cast wind motion at the same time. The combined speed of the two pushed him forward much faster than either of his enemies expected. Bai Yun used a ray of moonlight, and attacked lackey one straight away, aiming at his forehead.


    By the time either of them reacted, it was too late. Lackey one froze up as he saw the rapidly approaching sword tip. In his fear, he screamed, and tried to block the word by crossing his arms in front of, giving way his inexperience. Bai Yun smiled, and the sword moved forward quickly, ignoring his enemies screams. Just as the sword was only a few inches from lackey one, he was covered in a white light. Bai Yun''s sword hit the white layer, and came to rest a second before lackey one was teleported out.


    Bai Yun then turned to look at lackey two, who was still stuck mid laugh, frozen as he looked at the scene that just transpired in front of his eyes. "Wh-what?" he mumbled. Bai Yun smiled as he looked at him. His spirit had been broken in a single attack.


    "You know you are indeed lucky. You wont die here, only be disqualified. When you are in the outside world, you should use what you have learned here and behave properly from now on, okay."


    Fifteen minutes later Bai Yun walked back into the spot where the team had split up. During this time, he had gone around looking for beats from their trails, and had gotten a total of nine points by now. He saw Zhang Zi waiting for him there already.


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    "What did you find?" He asked Zhang Zi.


    "I ran into a second circle beetle." Zhang ZI replied. Bai Yun was not surprised that Zhang Zi only found a single insect. He only found more by following their trails. "It''s defenses were rather decent. What about you?"


    "I ran into a couple of ants and a bee." He replied. The moment he heard this Zhang ZI''s careless face changed. "We are probably in Insect World." Bai Yun continued.


    By now Zhang Zi had an ugly look on his face. He knew what Insect World represented. "Lets go tell everyone else. We need to come up with a plan if we are to win?" Bai Yun''s mind was filled with thousands of battle strategies. Of course, every single one of these were what he had heard from the generals of the alliance army in the Grand War.


    "What about the other two? We should wait for them." Zhang Zi said.


    "Dead." Bai Yun declared before returning.


    Zhang Zi was stunned by this. He looked at the forest for a moment before sighing. He knew what kind of people the other two were were. He could guess what had happened. He then returned to the base along with Bai Yun.


    When the two of them returned to the camp, it was mostly empty. There were only a few people left there. They learned that the rest of the group had gone to scout out the city and prepare for the siege. The people left here were in case of an emergency. Bai Yun asked them to go and notify the group that they had returned, and that they had an important matter to report. As Zhang Zi waited for their arrival, Bai Yun moved towards the white flag. The flag was also the place where he could exchange for the various prizes. But with only nine points the things he could exchange for was extremely limited. But that didn''t matter as he had come here to buy some thing that only cost a single point anyway.


    In the very top of the list of items was an item that cost only a single point. It was a tracker that would lead one directly to the beast den. Without this one might have to search for hours before finding the beast den, Which would all but guarantee the failure of the test.


    Once he bought the tracker, he began to scroll down the list of items to look for things that might help him. The more he saw, the more he frowned. Each of these items were of an absurd cost. A simple qi replenishing pill cost thirty five points. But thirty five points meant that he had to kill thirty five first circle demonic beasts. This was no problem for Bai Yun, but was pretty much impossible for anyone else. He saw a healing pill, that would heal injuries and replenish some strength at fifty points. When he reached a hundred points, he saw weapons of the same quality as the one he currently had. The more powerful weapons cost even more. The ones that were of the same quality as the sword his father gave him cost three thousand points upward. The moment he saw this he wanted to question the motives of the organizers. Even he could not kill that many beasts necessary for the sword. There was also many pills including a pill that guaranteed a breakthrough to the foundation establishment realm, which cost a whopping ten thousand points and was the costliest item here.


    After seeing this, he no longer had a reason to look at this, so he decided to go back and see how things had gone. He returned to see that most of the members of the group had returned by now. Zhang Zi was reporting their finding to Gong Ming, who was frowning upon hearing this.


    "If this is indeed the insect world then we are screwed. There are many flying insects, and also those which can tunnel through the ground. Our defensive perimeter will have to be pretty much the plaza." Zhang Zi said.


    Gong Ming frowned. The problem with insect world was the defensive side rather than the offensive side. At this moment he nearly wanted to go into attacking side himself, but he stopped himself. "Do you guys know about the insect world?" He asked the group.


    Most of the people shook their heads. That was normal. Even Bai Yun only had a surface knowledge of the scenario.


    "I have a book on the various scenarios in war that I got from my great-grandfather yesterday. I will let you all read this to see the major points and then we can come up with a plan after that." He said, taking out a small book from his storage ring.

 43 First foray into the hills

    On by one the group started to read about Insect World. The more people read, the more they were scared. But no one could blame them.


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    When Bai Yun got his hands on the book, he quickly read through the section on the Insect World. There was not too much about it, as that would not be permitted. He quickly skipped through the various kinds of weak beasts that could be found like ants, bees, hornets, butterflies, beetles, moths and so on.


    He quickly read up the information on the beast den, as only that was relevant to him. It would usually be an ant hill or a bee hive. The most important thing was that the entire place was a labyrinth. It would have multiple entrances, and the teams had to traverse the den looking for the central cave. In their paths, there would be many other housing areas for various beasts which they could skip or fight if they needed. Most people would prefer to skip these to save time, as time was the most important factor in the scenario. But some would want to fight, s these places usually contained the precious materials.


    The black flag in the central cave was protected by one powerful insect beast. There were four pathways into the cave, and each of these pathways were guarded by one mini boss insect. After this was the labyrinth which fed into the pathways. Thankfully the tracker could help one in leading them by pointing to the general direction of the cave, but it was not too effective as it was a labyrinth after all.


    Bai Yun then glanced through the various beasts that could be found inside the beast den as well as the few beasts that took turns being the guardian as well as the cave boss before he passed the book on.As he digested the information given, he pondered on what to do.


    Once everyone had read the book, Gong Ming once again took charge of the group. "We have four and a half hour before the siege begins. I suggest that we all go out to hunt for the next three hours and reconvene here at an hour and a half before the siege begins."


    Most of the people who heard of this nodded their heads. Then someone asked "But if we all leave and some of the beasts wander in during the siege. Wont they destroy the flag then?"


    "It will be fine. Until the siege begins, the flag will be protected by a special energy and won''t be destroyed. So we can all leave safely." Gong Ming replied with a smile.


    "The can''t we go and destroy the beast''s flag now, before the siege had begun?"


    "Of course not." Gong Ming explained. "Just like how our flag cannot be destroy at this time, it is the same for that of the beast''s flag. Not only will the main cave be sealed until the siege began, the labyrinths will be filled by bests until then. Going there now would be suicide."


    Bai Yun watched as Gong Ming put the group together. He had to accept that Zhang Zi was right. The person in front of him was nothing like the frivolous young man he pretended to be earlier. This person was definitely a chameleon.


    Gong Ming moved towards Zhang Zi and asked in a small voice "Can you handle Song Hui?"


    "Wheer is Hui?" Zhang Zi asked, realizing that she was not here.


    Gong Ming smiled wryly. "It was almost impossible to curb her. She seemed to have found her live''s passion of destroying buildings. She is currently still doing it. I would have left her behind but for the rule that we need to move together. But I am afraid that she will run away or not make it back in time, that is why I am asking you to go with her."


    Zhang Zi nodded after thinking about this. They left to find Song Hui, and returned a short while later with her. By then most of the group had already left, and the ones who hadn''t were starting to.


    Bai Yun quickly left along with the rest of the team. Once outside, they all split up into smaller teams anddecide to mostly move alone to find treasures or beasts. The insects in the insect world were rather weak, and any one here could easily handle one of them.


    Bai Yun then took out the tracker and headed straight for the beast den. For others this time was for finding precious materials and some points if they could, but the time held completely different meaning for Bai Yun. Ne needed to use this time to hunt for points.


    It took Bai Yun ten minutes of direct running before he reached what appeared to be a mountain. Along the way Bai Yun had run into a few insects which gave him another ten points. But he had not


    even slowed down on the way, cutting them into two while running. Bai Yun stood in the shadow of the forest, and looked at the large brown mountain looming over him. The tracker showed that the beast flag was inside the mountain. It seems as if the den was an ant hill and not a bee hive. Bai Yun sighed in relief. This meant that there would be more ants than other flying insects. If there were a lot of flying insects, then there was no way for the defending team to hold on for long.


    As Bai Yun watched, he saw caves in the side of the mountain, through which various ants and termites were coming out and going in. There were also some bees flying out every now and then. After he watched for a while he realized each of the caves was usually only used by a single insect race. He had a variety of choices to choose from, and after thinking about this he chose to head to a cave that was used by bees.


    The reason he chose that cave was twofold. The bees in the insect world were known for making a special kind of honey that could help strength a persons physique. If there was enough of it, it might even be possible to reach the fourth stage of skin sewing for Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun walked up to the cave directly. On the way, all the beasts that saw him, directly attacked him, but there were only a few of them and all of them were only at the first circle stage. Bai Yun dealt with them easily, and reached the mouth of the cave.


    The cave he was in was a short jump down. Even though there seemed to be light in there, it was darker than the outside. He could hear a faint buzzing noise reverberating from inside the cave.


    Bai Yun took a deep breath and then jumped straight into the cave.


    The cave was only a few feet tall. He quickly fell to the bottom and found himself inside a tunnel. The tunnel was a few meters wide, wide enough for someone to walk and fight, but not enough to be surrounded in all sides. Once inside, he realized that his sight was not affected too much, probably something that the organizers had arranged.


    He chose a random direction and started to walk. The cacophony of noises around him, of which buzzing was the loudest, drowned out all the other noises around him. He could not even hear his own footsteps. He frowned as he realized that this meant that the den was a great place for ambushes.


    Bai Yun had taken only a few steps when his god sense throbbed in a warning. He swung his sword in a great arc behind him, directly bisecting the bee that was behind him.But the momentum of the bee was too much and he had to duck out of the way of the dead bee. As he did so, the blood of the bee splashed onto him, making it the first time since he started the gold test that some blood splashed on him.


    Bai Yun frowned as he looked at the dead bee. He was not able to hear the bee approaching and had only been able to notice it due to the god sense. He was not sure how many people would be able to hold on under the assault later.


    Bai Yun had only taken a few more steps, when he stopped once again. The tunnel he was on was twisting quite a lot, and as he watched, a few bees appeared in front of him. They stopped for a second upon seeing him, following which they attacked him with increased vigor.


    Bai Yun frowned, and he immediately used simple sword to block the attacks that were coming at him. He did not have the strength to kill each of these bees in a single swing, as if he made a large motion, the other bees would slip in and attack him. It took Bai Yun about a minute to kill off all the bees in the group.


    The number of bees that he had faced in sch a short time was quite great. Even if the number of bees in the den before the siege was much greater that during, he was still troubled by it. He started to wonder how many of the attacking team would manage to survive.


    Bai Yun turned around the corner and stopped when he came face to face with a few bees. Bai Yun was just about to face them when his eyes widened. He threw himself to the side, resulting in him colliding with the wall of the narrow tunnel. Two bees had passed right through where he was standing a minute ago. He had missed them until the last moment as they had attacked from behind.


    Bai Yun realized with a start that he was surrounded by bees. As he looked, he saw quite a few bees surrounding. Most importantly the tunnel widened out into a room in front of him. The other side of the wall did not look like rock, but a beehive. Many bees were flying out of the various holes in the hive. There was even a large hole which seemed to be two meters wide in front of him.


    But he had no time to appreciate this. The bees had attacked him without a pause. Bai Yun started to defend himself against the bees. Since each of the bees were only a little larger than a foot in size, and they could all fly, nearly a dozen of them were attacking him in each instant. The only reason he was still able to hold on was due to the simple sword. But he could only push the bees out of the way and not harm them, as he did not have the time to gather the strength to attack.


    Bai Yun started to move as he defended himself. With each step that he took, he would make half a turn so as to defend against the attacks that were coming from behind. This manner of turning and walking caused him to meander aimlessly through the room.


    As he looked, his entire perception was soon dyed in bees. Thankfully the tunnel was not too tall or he might also have had to deal with attacks from above.After a while Bai Yun started to think that he was back in hell.


    He threw that thought away after a moment.


    Hell was nicer.


    He had to agree with Gong Ming that coming here was suicide.

 44 The bee hive

    Bai Yun kept on slashing his sword one after the other. His attacks only deflected the bees, and did not deal any major damage. Thankfully by moving about, he was able escape being completely suppressed by making the bees also change their direction of attack.


    As he fought, Bai Yun tried to move closer to the bee hive. The tunnels in the hive where smaller than outside, and he would not have to face as many bees in there. But the repeated fighting was taking a toll on Bai Yun. As he slashed, his hand slipped from the sweat, hitting one of the bees in the stinger rather the body. The bee which was struck, spun away and hit another one, killing it in the process. Bai Yun''s eyes narrowed as he saw this.


    In his past life, all of Bai Yun''s fighting experience came after he reached the immortal step. The enemies he had faced from then on, where much more intelligent than the qi step beats in front of him. It was impossible to harmanother one with the attacks of one of them. So Bai Yun had never even thought about using such a tactic until now. But once he did so his entire fighting style changed.


    Bai Yun kept on deflecting the bees to hit other bees. Since this was the first time he was deploying such tactics, he made quite a few mistakes, even allowing a few bees to scrape by him. But one after another the number of dead bees in the room started to increase. Unfortunately Bai Yun did not get any achievement points from these bees as they were killed by other bees.


    With the reduced pressure, he quickly reached the bee hive and slipped inside. He found himself in a narrow cave, and the number of bees around him instantly reduced, allowing him a moment to breathe. But there was still many other bees in the hive, and he continued his assault.


    As he attacked, his sword slid across a bee and hit the wall of the bee hive. Bai Yun was expecting the bee hive to have a hard wall, but it was much softer than he expected, making his sword slide inside it and getting it stuck. Bai Yun''s eyes narrowed as he realized that he could not pull it out in time. He cast wind motion without hesitation choosing the direction with the least number of bees. The sword came off the wall as he moved, but at the same time, a stinging pain shot through his shoulder. Even though he chose the safest path, he was still struck by one bee. Bai Yun turned his hand and cut the bee into two.


    After this a cat and mouse chase between the bees and Bai Yun started. He kept on changing his direction and running in random directions again and again. He even cut through the bee hives wall in a few places in order to escape their pursuit.


    It was fifteen minutes later that Bai Yun found himself in a narrow gap between the walls. It was barely wide enough for him to squeeze through. He was alone and had somehow thrown off the pursuing bees. He stood there panting as he could not even move. His qi was exhausted and his stamina was running dry too.


    With a shaking hand, Bai Yun reached for his shoulder. With a determined look, and panting through his teths, he gripped the stinger that was plunged into his shoulder. He stopped just before he pulled it out, and then ripped up his shirt and balled it up and bit down on hit hard. After this hepulled the stinger out in a single motion.


    Bai Yun stopped himself from screaming only by biting down on the cloth. He fell to his knees and his hands clawed at the walls. Every muscle and blood vessel in his body was throbbing and standing out prominently. Even though he had a strength of seventh or even eighth stage of qi condensation, that was due to him triple cultivating in body, soul and qi. Not only that, he had only started on skin sewing and hadn''t sewed his shoulders, making them his weakness.


    After five minutes Bai Yun had stood up. There were five more stingers in his body. Thankfully he had learned his lesson after the first stinger so that the rest of them had hit places that had been skin sewed, making them not penetrate deeply. He pulled them out with much lower pain than the first one. When he spit out the gag after he was done, there was fresh blood on it.


    Bai Yun calmly applied the medicine that had been provided to him. He then sat out and went about to recover his qi and strength as much as possible. Thankfully his techniques were a lot more powerful than the average, and in half an hour he had recovered about a third of his qi. Bai Yun only had one qi replenishing pill on him and he did not want to waste it if he could help it. He had also recovered some stamina in the same time.


    By now one of the three hours had already passed, and he did not want to waste anymore time. He stood up. For a while now he was confused as to why he had not been attacked until now. There were a lot of bees in the hive and someone should have found him by now. After a moment, he decided to walk in the opposite direction of where he had come from, thus heading deeper into the cave.


    The tunnel that he was in could not be considered a proper tunnel. It was more like a gap in the wall and in some places it became exceptionally small. He somehow squeezed through the gap and finally reached the end of the tunnel. As he peeked out from the end of the tunnel, he was stunned. He saw a large five foot tall bee sitting in the middle of a large room, and there were many three foot tall bees flying around her. Behind her were rows and rows of tiny holes which were all filled by larvae.


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    Bai Yun realized why he was left alone for so long. He was in the quarters of the queen bee, and the rest of the bees were not allowed inside. He stood there for a while and started to count the number of bees in the room. Bai Yun counted one third circle bee, the bee queen, and twenty eight second circle worker bees.


    As he saw the numbers he frowned. He could kill any one of them, but he was not sure if he could kill all of them at the same time. So he decided to come back here after he dealt with the rest of the bees and had amassed as many points as he could.


    He could not kill all of them in a straight forward battle. Once he was surrounded, he would be in trouble. Thus he knew that his only chance was guerrilla warfare, something he rarely used, but was used against him often in the Grand War.


    Bai Yun went into the tunnel and then proceeded to cut out a piece of the bee hive a bit larger than himself. He then put some holes in it to hold it better. He slowly moved through the tunnel back to the quarters of the regular bees. The regular bees were onlyin the first circle and he could easily fool their senses with the Assassin God''s techniques.


    Bai Yun slowly slid out of the hole, and looked around. He was hidden behind the hive wall, and could not see anything and had to use his soul tendrils to scout.


    He saw that the number of bees here were much lower than before. Earlier they had all come together to attack him. Now they had dispersed around the hive in order to find him.


    Bai Yun used his soul tendril to attack the wings of one of the bees. Earlier he had to use the soul tendrils extra thought power as he was completely surrounded and needed to find the optimum fighting paths. But now he was free to use his full strength.


    The bee that had been attacked lost its balance and flew in Bai Yun''s direction. The moment it came close enough, Bai Yun used his sword and split it into two. He was sad about how easy this was. But a moment later he changed his mind.


    Bees were social creatures. The moment one of the bees died, the others noticed it immediately. As Bai Yun watched the rest of the bees became agitated. But they had no way to notice him. So he took charge of their confusion and quickly cut down a dozen more bees.


    With a start he realized that the number of bees had increased. Suddenly one of the bees screeched. Bai Yun realized that it had noticed him. It was inevitable. No matter how good his techniques were, he would leave a gap in his concealment when he attacked.


    The bees immediately started to surrounded Bai Yun. Thankfully he was not too far from the tunnel, and he quickly slaughtered his way though the mass of bees. Not only was he more familiar with them by now, there were also not so many as before, so this was not too difficult for him.


    Once he reached the tunnel, the bees did not follow him inside, but only crowded around the entrance. Bai Yun frowned as he realized the problem. But after a moment a smile appeared in his lips.


    Bai Yun used his sword to make a deep cut in the wall of the tunnel. The bee hives were made with honey, so their hive was made with sheet like structures with a lot of open spaces. A quick look was enough for him to realize that there were no bees behind the wall. Once he realized this, he cut the walls in his way repeatedly until he reached another tunnel. Once he did so he went back to the regular bee quarters and was happy to realize that the number of bees here were much lower than the other tunnel. The bees weren''t a smart race, and had simply crowded around the entrance he left through.


    With a smile Bai Yun took his wall piece and started his massacre once again.


    For the next hour Bai Yun used the hit and run tactics in order to hunt as many bees as he could. Once there was only an hour left of the three hours of free hunting left, Bai Yun decided to stop and took a stock of his hunting. He was surprised find that he had raked in eight hundred and ninety nine points in total. He was only a hundred and something when he began. Even Bai Yun was stunned by his hunting efficiency.


    He then rested for ten more minutes in order to regain his calm. The fight ahead would not be easy, and he had to prepare as much as he could. He looked down at his sword. It was already filled with cracks. It would not last for much longer. The smart thing would be to leave right now.


    But after a moment of deliberation, Bai Yun decided to go ahead with his initial plan. He slowly crept toward the queen''s quarters. Once he reached there, he carefully peeked out from the tunnel, making sure to hide his presence.


    It was time for the final fight to begin.

 45 Three temperead honey

    Bai Yun looked at the bee''s queen and the various worker bees that were flying about. He watched them for a while trying to find out about their behavior and patterns that they had.


    Bai Yun noticed that the queen bee was mostly sitting there and letting the worker bees do most of the work. The bees also had patterns to their movement. Once he observed them for a wile, he was ready to move.


    Bai Yun took out a qi replenishing pill and put it in his mouth, ready to swallow it ata moments notice. He then slowly crept out of the tunnel, and crawled forward toward the bees. They hadn''t noticed him yet due to his skills as well as their tasks.


    Bai Yun came as close as he could before the bees would sense him. He waited under the honey wall cutout for a chance to strike and kill as many bees as he could in the initial strike.


    As he watched, the critical moment came in a few minutes. The bees were flying around and they lined up in front of him by chance.


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    Bai Yun did not waste this chance and moved in an instant, casting both wind motion as well as a ray of moonlight simultaneously. His sword cut four bees that were standing in his path before anyone reacted to him.


    Only then did the rest of the bees find out about the intruder in their midst. Bai Yun did not waste their silence, and ran towards the other before they reacted. It was only after two more bees had been cut down did the queen bee scream, and the rest of the worker bees attacked him.


    After spending so much qi, Bai Yun''s reserves were empty, so he immediately swallowed the pill in his mouth. Qi quickly started to fill his dantian. The amount of qi in the pill was more than what he could hold so he started at attack and move rapidly, lest the qi be wasted. Since the bees were scattered around the room, and it took a while for them to come together, he started to pick them off one by one.


    By the time the qi replenishing pill had run out of energy, he had killed nine more bees, reducing the number of bees to thirteen. But by now they had all surrounded him. Thankfully his qi reserves were full, or else he would be dead even faster.


    The queen bee realized that the situation had changed. Not only had the intruder been surrounded, he also seem to have run out of steam. So the queen bee simply laid back and screeched orders at its workers. Even though it was relaxed, its eyes were filled with hatred towards the intruder that had killed more than half of its workers. The standoff between Bai Yun and the bees continued for a few minutes, with him trying to find a fault in their formation, and the bees trying to kill him.


    All of a sudden BaiYun''s eyes were drawn to his sword. He saw that his sword had become even more cracked than before. With each collision with the stingers of the bees, especially those of the second circle, the condition of his sword became much worse.


    Bai Yun had been a swordsman for tens of thousands of years. A single look was enough for him to realize that the sword would only last one more hit.


    He smiled wryly as the realization hit him. It seemed as if he would not be able to kill any more bees. If he did not want to die and be disqualified, he would have to retreat immediately. Once his sword broke, he would not be able to hold the second circle bees back.


    In that instant Bai Yun felt as if time had stopped. He looked around at the thirteen bees that had surrounded him, his eyes scouring every single one of them. He could see their wings moving in slow motion, beat by beat. He saw their eyes, red from anger. He saw their stingers thrusting straight at him. There was no way for him to kill of them. He needed a large area attack even to hold them back and escape.


    Bai Yun then thought of the second move of the moonlight sword, rain in the moonlight. It was an area attack, but something he had yet to master. He could barely trigger it properly, and even when he did so, something was blocking the move, making him unable to bring out its true strength.


    Bai Yun grit his strength, and decided to use it anyway. His strength was nearly not enough to escape. If he used it, he would be at least able to push away the bees, so that he could run away. Without mastering it, using it would only cause him to waste a lot of energy, and not deal any damage. But he had no choice. He needed a moment to run.


    Without waiting for it, he cast rain under the moonlight. Rain under the moonlight was a move that dispersed the strength of the sword into multiple thrusts. If a ray of moonlight focused all the energy of the castor into a single point and thrust the sword forward at great speed, then a rain under the moonlight split that energy into multiple pieces, and let it disperse in multiple thrusts that came one after the other. Each of the thrusts were much weaker than a ray of moonlight, but when huge number of came one after the other, it allowed one to rapidly send attacks in any direction as they please.


    Bai Yun had only started to study the sword technique recently. The techniques that he studied in his past life consisted of very different principles, thus he he found it a bit difficult to comprehend the technique at first.


    Bai Yun attacked the bees one by one, pushing them back and hurting them in the process. With each attack, the bees were pushed back and Bai Yun gained a little more breathing room.


    Suddenly with a slight crack a new tiny crack appeared at the sword tip. Bai Yun frowned as he saw this. His attack was in the middle of execution and this crack caused him to lose control of the latest thrust slightly. As he watched, the sword collided against the body of the bee in front of him, and theunstable qi caused a small explosion. When he saw this Bai Yun''s eyes widened in surprise.


    It was like lightning had gone off in his head. He realized that he had been thinking about the technique all wrong. Since the ray of moonlight was a penetration type technique, he had assumed that the case was true for rain under the moonlight. But it was not. The technique was meant to explode upon slightly penetrating the body of the enemy, thus not only causing extra damage, but also the reverse force of the explosion would allow him to retreat his sword faster.


    The moonlight part of the rain under the moonlight was the light that would appear when the technique was executed. He had thought that the rain part in the name referred to the large umber of attacks in the technique, but no. The rain was referring to how a raindrop would burst upon hitting the ground.


    In an instant countless thoughts ran through Bai Yun''s head. He realized the true way of utilizing the technique, but it was too late by now. His sword was about to collapse.


    A look of determination passed through his eyes before Bai Yun send his soul tendrils into the sword. The soul tendrils would cause the sword to stay together, but in exchange, he would be dealt with the backlash. He halted the technique he was casting, and once again used the rain under the moonlight, this time doing it properly.


    As the true technique was cast, a small reverberating noise was heard, as if someone was hitting a drum very silently, but repeatedly. In a second the entire region around Bai Yun was washed in faint white glow.Bai Yun repeatedly hit the weak points of the bees, enlarging the wounds they had received, until they screeched out in pain as their body''s ripped in two.


    As he stopped, Bai Yun spit out a mouthful of blood, and his sword shattered into pieces at the same time. Just as the blood and the pieces of the sword fell ontotheh floor, so did the bodies of the bees.


    For a moment the entire cavern was silent. Bai Yun stared at the bee queen, who was stunned into silence by what had just transpired. Bai Yun knew knew that it wouldn''t last for much longer. He acted immediately and send his soul tendrils against the queen. Before she could react, his soul tendrils had silenced the queen. But they were only strong enough to clamp its mouth shut. If she called for her follower, the situation would get quite dangerous.


    Bai Yun cast wind motion and ran at the queen bee at full speed. He reached the bee in an instant and attacked the beast using the lions oar. As he approached the queen bee, his right arm lit up and he punched at the beast''s heart, with the momentum of his speed for added strength.


    The queen bee saw him coming and a ruthless look passed though its eyes. It thrust its stinger straight at Bai Yun, hoping to take him along with her. Bai Yun''s eyes narrowed. He recalled the soul tendrils that he was using to keep the bee quiet, and grabbed his waist with them. With all the strength he could muster, he twisted his body out of the way of the stinger. Just as it passed by him, ripping his clothes in the process, he heard a snap coming from his back. But he had no time to waste on it as his fist went through the bee''s heart at the same time. The queen bee looked at him for a moment in surprise before the light in its eyes disappeared, and it fell back dead.


    Bai Yun stretched his back. Even though he had started on cultivation recently, he still had lived for a long time before starting on this path. His body was not in the optimal condition for doing such acrobatic moves, and such a maneuver had caused him to sprain his muscle.


    Once he was done, he went behind the queen bees quarters, to find a small pot filled with a golden liquid. Bai Yun dipped his finger into the pot and licked it to taste. He realized that was the reward given to people who could clear an entire beast den. And this reward was tempered honey, a body cultivation treasure.


    Tempered honey was a special product that could only be created by bee type races, and also took a long time to create. The bees would repeatedly distill the essence of honey, and then make large quantities of it before repeating the process again to make the power of it more dense. This would an incredible long time to prepare. After each tempering the power in the honey would increase exponentially. The first few tempering weren''t much valuable, but a thirteen or fourteen tempered honey was valuable enough to even move gods.


    With a single lick, Bai Yun realized that the object in front of him was three tempered honey. Three tempered honey was quite valuable, and based on the amount in front of him, he seemed to have enough to make two more mysterious patterns. He figured that the organizers had kept so much of the honey in the test because they would have never expected a single person to make it all the way here all by themselves. He would have used it then and there but for the fact that he had no time left.


    After he put away the honey, he stared at the remnants of his sword. Even though he only had a small amount of qi left, it would be enough to get back. The more pressing problem was the lack of a weapon. All that remained of his sword was the hilt.


    After a moment, he walked up to the queen bee, and cut off her stinger. Then he picked up the hilt of his sword, and jammed it into the stinger as hard as he could. After swinging around his makeshift lance, even though it was too short to be called that, he smiled in satisfaction.


    It was time to slaughter his way out.

 45 Three tempered honey

    Bai Yun looked at the bee''s queen and the various worker bees that were flying about. He watched them for a while trying to find out about their behavior and patterns that they had.


    Bai Yun noticed that the queen bee was mostly sitting there and letting the worker bees do most of the work. The bees also had patterns to their movement. Once he observed them for a wile, he was ready to move.


    Bai Yun took out a qi replenishing pill and put it in his mouth, ready to swallow it ata moments notice. He then slowly crept out of the tunnel, and crawled forward toward the bees. They hadn''t noticed him yet due to his skills as well as their tasks.


    Bai Yun came as close as he could before the bees would sense him. He waited under the honey wall cutout for a chance to strike and kill as many bees as he could in the initial strike.


    As he watched, the critical moment came in a few minutes. The bees were flying around and they lined up in front of him by chance.


    Bai Yun did not waste this chance and moved in an instant, casting both wind motion as well as a ray of moonlight simultaneously. His sword cut four bees that were standing in his path before anyone reacted to him.


    Only then did the rest of the bees find out about the intruder in their midst. Bai Yun did not waste their silence, and ran towards the other before they reacted. It was only after two more bees had been cut down did the queen bee scream, and the rest of the worker bees attacked him.


    After spending so much qi, Bai Yun''s reserves were empty, so he immediately swallowed the pill in his mouth. Qi quickly started to fill his dantian. The amount of qi in the pill was more than what he could hold so he started at attack and move rapidly, lest the qi be wasted. Since the bees were scattered around the room, and it took a while for them to come together, he started to pick them off one by one.


    By the time the qi replenishing pill had run out of energy, he had killed nine more bees, reducing the number of bees to thirteen. But by now they had all surrounded him. Thankfully his qi reserves were full, or else he would be dead even faster.


    The queen bee realized that the situation had changed. Not only had the intruder been surrounded, he also seem to have run out of steam. So the queen bee simply laid back and screeched orders at its workers. Even though it was relaxed, its eyes were filled with hatred towards the intruder that had killed more than half of its workers. The standoff between Bai Yun and the bees continued for a few minutes, with him trying to find a fault in their formation, and the bees trying to kill him.


    All of a sudden BaiYun''s eyes were drawn to his sword. He saw that his sword had become even more cracked than before. With each collision with the stingers of the bees, especially those of the second circle, the condition of his sword became much worse.


    Bai Yun had been a swordsman for tens of thousands of years. A single look was enough for him to realize that the sword would only last one more hit.


    He smiled wryly as the realization hit him. It seemed as if he would not be able to kill any more bees. If he did not want to die and be disqualified, he would have to retreat immediately. Once his sword broke, he would not be able to hold the second circle bees back.


    In that instant Bai Yun felt as if time had stopped. He looked around at the thirteen bees that had surrounded him, his eyes scouring every single one of them. He could see their wings moving in slow motion, beat by beat. He saw their eyes, red from anger. He saw their stingers thrusting straight at him. There was no way for him to kill of them. He needed a large area attack even to hold them back and escape.


    Bai Yun then thought of the second move of the moonlight sword, rain in the moonlight. It was an area attack, but something he had yet to master. He could barely trigger it properly, and even when he did so, something was blocking the move, making him unable to bring out its true strength.


    Bai Yun grit his strength, and decided to use it anyway. His strength was nearly not enough to escape. If he used it, he would be at least able to push away the bees, so that he could run away. Without mastering it, using it would only cause him to waste a lot of energy, and not deal any damage. But he had no choice. He needed a moment to run.


    Without waiting for it, he cast rain under the moonlight. Rain under the moonlight was a move that dispersed the strength of the sword into multiple thrusts. If a ray of moonlight focused all the energy of the castor into a single point and thrust the sword forward at great speed, then a rain under the moonlight split that energy into multiple pieces, and let it disperse in multiple thrusts that came one after the other. Each of the thrusts were much weaker than a ray of moonlight, but when huge number of came one after the other, it allowed one to rapidly send attacks in any direction as they please.


    Bai Yun had only started to study the sword technique recently. The techniques that he studied in his past life consisted of very different principles, thus he he found it a bit difficult to comprehend the technique at first.


    Bai Yun attacked the bees one by one, pushing them back and hurting them in the process. With each attack, the bees were pushed back and Bai Yun gained a little more breathing room.


    Suddenly with a slight crack a new tiny crack appeared at the sword tip. Bai Yun frowned as he saw this. His attack was in the middle of execution and this crack caused him to lose control of the latest thrust slightly. As he watched, the sword collided against the body of the bee in front of him, and theunstable qi caused a small explosion. When he saw this Bai Yun''s eyes widened in surprise.


    It was like lightning had gone off in his head. He realized that he had been thinking about the technique all wrong. Since the ray of moonlight was a penetration type technique, he had assumed that the case was true for rain under the moonlight. But it was not. The technique was meant to explode upon slightly penetrating the body of the enemy, thus not only causing extra damage, but also the reverse force of the explosion would allow him to retreat his sword faster.


    The moonlight part of the rain under the moonlight was the light that would appear when the technique was executed. He had thought that the rain part in the name referred to the large umber of attacks in the technique, but no. The rain was referring to how a raindrop would burst upon hitting the ground.


    In an instant countless thoughts ran through Bai Yun''s head. He realized the true way of utilizing the technique, but it was too late by now. His sword was about to collapse.


    A look of determination passed through his eyes before Bai Yun send his soul tendrils into the sword. The soul tendrils would cause the sword to stay together, but in exchange, he would be dealt with the backlash. He halted the technique he was casting, and once again used the rain under the moonlight, this time doing it properly.


    As the true technique was cast, a small reverberating noise was heard, as if someone was hitting a drum very silently, but repeatedly. In a second the entire region around Bai Yun was washed in faint white glow.Bai Yun repeatedly hit the weak points of the bees, enlarging the wounds they had received, until they screeched out in pain as their body''s ripped in two.


    As he stopped, Bai Yun spit out a mouthful of blood, and his sword shattered into pieces at the same time. Just as the blood and the pieces of the sword fell ontotheh floor, so did the bodies of the bees.


    For a moment the entire cavern was silent. Bai Yun stared at the bee queen, who was stunned into silence by what had just transpired. Bai Yun knew knew that it wouldn''t last for much longer. He acted immediately and send his soul tendrils against the queen. Before she could react, his soul tendrils had silenced the queen. But they were only strong enough to clamp its mouth shut. If she called for her follower, the situation would get quite dangerous.


    Bai Yun cast wind motion and ran at the queen bee at full speed. He reached the bee in an instant and attacked the beast using the lions oar. As he approached the queen bee, his right arm lit up and he punched at the beast''s heart, with the momentum of his speed for added strength.


    The queen bee saw him coming and a ruthless look passed though its eyes. It thrust its stinger straight at Bai Yun, hoping to take him along with her. Bai Yun''s eyes narrowed. He recalled the soul tendrils that he was using to keep the bee quiet, and grabbed his waist with them. With all the strength he could muster, he twisted his body out of the way of the stinger. Just as it passed by him, ripping his clothes in the process, he heard a snap coming from his back. But he had no time to waste on it as his fist went through the bee''s heart at the same time. The queen bee looked at him for a moment in surprise before the light in its eyes disappeared, and it fell back dead.


    Bai Yun stretched his back. Even though he had started on cultivation recently, he still had lived for a long time before starting on this path. His body was not in the optimal condition for doing such acrobatic moves, and such a maneuver had caused him to sprain his muscle.


    Once he was done, he went behind the queen bees quarters, to find a small pot filled with a golden liquid. Bai Yun dipped his finger into the pot and licked it to taste. He realized that was the reward given to people who could clear an entire beast den. And this reward was tempered honey, a body cultivation treasure.


    Tempered honey was a special product that could only be created by bee type races, and also took a long time to create. The bees would repeatedly distill the essence of honey, and then make large quantities of it before repeating the process again to make the power of it more dense. This would an incredible long time to prepare. After each tempering the power in the honey would increase exponentially. The first few tempering weren''t much valuable, but a thirteen or fourteen tempered honey was valuable enough to even move gods.


    With a single lick, Bai Yun realized that the object in front of him was three tempered honey. Three tempered honey was quite valuable, and based on the amount in front of him, he seemed to have enough to make two more mysterious patterns. He figured that the organizers had kept so much of the honey in the test because they would have never expected a single person to make it all the way here all by themselves. He would have used it then and there but for the fact that he had no time left.


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    After he put away the honey, he stared at the remnants of his sword. Even though he only had a small amount of qi left, it would be enough to get back. The more pressing problem was the lack of a weapon. All that remained of his sword was the hilt.


    After a moment, he walked up to the queen bee, and cut off her stinger. Then he picked up the hilt of his sword, and jammed it into the stinger as hard as he could. After swinging around his makeshift lance, even though it was too short to be called that, he smiled in satisfaction.


    It was time to slaughter his way out.

 46 The siege begins

    After he left the queen''s quarters, Bai Yun found an exit he had not used before and left the bee quarters. He tried to be as stealthy as he could, but he was still found out when he was more than halfway through. From then on he had a slightly hard time leaving the hive. But he still managed to do so relatively easily.


    Once he left the hive, he quickly found an exit and then left the beast den. When he left the mountain Bai Yun realized that he had left from a different cave than the one he used to enter.


    By now the lance he had made was mostly damaged. He threw the object away, and headed towards a river nearby. When he reached there, there were a few insects there, drinking the water. Without a weapon he ended up having to rip them apart with his bare arms.


    Once he reached the side of the river, he nearly punched the river in reflex. When he looked at his reflection in the river, he smiled wryly. Not only was he covered in the blood of insects and his own, some of it was blue and some red, making it even more hideous. His clothes were ripped in many places, and there were pieces of flesh in his hair.


    Bai Yun jumped into the river, and cleaned himself. He then took of his shirt to check his body.


    When he saw the results he ended up nearly crying. His body was lean, but there was no muscles to be seen. And he thought that he even saw a tinge of flab in his belly. ''It was only a tinge, that''s why I missed it.'' Bai Yun hypnotized himself. He then tried to stretch his body, only to stop in pain.


    ''At least some good came of this excursion.'' Bai Yun thought. ''Now I know what I have to fix.''


    Since he had not cultivated till he became fourteen, Bai Yun''s body had already reached a critical stage. He had passed the optimal time to start training and his body had started to stiffen. And ever since he was reborn, Bai Yun was focused on increasing his cultivation and learning battle techniques, and had completely ignored his body. The thought never even crossed his mind. After all, in his past life he had started cultivation when he was an infant, and had never had to face this mess.


    ''I ignored the foundations and focused only on the outside.'' He thought.


    Bai Yun pinched his waist, only to find that between his fingers was fat.


    ''Mission Priority One: Turn this body into something I can look at in the mirror without crying.'' Bai Yun declared in his heart.


    Once he was done with this, he changed his clothes, and headed back to plaza. Due to his various delays, he reached the meeting place about ten minutes late. When he reached there, about ninety people were already there.


    "There you are" Zhang Zi said "I was starting to wonder if you had kicked it."


    "Is everyone here?" Bai Yun asked him.


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    "Three participants died when they went out hunting. We thought that the same happened with you." Zhang Zi said.


    "What? How the hell did that happen?" Bai Yun asked.


    "Those morons found a precious herb that was being protected by some beasts. They were too greedy and didn''t call for reinforcements. The beasts on the other hand, did. By the time we got there, they were already dead. In the end the herb ended up with me and Hui."


    Bai Yun shook his head. The situation was getting messier. With ninety five people, the whole problem would only get harder. "What about the teams for the siege? Have they decided on them yet?"


    "They are still deliberating. They can''t decide on how many people should go. Its not just that some people want to defend or some people want to attack, the problem is that they can''t even decide on how many people should be in the attacking team. So they are all still trying to figure it out."


    Bai Yun looked at the group. They were all simply fighting between them. Some people wanted to take a large attacking force and storm the beast den, while some wanted to take a small elite force and leave the rest of them for defense. Gong Ming simply watched all of this transpiring without intervening.


    After this went on for a while Bai Yun stepped up. "STOP." He shouted. The entire group turned to him in stunned silence. Zhang Zi, who had almost fallen asleep, woke up with a start.


    "Now that I have you attention, do any of you have idea how it is inside the beast den?" Bai Yun asked.


    The group stared at him. "Who the hell do you think you are?" One of them shouted. "If you have something to say, then say it. Else shut up!" Another one continued. The rest of the group quickly followed suit, and threw in a few insults in the mix.


    Ignoring the ruckus, Bai Yun continued. "I went inside the bests den just now." The entire group was startled upon hearing this. Zhang Zi grinned upon hearing that, while Gong Ming narrowed his eyes.


    "I can tell you one very important thing about it, and that is that the tunnels inside the beast den are too narrow. Only one or two people can fight at the same time in there. Any more, and you will only get in each others way. So no matter how many people came, we would have to operate as small teams. And since the entire thing is a labyrinth, no one would be able to come to any others help. Finally, since the tunnels are small and meandering only close combat fighters can function properly. And defensive fighters will simply be surrounded and overwhelmed. So I suggest that only people with great speed, or people with great combat strength need to go." Bai Yun explained.


    The moment he finished, the people in the elite team camp started to gloat, while the other camp started to look annoyed. "Well then how many people do you propose go for the attack?" One of them asked.


    "Honestly, just Zhang Zi and I are enough. Everyone else would only get in the way." Zhang ZI started to laugh upon hearing this. "Well said." He said while holding his stomach in laughter. Bai Yun wondered whether he had some some magical words, as the entire crowd seem to be antagonistic towards him now.


    "Now, now." Gong Ming finally stepped in. "Let us not look ungentlemanly by fighting. First I must thank Young master Long Tian in his great undertaking of scouting the beast den to provide us with valuable intel." Saying so, he gave Bai Yun a bow, causing others to clap unenthusiastically.


    "Now then, let us continue the discussion of how we are going to conduct the raid shall we" Saying so, Gong Ming easily took charge of the situation, leading them back into a civilized discussion.


    As he watched Gong Ming operate, Bai Yun felt goosebumps. Honestly, Bai Yun was impressed by how he waited until the whole situation had stabilized before smoothly taking charge.


    Bai Yun then left them to their talk and went to the flag to exchange for things that he needed. He currently had over a thousand achievement points by now. The first thing that he did was to exchange for a sword worth three hundred and thirty points. There were better swords that he could have exchanged for, but he decide to buy a few other things also.


    After this Bai Yun exchanged for a bow that was worth two hundred and eighty points, along with twenty arrows, each costing ten points each. With this Bia Yun had already spend eight hundred and ten points. He then also bought two qi replenishing pills and two healing pills. By now his points was starting to dry up, and he did not have much left. After some deliberation he chose an antidote priced at seventy points in case of an emergency leaving him with only three points left.


    When Bai Yun went back to the camp, he found that they had finished their discussion. After asking Zhang Zi about it, he learned that they had finally chosen on four more teams to go with them. But one of those teams had two of their team mates killed earlier, so they only had two people left in their team. So a total of sixteen people would be in the attacking team. The remaining seventy nine people would be staying back to defend the plaza.


    "Don''t worry," Zhang Zi declared, "I will definitely end the undefeated streak of Insect World."


    As they started to set off, a new problem emerged. Song Hui decided that she wanted to go with Zhang Zi to have some fun. This created a new headache, as meant that all three of the strongest individuals would have to go together due to the rules. To add insult to injury, Song Hui''s whip would be completely useless in the narrow tunnels.


    In the end Zhang Zi had to trick her to calm her down. He told her that the reason only sixteen people were going to the den was because it was extremely easy and that was why they needed her to stay and defend the plaza. Hearing this Song Hui pledged to do so very happily.


    Once the group got ready, they decided to set off for the beast den. But instead of heading directly for the beast den, they took a longer route around, in order to avoid the beast tide.


    Once they were a good distance away from the base, and a short distance from the mountain, the group decided to rest until the fighting began. The group set up camp in a hill from where they could watch the beast den.


    Bai Yun used this time to rest and meditate. His qi reserves were running low, and he did not want to waste a qi replenishing pill so soon. And it was also not possible to take too many of them one after the other lest your qi become impure. Bai Yun climbed up a tree, hid himself in its branches and proceed to meditate.


    While he did so, most of the others were not content with wasting this time. They went and checked the nearby area to find any precious material that may be there.


    After an hour had passed, Bai Yun had recovered eighty percent of his strength. He opened his eyes and stared. A rumble passed through the ground.


    Under the watchful eyes of the assault group, countless number of insect beasts rushed out of the beast den. As the watched they saw a large number and variety of insects rushing out of the den, and heading straight for the city. When the people there saw this, they were scared out of their minds.


    "Thank God I am not part of the defending team." One of them said.


    "No need to thank anyone. We are going into their home, where we will be surrounded by the insects. I don''t think either of us will be in a better position." Zhang Zi responded. Hearing this the rest of the team fell silent.


    After five minutes the beast shad left the den. By now the entire group had started to feel the weight of their responsibility. Bai Yun watched them silently. He waited for five minutes and then jumped down from the tree.


    "Well then. Lets get going. Its not like anything is going to change if we just sit around here." He said while moving towards the beast den.

 47 The dream moth

    Bai Yun and the rest of the group reached the beast den soon enough. Once there, the group split up into smaller groups. Bai Yun and Zhang Zi split up to move alone, while the rest of them were moving in teams of two. They surrounded the mountain and moved independently from different directions.


    Bai Yun chose a different cave from the two he had entered and left from before. The cave that he had chosen to enter was one he had observed before. This was one of the caves that was used by many different races.


    Bai Yun moved about stealthily, not wanting to alarm the insects. He took out the tracker and walked in the direction it was pointing towards. He quickly saw more than one insect on his way, and quickly dispatched them to the afterlife.


    But after a while, Bai Yun found himself walking in the opposite direction from the one the tracker was pointing towards. The changing directions and the meandering tunnels had completely disoriented him.


    Bai Yun decided to ignore the tracker and only focus on the intuition provided by his god sense.


    Usually, intuition is used by making use of the five senses, perception and experience. It makes use of the subconscious to rely on things that are missed by the six senses and make judgments based on that. Thus intuition becomes very useless when the target is outside of the senses of a person.


    But the god sense works by tying itself to the heavenly dao itself. It was something that went against reason. It could even be considered as a god''s right. Since it was fundamentally different from perception, Bai Yun could use them both independently. It had many terrifying powers. Only, Bai Yun was unable to use any of them with his current strength. He could not even trigger its intuition and was placing its bets on it triggering passively.


    Bai Yun walked through the maze, going through it only by relying on his god sense. Soon Bai Yun noticed that he had reached a place where the walls were thicker than before. Bai Yun smiled, thinking that he had made some progress towards the flag.


    Soon after that, Bai Yun ran into a ladybug. Realizing that he had finally left the region of the ants, Bai Yun cut the ladybug into two with his sword. A moment after than he frowned as he felt the resistance of the beast. It offered much greater resistance than the other beasts of the same level. It seemed as if it was a defense-oriented beast.


    Bai Yun was especially weak against these types of enemies. He used his experience and disruption of rhythm to fight. He simply did not have enough strength to break the defenses of such beasts.


    After complaining to his god sense for leading him down the wrong path, Bai Yun stuck with it anyway.


    Bai Yun stared at the cave walls and he walked forward carefully. He knew that he was in the region of the beetles, and it could become dangerous if he was surrounded by them.


    He walked carefully, taking care to make as little noise as possible. At the same time, he deployed the Assassin God''s techniques to hide his presence completely.


    Bai Yun sneaked through the tunnels, quickly killing any beast that he came into contact with. The number of beasts in the den was a far cry from when he entered earlier.


    Bai Yun walked through the tunnels in a relaxed manner. Suddenly he realized that the tunnel he was in had branched out into a cave. As he looked around, he realized that the cave was empty, but it was obvious that there were beasts living here. He realized that he had reached the living quarters of the beetles.


    Bai Yun walked through the tunnels once again. But this time the difficulty had gone up by a notch. There were a lot more beetles around, and even with his ability, he was wounded a few times. Bai Yun fought through the beetles, and then soon reached a large cave in the tunnel. After spending a moment to pause and take hold of his bearing, Bai Yun entered the cave.


    When he entered the cave, Bai Yun saw a large beetle sitting in the middle of the room. It was surrounded by three other smaller beetles, who were still larger than the ones he ran into before, in the middle. He stared at the beetle in the middle for a moment, before deciding to leave. There was no way he could penetrate the defenses of the beetle and kill it. So Bai Yun decided to leave and find a different place to break through to the central cave.


    But just as he was about to leave, a flash caught the corner of his eye. He saw a large silvery rock behind the beetles. Bai Yun narrowed his eyes and stared at the rock for a few moments while he went through his memories trying to identify it. It took him a while to recognize the object: flowing silver.


    Flowing silver was a raw material that could be made to use weapons. It was very light but not too strong. Thus it was perfect to make weapons. He already had a great sword made of even better materials, but he was lacking in a pair of daggers. The brittle nature of flowing silver meant that it was not great for weapons like swords, but it would be great for assassination weapons like daggers or flying knives.


    As he stared at the flowing silver, he knew that he had no chance of defeating the beetles. His only chance was to steal the flowing silver and run away. He could not approach the beetles while hiding as there was nothing to hide behind. If he wanted to get his hands on the flowing silver, this would end up as a competition of speed. If that was the case then he would be fine. The beasts had to lose their speeds in exchange for their great defense.


    Bai Yun cast wind motion, approaching the beetles at full speed. The beetles noticed him the moment he entered their cave. They turned to him and screeched, rushing at him. Bai Yun took out his sword and swung at the first beetle. It did not hurt the beetle at all, so he used the force to push himself off course, getting out of the beetle''s way. In the blink of an eye, he had passed the four beetles and reached the flowing silver.


    Bai Yun had long since wrapped the flowing silver in his soul tendrils. The moment he reached the flowing silver, he reached out to it and put it into the storage ring. But the momentary pause had allowed the beetles to caught up by then. In an instant, Bai Yun cast wind motion and ran away.


    He heard the screech of the beetles as they chased after him. Bai Yun entered another one of the tunnels and ran away. As he did so he could hear the second circle beetles entering the tunnel to chase after him. The tunnel was too narrow for the third circle beast to enter.


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    As he ran, the other beetles moved to block him. Bai Yun was nearly surrounded a few times, but he managed to slip pas them. He did not have any time to kill most of the beetles that were after him, so he just tried to outrun them.


    Bai Yun changed the direction of his movement a few times and managed to throw some of the beetles away. But he would be found by more soon after. Suddenly he saw a crack in the side of the tunnels. He entered the crack without hesitation.


    He stood panting after he entered the cave. He had spent a lot of qi in the chase. After he looked around, he saw that he was in a small cave and that there was a small crack from where he could see a second cave. With a start, Bai Yun realized that he was inside the guardian cave. The setup was identical to what was described in the book of Gong Ming.


    He could not believe that he had reached the guardian caves so easily. Considering the size of the caves, he had to have walked almost straight forward to have reached it so quickly. He barely deviated from his path and had reached the guardian in record time, the only delay being the detour he took to get the flowing silver.


    Bai Yun walked inside the second cave quickly. He had no time to waste. The beetles could not enter that cave so it was better to simply enter the cave and deal with the creature inside.


    The moment he did so, he caught sight of the beast that was in the cave. Bai Yun was stunned for a moment as he did not know to cry or laugh. A four feet tall moth was floating in the middle of the room. It was the dream moth.


    There were many different beasts that could be the guardian as well as the boss monster. Among them, Bai Yun was desperately hoping that the boss monster would be the dream moth, even though the possibility was low.


    This was because the dream moth was a beast that attacked using soul methods.


    In the insect world, the guardian was usually a beast at the peak of the third circle and the boss would be a half step into the fourth circle. And these wouldn''t be average beasts either. They would either be beasts of great pedigree or variants. And the dream moth was a beast that would often appear. It was even noted in the book that Gong Ming gave. It would use its soul power to pull the enemy into a dream-like state to incapacitate them and then kill them. Only a soul cultivator could escape their pull.


    But it would be extremely difficult for a soul cultivator to make it all the way here. But Bai Yun had. Not only that, he was he at the peak of the third circle and using one of the most powerful soul cultivation techniques. On top of it, he also had the god sense and thirty thousand years of battle experience. It would be very difficult for the poor dream moth to pull him into an illusion.


    Bai Yun was rather hoping that the dream moth would be the final boss because that way he would be able to easily defeat it. But having the dream moth as a guardian was fine too. At least he would be able to avoid a battle and conserve his energy.


    The dream moth noticed Bai Yun the moment he walked into the cave. Its wings started to flap, and shone with a bright light. A blank look appeared in Bai Yun''s eyes as he stared at the moth. It slowly drifted over to him.


    When it neared him, a cold look flashed in Bai Yun''s eyes. His sword lit up, and he thrust it at the moth while casting a ray of moonlight. The moth panicked upon seeing the attack, but it was too late to do anything by then. The sword pierced right through the moth''s head, killing it in the process.


    Bai Yun sighed in relief. It would have been difficult to kill the dream moth if he had not caught it by surprise, even if it was a beast focusing on the soul path.


    Bi Yun swung his sword and put away the blood on it. He then started to walk towards the final cave. Once he reached the end, he slowly peeked around the corner.

 48 Black mantis

    Bai Yun looked through the entrance for a moment. He then pulled back his head almost immediately. He nearly banged his head against the wall after seeing the thing inside the cave.


    In the middle of the cave, a ten-foot tall black mantis stood still before the black flag. Its entire body was covered in black scales, which gleamed in the light. At the end of its forelimbs were two sharp sickle-like projections.


    The mantis was not recorded in the book that Gong Ming gave, which meant that this was a variant. This meant that he had no idea what its abilities were or how to fight the beast. Generally, mantises were more geared toward attack and speed, and their defense was a bit weaker. But the black mantis could be quite different. Without knowing its abilities, it would be quite dangerous to attack the mantis, especially considering its cultivation. This was the worst enemy he could have asked for.


    Bai Yun peeked out from his cave and stared at the mantis for a while, trying to find out more about it. The beast would only attack once he stepped into the cave, so he was safe for now. Bai Yun was staring at the beast when he noticed some movement from the corner of his eyes.


    The cave was a large circular room, with a hemispherical roof. There were four entrances into the cave, all at right angles to each other. As Bai Yun watched, Zhang Zi entered the cave from one of the other entrances.


    Bai Yun''s jaw dropped when he saw this. He had relied on his god sense and had run into the cave very quickly. He even dispatched the guardian beast in record time. And yet Zhang Zi was only a few moments behind him. This meant that he must have had incredible luck in his path, possibly taking an even shorter than him.


    Since he was hiding in the shadows of the entrance, neither Zhang Zi nor the black mantis had noticed him. But the mantis did notice Zhang Zi the moment that he entered the cave. With a roar, it turned towards Zhang Zi and attacked him in an instant.


    The large sickle-like hands of the mantis thrust forward at Zhang ZI incredibly fast. Zhang Zi immediately parried the thrust with his spear, but it caused him to take a few steps back. Bai Yun frowned when he saw that. The attack was too fast. He was not sure if he could dodge it. And if he was to be struck by it, the force he would have to bear would be considerable. He might not be able to withstand it. He decided to let Zhang Zi handle the back mantis for now.


    After watching them for a while, Bai Yun decided to prepare to intervene in their fight when a chance arose. The objective was not to defeat the mantis but to destroy the flag. He was sure that an opportunity to do so would arise in the middle of their fight. Once he was ready he turned back towards the fight, ready to take action in a moment''s notice. He watched the two combatants exchange blows rapidly without either of them taking a step back. He had to admit that Zhang Zi''s spear technique was rather impressive for his age.


    Zhang Zi suddenly took a few steps back. He then charged towards the mantis with his spear raised above his head. He then leaped up with a roar and brought the spear down on the mantis. As he did so, a glow appeared around the spear tip. The mantis saw this glow, and its eyes narrowed. It then crossed its arms to defend itself against it as a precaution.


    But what happened afterward surprised everyone but Zhang Zi. The moment the spearhead collided with the mantis''s arms, it created a shockwave from the point of impact. The mantis, who was not expecting that, was thrown backward, and it took a moment to stabilize itself. But even then, it''s arms were still shaking slightly.


    Zhang Zi did not miss this chance. He ran up to the mantis once again and continued to attack repeatedly. But it had learned its lesson. It no longer tried to block Zhang Zi straight away, instead choosing to dodge the attacks that were filled with the white glow.


    When he saw this Bai Yun stared at Zhang Zi thoughtfully. There was no way the shockwave could be the result of a battle skill. It was not that there were no such techniques, but the control over qi one needed for such techniques would be much higher than what one could get at the qi step. In the qi step, most of the techniques one could use were simply ones that increased the strength or speed of the attacks. The more complex techniques would require one to reach the soul step. Even Bai Yun with his terrifying control would be unable to utilize such techniques before reaching the core formation stage at least.


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    Which meant that there were only two options left.


    The first was transcendent elements like a transcendent earth. There were many transcendent earths that had this ability to create vibrations or shockwaves. The most famous of them was the Pulsing Earth, a transcendent element that was in the top ten of all transcendent earths. Even some other transcendent elements could bestow vibration to the user.


    But Bai Yun could sense no transcendent element in Zhang ZI''s attack. It was impossible to use a transcendent element without bringing it out. And Zhang Zi was not at a level to hide them from Bai Yun yet.


    Thus the only choice was an Innate ability.


    An innate ability was a special ability that a person could have. For example, the seamless body that Long Tian was born with was a case of such ability. There were many variants of such abilities, like the all-seeing eye, the immortal heart and so on. Most of these abilities were gained when a person was born, but if the conditions were right, it was possible to create an innate ability artificially. But people artificially gaining innate abilities were incredibly rare, and only made up of a minority of all innate abilities.


    The ability that Zhang Zi had seemed to be a shockwave type of ability. It would be quite a strong ability in this world, all things considering.


    As the fight continued, it was obvious that this was not an easy one for either of them. The mantis was dodging his attacks as much as it could. The flow of the fight was currently in Zhang Zi''s favor.


    Bai Yun smiled when he saw Zhang Zi fight. He wanted to strangle him. It was refreshingly straight forward and stupid. There was no deceit in his attacks. If it was Bi Yun he would have made use of the beast''s wariness to add in some fake attacks that would only light up the spear and have no shockwave in it. But Zhang Zi did no such thing. Every attack was sent with his full power. And any use of an ability, especially powerful ones like the one Zhang Zi was using, would use up a lot of qi. From the way things were heading, Zhang Zi would run out of steam first.


    And his prediction came to pass just a few minutes later. Zhang Zi was starting to pant, and his movements had slowed down. There was no hesitation from the mantis. It made use of this break to send its sickle straight at Zhang Zi just as it dodged an attack from him. Zhang Zi was forced to take a step back to defend himself.


    From then on the direction of the battle changed. Zhang Zi was continuously retreating under the mantis''s assault. The mantis roared as it send an especially powerful attack at Zhang Zi. Too weak to defend properly, he was send flying.


    As Bai Yun watched, Zhang Zi was flying away from him in the direction opposite to his own cave entrance. A second later, he hit the cave wall, and spit out blood from the collision. He shakily stood up, only to find the mantis rushing at him. Zhang Zi smiled wryly as he realized that he had lost the battle, and resigned himself to the loss.


    The mantis suddenly froze with its sickle just feet away from Zhang Zi. The white light of teleportation had started to appear on Zhang Zi''s body, but it went away as soon as it came. As both Zhang Zi and the mantis turned their heads to look at the other end of the cave, a sharp twang resounded within the cavern.


    Bai Yun stood at the entrance of the cave, a bow in his hand. The twang was when he shot out an arrow at the black flag in the center.


    Bai Yun was terrifyingly good at the sword. But if anyone asked what other martial paths he was familiar with, he would definitely answer like this: unarmed combat, archery, and spear techniques.


    Bai Yun used a lot of weapons in his life, but the only weapon other than the sword he systematically studied under a tutor was the bow. He had learned how to use other weapons by studying the fights of both his allies and his enemies. And he picked up the spear for inspiration when he reached a bottleneck in the simple sword. Thus he was rather proficient in both.


    Thus Bai Yun was very proficient at archery. Of course, this was only with respect to his current cultivation. He would rate his archery skills at the level of a peak immortal step archery dao practitioner. And there were many such people, and even god level archers in the Grand War.


    But this was enough for now.


    The mantis who saw the arrow heading towards the flag roared in anger. Ignoring Zhang Zi it ran straight at the arrow, intending to block it.


    The beasts in War were all trapped using a soul skill. They were ordered to protect the flag and not let it be damaged. Each of their actions was controlled under the orders of the person who was controlling their souls. This was why the beasts would follow the rules of war, even though they had no intelligence.


    So the mantis rushed to stop the arrows. It used all four of its legs as well as its arms to rush towards the arrows. A boom was heard as it propelled itself towards the flag. Its body started to bleed from the aftershock of its movements. After all, it was standing at the other end of the cave, which meant that to block the arrows it had to cover a greater distance than the arrows. Not only that, it started to move after the arrows had been shot.


    But the mantis was indeed incredible. It reached the flag before the arrow and swatted it away. But by then Bai Yun had fired off a second shot. The mantis screeched and deflected it to. Then it turned to Bai Yun and roared, who simply smiled in response.


    Just as the insect was about to pounce on Bai Yun, a bang resounded through the cave. Everyone''s eyes turned to the flag, just in time to see it being ripped to shred by a silent third arrow!


    Bai Yun had simply utilized a basic technique of the archery path known as the ghost shot. Of course, this was only basic to Bai Yun. It this world this was undoubtedly an advanced technique. The third arrow had flown in the shadow of the first one and had thus been missed by the group in the cave. The only people who noticed were the organizers watching the battle. In fact, the reason for him firing the second arrow was only to cover up the sound of the third arrow, which he had fired at the same time.


    As the mantis roared in frustration, a white light covered Bai Yun and Zhang ZI, along with the rest of the group who ha survived. Every single person heard a voice as they were being teleported.


    "Congratulations on surviving War. You have passed the second test."

 49 Third round of the gold tes

    When Bai Yun opened his eyes, he found himself in the hall once again. He looked around for a moment to see how many people had survived. To his shock, only one other person from the attacking team other than Bai Yun and Zhang Zi was there in the hall. And from the defending team, only nine people were left.


    A cold sweat broke out on Bai Yun''s back when he saw the numbers. The fact that seventy people had died meant that it would only have been a few more minutes before the rest of them also died. It was only now that he realized how close to failing they had come. Ba Yun finally understood how no one had passed the test until now.


    Every single member of the defending team was panting. They were covered in blood and sweat. They were still in shock at their sudden teleportation. Forget Bai Yun, even Zhang Zi looked much better. Song Hui ignored where she was and just laid down on the floor. Even now they were unable to comprehend what had happened and was standing there stunned.


    "Congratulations." A voice was heard. As they turned to look,the entire organizer group had appeared in front of them. They were staring at the group in surprise. "You are the first group to have passed Insect World. Well done."


    For a moment silence reigned the hall. Then the entire room broke out in cheers. None of them could believe that they had actually won. A couple of them broke into tears. Song Hui had already fallen asleep by now. The only people who were composed were Bai Yun, Zhang Zi, and Gong Ming.


    "Good job." Gong Ming said while staring at Bai Yun.


    "It''s okay. We just got lucky. You guys look like you have been through hell." Bai Yun replied.


    "Great. We are going to go down in history." Zhang Zi said while grinning.


    The organizers waited silently as the group calmed down. Then they asked them to be silent while they explained the procedures from now on would be.


    "Since you guys have passed War after we put Insect World as the scenario, we have not done any preparations for the third round at all. Honestly, we did not expect you to pass at all." The lady continued. Everyone who heard this chuckled. That was a very reasonable assumption.


    "Well anyway since you have passed, we will be conducting the third round tomorrow morning. There will be many prominent people who will be interested in your examinations. After all, you are the first to pass Insect World." She continued. "Due to the momentous achievement, all of you here will be getting a reward. But the rewards will be based on your ranking in the tournament. Both the number as well as the quality of the reward will be higher than usual."


    The group cheered when they heard this announcement.


    "Excuse me," Gog Ming interrupted. "How exactly did we win? Based on what I know of Insect World I was expecting a sure loss."


    The organizer lady smiled when she heard this. "It was due to sheer luck. Usually, it takes a long time for people to reach the guardian caves due to the labyrinth. Most of the people who are in the attacking teams are never able to make it to the guardian cave before the white flag is destroyed. There are a lot of cases where the attacking team has people who are strong enough to defeat the boss, but they could not reach him in time. But both Long Tian and Zhang Zi walked almost directly to the guardian caves and ended up facing enemies they were strong against. Thus a miracle occurred." Once the organizers explained what had happened, everyone understood.


    After asking them to return to their accommodation, and to assemble here tomorrow morning, the organizers left them alone.


    Once they left, Bai Yun went to talk to Zhang ZI. He approached him with an innocent smile. Just as Zhang Zi started to speak, Bai Yun''s hands moved like lightning, and then grabbed hold of Zhang Zi''s collar and lifted him up. Zhang Zi was shocked into silence by his movement.


    "What kind of moron are you? Why would you use a spear with that kind of ability?" Bai Yun asked while shaking him.


    This was a reasonable question by Bai Yun. An innate ability was different from a battle skill. It was an ability of the body, and, other than a few exceptions, it was extremely difficult to use them away from one''s body or use it through a weapon. Bai Yun estimated that the shockwaves Zhang Zi created were not even half as powerful as the ones he could create with his bare hands.


    Zhang Zi laughed as he heard this. "Why should I care about all of that. I use a spear because I like to.Who cares about things like optimal use of strength and so on."


    Bai Yun sighed when he heard this answer. When he was learning under the God of Swords, he would be disciplined very physically every time he made a mistake, usually with a beating. Later on, once he started to fight in the Grand War, he started to teach other people how to fight properly as a stress release. No, wait he did that to strengthen the army. Either way, his body automatically reacted when he saw Zhang Zi using his power so stupidly.


    Bai Yun understood that Zhang Zi was not going to change from the moment he heard his response. He had run into such people many times. He knew Zhang Zi was not going to change.


    "Now you know how much of a moron he is." Gong Ming, who had approached them by now, said.


    Bai Yun simply sighed while he let go of Zhang Zi.


    "Huh, I thought you were going to push further. All the other morons who wanted me to drop the spear kept on going at it for a long time before they accepted that I was not going to change." Zhang Zi was surprised.


    "I just said all of that because I thought that it was a shame to waste your power. I am not going to force you to change. It would only be detrimental to your cultivation." Bai Yun said.


    "Maybe. But if I had done so, we would have lost."


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    He was right. The reason they won was because Zhang Zi was able to distract the mantis long enough for Bai Yun to destroy the flag. If Zhang Zi had used his hands to channel the shockwave ability, it would have taken him much longer to be defeated. Considering the situation of the defensive team, they would have been defeated by then. It was funny, how doing the wrong thing led to their victory.


    "And how exactly did you guys pull it off?" Gong Ming asked.


    "We got lucky. Zhang Zi ket the boss distracted while I shot the flag." Bai Yun replied.


    Gong Ming nodded his head, seemingly happy with the answer. He had stopped pretending in front of Bai Yun and started to show his true colors. He then left without taking a second look.


    After this Bai Yun and Zhang Zi also left the hall and returned to their accommodations. There were still a few people who were still celebrating their unexpected success.


    Once Bai Yun retreated to his quarters, he took out the three tempered honey.


    Since he had enough of it, he split the honey into two. Bai Yun then spend the first half of the honey to complete the mysterious pattern in his remaining leg. Now he as at the four pattern stage, and had completed the mysterious patterns in his four limbs.


    But once he was done, Bi Yun found himself in a dilemma. He only had enough tempered honey to create one more mysterious pattern. And he was not sure which of the five remaining patterns to apply next.


    Undying Body first created nine mysterious patterns, before tying them all together with the tenth one. The nine initial ones were the on the four limbs, the two shoulders, the abdomen, the back, and the head. There was no order in which these had to be completed. But the amount of strength one would get was disproportional to the number of resources one needed to create one.


    In skin sewing, as it was more focused on defense, a body cultivator would typically be weaker than a qi cultivator. But the Undying Body was even worse. Since it focused on a strong foundation, a peak skin sewing body cultivator of Undying would be defeated by a peak qi condensing cultivator.


    And due to the nature of the Undying Body, one would gain an explosive increase in strength upon reaching the tenth pattern, and the first nine would be rather weak. Bai Yun was certain that the strength he would gain upon completing two more mysterious patterns would not even be half of what he could get upon reaching the fourth stage of qi condensation.


    After some deliberation, Bai Yun decided to apply the right shoulder pattern as the fifth mysterious pattern. This would allow him to apply a slightly stronger strength in the right arm.


    Once he was done with this, it was already time for the third round to start. He quickly made his way to the hall where the rest of them were waiting.


    The moment he entered, Song Hui ran up to him. "I heard you destroyed the flag. Great jo big brother." She said excitedly.


    "You did a good job defending too." Bai Yun smiled and praised the strange little girl.


    "Of course. I am very strong. If it wasn''t for me, they would have all died in an instant." Song Hui replied arrogantly. But Bai Yun had to accept that this was indeed true.


    Suddenly the organizers appeared without warning, as they usually do.


    "Since you are all here, it is time for us to begin the final round of the gold test." The boss said.


    With that, the teleportation light covered them once again.

 50 Start of the tournamen

    Bai Yun stared at the new room they were in. It was a large square room. In the center, a large circular ring was drawn. This was probably where the battles were going to take place. On top of the walls of the room, they could see small windows that led to rooms from which people could view their battles.


    The moment they arrived there, Bai Yun''s god sense sensed a few perceptions sweeping over him. He realized that there were quite a good number of people here to watch the matches. The fact that they passed the Insect World must have increased the attention placed on them.


    Bai Yun frowned when he felt their presences washing over him. He realized that they were all in the soul step.


    In a place like the Yellow city, the most powerful people, the movers and shakers, would be in the dao step. The people in the qi step were either youngsters or rabble. Most of the administrative tasks were handled by soul step cultivators. And even if there were dao step cultivators who were alarmed by the fact they cleared insect world, they would at most send soul step cultivators to watch over the battles. After all, no matter what, they were still in the qi condensation realm.


    Bai Yun knew that there was no way anyone in the qi step to notice that he was wearing a disguise. At the same time, people in the dao step would be able to see his true face in an instant once they took a closer look. But for people in the soul step they would only be able to tell that there was something wrong with him, and maybe conclude that he had hidden his identity by using a disguising technique. And that too, only when they looked closer with their perception. Of course, if they had an innate ability that could see through the disguise, then it would be useless.


    Bai Yun initially thought that no dao step cultivator would come to this test as it was only a routine event. He did not expect to run into so many messy situations, like having three celebrities in the roster, as well as passing an unpassable test. But now the situation had spiraled out of control. But he would be fine as long as a dao step cultivator did not show up. After all, it was not illegal to use a disguise in the hunter union. While not many, there were still some who did so. The Hunter Union was confident that no one could cheat their system and take multiple cards per person. So they allowed this.


    Bai Yun collected himself. It seems as if no one had found out about his true identity. He turned his attention back to the organizer, who was now standing in the middle of the stadium.


    "Hello and welcome to the third round of the gold test." She said. No matter what happened, the people of the hunter union maintained their professionalism. "I would like to inform you that many people are watching the tournament and that you might be able to get good recommendations to join major powers."


    Most of the people here were excited at the prospect. In the qi condensation stage, the strength of an average person and a person from a major power did not vary too much. Once their strength increased, the difference in strength would also widen. It was the reason why a lot of people who came to take the gold test, not for the gold card, but for opportunities and experience. Though there were also those who would wait to attempt this to gain battle experience.


    "The test will be a simple knockout type tournament. Since there are twelve people in the tournament, the first round will have eight people fighting each other. Four lucky people will have a free pass to the second round. We have drawn up a chart for the tournament. Please take a look. The order of the fights, as well as the people who will be fighting, has already been drawn up by a random draw."


    A second later a giant screen appeared on the wall opposite them. The tournament matchups were projected there. Bai Yun saw that both he and Gong Ming had gained the free pass in the first round.


    The first battle in the first round was between Song Hui and another participant. The rounds seemed to have been arranged in such a way that the four of them who were considered as the strongest would not meet up before the semifinals.


    Soon they called upon the first set of fighters in the tournament. As Song Hui and the other person entered the stage, the rest of them retreated to the viewing area.


    "I will explain the rules of the match. The matches happen in the ring. No pills or external resources can be used once the match begins. The match will be considered as over only when either one of the participants has been knocked unconscious, declared defeat or has been knocked out of the ring. If both participants are knocked out of the ring at the same time, then the match will resume until a winner is decided. In the case of a draw, we will choose a winner. Also, please note that we will not intervene if one of the participants is in danger but does not admit defeat. But the judges will intervene if one of the participants shows intend to concede but is not able to declare defeat. Finally, even though deaths are unavoidable, willfully killing your opponent is prohibited in the match."


    Once the rules of the match were introduced, the organizer moved to the edge of the ring. Song Hui and her opponent moved to the opposite sides of the ring. Song Hui had her whip out and was visibly excited at the prospect of the fight. Her opponent on the hand was visibly gulping. He was a member of the defensive group and had seen her fight first hand.


    "Begin" The organizer declared once the two of them took their stance.


    The fight ended without any surprise. Song Hui immediately attacked her opponent with her whip, while he tried to close the distance to her. But by the time he reached halfway to her, she broke through his defenses and landed a strike on his arm. From then on the fight ended in less than thirty seconds by which Song Hui''s opponent admitted his defeat.


    Bai Yun shook his head while watching this. Even though she was not at all proficient in her whip technique, Song Hui''s whip technique itself was quite powerful. It would be rather difficult for someone who does not know how to fight against a whip user to handle her.


    Once this fight was done with it was time for the second fight to begin. Bai Yun watched this fight quite intently as he would have to fight the winner of this fight.


    The fight between the two ended very quickly. When he saw the fight Bai Yun was dumbstruck. The only way to describe the fight was by calling it idiotic. The two people on the stage simply ran up to each other when the fight began and used their ultimate techniques straight away. One of these was a palm technique while the other was a fist technique. The palm and fist collided, and the two of them stared at each other for a few seconds. Then the fist user overpowered the palm user and send him flying out of the ring and was declared as the winner.


    Bai Yun was thankful that the God of Swords was not here when these two fought or he would have started a massacre.


    He had thought that the people who had fought their way through War would be able to keep their cool and fight properly. He had no idea why they would fight in such a stupid manner. But after thinking it through for a moment he understood their reason for doing so. They weren''t fighting to win, but to show off in front of the people who were watching them fight.


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    The third fight was between Zhang Zi and another person. This fight also ended with no suspense and Zhang Zi won the fight in an instant, sending the opponent flying using his shockwave spear.


    In the fourth fight the person from the attacking team who had survived fought. Unlike the second fight, both people in the fight used weapons. The one from the attacking team used a sword, while the other person used a staff. Bai Yun got ready to watch a good fight. But he was soon let down. The two idiots simply rushed at each other and used their battle skills straight away. It took Bai Yun all of his willpower not to go up and strangle the two idiots when he saw that. After this the sword user somehow overpowered the other person and wounded him in the process, causing him to win in the process.


    Once the first round ended the group was given half an hour to rest. During this period everyone chose to rest. But neither Bai Yun nor Zhang Zi was able to rest since Song Hui captured them and kept on chatting with them. Well, Bai Yun and Zhang Zi mostly listened. Even Bai Yun was impressed by the strange little girl''s optimism and brightness.


    Once the second round began, they changed the order from the first round. Thus the first fight was between Zhang Zi and one of the people who had escaped fighting in the previous round. His opponent was the only woman other than Song Hui who had made it through the second test. Bai Yun was surprised to find that she was an archer.


    Once the fight began she immediately rushed away from Zhang Zi, putting distance between them. From then on she started to snipe Zhang Zi. Bai Yun was surprised to find that her techniques were very good, being both fast and accurate. She even disrupted Zhang Zi''s attack and used her movement technique to maintain her distance.


    Bai Yun was surprised to find such a dark horse. From the discussions of the surrounding people, Bai Yun realized that she was from a long line of archers, but her family had declined in recent years. She was so good in the second test that she was the main reason the defending group was able to defend against the flying insects. Bai Yun looked at the tournament board. Meng Qi. He read her name. She was the only person he deemed talented enough to make Bai Yun remember her name from the rubble other than the three celebrities in this test. He wasn''t sure about Gong Ming, but she had a slight chance of winning against even Song Hui.


    But she was up against Zhang Zi. After a while, he got irritated and then created an extra-large scale shockwave. Even though it was not enough to defeat her due to the distance she was maintaining, it did cause her to miss a step. In an instant, Zhang Zi had covered the distance between them and she admitted defeat soon after.


    The next fight was between Gong Ming and the sword cultivator from before. Bai Yun was excited to see Gong Ming fight, but he was easily disappointed. He went in wielding a sword and then just used the direct method to overpower his enemy with a stronger technique and win.


    The third fight was Song Hui''s and she won without any suspense. After this was finally Bai Yun''s tun.


    He walked up to the ring and stared at his enemy. It was the fist moron from the second match.


    Once the judge declared start, Bai Yun''s opponent ran at him, once again using the fist technique he had used in his first fight. Bi Yun''s face twitched when he saw this. He didn''t move and allowed him to approach him.


    Once he reached close enough, he thrust his fist forward. Bai Yun sighed when he saw this.


    Bi Yun calmly took a step to the right, then used that foot as a pivot to rapidly rotate. A second later, his opponent stopped as Bai Yun''s sword came to rest on his neck.


    "Will you admit defeat, or should I continue." Bai Yun asked sweetly.


    "I, I admit defeat."


    With this, the final four was decided.

 51 Semifinals of the gold tes

    The semifinals began soon after. By random choice, Zhang Zi and Gong Ming were up first.


    Zhang Zi used his spear while Gong Ming used his sword. Unlike the previous fights, the two of them fought by testing each other out at first. They did not immediately start to use their most powerful attacks but used techniques to read each other.


    When he saw them fight Bai Yun finally saw a good fight. But after a while, he started to frown. Gong Ming''s sword skills were very beautiful to watch, but they were a little lacking compared to Zhang Zi''s spear skills. Everyone else who saw the fight started to favor Gong Ming. But Bai Yun did not think so.


    The fight proceeded as he predicted. Zhang Zi waited out until Gong Ming made a mistake, and then pounced on him without delay. After this, he easily dispatched of Gong Ming with an attack which combined both his shockwave ability as well as a battle skill.


    But the moment he saw that he was going to lose, Gong Ming conceded very gracefully without fighting anymore. This won him the cheers of the crowd. When Zhang Zi returned to the waiting room, he had an irritated look on his face.


    With this one of the finalists was decided.


    Once their fight was over, SongHui and Bai Yun went up for their battle.


    "Begin" The judge declared once they took their positions.


    Song Hui swung her whip instantly. Bai Yun realized with a start that her whip was even faster than before. Without having to watch out for the shadow leopard, she had nothing holding her back.


    Bai Yun did not change his tactics from before. There was no need to. Once again he perfectly hit the whip''s tip to completely deflect all the power in it. Bai Yun stood there watching her fight for a short while before he confirmed that he had indeed read her technique properly.


    After that Bai Yun started to take one step after other towards Song Hui. With each step, he only advanced a short distance, but it was stable, calm and unhurried. As he got closer to Song Hui, the pace of the whip increased, but Bai Yun was still smiling. He kept watch of the whip using his soul tendrils and used that to accurately handle the attacks. He kept one hand behind his back and only used his right hand to defend. The image of Bai Yun walking towards Song Hui like a mountain in the middle of a storm was imprinted on the hearts of everyone watching.


    When she saw Bai Yun being so calm, Song Hui was enraged. "Hmph." She said. "Let''s see you block this." With that, the number of attacks increased. Thankfully she had to reduce the strength of her attacks to go beyond her optimum attack speed. For everyone watching it seemed as if there were many whips dancing between them.


    But Bai Yun was still unfazed. Even if it seemed as if there were many attacks coming at the same time, it was still coming one after the other. But with the increase in speed, he could no longer hit the tip to stop the attack. So Bai Yun chose to gently push the whip out of the way. Many people were startled at his perfect control. They would have been stupefied at the sheer speed of the attacks. But he could still see all of them coming. He was not watching the whip which was moving too fast to follow. His concentration was placed completely on Song Hui''s body. He was watching her posture, her arms, her eyes, and every muscle responsible for her movement. Every twitch and tremor in her wrists were caught by Bai Yun. He would then use his huge experience to figure out the path the whip was taking. Even if others were able to figure out what he was doing, they would not be able to copy his method.


    Bai Yun walked forward amidst Song Hui''s frantic attacks. She suddenly switched to a defensive whip technique when he got too close. Bai Yun was right. She did know one.


    The technique was good. Bai Yun was not able to break through her defense easily. He decided to take a step back to observe better.


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    But once he did so, Song Hui suddenly switched back to her attacking method. When he saw this a strange thought appeared in Bai Yun''s mind. He took a few steps forward, only to see Song Hui return to the defensive technique.


    ''Impossible.'' Bai Yun thought. He once again moved in and out of the five-meter radius from her, and she would change her technique.


    ''Someone must have told her that you need to defend when the opponent came close to you. And that five meters is considered close.'' Bai Yun concluded.


    Bai Yun had learned the stupid girl''s pattern by now. He decided to act. He was down to only half of his qi. If this continued, he would be defeated easily once his qi ran out.


    Bai Yun once again approached Song Hui. Just as he reached close enough to her, Song Hui once again predictably changed her attack to defense. At the moment that she withdraw her whip to make this change, Bai Yun was left alone for an instant. That was enough for him.


    Bai Yun had already charged up his legs with his qi. His soul tendrils were already wrapped around his legs. Every single strand of strength in his body was perfectly focused on the tip of his feet. Without a second''s hesitation, Bai Yun exploded with all his strength. He charged forward at a horrifying speed. The only thing he had held back was wind motion, which he was keeping for Zhang Zi.


    The sudden change in Bai Yun''s momentum caught Song Hui by surprise. Her rhythm was completely ruined. With a scream she closed her eyes and swung her whip wildly without any technique.


    ''Shit!'' Bai Yun exclaimed. The sudden loss of her tempo completely destroyed Bai Yun''s ability to predict her attacks. Bai Yun''s eyes went to Song Hui''s arms. ''Five attacks''. In an instance, Bai Yun calculated the attacks that he would have to dodge before he could make it to Song Hui. But in her panic, Song Hui was making far too many motions that could affect the direction of the whip. Bai Yun could no longer keep up with all the calculations necessary.


    In a second Bai Yun dodged the first four attacks. But a mistake happened when he reached the fifth and final attack. Due to the mistake, he made in calculating the previous attacks, his sword did not end up hitting the tip of the whip, but rather a slight distance inside. The whip twisted from the point of impact and twisted and continued its attack, falling sharply towards his face.


    Bai Yun got scared when he saw the new path of the whip. If he continued in the path he was currently taking, the whip was going to take his right eye. But if he stopped his advance, not only would his legs be hurt by the backlash, but Song Hui would win as he had nearly no qi left.


    A determined look flashed through Bai Yun''s eyes. He closed his eyes while his sool tendrils combined into one to increase his computation power. When Bai Yun opened his eyes, no emotion, fear, determination or happiness,could be seen in his eyes. They had turned into an endless void that would devour everyone who came close.


    His eyes were focussed on the whip alone. Everything else evaporated from his vision. He watched as the whip got closer and closer to him. Bai Yun straightened his body that was leaning forward. At the same time, he twisted his head, moving it to the left side as well as up. He pulled his sword back to deprive the whip of the fulcrum it was using to turn.


    The whip finally touched the middle of his forehead, above his right eye. Bai Yun saw the whip trace a deep cut on his forehead, but he could not feel anything, neither the pain, nor the blood that was flowing out. He closed his right eye as the whip fell further. The whip slightly touched the edge of his eyelid, adding a small cut there. Thankfully there was no lasting damage. Then in front of his eyes, it traced a cut on his cheek.


    By then Bai Yun had pulled his sword out. The whip lost its fulcrum and fell to the ground powerlessly. Bai moved faster anyone could react. Then Song Hui''s scream ended when Bai Yun''s sword tip came to rest right on top of her heart.


    Song Hui opened her eyes when Bai Yun did not say anything. She was stunned by the sight in front of her eyes. The emotionless and bloody face in front of her eyes was completely foreign to her. She could not reconcile that face with the smiling big brother Long she knew.


    When her eyes met his, Song Hui shuddered. She was unable to pull away from the eyes in front of her. As she watched one by one the rest of the world seemed to fall into an inescapable darkness. Soon the only thing she could see was a pair of eyes that seemed to be floating in the endless void, like a god passing judgment on her. Then she felt the darkness reach out and try to swallow her too. Terror filled her little heart. Her whip fell to the floor as her body lost all strength.


    Bai Yun realized what happened and closed his eyes. He did not expect Song Hui to see the god sleeping deep inside him. Even an immortal step cultivator would not be able to do so. It was due to the pure heart of Song Hui that she was able to do so. Bai Yun sighed when he realized this. How could anyone keep a pure heart in this world? Even her heart would be tainted soon enough. Bai Yun was sure. It had happened to him.


    "I admit defeat." Song Hui said in a small voice. It seemed as if she was on the verge of tears.


    Once the fight came to an end it took both Bai Yun and Zhang ZI a while to calm down Song Hui. Bai Yun smiled when he saw the little girl calm down. It seemed the experience of his strength did not leave a lasting impact on her. She might even have forgotten about it.


    "Big brother Long, sorry." Son Hui suddenly said. "Due to me, you have a big scar on your face."


    Bai Yun smiled when he heard her. "It''s okay. I have a technique that can help me heal the scar and recover my looks." All he had to do was apply the Assassin God''s techniques and it would be gone. Anyway at worst he could recover his looks once he gained the God of Alchemies techniques.


    "Huh, you have a technique to maintain your skin." Song Hui was surprised.


    "Its not really a technique to maintain your looks but more like-"


    BANG


    Bai Yun was disoriented. It took him a moment to get his bearings and understand what happened. He was now nearly embedded in the wall of the room, and his sword was in his hand. His entire body was covered in cold sweat and shaking uncontrollably.


    A second later terror covered Bai Yun. In an instant Bai Yun felt that he had gone back to his past life. He had felt this kind of terror only twice in his life. The first was when he met the Dragon Emperor when he was a young man and he intimidated Bai Yun with his presence. The second was when he saw the devil emperor.


    At first, he thought that an enemy had attacked him. But no. His body had reacted to the threat before he even noticed it and flung him away as a response.


    Bai Yun looked around hoping to find the enemy his body had identified to be as dangerous to him as the devil emperor. But he could not find any such existence.


    Huh.


    Why were all the women staring at him?

 52 Men battle for victory. Beasts battle for hegemony.

    After explaining to Song Hui, and all the others who were eyeing him like prey, that it was not a technique, but rather an innate ability to modify parts of his body, Bai Yun managed to calm them down. They accepted this as they could tell that Bi Yun was hiding his identity but there was no way for the soul step cultivators to see his real face. They accepted that this was due to an innate ability, as there was no technique that could hide an identity this well known to them. After this, he was given some medicine to stop the bleeding and given some time to rest before the finals.


    Before the finals of the third round started, the rest of the positions were to be filled. Since there were some differences in the rewards from three to eight, they fought a small battle to figure out the standings.


    In the end, Meng Qi took the fifth spot comfortably. After her, the rest of them fought and won in an idiotic manner. What surprised Bai Yun was that the fist moron he defeated fought properly from then on and took the sixth spot.


    The last battle was between Song Hui and Gong Ming. Gong Ming used his strength to blow away Song Hui''s whips and then defeated her with a quick blow. Song Hui didn''t seem to be too much affected by the loss and was back to her cheery self in a short while.


    Finally, it was time for the winner to be chosen between Bai Yun and Zhang Zi. This was a fight that had been delayed since their first meeting in the first test.


    Zhang ZI was already waiting for him by the time he reached the ring. Zhang Zi pointed his spear at Bai Yun when he finally entered the ring.


    A thrill went through Bai Yun, and he grinned in response.


    This would be his first proper battle since he had reincarnated.


    It''s not that he had not fought before. But each of these fights were under very different circumstances.None of them could be called a true battle.


    With Bai Shan, it was an Assassination. And with Bai Qing, he was simply running away. All of his other fights were with demonic beasts. And all the fights in this matchup were quite useless.


    So when he stepped into the ring, a long-dormant battle intent woke up in Bai Yun. His sword appeared in his hands and it started to hum in anticipation.


    Seeing the two fighters take their positions, the judge declared "Begin."


    The two of them immediately ran towards each other at full speed. Zhang Zi thrust his spear at Bai Yun the moment he came in range. But Bai Yun only smiled in response.


    Just as the spear came close to Bai Yun, he finally used the trump cast he had been hiding. Bai Yun immediately sped up by using wind motion.


    Zhang Zi was surprised by the sudden change in Bai Yun''s speed. He realized that it was too late to pull his spear back. Not wanting to let Bai Yun get close enough to use his sword, Zhang Zi closed the distance by stepping into Bai Yun''s path.


    Bai Yun smiled when he saw Zhang Zi''s response. "Good, but not perfect." He murmured. Zhang Zi was a little shocked when he heard this. Next second he was surprised to see an elbow covering his vision.


    Bai Yun''s elbow smashed into Zhang Zi''s face harshly. Thankfully Zhang Zi was able to take a step backward at the last moment and escaped his nose being broken.


    Zhang Zi took a step back to make some distance for his spear. But he was surprised to find that Bai Yun was no longer in his vision. "That''s not the optimal move." He heard a voice coming from his right side.


    While swearing, Zhang Zi send all of his qi to his left side in a desperate attempt to defend. But it was half a step too late. A sharp pain tore through his ribs as Bai Yun''s fist landed. But his last-minute attempt was useful. At least no ribs were broken.


    Bai Yun unclenched his fist, which was throbbing from the backlash. He frowned as he felt the pain. Even though his attacks were perfect, the difference in cultivation was a big problem. Even bigger was the problem of his big mouth. If he hadn''t warned Zhang Zi, he wouldn''t have have been able to muster any defense at all. His annoying habit from the time he spend as an instructor for the Grand War was rearing its head.


    Zhang Zi tried to use his movement technique to once again make some distance between them. But the moment he tried to do so, a voice reached his ears "That''s just stupid Zhang Zi." Suddenly a foreboding feeling went through Zhang Zi''s body. ''Shit.'' He cursed and immediately stopped the movement technique, and at the same time, he solidified his legs. And not a second later. Bai Yun''s leg collided with Zhang Zi''s. If he had cast the movement technique, the collision would have happened when he was moving his legs, which would have certainly caused him to lose his balance and fall.


    But before Zhang Zi could be happy, a sharp hit landed on his hips. Bai Yun had retreated all the strength in his legs when Zhang Zi stopped his movement technique. He then used the rebound force to drive his knee into Zhang Zi.


    Everyone who was watching this fight was stunned. When the fight began, they all had their own ideas on how this fight was going to happen. But nothing could prepare them for what was happening in front of their eyes.


    Bai Yun frowned as the fight continued. The amount of energy he expended in each move was far lesser than Zhang Zi, and yet he could not allow this to continue, or else he might not be able to maintain this for long. His total qi quantity was far less than Zhang Zi after all.


    ''I need to drop my sword.'' Bai Yun thought. He had to maintain a very close distance to Zhang Zi to maintain the balance. Any further and he would not be able to react fast enough. If he was to widen the distance to make it appropriate to use a sword, he would be unable to make use of his ability. He only pulled it out to mislead Zhang Zi anyway.


    ''I need to lose the spear.'' Zhang Zi thought at the same time. He had realized two things from the fight. His enemy was not going to let him widen the distance between them, and he had no chance to use his spear. Thus the only use of the spear was to tie down one of his arms.


    The eyes of the two crossed the moment the thought passed through their minds. With a grin, they realized what the other was thinking. The next second, the two people who doggedly followed the path of weapons threw them outside the ring without hesitation, shocking everyone. This was their determination for victory.


    The next second the flow of the fight changed once again. Zhang Zi smashed his palm into Bai Yun. He saw the glow on Zhang Zi''s arm but took no motion to dodge. He adjusted his poster so than the palm fell on his right shoulder. The moment the palm fell, Bai Yun felt as if an explosion had occurred on his shoulder. His entire internal body was shaken up by the shockwaves. If he hadn''t completed the skin sewing of his right shoulder last night, this could have been deadly.


    But Bai Yun did not pause. With the added strength of the explosion, he rotated rapidly and his elbow smashed into Zhang Zi''s temple, blowing his head away. Then he gripped one hand over the other and drove his elbow straight into Zhang Zi''s abdomen. But before he could rejoice, his left shoulder shook as Zhang Zi drove his elbow down on him.


    Zhang Zi was blown back by Bai Yun''s attack. He had barely stabilized himself before he saw Bai Yun''s fist flowing straight at his face. Without waiting, he send his fist back, while moving forward at the same time. The two fists collided with the two faces at the same time. The two of them, even though they were blown back, did not even take a step back. Instead, they went back to fighting without pause.


    The two of them fought as if they had forgotten the word defense. A punch was countered with a punch, a palm with an elbow, a knee with a kick. On by one blood and bruises racked up on both of their bodies. And yet they both had a grin on their faces.


    Even the people who were watching this battle had stopped doing anything else and had their eyes completely focused on them and them alone. One by one the soul step cultivators who were watching the battle in special viewing rooms moved to the windows to get a better look.


    "What kind of fight is this?" One of the servants in the viewing rooms asked.


    "You are wrong. This isn''t a fight at all." The soul step cultivator in the room replied. But he had sad it loud enough that every else, even the participants of the gold test, could hear him.


    "I am sorry my lord, I don''t understand?" Gong Ming said, confused by the statement. This sentiment was shared by pretty much everyone else in the room.


    "This isn''t a fight." The soul step cultivator continued. "Thoughts like winning or losing or the gold test has long since disappeared from their minds. Right now its kill or be killed for them. If they stop to think even for a moment they would die. All of you, watch carefully. This isn''t a battle for victory between cultivators. What you are seeing is a battle between two wild beasts fighting for hegemony. If you are to walk on the path of cultivation in this world, one day you will encounter a situation where you will have to fight like that."


    As he watched the fight, the soul step cultivators could not help but remember their younger days They felt their blood boil as they watched the two young men on the stage. A terrifying pressure descended upon the entire group as the hearts of the soul cultivators stirred.


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    The boss who was acting as the judge frowned when she felt their presence descending on the stage. With a wave, she isolated the ring from their pressure. ''Men.'' She thought while rolling her eyes before turning back to the stage.


    But even as she looked at them, she found herself remembering the days she lived as a mercenary, hunting in the blue moon mountains and the evergreen hills. For a moment, she thought she should take a vacation after this was over and get her old team together again.


    That night was a restless night in Yellow City. Many people who were there or saw the recorded fight later started to challenge others for a fight.


    While all this was happening, on the stage the two of them were continuing their assault.


    ''This won''t do.'' Bai Yun thought. He was running out of qi. By now only half of his qi was left. If he continued he would certainly be defeated soon enough.


    A similar thought was running through Zhang Zi''s mind at the same time. He had noticed that Bai Yun''s control over energy was bordering over impossible. When Zhang Zi attacked or defended, the area he would reinforce with qi was much greater than the area that would come into contact with his enemy. But when Bai Yun did the reinforcement, the area he covered was almost exactly the area that came into contact with Zhang Zi. This meant that he was using far less qi that Zhang Zi. Thus Zhang Zi also figured that he would run out of qi first. After all, no one would expect that there would be someone who would fight this well at only the third stage of qi condensation.


    ''I need to end it with one big attack.'' The same thought went through the minds of both of them at the same time.


    Bai Yun leapt up before Zhang Zi could make a move and headbutted him. Zhang Zi took a step back but was met with a sharp kick from Bai Yun. He used his arm to punch back at Bai Yun. Instead of retreating, Bai Yun coiled his leg around Zhang Zi''s arm, hoping to break it. Of course, his leg was nowhere near flexible enough to do so, so he had to rely on his soul tendrils for help. Instead of retreating, Zhang Zi send a shockwave from his palm once again. Being hastily made, it lacked any real power, but still damaged both of them.


    The two of them untangled a second later. Then they separated. A second later Bai Yun thrust both of his arms at Zhang Zi. On his right hand, a small spherical glow representing Lion''s Roar was visible. His left hand was clenched with two fingers protruding, generating a finger sword.


    Bai Yun had comprehended rain in the moonlight a day ago. From then on, whenever he was resting, he would use at least one soul tendril to understand the technique. Once he understood the core concepts, it was easy for him to even improve the technique. What he was doing now was using his fingers as swords to cast the technique, while at the same time using his soul tendrils to keep the explosions contained. Once released, the combined might of all these attacks would be considerable, even with its strength being lowered due to the finger sword.


    At the same time as Bai Yun, Zhang Zi also thrust his right arm forward. On his hand, a gigantic white shockwave glow could be seen. He had also spent the last few minutes preparing himself.


    A second later the three hands collided.


    For a moment there was no sound coming from the ring. Then, under the shocked eyes of everyone, the area between the two exploded.


    Both Zhang Zi and Bai Yun were sent flying backward simultaneously.


    Both of them fell and rolled on the ground before landed on their feet, but it still took them a while to stabilize themselves. The two of them stared at each other, battle intend shining in their eyes.


    They were a sight to see. Both of Bai Yun''s sleeves had exploded up to his elbow. While Zhang Zi''s entire right sleeve was gone. Bai Yun''s hands were bloodied, and his blood vessels seem to have exploded. While Zhang Zi''s arms seemed to have countless tiny cuts on them. Both of their clothes had dozens of tears. And at least a third of their skin had turned purple from bruises. And yet the two wanted to continue the fight.


    "Winner, Zhang Zi." The judge''s voice resounded within the area.


    For a moment both of them were confused. Then Bai Yun looked at his feet with a start. He saw the line showing the boundary of the ring just a single foot in front of him.


    When he looked at Zhang Zi, he still had one foot inside the ring.

 53 End of the gold tes

    Bai Yun sighed when he heard the results. But not that it mattered. That attack was his last chance at winning. He no longer had any qi left to continue to fight.


    Once the result was announced, it was like a spell was broken. The next moment, a loud cheer erupted in the room. It was not only for Zhang Zi but also for Bai Yun.


    The organizers ran to the two of them to heal them. Both Bai Yun and Zhang ZI would have been covered in bandages like mummies if it was up to them. But they both declined their services and only accepted basic first aid and some common healing pills which the Hunter Union was providing for free.


    Once it was over, it was time to present the awards. Of the participants, Zhang Zi, Long Tian, Gong Ming, Song Hui, and Meng Qi won the gold cards. The others did not, but they were all given a chance to join a major power or the hunters union. This was usually not offered, but a special exception was made due to their astounding results in the Insect World.


    After this was the reward presentation. Zhang Zi, who was the first place won a foundation establishment pill. This was also a pill that had many different recipes for its creation, even though all of them were only at the qi class. A foundation establishment pill would allow one to have a much higher chance of breaking through to the foundation establishment realm. There was also a slight chance to improve the quality of the foundation one would gain upon reaching foundation establishment. The better the quality and rank of the pill, the better the effects would be.


    Bai Yun, who was in second place got some single-colored incense. It was something that would help calm down someone who smelled the incense, allowing them to both cultivate and master techniques at a faster speed. The more colors there were, the higher the cultivation of the people who could use them. For Bai Yun who was quite far from the foundation establishment stage, this was perhaps a better reward than the foundation establishment pill.


    After this everyone else also got rewards that they would be happy with. They were not at the same level as the ones Zhang Zi and Bai Yun and the other two got. The first four were given rather extravagant rewards. But the quality of their rewards was such that they, who had come from much poorer backgrounds than them, desperately needed those resources.


    Since he had achieved his objectives, Bai Yun decides to leave. The longer he stayed around here, the more there was a danger that his identity would be exposed.


    But just as he turned around, he found his path blocked by a number of people. For a moment he was confused before realization struck him.


    "Little brother Long," The person who was standing at the front said "I represent the Hunter Union. I wish to extend an invitation for you to join the hunter union."


    Bai Yun sighed when he heard this. He had indeed shown off quite a bit. Especially that final fight with Zhang Zi. That was quite a spectacle. There was no way they would let an unaffiliated person who was so talented and could change his identity and obscure his cultivation go. Even if he was a spy, they would first hire him and then think of the consequences. These people must be from the various powers of Yellow City. The Hunter Union only had the first go at him, once he began negotiation the rest of them would also join in.


    "Thank you for the offer, but I will have to decline." Bai Yun replied.


    "We haven''t even told you about our offer." The representative continued.


    "It doesn''t matter what the offer is. I will not join any power."


    "But-"


    "Did you think I made it all the way here without a major power behind me."


    The moment they heard this, all of them were startled. Even though they were expecting this to a degree, considering his abilities, they did not expect him to come and say it outright. Most importantly, none of the powers here knew who he was.


    Bai Yun gave a small bow to them and left immediately. For a moment the group tried to block his way but finally left him alone. After they realized that Bai Yun was not going to budge, they left to try and recruit the other participants. Bai Yun quickly left, not wanting to stay with them for long.


    Bt just as he reached the gate of the room, he found his way blocked by Zhang Zi. "Wher are you going so quickly? "


    Bai Yun simply smiled at this. He was trying to avoid Zhang Zi most of all. "I have other places to be. I don''t want to waste any of your time."


    "No way am I letting you out of my sight. We haven''t finished our fight yet."


    "Well, I truly have somewhere to be. You see, I snuck out and did not tell my family that I was joining the golf test. So I need to head back before they start to worry."


    Zhang Zi was helpless upon hearing that. After a small amount of talking, the two of them exchanged contact information, and after Bai Yun promised to fight Zhang Zi at a later date, he was finally free to go.


    Bai Yun was the first person to retreat from the gold test. He quickly got his items from storage, returned the storage ring after taking the items inside, and left.


    No one noticed him when he stepped out of the hunter union. But the moment he did so, an annoying feeling welled up inside him. His god sense tracked a perception that had locked onto him.


    The fact that the perception had locked onto him meant that the hunter union had sent a soul step cultivator to follow him. He knew that they would not let him go easily, but he did not think that they would send a soul step cultivator to follow him. Well not that it mattered. In a second, he had locked onto the person following him.


    Bai Yun walked around Yellow City. At first, it seemed as if he was walking around randomly, but as time passed he was heading to deeper and denser parts of the city. In less than an hour, they were in one of the busiest streets of the city. It was so crowded that it was nearly impossible to see anything more than a sea of heads.


    As he walked, he wrapped the thread of perception with his god sense. The god sense was extremely versatile and could easily be used to destroy the perception. The reason Bai Yun was unable to make use of it was because of his low cultivation and strength. In fact, it was so powerful that if he used the full strength of the god sense, then he could instakill even the strongest person in the howling wolf world. Unfortunately the next moment his own body would blow up and he would die.


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    As he walked, he suddenly activated the god sense. In an instant, the thread of perception was destroyed. Faster than the blink of an eye, Bai Yun tuned around, changed his outer clothes, used the god sense to hide his injuries, and undid the Assassin God''s techniques and returned to his original appearance. If had still used the Assassin God''s technique to change his appearance, he would have been caught as the person following him would be able to tell that he had changed his appearance. A second later a perception covered the area he was in.


    Bai Yun simply grinned. This was the heart of the Yellow City. The person following him would not be able to keep on searching with his perception for long without getting into trouble. And he would not be able to find him in the few seconds he had.


    Without even waiting he walked away. Even as he walked, he changed his hairstyle and clothes. In a few minutes, Bai Yun was far away from the street, and the people following him had no chance to catch up to him. It was then that he ducked into a small alley and threw up the blood in his mouth. He had received a small backlash from activating the god sense to take action externally. Thankfully the perception was weak and wrapped around him, or he might have died from the backlash alone.


    After this, he walked back towards the Bai clan without a care in the world.


    Nobody in the clan bothered to stop him. He had kept his injuries hidden with various techniques in order to fool the hunter union. If he had walked in while showing those injuries, the report would have reached their desks by the night. After a short while, he found himself back home.


    The moment he did so, he ran into Butler Fang. Old Hai was his father''s personal assistant and had followed him since he was a child. Butler Fang, on the other hand, was someone his father hired from the clan and was in charge of the daily operations of the mansion.


    "Ah, young master, there you are. We were all starting to get worried after not seeing you for a while." He said upon seeing Bai Yun. But suddenly he was startled. Bai Yun had stopped hiding his injuries and someone like Butler Fang, who was in the soul step, noticed immediately. He was surprised to find the sorry state of Bai Yun''s body. "Young master, what happened to you. Who was audacious enough to-"


    "Its fine Butler Fang. You don''t need to worry about it." Bai Yun interrupted him.


    "But-"


    "It''s fine. You just need to buy me some medicinal ingredients to help me heal. Also, please ask Old Hai to come to my room." Bai Yun stopped him quickly.


    Butler Fang nodded reluctantly. Bai Yun then turned towards his courtyard. He was given a courtyard all of his own ever since he had recovered. But after taking a few steps he stopped himself and looked back at Butler Fang. "Make sure that no one knows that it was I who bought the medicines. I don''t want anything to be traced back to me."


    As Butler fang looked at him, Bai Yun''s eyes overlapped with his father''s in his mind. He simply nodded and left to carry out the tasks.


    Once Bai Yun reached his room, he quickly took off his shirt and stood in front of a mirror to inspect himself. Then he used his god sense to look through his body. What he saw nearly brought him to tears.


    He was bruised in most of his body. Half of his muscles were squished and some were nearly torn. His finger bones were starting to crack. There were a few small blood vessels in his body that were broken. Internal injuries were all over his body. His organs were still shaking from Zhang Zi''s horrifying shockwaves. His right shoulder was the most severely damaged.


    Of course, his hands took the crown when it came to damages. Not only did he have so many cuts and bruises, but his entire hand down to his bones also had small microscopic cracks in them due to the collision of the three attacks. It did not look like it was going to heal any time soon.


    If it was not for his war forged will and the emergency treatment given by the Hunter Union, he would have been rolling on the ground screaming once the adrenaline from the fight wore off.


    "What the hell happened to you?" Bai Yun heard an exclamation coming from the door. He turned around to see a stocked Butler Hai.


    "Nothing much. I went to participate in the hunter union''s gold test and got slightly hurt." Bai Yun replied matter of factly.

 54 Training the body

    Bai Yun knew that he could never hide all the secrets that he hid. Not only would this be incredibly difficult, but he would also find it inconvenient. If he needed some help while in one of his other identities, it would be nearly impossible to communicate with his family.


    That was why Bai Yun decided that he should share some of his secrets with the people that he trusted. Currently, only his parents and Old Hai were included in the list.


    The secrets that he shared were simply the fact that he had multiple identities in the Hunter Union. He also showed some of the identities that he had taken, in order to help old Hai prepare for any eventual case. He could explain it away as an innate ability. There was no way anyone would think that such a sophisticated and powerful ability was a technique.


    And just as he suspected, Old Hai was startled upon hearing his reply. But before he could ask any further, his eyes narrowed. He stared at Bai Yun and suddenly asked. "What the hell happened to your face?"


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    As expected Old Hai had seen that he was still hiding something. Bai Yun undid the disguise technique and showed the old man the scar he had received.


    Bai Yun then spend the next few minutes explaining his so-called ability as well as what he had been up to in the last few days. When he heard the Bai Yun had gone up against Zhang Zi and that was how he had accumulated all these injuries, Old Hai nearly strangled him.


    "Of all the people, why did you have to run into Zhang Zi. He is generally considered the strongest person in the qi condensation realm in Yellow City. There are a few who can defeat him, but they are all at the peak of qi condensation or half step into foundation establishment while he only just entered the ninth stage of qi condensation. The fact that you could fight against him is a miracle."


    "It wasn''t a fair fight at all. The only reason I even had the slightest bit of hope was that I held close to him and did not allow him to use any of his strength. Also, I was completely drained by the time we were done, while he still had most of his strength remaining. I think that I would have to reach the sixth stage of qi condensation before I can properly defeat him." Bai Yun responded.


    "But that is not important." Bai Yun continued. "First of all, I need to rest and recuperate. After this, I still need to improve the condition of my body. It simply isn''t flexible enough. Do you know any place where I can do that?"


    Old Hai smiled at this "So you finally noticed."


    Bai Yun was stunned when he heard this. "You knew?"


    "Of course we knew. How could we not? Your body truly is not fit for fighting." Old Hai said while laughing.


    "Would it kill you to tell me." Bai Yun was starting to get annoyed at his parents. If they knew such a huge problem was there, they should have said something.


    "We wanted to see how long it would take you to notice it by yourself. I must say, for someone who has never cultivated, you noticed it quite quickly. None of us expected you to notice it for quite a while longer."


    Bai Yun rolled his eyes. There was no way he could tell them that he had cultivated for thirty thousand years. There were two reasons he did not notice this before. He didn''t even know such a situation could exist in his previous life. Also, it would have been solved by the time he reached the pinnacle of the soul step in body cultivation anyway. He was only doing this to speed up the process.


    "So there must be places where we can do this, right?" Bai Yun continued with his inquiry.


    "The best place to improve the foundations of the body would be the clan''s gravity chambers. It would allow you to train faster and have a holistic improvement of the body."


    "In the gravity chamber, your entire body will be subjected to a higher gravity. There are various gravity chambers for various cultivation realms. Depending on the setting, it can vary from a ten percent increase to a ten times increase in the gravity for the qi condensation realm."


    "The main advantage of the gravity chamber is that it can add a uniform pressure on your body. Thus it will allow you to better control your power than other training facilities. Also if you train in the gravity chamber, it will cause you to exert even more effort, thus speeding up the improvement of your body. Of course, this is only the condition that you don''t use any external strength."


    "But there is a catch to using them." Old Hai finished.


    "Of course there is." Bai Yun smiled wryly.


    "In order to use the resources of the clan, you need either clan''s authority, special permission, or the clan''s special clan points. The reason you were able to go deep into the clan library was because you had special permission from your parents. Currently, you have neither permission nor authority. Thus the only path available to you would be to get the clan points of the Bai clan."


    "How can I acquire clan points?" Bai Yun asked instantly.


    "The most common method is to do missions issued at the clan''s mission office. You can also win them at the clan''s special events. Another popular method is to bet points. Finally, if you are wealthy enough you can buy points by exchanging them with money or treasures. But the exchange rate for this is horrible. Only the scions of the wealthy and powerful in the clan would be able to afford it."


    "My parents are rich enough that I can buy the clan points right."


    "Of course. The money required to buy you time in the gravity rooms is nothing to them. After all, the gravity rooms for qi condensation realm are very cheap."


    "But they won''t give me any money would they." Bai Yun sighed as he asked this question.


    "You can try praying. Who knows, a miracle would occur and they might change their mind." Old Hai laughed.


    Bai Yun sighed after hearing this. Just then Butler Fang entered the room with all the medicines that Bai Yun had asked for. Bai Yun was startled to find that not only were there many powerful medicinal pills, they were also of very high quality. He had expected only a few medicines since his allowance was small. After he inquired about it, it seemed that his parents had given him a near infinite allowance for medicinal pills that could help in healing him.


    Bai Yun laughed when he heard this. He figured that this was a way for his parents to tell him that he should go all out in training and that it was okay even if he nearly died.


    The truth was that it was only a part of their thoughts. The biggest reason that they had made such arrangements was that they were afraid that something would happen and that he would fall back into his previous state. They wanted to make sure no expenses would be spared if that happened.


    Bai Yun send the two of them out after this and got ready to rest and heal. But before he send them away he informed them of Bai Ling-er and Bai Shi and told them to inform him if they came around asking about him.


    He then dissolved one of the pills in a large bathtub filled with water and submerged himself. It would have been better to eat the pills, as this method would lose some of the effectiveness of the pill, and was also generally slower.


    But there were two reasons Bai Yun used this method. One was that this way would lead to fewer pill toxins in one''s body. Another was that the direction of the pill energy was different. This way Bai Yun would be able to heal his injuries more uniformly over his body, while in the other case, the injuries closer to the stomach would heal first.


    Bai Yun spend the entire day and most of the night healing himself. By the time he had finished, he had used up three healing pills. But he had not used any of the more powerful ones and had left them behind in case of an emergency.


    Bai Yun stood up and inspected his body once again. He was satisfied with the improvement. All of the smaller cuts and bruises had healed by then. His organs had also stabilized. The only problems he still had were his right shoulder and his two arms. Bai Yun tried to rotate his right shoulder, only to have a sharp pain travel up his arms. Thankfully only the flesh of his arms was still damaged, and not the bones, which had healed by now.


    It would be quite a while longer before he was back to his full strength. In the meantime, Bai Yun would be unable to use his hands deftly. Especially to fight.


    From the outside, his arms had dozens of tiny scratches. They had all healed by now. But even then some of the larger cuts had scarred over. Bai Yun counted a little over a dozen tiny scars.


    Not only, that there was also a long scar on the right side of his face.


    Scars were not much of a problem for cultivators. Cultivators would not generally scar once they reach the soul step in cultivation, unless the injury was caused by special means that purposefully left behind a scar. This was why most people in the qi step tried not to fight with everything they had and would generally only try to overpower each other, just in case they got hurt.


    And it wasn''t like there was no way for people in the qi step to heal their scars. It was just a bit difficult to find the necessary item that''s all.


    And there were also benefits to his work. His qi condensation state had completely solidified and most of the impurities he had collected had gone. He could break through to the next stage of qi condensation without any problem once he found the right opportunity.


    Bai Yun then used the Assassin God''s technique to cover up his scars. Since his hands had already gone through skin sewing this was no problem for him. The scar on his face was a small problem, but he did it anyway. It would not be good if the hunter union found out about his identity by his new scar. In truth, Bai Yun was overestimating the power of the Hunter Union, not that it mattered much.


    Once he was done, Bai Yun laid down on his bed and went to sleep.


    It would be a long time before Bai Yun gained enough cultivation before he could forego sleep. But he was currently not at such a state. It was possible for cultivators to skip sleep and replace it with mediation, but it was not recommended to do so for a long time continuously. Currently, Bai Yun had already skipped sleep for a few days, and he needed to sleep now.


    Bai Yun slept until noon. When he finally woke he quickly changed into a new set of clothes, and got ready. Then he covered up his scars with the Assassin God''s techniques.


    Once he was ready, he left for the Bai clan mission office nearest to his residence.

 55 New mission

    Bai Yun reached the mission building quite quickly. The clan had multiple mission offices from where one could pick up their missions.


    The mission building was separated into areas for each cultivation realms. It was not that one could not take missions from other areas but this was done as a standard for who could take the missions. Once Bai Yun entered the mission office, he went straight for the qi condensation mission area.


    The missions in the clan could either be placed by the clan or individuals or groups both within and outside the clan. They had to pay for the rewards of the mission and also a small processing fee. The people from outside the clan who placed the missions simply had to pay more fee for the missions.


    The rewards for the mission was mostly achievement points, but they could also be other practical resources.


    The missions in the Bai clan were separated into four categories. They were common missions, restricted missions, open missions, and emergency missions.


    Common missions were missions that did not need to be taken and were always open. Once one completed this, they could get rewards based on the completion percentage. These missions included things like raising a specific medicinal grass, killing special beasts, refining specific pills or turning in some special materials and so on. They were missions that could be easily completed and exchanged for a few clan points. They were mostly given by the clan, but some of them were also placed by the alchemist association and little merchant union and other such powers close to the clan.


    Open missions were open to everyone, and everyone could try to solve them, but only the first person to hand in the mission would get the reward. But the reward for open missions was very high, as there would be many people scrambling to solve the mission, but only one could succeed. Thus people would only place open missions if they needed an item urgently. And the longer a mission stayed unsolved the higher their reward would be unless the person who placed the mission took it back.


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    Restricted missions could only be taken by one person or team one at a time. They were different from common and open missions in that you could only hand in a mission after first accepting it. Then there was a time limit to complete the mission. If the people who took the mission failed to finish it in the time limit, then they could no longer finish the mission, and also had to pay a small fine for causing the delay. But if the mission was failed due to misinformation or change in the mission parameters, then this would be waived.


    Finally, there were emergency missions. These were only issued by the clan. They were issued when the clan neede to mobilize in large numbers or had to respond quickly. But they were extremely rare. There had been millennia since it last happened. They also tend to be done in large groups and have great rewards.


    Once he entered the mission hall, there were many screens that showed the mission list. He had to wait a short while before he found an empty screen and went there to check out the missions.


    Bai Yun looked through the missions listed on the screen. He had no desire to take any common missions. He needed a lot of points in order to rent the gravity chambers. He had already inquired about the points needed to rent the gravity chamber. A single day required thirty clan points. But common missions only gave less than ten points on average. It would take him a long time to complete the missions if he chooses such a stupid method.


    But he was also unable to take any restricted missions since he had no points. Restricted missions made you bet a percent of the reward which ranged from five to ten percent as a guarantee before you took the mission. Thus he was unable to take any such mission. So his only hope was to find an open mission that was either recently posted, or too difficult for others to solve. Only thus would he be able to make enough points quickly.


    As he read through them, Bai Yun did not find anything that got his interest. Most of them were to find some rare medicines or resources. This would require luck. And the ones that did not require luck would have many people who would be solving them. He could find the mission target, only to find that someone else had already completed the mission. He had no reason to waste his time that way.


    Just as he reached the end of the list, Bai Yun''s eyes narrowed. There was a six year old open mission at the bottom of the list. This was a very long time. It wasn''t that there were no older missions, but the older ones were either decades old or removed after a long time. This was the only mission that was more than a year old and yet less a few decades old. Given time, this mission seemed to have the potential to grow into an unsolved mystery.


    Bai Yun looked at the mission and frowned when he read the title: Give an explanation for the increase in the suppressive force at the hell pit.


    The hell pit was a place in the Bai clan that was used for training. He had read about in one of the books about the clan he had gotten from old Hai. In the hell pit, powerful flames existed. These flames contained a terrifying will. But they were sealed and their powers reduced in the hell pit. But they would still burn and hurt from the inside, burning your body. It was a great place for body tempering cultivators to train. Others could also use this place to purify the impurities in their bodies. Thus it was a popular place, but not many people would use it for long, as they only neede a short time to clean their body.


    In the Bai clan, it was believed that the hell pit was a gateway to the hell plane. It was said that if one climbed to the very bottom of the hell pit, there was a gateway that would allow you to enter the hell plane. But no one had reached the end yet. The flames would get hotter the deeper you go and not even a dao flower realm cultivator could survive in the depths of the hell pit.


    The hell plane was one of the six mysterious planes that surrounded the universe. They were the hell plane, the spirit plane, the ancient plane, the slaughter plane, the soul plane, and the nether plane. They were unimaginably old. It was said that they existed even before the beginning of the fourth epoch, in which Long Tian was born. Each of the planes had their own laws and had their own environment and races and specialties. For example, the Ever Burning Nether Flame of the God of Alchemy came from the nether plane.


    Bai Yun knew quite a bit about the hell plane. He had even visited the hell plane in his past life. Among the six mysterious planes, the hell plane had the worst environment. It had horrifying flames and nightmarish storms, the worst of which could kill even gods. As he recollected the memories, he turned his attention back to the mission in front of him.


    The mission said that the flames in the qi condensation realm region were getting slightly stronger. The weird thing was that only the flames in the qi condensation region was getting stronger and not those of the lower regions.


    This made no sense. The flames of the hell pit started from the bottom and climbed up. If there was a problem with the flames, then they should start at the bottom regions and only affect the qi condensation area last. The guardian of the hell tower had gone and inspected the arrays in the region that kept the flames suppressed in the qi condensation region. But no one could find anything wrong.


    The increase in the power of the flames was only about ten percent. It was not enough to be alarmed, but still enough to be noticed. After a while, the people in charge decided that it was fine if they just left it as a mission. If the strength of the flames increased even further, then the higher ups could investigate and find out the truth.


    Bai Yun knew quite a bit about the hellfire. He figured that with his knowledge he would be able to figure out the cause easily. Most importantly the starting reimbursement for the mission was a thousand points! Also if the reason was identified to be a threat, then there would be additional rewards depending on the threat level.


    But there was still a problem. Each level of the hell pit was divided into three areas. The three areas were like three concentric circles, with the tube that carried the hellfires at the center. The closer one went to the tube, the hotter the flame would be. The outermost area was free for use. But the inner two areas required one to pay clan points to use.


    But Bai Yun had no clan points. He was going to have to sell something to get some clan points. Thankfully, the points needed for the qi condensation realm area of the hell pit were not very high.


    Bai Yun decided to sell part of his flowing silver to get some clan points. He knew that he would need to use at most half of it n order to make two daggers. Maybe even less. He could afford to sell about half of the flowing silver to get some clan points.


    But it was only when he went to sell the flowing silver that Bai Yun found out what old Hai meant by the exchange rate being horrible. The clan was only offering sixty clan points for the piece of flowing silver that he offered. Based on the market value of the flowing silver and the other items he had seen in the mission list, even after thinking that the exchange rate would be bad based on what he had heard, Bai Yun had still estimated the price to be about two hundred clan points. This was not just having a bad exchange rate, it was daylight robbery.


    In the end, Bai Yun changed his identity and exchanged a small part of the flowing silver for money, and then exchanged the cash for clan points using his true identity. Since the clan''s identity tokens were given by family, he was not able to fake them as and when he desired. Of course, after he informed old Hai of his ability, he had promised to create a few identity tokens for him, but it would take some time.


    All of this cost Bai Yun even more of the flowing silver than needed, but in the end, he had twenty five clan points. Bai Yun decided that this many clan points would be enough to get enough time to investigate the cause of the change. Once he was done with this he decided to go and buy some recording jades in order to capture any information necessary to find the truth.


    After his preparations were done, he headed in the direction of the hell pit.

 56 A conspiracy afoo

    Bai Yun took the better part of the day to reach the hell pit. Bai Yun had heard that not many people would visit this place but it was worse than he had imagined. Even though there were many gates to the beast garden and only one for the hell pit, the queue for the hell pit was much shorter than the one for a single gate of the beast garden. It took Bai Yun barely any time to enter the gate and head downwards.


    Once the entered the hell pit, he came upon a stairway. Hell pit was naturally formed and one of the main reasons the founder of the Bai clan chose this place to settle down. The hell pit was in the shape of an egg, with multiple levels to it, and it would get wider as it came down at first. But then after seven levels, it would start to get narrower and narrower. No one knew how many levels there were to the hell tower. The deepest anyone had gone was the eleventh level.


    This stairway was initially not a part of the hell pit but later created by the Bai clan. It extended until the sixth level. The material from then on was far too hard to make a proper staircase. The people who wanted to descend from then on had to take the natural path down.


    Bai Yun descended the stairway and entered the first floor. Once he entered the first floor, he came face to face with a large field. The floor of the large field was set aflame with knee-high flame. The flames were a light shade of red and almost seemed ethereal.


    The large area had a few people scattered here and there. Bai Yun looked at the flames for a while and then stepped into the field. The moment he did so a few flames climbed up his legs and into his body, which he easily isolated with the god sense. He then used his qi to isolate the rest of the flames from his body.


    Bai Yun then sat down and slowly started to analyze the flames. The moment he looked at this he knew that these were indeed hellfire. He slowly started to look closer at the flames. But the more he did so, the more he frowned. Bai Yun started to sense that there was something else added into the hellfire. But this thing also had the same characteristics as hellfire, meaning that it also came from hell. It was no wonder that the person who was in charge of the hell pit was unable to sense it. Only someone like Bai Yun who had personally experienced the true hellfire could see the difference. Even then it as extremely difficult. He could only tell of the existence of the extra thing from his god sense. Not even his perception or soul tendrils could grab hold of them.


    Once he realized, he thought that the extra thing could be the cause of the problem. There wasn''t enough of the extra thing that it itself was the added pressure. So it could be that it was simply increasing the power of the hellfire. But he couldn''t be sure. This could have its origins on the deepest parts of the hell pit. In which case, he had to go down and check.


    With wasting any time, Bai Yun stepped back into the stairway and went down to the second level, the region for foundation establishment cultivators. There were no checkpoints on the stairway and no one stopped him either. It someone died due to biting off more than they could chew, it was considered as the fault of that person. The Bai clan had no shortage of people. Someone would step up to take over his place.


    The flames in the second level were slightly darker than the flames above and also came up to a person''s thigh. Once Bai Yun entered the foundation establishment floor, he felt the increased heat hit him like a charging elephant. Bai Yun simply stood on the stairway and extended a single finger into the flames.


    A second later a wisp of flame entered his body. Bai Yun isolated the flame with his god sense in an instant. But the heat of the flames was too much for Bai Yun at his current cultivation. His finger had burned due to the flame.


    Ignoring his finger, Bai Yun climbed back up to the qi condensation area. On the way, he was quickly analyzing the flame he had captured. Bai Yun quickly realized that the extra ting that he found in the first level was not present in the second level, making him more confident in his hypothesis that the extra thing in the hellfire was the cause of the change.


    But there was not enough of it in the flames for Bai Yun to positively identify the object in the flames. Bai Yun knew that he would have to go deeper into the region to collect more of the flames to identify the source of the problem.


    Bai Yun walked straight into the deeper regions of the hell pit. He soon came into a gate in the floor, through which he could enter into the inner areas.


    The rate for staying in the inner areas was one clan point per hour for the middle area, and two clan point per hour for the innermost area, where the flames where the highest. The rate was not too high since the rates for the clan''s resources were based on two actors, availability, as well as energy spend to maintain the resource. The hell pit''s source of strength came from the hellfires that rose up. The arrays that reduced the intensity only took up nominal energy to maintain. And the reason the gravity chamber was so costly was because each use of the gravity camber used a lot of energy.


    Thus Bai Yun went through the two outer areas to reach the innermost area. The innermost area was different from the outermost area in that it contained special stone seats. There were eight hundred such seats, and thus only eight hundred people could use the innermost area at the same time. But this was not a problem as less than a hundred people were in the innermost area currently. The innermost area would only get crowded a few days before the clan competition as everyone tries to do everything they could to improve their chances for a breakthrough on the first night.


    These stone seats were situated on top of some small holes through which the flames would come out, like pans on top of an oven. This would concentrate the power coming from the hell pit and allow one to easily absorb them. In the other areas the flames rose from the ground, but here the flames were only on the seats. This meant that sitting on top of these stone seats were far more effective than sitting outside.


    Bai Yun went into the innermost area quickly. Once inside he went around the innermost area trying to identify the source of the extra thing he felt earlier. As he went around, he felt a few people staring at him and even heard a few snickers. At first, he was confused, but then he understood. The four year old mission must be famous. All of them must have correctly assumed what he was here for.


    The first time Bai Yun went around the inner area, he couldn''t see what the source for the extra thing was. The next time also left him with the same results, but he was at least able to confirm that the amount of the extra thing here was at least greater than the outside. But even then the mystery did not resolve itself.


    Resigning himself to failure, Bai Yun sat down on one of the empty seats to think. But the moment he sat down, his eyes flew wide open. He could see than the concentration of the thing was even greater here than outside the seat.


    Surprised about the discovery, Bai Yun quickly moved and sat on another seat. But this time, he could not feel anything different about this stone. He went about sitting on a few other stones but to no avail. He then returned to the first stone, intending to inquire about the rest of the stones after he identified the problem.


    Bai Yun slowly released his perception and soul tendrils into the stone beneath his body. Slowly Bai Yun went through the stone and felt the interior to understand what was happening.


    With a strat, Bai Yun felt a pain radiate through his soul. A look of horror appeared in his eyes as a trickle of blood could be seen at the edge of his mouth. He quickly recalled his perception and soul tendrils. Thankfully there was no damage done to them.


    Bai Yun had realized by now what the extra thing that was. It was hellwind!


    Hellwind was the sam as hellfire, wind born in hell. Hellwind collected into tornadoes could destroy everything in its path. And just like normal wind and fire, hellwind could also power up hellfire. The inferno that was made up of the combination of hellwind and hellfire was probably the most destructive thing in hell itself.


    But after a while Bai Yun calmed down and started to look at this closely. If this was hellwind, he would be dead without a question. Even traces of hell wind could blow up the hell pit. This was probably just some traces of hellair, a very static and weakened version of hellwind.


    A closer examination confirmed Bai Yun''s hypothesis. The stone that he was sitting on was porous and it contained many small pockets and gaps within. Hellair was trapped within these small gaps. As hellfire rose and filled these gaps, it would push the hellair out and slowly. It was this hellair that rose and mixed with the hellfire outside that increased its efficiency, making the people think that it was being strengthened.


    This was not good. Hellair in small amounts was fine, but continued exposure could deteriorate a person''s body. Thankfully there was only a small amount of hellair. Also, this was only at the first level. People would not often visit this place, and even those who do would quickly move on from the first level.


    But Bai Yun refused to believe that the sudden emergence of the hellair was a coincidence. These stones were made from when the stairway was excavated, and the walls of the hell pit, which had been long tempered by the hellfire and could withstand its heat, was made into seats. How long have these seats been here? It was inconceivable that the seats suddenly reached the tipping point and started to spew out hellair. Not only that, based on what he could see from the stone seat, the entire seat would be deprived of the hellair inside it within a month. It was not only improbable that so many seats would spew hellair in such a short time frame, it was impossible. There must be a bigger problem afoot.


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    Since the hellair would quickly deplete, there must be someone who was coming routinely and replenishing the hellair. Bai Yun had to investigate this. Honestly, just telling what he discovered would be enough to count as a completion of the mission. But he was afraid that the people behind this would catch wind of what he did, and hide. Or worse the person who posted the mission was part of the group and would have him silenced. But he decided to only waste a few days here. The entire thing wasn''t worth slowing down his cultivation too much.


    After thinking for a while Bai Yun found that the true purpose of the culprit would be the hellfire. These modified stone seats were used to trap the hellfire. But if the hellfire was trapped, then it would show up as a lack in the energy above the seats. Thus the people who were doing this filled the stone with hellair so that the small increase brought about by the hellair pushed out would make it so that all the flames would be of the same intensity. The increased intensity outside was just a side effect.


    Bai Yun decided to check out the other seats. Since he knew what he was looking for, he quickly picked out two dozen empty seats that were the modified kind. Since he didn''t have enough clan points to keep watch over them, Bai Yun left a small tracking mark on them.


    The tracking mark that he left behind was nearly unnoticeable and the kind that would break once it entered a storage ring. This was only a simple soul technique from his previous life. Bai Yun had realized that it would be extremely difficult to extract the hellfire in plain view without anyone finding out. Thus it was easier to simply swap them out with the help of a storage ring. Since most of the stone seats were nearly full, Bai Yun figured that this should be done in the next few days.


    After marking them, Bai Yun simply waited in the outermost area. At first he used the power of the hellfire to cleanse the impurities in his qi. Then he spend some time training, visualizing his different techniques, going through the Assassin God''s techniques and reading books to improve his knowledge.


    And finally on the fourth day, just as he was about to get impatient, Bai Yun felt one of the soul marks disappear.


    He let out a deep breath and stood up.


    ''The prey is finally here.''

 57 Following the trail

    Bai Yun stood up and quickly walked to the innermost area. As he walked, he felt two more of his marks disappear. By the time he reached the innermost area, only half of the stone seats were left.


    Bai Yun had changed his appearance by then. He reached the entrance of the innermost rea in no time. Once inside, Bai Yun sat down on one of the stone seats and pretended to absorb the flames. He even pretended that he was finding it a bit difficult to do so. But in truth, Bai Yun was having all of his senses spread around the innermost area trying to find the person who took the stone seats.


    Bai Yun immediately locked onto one person. He was walking around carelessly looking as if he was also trying to look into the mystery of the hell pit. But Bai Yun only smirked when he saw his acting.


    According to the Assassin God, all assassins had to be good actors. Sneaking in and killing someone was only a single way to kill someone. Sometimes the easiest way to get inside a target''s place of living was to be invited in. At those times you would need to blend in seamlessly, lest doubt arise. Only such an assassin was worthy of the name. Thus this philosophy, along with the ability of the Assassin God''s technique meant there were lots of teachings on acting in the legacy. Bai Yun scoffed when he saw the way the person was moving. It was amateurish at best.


    When the mysterious stranger faced him, Bai Yun quickly used the recording jade to capture his face. Then Bai Yun watched as he neared a stone he had marked and bent over as if to inspect the seat. People were used to this by now and simply turned away. Bai Yun was the only person paying attention to him. Thinking that no one was watching him, Bai Yun watched as he quickly replaced the stone with a stone of his own with practiced ease. The flame barely flickered when the switch was made. It was not his first time he had done this.


    Bai Yun watched as he went around the room replacing the stone seats. All this time, Bai Yun was doing pretty well with his acting. Bai Yun had deduced the time the stranger would take in order to finish up and leave, and Bai Yun was acting so that he could give up and leave alongside him. He was pretending to be sweating and shaking with pain by then.


    Soon enough, the stranger had finished collecting all the stones and started to leave, while pretending to be saddened by the fact that he couldn''t find any clues.


    Bai Yun watched as he got closer, and got up from his seat. He was sitting only a short distance from the entrance, so the stranger would have to pass through him to get to the door. Bai Yun sighed, got up and moved to the door. He was hobbling the whole time he was on his way. The two of them reached the door at the same time. Then Bai Yun pretended to stumble and fell towards the stranger. The stranger reached out to hold him instinctively.


    "Thanks." Bai Yun mumbled.


    "It''s okay. First time here?" The stranger smiled as he looked at Bai Yun. Now that he had completed his mission, he was quite free and relaxed. He had been doing this for months and had not run into any problems. Thus his confidence had grown.


    "Is it that obvious?" Bai Yun smiled.


    "There are not a lot of people who cannot handle the flames here once they get used to it. You are the exception here." He laughed.


    Bai Yun thanked the stranger for one final time, and the two of them quickly separated. Bai Yun took a step back to inspect the place where the closest marked stone was, only to see that it was replaced by an empty stone. Bai Yun slowly made his way through the floor and exited the hell pit. By then not only had he lost the stranger, but he had also returned to his original looks.


    As he stood there Bai Yun smiled as he felt the tracking mark that he had placed on the stranger.


    There was no way that the Assassin God''s legacy did not have a tracking technique. The stumble and fall of Bai Yun were intentional. He had used that time to place the racking mark on the stranger. It was a complex mark that could only be placed by someone who cultivated in all three paths at the same time. There was no way that anyone at the qi step could see through the tracking mark.


    But there were indeed some faults with the technique. The distance the mark could be tracked was not too great, and you needed to have physical contact to place the track, at least in the initial stages of cultivation.


    Bai Yun looked at the direction the tracking mark was pointing to. With a start, Bai Yun realized that it was going to the place where one could take a clan bus. There was no way Bai Yun could allow the stranger to escape his range. So he cast wind motion and chased after the stranger.


    Bai Yun reached him just as the clan bus was arriving. Bai Yun had changed his appearance and clothing by now, so he did not recognize him. Bai Yun entered the same bus as the stranger. To Bai Yun''s surprise, he realized that the bus was heading towards the gates of the Bai clan. He used his soul tendril to keep track of the stranger. He saw that the stranger was heading outside the clan.


    Bai Yun frowned when he saw this. This meant that whichever force was responsible for the theft of the hellfire was not internal to the clan. This did not bode well.


    The bus reached the gate of the Bai clan after some time. By now dusk had fallen. Bai Yun left the Bai clan following the stranger.


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    Bai Yun took a slightly different route from the stranger, only to change his appearance and follow him once again. He then sped up and walked by the stranger, slightly ramming into him in the process. He had used this collision to remove the tracking mark. If the tracking mark was simply kept, then there was a chance that someone in the soul step or higher would find out and he couldn''t take the chance. If some kind soul step cultivator was to warn the stranger, things would get dangerous. He could not take that chance.


    Bai Yun watched as he walked a good distance, and then entered a cafe. Bai Yun changed his appearance and entered the cafe after the stranger. He then watched him from the corner of his eyes.


    But after a while, Bai Yun had to leave. Both he and the stranger were pretty much the only people in the cafe that were sitting alone. The cafe seemed to be one that was frequented by the youth of Yellow City and most of them were in the qi condensation or foundation establishment realm. As Bai Yun walked past the stranger, he reapplied the tracking mark, as there were no soul step cultivators nearby.


    Bai Yun then walked out and hid himself around the corner. He used both his god sense as well as the Assassin God''s technique to hide his presence. Since it had gotten dark by then, there were a lot of places to hide, or cafes similar to the one the stranger was in to step in when he got tired.


    After a long wait, at about an hour to midnight, Bai Yun finally felt some movement from his tracking mark. Bai Yun quickly chased after the stranger and caught up to him and removed the tracking mark once again. He then followed the stranger through the road of Yellow City, changing appearances a few times along the way. By now the traffic had gone down by quite a bit.


    Bai Yun followed him to a deserted part of the city. Here the streets had long gone dark, and there was barely any light. It was now only a few minutes until midnight. Bai Yun watched the stranger enter a dark house in the middle of the street. There was nothing special about the house. It was similar to the other houses in the street. But Bai Yun was getting a weird feeling from this house. It was not only his god sense, but even his experience and perception were also giving him a warning. ''There must be something quite dangerous inside.'' Bai Yun thought.


    Not wanting to waste his time, Bai Yun quickly checked the house out from multiple directions. After a while, he saw no restrictions or formations placed on the house, which surprised him. It was just a normal house and not a secret hideout. This place was probably just used for this one single meetup. He saw that the house had three entrances. Not wanting to miss anything Bai Yun took out a few recording jades and placed them pointed at the house. He then hid in the shadows on the roof of the house opposite to it, having a clear view of the main gate.


    Bai Yun was patient. He watched as three more people came and went into the house. Two of them were in the foundation establishment realm, whereas the third was in the core formation stage. Not a single one of them felt Bai Yun. He waited patiently on the roof. There was no movement from the house from then on.


    Finally, after an hour, he heard some motion coming from the front entrance. He watched as six people exited the house. Then they all split up and went in different directions.


    Bai Yun shook his head when he saw them move. You should always exit from a secret meeting separately. This will only draw attention to yourself. They must be amateurs.


    Bai Yun quickly took the recording jade that was pointed at the main door and placed a new one there. He figured that he could collect the recording jades later, by which they would have captured any other information he could have missed now. After this Bai Yun followed the stranger he had followed here. Not only was he from the Bai clan, but he was also the weakest of them at only the seventh stage of qi condensation. All the others were at the foundation establishment stage or above.


    Soon after they were alone. All the others had left, and the street was deserted. Bai Yun was hidden in the shadows a short distance behind the stranger. He was returning to the clan. Soon they would be back in more busy streets.


    He knew that he would have to make a move if he was going to make a move at all.


    Bai Yun was wondering if he should kidnap the stranger and interrogate him himself.


    If he were to interrogate the person then there would be may problems. First of all, it would be very difficult to capture him silently considering his cultivation level. Next was the problem that he did not have a suitable location to interrogate him in.


    But there was also a problem if he was to simply let him go. From what he saw in front of the house, this was a large operation. If he turned him in now, there was a possibility that he would be tipped off and would escape. He would also tip them off if he failed in his capture.


    In an instant, Bai Yun decided on the course of his action.


    He would capture him first and think about the consequences later.

 58 Kidnapping

    Bai Yun stared at the stranger. The biggest problem he would have to face would be that the stranger is at the seventh stage of Qi condensation. Bai Yun was strong enough to defeat someone at that cultivation level, but capturing him without making any noise was extremely difficult. In the Assassin God''s legacy there were quite a good number of pills, liquids and gases that could incapacitate someone silently, but Bai Yun had none of them on him right now.


    And no matter what, he wasn''t at a level where he could fight without making any noise. Currently the stranger was walking without any awareness, but it was impossible that he would not notice him and react if he were to suddenly attack.


    Bai Yun thought about his options for a moment before he chose his plan of action. Bai Yun used wind motion to run around the street the stranger was walking on. The stranger looked around when he heard the whoosh of the air that accompanied wind motion. As Bai Yun hadn''t reached soundless motion yet he was unable to hide the sounds. But the stranger did not see anything and ignored the noise.


    Since the streets here were quite interconnected it only took Bai Yun a short time to reach the other end of the street, even having taken the long way around. The stranger was walking towards him slowly.


    Bai Yun walked in front of the stranger and started to inspect the path. He knew that the stranger would take the same path back as he had taken here, so he had to find a good location to ambush. In assassination and kidnapping, the most important thing was location after all. He was very natural as he simply walked by without stopping.


    As he walked, Bai Yun analyzed the place. The street was dark, now that it was after midnight but there were still patches of light. The location the group had chosen to meet was also quite out of the way, as they did not want to attract any attention. Honestly Bai Yun would not have picked such a location for meeting, it was too remote. If something happened, it would easily become suspicious.


    The path that the stranger was on was deserted for now, but wont be for long. Soon they would reach more trafficked areas, and that would be bad. He had to take action before then. Not only that he had to take action in a place without many people so that no one noticed them.


    A few minutes later, Bai Yun found the perfect place. It was a small junction in the road. Two roads crossed each other. There was a small wall in the road behind which he could hide. From here he could launch a surprise attack at the stranger quite effectively.


    Bai Yun stood there and looked around. Using his perception, he made sure that there were no people around him, and that the houses around him were mostly empty. He then quickly took of his robe and changed into clothes that are quite easy to move in. When striking at high speeds the resistance created by the robes could be deadly. Once he did so he changed his appearance, just in case someone did see him.


    By now he could hear the stranger getting close. He peered from around the corner at the stranger who was walking towards him slowly. For a moment he watched him closely and then slinked back into the shadow of the streets.


    Even though the stranger was a cultivator and at a higher cultivation level than him, the body of a cultivator was same as that of a mortal at a fundamental level. He had the same weaknesses as a mortal. Only when a person''s cultivation reached a much higher step would their body lose such weaknesses. And a quick way to knock out a qi condensation realm cultivator is to knock him in the back portion of the brain at the medulla oblongata, the place where the brain joints up with the spinal cord.


    And it was necessary to take him by surprise. It is easy for a cultivator to protect their weaknesses easily with qi. If he did not attack before the stranger recognizes him as a threat then he could easily knock him out. Else it would be very difficult for him to kidnap the stranger without making any noise and raise any commotion.


    Bai Yun slowly took a stance behind a wall, hidden from sight. He stood a few inches from the wall and the street, facing the street. Bai Yun bend his knees slightly and took a stance. His right hand was crossed in front of his body as if he was about to draw a sword at his left hip.


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    Bai Yun started to take deep breaths one at a time. Each of his breaths was taken through his mouth and got progressively deeper and quieter. His heartbeat got slower and slower. He wrapped his perception and god sense around him so as to eliminate any of his presence. This was a new technique he had acquired from the Assassin God. Slowly his very existence seemed to blend into the shadows around.


    Bai Yun could not use his sense to keep track of the stranger. If he did so, it could alert the stranger of his presence, and that could reduce his chances of successfully ambushing the stranger. Bai Yun used his ears to listen to the strangers footsteps to estimate his distance. Bai Yun waited until he slowly reached him.


    Bai Yun focused all of his strength into just right arm. All of his qi was perfectly focused on his right hand. Due to his high skill not single wisp of qi was projected outward and no one could sense his presence. Finally he wrapped two strands of his soul around his arm to strengthen it further.


    By now the stranger was only a few meters from where he was hiding. Bai Yun could hear him quite clearly. But there was still a small problem. In order to properly subdue the stranger, it was necessary to attack him from behind in surprise. But no matter how well he had hidden, the area he had hidden in was slightly lit by the star and moon light. When the stranger passed by his hiding spot, it was all but certain that he would be seen. Even though he was using the Assassin God''s techniques, he was neither proficient enough nor had a high enough cultivation to hide perfectly.


    If Bai Yun were to hide more perfectly, he would be too far from the stranger to efficiently attack. The sound created when he moved closer would alert the stranger and he could possibly react.


    Bai Yun listened to the footsteps of the stranger getting closer. By now his breathing had all but disappeared. He opened his eyes slowly. Once he was done, he stared at the road, looking for the time to act. And the moment the right leg of the stranger came into view and fell on the pavement, Bai Yun made his move.


    Bai Yun used the third soul tendril of his and slammed two pieces of wood together at the other side from where he was hiding.


    Question: what would an average person do when they are walking and they hear a familiar noise.


    Answer: they turn to look.


    And that is exactly what the stranger did. He kept on walking and simply turned his head to the left to look at the origin of the sound. There was nothing to it. It was simply nature and instinct. The key was to make the sound common and quiet enough to simply make someone turn and not stop walking. If someone heard a firecracker go off, he would be more likely to stop walking. Thus Bai Yun simulated the sound of a door closing. The natural reaction was impossible to control without years of training. And this was simply a momentary reaction. But that turned out to be deadly in the case of the stranger.


    Bai Yun waited patiently, and charged into motion the very next second. His heart thundered and his breathing became rapid. His bent knees sprung up, and the arm swung out as if he was drawing a sword. He used every drop of strength available to him and also cast wind motion at the same time.


    The sound attracted the attention of the stranger, but he was too late. It only took him a second to turn his head back to look at Bai Yun. As he saw Bai Yun getting bigger and bigger in his eyes, a look of confusion appeared in his eyes, which was quickly replaced by a look of horror. But the one second of delay was all that Bai Yun needed. In an nstant Bai Yun''s arm collided with the base of the strangers skull.


    The stranger stumbled for a moment, and then his body fell powerlessly on to the floor. But Bai Yun did not stop moving. Before the stranger could stop falling, Bai Yun grabbed his arm, spun his body and then threw the strangers arm over him. A second later some alcohol that he had purchased earlier in the night, spilled onto both of their chest.


    All three of Bai Yun'' soul tendrils wrapped around the stranger. The two of them started to walk with a sway. If anyone saw the two of them right now, they would only see two drunks walking.


    Once the lie was set, Bai Yun took out a small pill and forcefully fed it to the stranger. It was a simple knock out drug that he had purchased earlier from the clan. When he knew that the situation called for an investigation, Bai Yun was prepared to do some extreme measures.


    Once this was done Bai Yun looked around to see if there were anyone watching. Once he confirmed that they were indeed alone, Bai Yun started to slowly walk towards the shadows. He stumbled his way to the wall, and a second later he moved into the shadows.


    Anyone watching would only see two people staggering and would not look closer. But with each random step, the two of them seemed to go further into the darkness. A few steps later and the the two of them disappeared.


    The street went back to its old silence, as if all that happened was only a dream.


    Kidnapping successful!

 59 Interrogation

    Bai Yun rolled the stranger down to the storm drain and then covered him up with the cover of the storm drain. Bai Yun looked through the stranger and checked him with his perception in order to make sure that there was nothing that he missed on his body or any booby traps.


    Once he was well hidden Bai Yun stood up and left the place quickly. He needed an out of way place to interrogate the stranger. But he had no idea of such a place nearby. And he couldn''t carry the stranger far without risking exposure. Thankfully they were in a sparsely populated part of the city.


    So afterwards Bai Yun spend the next hour searching for places. He found a warehouse a few kilometers away that was far away from any people. This distance was nothing to the perception of a slightly strong cultivator, but in Yellow city it was considered rude to keep a persons perception active, and thus it was generally avoided.


    Once he found a place, Bai Yun quickly bound the warehouse with some material to make it more soundproof. After which he returned to the location where he had hidden the stranger and slowly picked him up.


    Bai Yun quickly started to move towards the warehouse. When they were well hidden in the shadows, or no one was around to see them, Bai Yun would pick up the stranger and quickly run using his qi. Otherwise, he would grip him over the shoulder, and move as if the two of them were drunk. In order to remove any doubts, Bai Yun animated the stranger using his soul tendrils, to make it look as if he was awake.


    Bai Yun ran into a few people on the way, but none of them spared him a second look. Bai Yun was able to quickly leave them behind and reach the warehouse after a few minutes.


    Once he reached the warehouse, Bai Yun tied up the stranger in chains he found around the warehouse. Then he ripped of his shirt and put his hand over the stranger''s dantian. He slowly sunk his qi int the stranger''s dantian and sealed it up using a sealing technique he had learning in his past life. But considering the difference in their cultivation, it took Bai Yun several times of sealing and recovering his energy before he succeeded in sealing the strangers dantian.


    Once he was finished, Bai Yun used the antidote of the knockout pill to wake up the stranger.


    Bai Yun stood there watching as he stranger began to twitch. A few moments later, the stranger slowly woke up.


    "Uh." He said groggily.


    The stranger seemed to want to get up, but for a moment he was unable to do anything. He shook his head, before he realized that he was tied up. For a moment panic seemed to set into his eyes and he started to look around. A second later his eyes had found Bai Yun and he stared at him.


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    "Let me go." He screamed. He started to struggle free of the chains. But after a moment he realized that his qi was blocked and he could not use it. A look of terror appeared in his eyes and then he started to scream for help. Bai Yun simply stood back and let him scream as much as he wanted. After a while the stranger stopped screaming after he realized that no one coming, and that Bai Yun was unconcerned with him.


    "Who-who are you?" He asked in fear.


    Bai Yu smiled when he heard the stranger. He walked towards him and squatted down to keep his eyes in the same level as that of the stranger.


    "Hi." Bai Yun smiled at the stranger.


    "H-hi" The stranger replied while shaking. He was completely terrified. He was only twelve years old and had never seen something like this before. He knew that he was in deep trouble and had no idea what was happening. And the most important thing was that the person in front of him was smiling like a warm summers eve. He could not see even the slightest killing intent or hostility on his face.


    "Relax. I have never tortured someone before." Bai Yun said.


    "Uh-uh." The stranger nodded, relaxing a bit.


    "But I have seen my seniors torture people before." Bai Yun continued while smiling. The strangers face turned pale upon hearing this. "I was hoping to experiment on someone and increase my skill. Would you help me with it?"


    The stranger was pretty much shaking in terror by now. "N-No." He somehow managed to sputter.


    Bai Yun''s smiling face disappeared in an instant. There was no longer any emotion in his eyes. The only thing the stranger could see in his eyes was his own reflection and nothing else.


    "Are you telling me you won''t help me?" Bai Yun asked the stranger.


    "I will." He replied.


    "So will you let me practice on you?" Bai Yun said, the smile that will pacify every broken heart once again appearing on his face.


    "No. No. Please. I''ll tell you anything" The stranger started to beg.


    "So are you going to cooperate or do I need to torture you?" Bai Yun asked one last time.


    "I''ll cooperate." By now the stranger was tripping over himself in order to tell Bai Yun whatever he wanted.


    "Too bad." Bai Yun said with a smile. He had prepared many methods to break down the stranger from hi memories. But it seemed all of it was unnecessary. Then he started to ask him about the stones.


    ---------------------


    Three hours later Bai Yun finished his interrogation. By now it was nearing dawn.


    He had interrogated the stranger multiple times, making sure that there was no inconsistency in the story. He realized that the was not some veteran, but only a kid who got way too in over his head.


    Once he was done he fed the stranger another knockout pill.


    Bai Yun was troubled by the information that he got from the stranger.


    According to the stranger he was simply asked to replace the stones in the hell put and nothing else. He would take the stones to a building and then he would get a new set of stones. The new stones he got would be placed when he went to collect the stones that had been charging for a month. Also he would get some cultivation resources every time he delivered the stones.


    He would simply deliver the stones and then leave. He had no idea what they were used for. During a meeting to drop the items, he would arrive at the prearranged location at the prearranged time, and then give them the storage ring with the stones he had picked up from the hill pit. Then he would get a storage ring with new stones and resources. The same person would collect the stones from him every time, and then tell him the date and time of the next meeting. The location also differed every time.


    He had only been doing this for six months now. He had met the collector a total of six times. A couple of times he was the only person to meet up with the collector. Sometimes he would meet up with other people. He had seen a few other people but had never talked to them. He had been instructed by the collector not to do so.


    The collector was also the person who recruited him into the job. He had never met anyone else. So he knew no one else. And as for the recruitment, he had simply received an anonymous letter asking him to meet up at a specific place at a specific time. When he met the collector, he simply told him what he needed to do and that he would be given cultivation resources every time he delivered the goods. After a mild death threat as a stick and offering up a cultivation technique much better than the clan''s common technique as a stick, he was easily swayed.


    At first Bai Yun was confused as to why he would easily accept the collectors offer. After all what he did was technically treason. But after thinking about it for a while, Bai Yun understood the problem easily. The stranger was not a valued member of the Bai clan. He was only a simple ordinary member of the clan, and did not have access to important resources. Even with his father''s desire for him to be extremely independent and not giving him any resources, he still had access to much better resources than the stranger. For a naive young kid like the stranger, the offer that the collector put forth was irresistible. He would easily latch on to any and every chance to improve himself. In the cultivation world, no matter how fair the methods try to be, strength was the most important factor. There was no way he would have much loyalty to the clan.


    But there were many points about this situation that confused Bai Yun. The first and foremost was that there were no soul seal on the stranger.


    Soul seals were placed on people in order to protect secrets. Once a person''s cultivation became high enough, it was possible to search a persons soul to gain information. In order to make sure that no such incident happened, such confidential information was usually kept under soul locks. A soul lock would seal up a piece of information and would prevent any soul searches. And most soul locks would also have a seal that made sure that the person who had the information did not divulge it to any unauthorized person. A soul lock could easily be deployed by any soul step qi or soul cultivator. A body cultivator would have to reach the dao step before he could use a soul lock though.


    Of course a soul lock was not almighty. A person with a much higher cultivation or attainments in the soul path than the person who set the soul lock could definitely undo the seal. Also most people would not prefer to have soul locks on their souls, because it could have detrimental effects on a persons soul and talents if not done perfectly.


    But the issue here was that a soul lock was not even attempted. Bai Yun had attempted to kidnap the stranger because he was confident of his attainments in the soul path and thought that he could undo it.


    But the lack of the soul lock was very confusing. Based on the fact that the collector had a steady stream of hell air as well as the high quality cultivation technique and resources he had given, and the fact that they could identify a person who would easily accept their proposal, the faction behind the collector was quite strong. There was no way they would not be able to put a soul lock on a measly qi cultivation realm brat, with or without hi consent. And the various steps they had taken to prevent identification only added to the confusion.


    It was due to this that Bai Yun was able to easily get all the information from stranger. It was incredibly unusual.


    Not only that, the amount of hellfire that they had gotten their hands on were truly abysmal. No matter how Bai Yun thought about it, he could not come up with a reason for such a small amount of hellfire. Anything that could be achieved with that amount of hellfire could easily be achieved with many other items. It was simply not worth it to collect that much hellfire for such a huge amount of work.


    Once he was done organizing his thoughts, he was ready to leave.


    For a while he considered killing the stranger and disposing of him. But as he stood there, a weird feeling overtook him. For a second he felt an intense blood lust washing over him. He slowly took out his sword and pointed it at the stranger''s neck. But he wasn''t sure if he should go through with it. The kid wasn''t evil, just an idiot. But after a moment he held back and turned around. As he did so conflicting feelings of relief and disappointment washed over him at the same time.


    Bai Yun took one last look at the stranger. He then left him there and left the warehouse to pickup the recording jades. It was time to return to the clan and report on the matter.

 60 Discussion of findings

    Bai Yun slowly walked back to where he had hidden the recording jades. He thought through the information he had collected as he was walking. But there were many things didn''t make sense.


    But when he reached the house, he was flabbergasted by what he saw. The feeling of danger had competently disappeared from the house. Bai Yun figured that the collector must have left.


    Bai Yun took out the recording jades from where he had hidden them and then went back to the clan. As he walked, he thought of what he could do from now on considering the situation. Once he reached the clan he went back to the mansion to find old Hai. Without his parents around the only person he could inform and ask for help about this matter was old Hai. He found him in the study looking over some matters of the mansion, as well as some things Bai Yun''s father had left for him.


    "What''s the matter young master? Why did you look for me?" Old Hai asked.


    Bai Yun sat down at the table opposite to him and looked at old Hai straight in the eye. Old Hai was surprised and quickly got serious.


    Bai Yun then slowly explained everything that happened to old Hai. Old Hai quickly grew concerned when he explained the inferences he had made as well as the anomalies with the situation. Old Hai was concerned and then confused.


    "This makes no sense. There is no need to go through all this trouble for such a little amount of hellfire." Old Hai said, taking a look at one of the stones that Bai Yun had brought back.


    "You are right. Even after six years you cannot collect much hellfire. What could they possibly be thinking?" Bai Yun thought out loud.


    "No it''s even more confusing than you think. You may not know as its not public, but the clan sells hellfire. Its not publicly available, but it would not be difficult for people with any connections to easily buy them. Granted, considering the cost the clan charges for hellfire, the amount one could gather is quite small. But it would much easier and far less dangerous to just buy them through the regular channels." Old Hai explained.


    This only added to Bai Yun''s confusion. The entire process seemed unusually complicated, all to get something at a slightly cheaper cost. Just as Bai Yun started to go into a deep thought, old Hai interjected.


    "It doesn''t matter. We know the location of the next meeting. We can simply capture the collector and find out more from him."


    "Its true." Bai Yun agreed. "We can consider further when we have more information."


    "The thing that you need to do now is to simply go and hand in the mission. Once you get the points from the missions, you can use them to strengthen yourself. That should be your primary concern right now. There are people in the clan who handle stuff like this." Old Hai said.


    "I wont hand it in. Today I am going to go and say that I failed the mission." Bai Yun said.


    "Huh." Old Hai was stunned when he heard it.


    Bai Yun smiled when he heard the answer. "From all that you have heard, what do you think is the most terrifying thing about the faction who did this?"


    "Isn''t it the fact that they have access to hellair. No matter who you are you need a huge power to have a regular access to hellair. We don''t know of any source of hellair on the continent. So this group must be quite powerful to secretly get control o something like that."


    "Of course not." Bai Yun laughed. "The most terrifying thing about them is the fact that they found the kid who agreed to work for them. If he was the first person they contacted, that means that they were able to observe him long enough that they identified him as someone who would accept their offer. Or else they had approached multiple people and had all the people who refused killed and disposed of, without raising any red flags. Both suggests that they must have infiltrated at least a bit into the clan, and the second option suggest an incredible disregard for life. I don''t want anyone to find out that I was the who uncovered the conspiracy. It is far too dangerous to have a group like this focus on me."


    Old Hai was stunned when he heard Bai Yun''s response. He had not thought this far, and did not consider this situation at all. But once he did so, his back broke out in cold sweat when he thought about the implications.


    "What do you want me to do?" Old Hai asked Bai Yun after a moment of thought. Considering that Bai Yun had thought of this and yet shared all of this to him, and not anyone else, he figured that Bai Yun must have a plan.


    Bai Yun smiled when he heard old Hai''s words. He came here because he needed help from him to keep his name off of the situation.


    "The clan should have a covert investigative section right?" Bai Yun asked.


    "Yes." Old Hai replied.


    "Is there someone in the section who you can trust. Someone who would absolutely not be part of this faction, and also someone who can and will keep our names outside of any official reports."


    Old Hai went silent for a moment. He was starting to see what Bai Yun was talking about. He smiled vaguely.


    "I can think of one such person. He is a friend of your father''s. I will go call him right now." Old Hai replied.


    "Why do you need to bring him here." Bai Yun asked.


    "That''s the kind of person he is. I don''t think that he will accept what you are asking of him without meeting him."


    Bai Yun frowned for a moment. He considered his options for a moment, then nodded.


    "Fine. But you must go now and tell him to get here right now. Also take this map. Its the map to where I hid the kid. Sent someone to pickup him up and smuggle him back here. We need that kid here right now. And tell the person who go that they must not be caught, and no one must see the kid being brought in. In fact it will be better if you sent someone from the covert section. They will be more familiar with this kind of work."


    Old Hai nodded. "I''ll be back soon." He said. Then he picked up the map, and quickly left.


    Bai Yun leaned back on the chair and started thinking once again, to make sure there was nothing he had missed. As he did so, his fingers started to strum on the chair. It was a habit he had picked up from one of the leaders of the alliance back in the grand war.


    Nearly an hour had passed from when old Hai set off, when Bai Yun suddenly raised his head reflexively. As he did so, two figures suddenly appeared in his vision. One of them was old Hai, while the other was a pudgy middle aged man he had never seen before. The middle aged man had a very subtle aura, that almost seemed to blend into the surroundings.


    "Bai Yun let me introduce you to one of the vice heads of the intelligence division, Bai Shongsui. The outside world knows him as the person in charge of one of Bai clan''s auction houses though. His real job is secret. Not many people know of it." Old Hai introduced him.


    "Hello senior. Nice to meet you." Bai Yun stood up to offer him a greeting, but he was quickly cut short.


    "We can save the introductions for later. I heard about the matter from Bai Hai. Tell me everything you know. We can discuss everything else later."


    Bai Yun quickly explained everything he had seen. He also explained all the conjectures he had as well as the problems he found. After he explained, Bai Shongsui went silent for a while.


    "Are you really fourteen." Bai Yun was surprised by the first question he raised.


    "Huh?".


    "I have heard many people give reports before. You don''t sound like a newbie. Almost all of the people I ask to give me a message for the first time make some mistakes or leave somethings vague. But you didn''t leave anything out. I didn''t even have to ask a question. How the hell did you do that."


    "I have never given a report before. I just thought things through is all" Bai Yun replied with a smile. It was true. He had listened to an uncountable number of intelligence reports though.


    Bai Shongsui sat in silence for a moment. "Why did you ask me to come here?" He jumped into the most important matter.


    "I am not sure of how much the faction has infiltrated the clan. So I am going to submit the mission as a failure. So I would be kept out of the mess. But I still want the clan to know of this. And I want the points given as a reward for the mission. It should be given to me untraceably of course."


    Bai Shongsui stared at him for a while before he burst into laughter. "You are something else kid. Alright. I''ll transfer some points to Bai Hai from a hidden name, and he can transfer it to you. Also I will make sure all of your names are kept out of this. Anything else you want to say kid."


    "I have a few suggestions. First of all, it is almost certain that they have surveillance of the kid, so it is certain that you will have to have someone impersonate him and go about his daily activities, so as to not alarm them. Also please send people to find out who the collector and the other people in the recording are. Though don''t publicly arrest the ones who appear before you get the collector. Also I think it would be better if you look for them in other major forces too. Also I think it would be better if you assign this case a high priority." Bai Yun quickly told him.


    Bai Shongsui smiled when he heard Bai Yun''s suggestions. "Very good. You noticed all the important points. Any interest in joining the covert section."


    "No." Bai Yun quikcly rejected him. "I am destined to walk a different path."


    "Too bad." Bai Shonsui said. He didn''t bother to push him any further.


    "Wait a second." Old Hai interjected. "I understand the rest, but why should this case have a high priority. As far I know the only thing that they did was steal some hellfire, right?"


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    "The most dangerous thing isn''t strength or motive." Bai Shongsui explained. "The most important thing is that we don''t know what they are after. And even more important is that we don''t understand their actions. We fear what we don''t understand. And mostly for good reason."


    Bai Yun nodded upon hearing this. After this they talked for a short while and then Bai Shongsui left.


    Od Hai transferred two thousand points to Bai Yun before he left him alone. Once he was done, Bai Yun went to turn down the mission, and then sent a message to Bai Ling-er and then he was done with all the things he needed to do, and was ready for his cultivation retreat.


    Bai Yun prepared all the necessary things he would need for a long retreat and went to the gravity chamber.


    It was time to improve his body constitution.

 61 Finishing up the training

    Bai Yun entered the gravity chamber at dawn. He booked six weeks in the gravity chamber and then used the rest of the points in order to exchange for cultivation resources as well as some recovery medicine and food and water for the retreat.


    The gravity chamber was a large square room, with enough space for cultivation. It was empty, and any items needed for cultivation had to be brought in from outside. In the center, There was a large circle. The circle was a formation and was the core of the gravity chamber. The gravity in the circle could be manipulated from an increase of ten percent to ten ties the normal gravity.


    There were four things Bai Yun had hoped to achieve by the time he finished the retreat. First and foremost he had to improve his body constitution. The next order was to improve his movement technique. The third was to improve and stabilize his cultivation. And finally he needed to find and assimilate his huge knowledge and experience and improve his techniques to make them much more powerful.


    Bai Yun set down all the items he would need for survival, like food and water outside the circle. There was also a small toilet and shower nearby, thus fulfilling all of Bai Yun''s needs for a long retreat. He set down the weights and stones he had brought with himself at the edge of the circle. He then took of his his robe, and stood there wearing only his pants, his upper body bare. He finally took out a restrictive robe that wrapped around his entire body, and constricted his movements and kept it nearby.


    The very first thing Bai Yun did was to increase the gravity in the gravity chamber to two times the normal. Bai Yun decided to keep the gravity at at least two times the normal at all times in order to make his body get used to the power as quickly and improve its constitution as fast as possible. He would then increase it to higher levels when he was working out to stress himself.


    First Bai Yun had breakfast. Then he stood at the gravity chamber and swung his sword. He had started to shadow box to get his body used to the simple sword.


    Bai Yun''s greatest strength was the Simple word. But even with his great knowledge, he was completely unable to use it optimally. Currently he could only make a move after seeing the movement of the opponent. This was called sword following the soul.


    The next step would be to make the movements of the sword completely instinctual as well as muscle memory. This would allow his body body to react even before he had noticed the danger, thus saving time and even his life. This was called sword following the body. The only way to do this was by an enormous amount of effort and repetitive practice.


    Bai Yun only spend an hour in this. The best way to achieve sword following the body was through life and death battles. He was only laying down a foundation for now. Once he was done, it was time to move on to the next thing in his itinerary.


    Bai Yun stood at the center of the circle. He took out his sword and closed his eyes. His sword was at his left waist, and he stood there while holding the hilt with his right hand. He focused all of his attention on the sword as well as the memories of his past life.


    The God of Sword was someone who took a different path from the norm. Unlike the other swordsmen, he reached the pinnacle by pure technique and skill. Everyone else thought of using various techniques and arts in order to improve their strength, including Bai Yun. But not the God of Swords.


    But there was one exception to this.


    When he reached the peak of the Immortal step, the God of Swords was stuck at that position for half a million years. It was the first time he had hit a bottleneck. He then gave up on breaking through and started to travel the universe and beyond, looking for people to fight with and improve his technique.


    He spend another half million years on this. During this time he even let go of his rule and created techniques. In total he created exactly six techniques. And on the day he created the sixth technique, he broke through to the God step.


    Everyone else who saw the techniques called it the most powerful sword technique of all time. They called it the Six Truths of the Sword God.


    He was humiliated, and nearly buried the techniques. He called it the Sword God''s Folly.


    Other than Bai Yun only the legacy disciples of the God of Swords were allowed to study the technique. Even then none of them managed to master all six forms. Even Bai Yun, who was considered the greatest genius of the time, only managed to master the sixth form after spending twenty five thousand years in the battlefield.


    He was currently trying to retrofit the first of the six techniques, Sword drawing.


    Sword drawing was the first technique, as well as the simplest. It was not particularly exceptional in anything, but it was the foundation for the other six techniques. And even then it was truly powerful.


    The problem was that the Six truths of the Sword God was created to be used at the God step. But the energy as well as the Dao''s used at the qi condensation realm was extremely different from that of it used at the God step. If he was to use the same technique, he would only end up simply waving the sword and not have any effects. Or he could also blow up and kill himself.


    Bai Yun remembered the technique from his past life, and then suddenly drew the sword in a single smooth motion. The sword took a strange arc through the air. It moved through the air at lighting speed, and yet slowly, as if it was slicing through mud. But as the sword moved further and further, small ripples started to form in its path.


    "Aaaaah". A scream filled the gravity chamber at the same the sword flew away from Bai Yun''s hand. For a moment a strange and ephemeral power descended on the chamber, but it left just as quickly as it came. Bai Yun slumped to the ground, while clutching his right arm. Veins were trembling all over his body. He grit his teeth, closed his eyes, and punched down on to the floor with all of his strength.


    For a moment there was no sound in the chamber, but soon small pants filled the room. After a few minutes Bai Yun stood up. He then went to take his sword, and then walked back with it.


    Once again, Bai Yun stood in the center of the circle, and resumed his earlier posture. He calmed down his rapidly beating heart and focused on the sword once again. His mind was filled with the memories of his technique only. He remembered what he had done, and tried to correct his mistake. One step at a time, he approached his ideal condition once again.


    Bai Yun once again draw is sword. And once again, he collapsed in a scream.


    Soon Bai Yun settled into a strange rhythm. Screams and sounds of a sword colliding against the wall became a common and seemed to ring out every five minutes or so. When his right hand became too swollen to properly swing a sword, he switched to his left hand. When that hand was swollen, he went back to the right. Bai Yun continued to push himself in this manner again and again.


    Bai Yun finally stopped an hour before noon. He sat down for a moment and thought about his two major skills.


    He had two techniques he could use now, Moonlight Sword, and Lions roar. But he was at a impasse for both. The next technique in the moonlight sword, as well as the power of the Lions roar could not be truly understood at his current level. It was a problem of cultivation. But Bai Yun still meditated on the techniques to improve their strengths. Compared to retrofiring the Sword God''s Folly, this was like child''s play. But he still decided to spend an hour everyday for it.


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    Once he was done he had lunch and then increased the gravity to three times the normal. From now on, it was time to practice the movement technique. Bai Yun quickly put on a restrictive suit that would restrict all of his movements, including his arms, his legs and his body. This would make it difficult for him to move, and thus increase the efficiency of the movement technique training.


    Bai Yun started to move inside the gravity chamber. He was trying to master the second movement of the specter steps, soundless motion. Sometimes he would stay within the gravity circle, sometime he would go outside. He would rapidly step in and out in order to allow his body to adapt to rapid changes in environment.


    But this training quickly made him run out of qi. He would then sit and recuperate using both common meditation as well as diluted qi recovery pills. Once he was charged up, he would start training once again.


    Once the sun set, Bai Yun would had dinner and then start to train for a few hours without using any qi. This was training to build up his body. He increased the gravity to four times at the beginning of his retreat, and planned to increase it higher once his body''s constitution had improved. Bai Yun not only used the weights he had brought to improve his muscles, he also used the restrictive robe to improve his flexibility. He knew that the optimum way of fighting would require a strong as well as flexible body.


    Once he was dead tired, Bai Yun would settle in and start to cultivate and recover. Bai Yun would use two strands of his soul tendrils to meditate and train in order to increase his cultivation level. The third strand was generally kept for reading books he had borrowed from both his parents collection as well as the library. These weren''t books on cultivation, but those on common knowledge about the world. Even though using more strands would increase his cultivation speed, Bai Yun decided to slow down a bit in order to increase his knowledge.


    And then after midnight, he fell into sleep.


    Bai Yun quickly set into rhythm. Every morning he would wake up early even before dawn and start to work on the secret techniques and martial arts. He would work on it till noon and them shift to working on the Assassin God''s movement technique. Once he was out of qi, he would start to have high intensity work out in high gravity until after sunset. Then he would cultivate to recover his qi and increase his cultivation before sleep. He only spend four hours each day in sleep. Most of the time, he wished for the day to be longer.


    Bai Yun''s regimen barely changed day by day. In an instant six weeks passed. Before he knew it, it was already the time to leave.

 62 Exiting the training

    Bai Yun left the gravity chamber once the six weeks were up. Old Hai was waiting for him outside. He smiled when he saw Bai Yun after six weeks.


    "You look much better young master." He remarked. Bai Yun only smiled in response.


    It was true though. He had lost all of the baby fat that he had accumulated throughout his life. His slightly chubby body had become lean and filled with with muscles. From the outside, no one could tell just how much explosive force was hiding inside his body. He had trained his body using the highest level of techniques in the Assassin God''s legacy as well as the God of War''s technique in order to prepare a body that was perfect for a fight.


    Once he wore clothes, his strong body would be hidden, and no one could tell how terrifying he would be. People would only think of him as a pretty boy. An unfortunate side effect of being human was that they tend to think of of things which look weak as weak. This was a technique of body modification he had picked from the Assassin God''s legacy.


    That was not the only change he had gone through in the six weeks of training. Bai Yun broke through from the third stage of qi condensation realm to the fifth realm during his retreat. He had also completely consolidated his cultivation in all three paths. He had also assimilated his soul''s fighting experience with his body. If he had to fight the current him, the Bai Yun who entered the retreat would be beaten in a manner of minutes. In fact his soul cultivation had reached the absolute peak of the qi realm. If he took even a single step more, he would reach the foundation establishment realm of the soul cultivation. But if he did so, he could not fight in the clan meeting, and thus he kept it sealed up.


    "I was quite surprised when you said that you were going to go on a long retreat. I mean how can someone of your age just willingly be prepared to forgo everything and just train for such a long time. Its incomprehensible." Old Hai remarked.


    Bai Yun froze for a moment when he heard that. Most of the people of the world started cultivation around ten years of age. There were very few people who were like Zhang Zi and would start to train and fight because they enjoy it. Most people would be more like Song Hui and Gong Ming and tend to enjoy their life. Even when they were being serious, he could see an immaturity to their actions. This was due to the way they were raised by their clans. And when they weren''t being serious, he could see the childishness in their actions quite clearly.


    And children would never be able to stay still for so long. Bai Yun was able to do so because he was not a child in mind.


    "It maybe because I have nothing else." Bai Yun quickly replied. "I have been partially asleep until recently, so the things I have experienced are quite different from others. I am used to being alone." Bai Yun quickly patched up.


    Old Hai took a deep look at Bai Yun. Bai Yun quizzically looked back at him.


    "Your parents have returned. I have already told them about the things that you did. They will want to speak to you." Old Hai suddenly said. Then he grabbed him by the arm and sped back to the mansion.


    Old Hai dropped Bai Yun off in the middle of the mansion''s garden. Bai Yun stumbled as he was suddenly dropped by Old Hai. He quickly shook his head to get rid of the dizziness due to moving at speeds his body wasn''t used to and then looked around.


    He found himself in a small garden behind the mansion. Bai Yun remembered this place from his memories. The garden was a small grass filled meadow, with a few trees here and three. When he was young, his parents would often bring him here to play. Bai Yun slowly turned around. His parents were sitting in the middle of the garden having tea.


    His mother was sitting on the couch in the middle of the garden. She stared at him while resting her head on her hands with a smile on her face. His father was frowning while looking at some documents in his hands. But Bai Yun could feel feel a gaze directed at him from his father anyway.


    "You finally got out. I was starting to wonder, if you would spend the rest of your life inside the chamber, training." His mother said.


    Bai Yun smiled a little when he heard his mother. He had gotten close to them during the months that they had spend together, but it still felt weird thinking of them as his parents. No matter how much he wanted to call them as his parents, he still felt a disconnected.


    "I just had to get my body better. It wasn''t possible without a little movement." Bai Yun said.


    His mother just smiled and the patted the seat next to her, asking him to sit down. Bai Yun alked towards her. "So, tell me what you have been up to these days." She asked him.


    Bai Yun quickly told her about all the things he had done in the last few days. Of course he did not go into any detail, and also skipped the part where he killed Bai Shan. There was no need to publicize the things he had done. He had no doubt that his parents had killed before. It was impossible to reach their strength at their ages without walking a bloody path. But there was no need to inform them of unnecessary things. The less people that knew, the less chance people would find out about this.


    His parents were startled when he told them that he could easily change appearances. It was only after he showed them, that they believed him. When he told told them of the fight with Zhang Zi, they were both surprised. His father even looked up from the documents. As one of the most promising youngsters in Yellow City, both of them knew of Zhang ZI.


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    "I can''t believe you are as strong as Zhang Zi. I met him when I went to see grandfather before I left. I absolutely would not have thought that you were as strong as him." His father remarked.


    "What do you mean as strong as him." Bai Yun grumbled. "The only reason I was able to fight against him was because I exploded out with every drop of qi throughout the fight, while he conserved his qi as one would normally. My meridians were hurting after the fight. I don''t think that I could defeat him as he is right now. My guess is that I would have to reach either the eighth stage of qi condensation, or the seventh stage in both qi and body paths before I can defeat him. At the minimum."


    When he finished both of his parents were surprised. They did not think that Bai Yun would claim that he could defeat Zhang Zi at a lower cultivation level. Even Bai Mu when he was the same age as Zhang Zi could not be stronger than Zhang Zi at a lower cultivation level.


    Suddenly a mischievous smile appeared on his mother''s face. "If you are so determined to do so, then you would only have three months left. Zhang Zi is probably waiting for the youngsters meet three months from now. He would most likely break through once it is over."


    "Youngsters meet? What is that?" Bai Yun asked. He had not heard of this before.


    "Its similar to the clan meeting, except for the entire Yellow city. Its a place where the top youths in the city come to battle out for the title of the best in the city. It is considered quite prestigious, but it is not considered a big deal in the clan." His mother explained.


    "Why not?" If this was true, then the prestige one would gain would be much more than the clan meeting. But the people he met were all more interested in the clan meeting than this. In fact he had heard nothing about this.


    "Since this is a public forum, the clan cannot allow anyone to lose face. Thus they would only send a few truly powerful people to participate. The event is open to the public to all the people below thirty years of age. And most of the people who register are people who are trying to attract the eyes of someone from the clans or other major forces."


    "And it works too." His father interjected. "My father found Old Hai when they were both participating in the youngsters meet when they were teens. Its mostly for this benefit that the major forces hold this meeting. Thus a few people from the clan who are strong and trying to make a name usually participates. But since it is of no concern to pretty much everyone in the clan, no one cares about it. Besides the rewards given for the clan meeting are much better anyway. So everyone is more interested in it."


    "Wow. I didn''t know that there so many competitions in the city." Bai Yun realized that while he had filled up on the general knowledge of the world, he had forgotten to read up on the knowledge of the city and the events that happened here. This was common knowledge that mostly would not be recorded. He had to rectify this information gap as quickly as possible.


    "There are lot. Young people love to fight and show off." His mother continued. "Thus all you need to do is to put up a stage and name a prize, and people would turn up to fight. There will be a noteworthy championship once a month in the city on average. But other than the three clan meetings, the youngsters meetings and the Hunters War, most of the others are useless.


    "What''s the Hunters War." Bai Yun asked about the unfamiliar term.


    "Its similar to the championships, except it is organized by the Hunters Union. But the next one is nine months away, so you will have to wait a while for it." His father explained.


    Bai Yun nodded in understanding. He thought for a while. "So if I want to fight Zhang Zi again, I will only have to wait for three more months huh. Then I will be well prepared by then." Bai Yun smiled when he thought of the chance to fight him once again. Of all the people he had met, Zhang Zi was the only person with a similar cultivation as him who he had found to be worth fighting. Every one else was either fighting in a stupid manner or, simply relaying the techniques they had learned without thought. But the moment Zhang Zi threw away his spear without hesitation, he had won Bai Yun''s respect and interest.


    "Why are you smiling?" His mother asked. "You men are all the same. Nothing in your heads but fighting. Its unseemly."


    Bai Yun and his father froze when they heard this, and then slowly turned to stare at Xiao Mei-er. She seemed uncomfortable for a second and then said "What? Do you have any problem with what I said."


    The two met exchanged looks for a moment. Then his father cleared his throat and said. "Sweetheart, um, how can you of all people say that we like to fight too much?". Bai Yun nodded as he heard his father. He had read up on his parents during their absence, and his mother did not get the nickname of the demon queen due to her pacifist personality.


    Xiao Mei-er smiled sweetly as she looked at her husband and son. "What are you talking about, dear husband?"


    "Nothing."


    "I was thinking of something else."


    The two of them quickly responded.


    The next second Bai Mu seemed to find something of vital importance in the documents he was studying while Bai Yun seemed to interested in becoming a tea drinking champion. They shuddered for a moment and stopped talking.


    ''I must be mistaken.'' Bai Yun tried to soothe himself.


    ''Yep I must be mistaken. There was no way that terrifying manifestation of killing intent originated from my kind and gentle mother. A hell''s denizen must have passed by just now.''

 63 Hear

    The three of them sat in silence for a moment. Bai Yun and Xiao Mei-er sat drinking tea, while Bai Mu kept on reading the documents delivered to him. There were a huge number of them, all of them arriving from different parts of the country.


    As Bai Yun glanced at them, he saw that some of them were about the activities his father had gone to discuss about, and some even postulated the actions of the devils.


    "What are these documents?" Bai Yun asked his father. He was curious to hear any information about the devils. He wanted to be prepared for any devil worshipers he might encounter. "What happened to the thing you went to meet up? Any news?"


    Bai Mu looked at his son for a while before nodding. "The message from the Immortal Plane was quite serious. They were quite adamant that we take the risk of the devil worshipers seriously. They are even sending down some rewards through the city of scholars if we were to perform well. So the major forces decided to cooperate and form a task force to capture the devil worshipers. Then those old bastards said that they were busy with their own work and that I was young and free and then put me in charge."


    Bai Mu sighed as he looked through the pile of documents. Since he had been taking care of Bai Yun until recently he had no official duties, and a lot of debt to the clan. "These are all the records of devil rituals all the major forces have collected. We shared the detailed information we had with everyone. Right now I am going through it all in order to see any pattern."


    Bai Mu grumbled as he thought about his work. There was a lot to do, but finding a few devil worshipers in this huge world was the very definition of an impossible task. They were relying on luck to aid them.


    Bai Yun quickly looked through the documents, but he saw nothing more than descriptions of the scenes. He had seen enough of them during the Grand War, so there was no need to go through them. There was nothing in any of them about any suspects who could be devil worshipers. The biggest problem was that they had no idea what devil worshipers were, what they were after, or how they operated. Thus it was impossible to predict what they would do.


    Bai Yun could probably tell them more about devil rituals that they could imagine. But he had no desire to bring any attention to himself. Besides he was not sure if it would be of any help in capturing the devil worshipers anyway.


    The three of them sat down and continued to chat for a while longer. They talked about nothing in particular and quickly the time passed.


    Suddenly Bai Yun felt his storage ring vibrate. He frowned for while and then looked through it. He was surprised by what he found.


    "What happened?" His mother asked. The two of them had noticed Bai Yun''s reaction.


    "Its strange." He relied. "Zhang Zi just send me a message. Well technically he send a message to Long Tian. He wants to meet up two days later."


    "What for?" They were confused.


    "Apparently there is an auction in three days and he invited me to it." Bai Yun relied the contents of the message to his parents.


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    "That''s right the auction." Bai Mu exclaimed. "I completely forgot about that."


    "What is this auction?" Both Bai Yun and Xiao Mei-er were confused by the auction. Neither of them had heard of it before.


    "Its an auction that the Hunters Union conduct right before the youngsters championship. It is supposed to provide rare items for the last preparation before the championship. They figure that three months will be enough for someone to get a good grasp on whatever they bought. I didn''t go for the auction when I was participating in the youngsters championship as I was busy training, but I did go the next year. It was interesting. There were a few good items there. Its not particularly important or anything, but quite a few people will be there. You should go and take a look."


    Even after his father explained about the auction, Bai Yun still looked pensive. "I don''t think that it would be a good idea to go meet Zhang Zi at the auction." Bai Yun finally declared.


    Bai Yun''s parents shared a concerned look, but he missed it as he was thinking. "What do you mean it would not be a good idea." Xiao Me-er asked him gently. Bai Yun missed the concern in her voice though.


    "Its rue that harboring a relationship with Zhang Zi would be very beneficial to me." Bai Yun said. "But it is too dangerous to meet up with him. There is a possibility that there could be Dao step cultivator there. My ability and identity would certainly be seen through by them. Even if there is no dao step cultivator there, it is still too dangerous, as I might leak some information about me. And even if I do go, there is no upside. I would be meeting him as Long Tian. I only intend to use that identity to travel around as an adventurer. It holds no reason for him to befriend Zhang Zi. More importantly I would be able to acquire better results, and buy better things if I were to go as Bai Yun. I can try and leave a good impression on Zhnag Zi even then, but with his personality it would be doubtful if he would remember me. That is the only downside though."


    For a moment there was nothing but silence in the garden. "What about becoming friends with Zhang Zi?" His mother asked him softly.


    "What is the point of doing so?" Bai Yun replied. "It makes no sense. I know exactly how talented I am. It will be impossible for any of them to keep up with me. Even if I become friends with them, I will leave them behind soon enough. It makes no logical sense for me to befriend any of them."


    "What about when you are going out adventuring?" Bai Mu asked him. "Wouldn''t you need help. "


    "No. It would be more efficient fro me to go by myself. I will be fine alone."


    When they heard Bai Yun''s reply both of his parents were concerned.


    There were no parents that would wish for their child to be alone for their whole lives. But they completely did not expect that Bai Yun would simply reject everyone else and only think of using them. They did not want such a life for Bai Yun and was hoping that he would change his view. But they had no idea how to do so. They had spend their whole life training and adventuring. And once Bai Yun was born, they only cared for him. This was a completely new experience for them.


    The couple thought that Bai Yun''s reluctance to form relationships were due to his illness. They thought that since he had spend so much time alone, he wasn''t sure how to form friendships. So they only thought that it would be fixed by spending some time with others, even if they had to do it by force.


    But the situation was very different from what they had imagined. The reason for Bai Yun closing his heart was because of the experiences of his past life.


    Even though he had lived for thirty thousand years, he had spend all of that time either training or participating in the Grand War. Due to his identity and strength, he had spend all of his time either fighting or being looked after. He had listened to the stories of others, and also read the information records of the war, but that was as far as his experiences went.


    Even towards the end of his life, Long Tian''s mind was essentially that of a child''s. All the tempering that one needed to go through to build up an unshakable will, he had none of it.


    As a result, when he woke up in the present time, he was far too shaken up. The losses he had suffered, of his family and of his entire world, had hurt him too much. As a result he had instinctively closed his heart, so that he would no longer feel such pain. It was also due to this that he treated others at an arms length, and also why he was unable to completely open up to his parents. So that he would not be hurt if something happened to them. Such a thing could not be easily resolved.


    "Why do you think it would be a problem if someone finds out about you?" Bai Mu asked. "You are my son. No one would dare to touch you in Yellow city."


    "Its not about that." Bai Yun explained. "Its always best to hold some secrets in our hands. If others find out that I have the strength that I showed during the gold test so soon after I woke up, it would not be good. Also I want to experience the outside world not as Bai Mu''s son, but as me alone. Thus anyone finding out about my identity would be detrimental."


    "You don''t need to worry about anything like that, just go." Bai Mu insisted.


    "But-" Bai Yun tried to argue.


    "Just go. It doesn''t matter." Bai Mu said with an air of finality.


    "Besides, it would be good for you to go as Long Tian." Xiao Mei-er interjected. "There are other auctions coming, and you can go as Bai Yun for them. But without sufficient status, Long Tian may not be invited in."


    "Hmm. That''s true." Bai Yun pondered. After a while he nodded. "You''re right. I will go for the auction as Long Tian."


    The couple looked at each other and sighed while exchanging a small smile. Bai Yun had shown intelligence and caution befitting a hundred year old veteran, but sometimes he would be far too easily tricked.


    The three of them then spend the next few hours talking.


    Once the sun set, the Bai Yun excused himself from his parents. They still had a lot of work to do regarding the devil ritual situation, so he was free for now. Bai Yun quickly left, changed his appearance and got on the clans bus service and headed to a remote place.


    Once he got off, he quickly moved through the houses and stopped before a small unremarkable house. Once he made sure that no one was watching, he entered the house and headed inside.


    He walked through a small maze of doors before he entered the inner most room. There he found two people sitting around a small bare table.


    "Did you find out about what I asked?" Bai Yun asked.


    "Yes." Bai Ling-er nodded in response.

 64 Trail of the soul shaker

    Bai Yun smiled at the two of them. Before he had left he had left them a letter gave them some work to do. He had asked to follow up on some information and also to look into a few thins for him.


    "What did you find out about the soul shaking orb?" He asked the couple.


    Bai Yun had never forgotten about the soul shaking orb that he found in his memories when he woke up. It was the soul shaking orb that caused him to wake up in the current life. And there was no question that it was intentional. It meant that that there was an enemy who was aiming for his life that he did not know about.


    It was true that he could tell his family and ask them to investigate but there was a problem. He was attacked by the soul shaking orb while he was inside his families mansion. This meant that whoever attacked him must be someone on inside the mansion. Thus he was reluctant to mention it to them lest the wrong person earn of it.


    He could trust his parents, and maybe even old Hai, but he was afraid that they may chose to trust in the wrong person. Bai Yun was not worried for his safety, if there was someone who was determined to kill him, then them knowing about the fact that he remembered the soul shaking orb would not change much. He was more concerned whether the people behind it would hide.


    "There was no soul shaking orbs sold at auction in the city in the last few months. The latest one we found was sold almost four years ago." Bai Ling-er replied.


    Bai Yun frowned when he heard of this. He was hoping to find a clue to the soul shaking orb, but he as not too optimistic about it anyway. A powerful dao step soul cultivator could make it, and it could also be purchased from outside the city and brought in. But if Bai Yun was planning something like this, he would not do the first thing. There was a possibility that some remnants of the soul shaking orb could be left behind, and that could lead his parents to the perpetrator. If he was doing so, the most efficient way was to buy one from far away or under a proxy, or steal one. So he had asked them if there was a soul shaking orb sold recently, in the hopes that he could find a clue. After all they were incredibly rare, and thus easy to track.


    "But we did find a rumor." Bai Ling-er continued. " Since you told us to focus on businesses bringing item from outside the city, we thought of looking into the black market."


    Bai Yun looked at them quizzically when he heard Bai Ling-er. He did not ask them to look into the black market as it could be incredibly dangerous and they did not have the strength to protect themselves.


    Seeing the look on Bai Yun''s face, Bai Lin-er started to explain. "It seems you don''t know much about the black market. Let me ask you a question. When you kill an enemy, and their item end up in your arms, and you have no use for them, what will you do?"


    Bai Yun thought for a minute and then replied. "Wouldn''t you just have to sell them. Or if its impossible, then throw it away."


    "But it is not easy to sell the items. The major forces have very vast information networks, and they will not allow businesses to publicly sell anything stolen from their people. And no businesses would want to antagonize any of the major forces. Thus the black market stepped in to to fill the role. Not only do they take sketchy items, they also usually move them great distances so as to make it that much more harder to track. As a result, you only usually get half of what you can get if you sell the same item to an open business, if that." Bai Ling-er explained.


    "And about four months ago, there was a rumor going around that a soul shaking orb was being sold in the black market. Specifically the Crescent moon organization. But there is no way for us to confirm it. They don''t share records of their transactions. Its one of the reason that they could last for so long. Otherwise the major forces would definitely destroy them. After all, pretty much all of the top leaders have sold stuff there at least once before." Bai Shi finished.


    Bai Yun thought for a moment. "Tell me abut the Crescent Moon organization." He asked them.


    "The Crescent Moon is a large organisation that has its fingers in many pies. They are divided into many different parts, but there are three main ones. They are the Full Moon wing, which deals with the stolen and other shady items, the New moon which is the biggest intelligence broker on the continent and Blood Moon, the assassination wing. Each of them act mostly independent of each other, but they are all part of the same organisation." Bai Ling-er explained.


    "Explain to me how the Blood Moon wing operates." Bai Yun immediately asked. If he wanted to infiltrate them, he neither had the time or skills to join up with the other two wings. But with the Legacy of the Assassin God, he could definitely be a terrifying Assassin.


    "The Blood Moon is divided into two sections, the inner and outer sections. The outer section is made up freelance assassins, while the inner sections consists of assassins they have trained from a young age, or people that have sworn a blood oath to them. It is incredibly difficult to join the inner section, but the outer section is modeled after the Hunter''s Union. One can join up with them and take missions for pay. As you accomplish more and more missions, your ranking in the organisation goes up." Bai Shi explained.


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    "Are you thinking of going inside the Blood Moon organisation." Bai Lin-er interjected. " I thought you might try that when I remembered your appearance changing ability, but it would be pointless. The soul shaking orb is a rare item. I read a lot, but I hadn''t heard of it until you told me about it. Even then I could find out very little about it. And it is very powerful too. Which means that you would have to reach a very high level of both strength and authority before you could find out about it. Considering that this is a dao item, this would take decades, maybe even centuries."


    Bai Yun thought about this for a while. They had made a valid point. He would have to get a high position in the organisation before he could access the relevant documents. By the time he could get access to that information, even if the soul shaking orb that he was attacked with was the one from the Crescent moon organisation, all the other tracks of the attack would be long gone.


    "I think the best thing to do would be to inform someone else. There is only so much that we can do before we hit a wall." Bai Shi said.


    Bai Yun knew that they were right. There was not much he could do. He had waited this long to learn about the people around him, and to see if could trust them. And also to see if he would get lucky and get a lead on the soul shaking orb. But it was time to hand the matter over to his parents.


    "Alright." Bai Yun relented. There was not the option he had in mind, but under the circumstances, this was the only one he could follow.


    There was nothing much to discuss after this. He had given them a task to see how they would do, and it seemed as if they had done well. After catching up on some general matters that took place recently, he decided to leave for the night.


    Just as he was about to leave, he stopped. "Take these techniques. They might be of some help to you. Oh, it would be best if you destroy the technique books after you mastered them." He said as he tossed two techniques to the two of them.


    These were two techniques he had created during his retreat. One was a sword technique while the other a movement technique. During the retreat, Bai Yun had tried to incorporate the movement technique he had created in his past life with that of the the of the Assassin God''s movement technique. He also tried to create a sword technique tailored to him based on the Sword Dao. But he was completely unsuccessful.


    But during his efforts he ended up creating this new sword technique and movement technique. As far as Bai Yun was concerned they were sub par, and even the Moonlight Sword that he modified using the sword dao was stronger than the sword technique he created. After all this was his first attempt to create a technique that could be used at the qi step.


    But Bai Yun was without question the greatest genius of his time. The reason he was able to break all records in cultivation was due to the Seamless Body constitution he was born with, and also his terrifying comprehension abilities. After all he was the only person to master the Six Truths of the Sword God and he did it only thirty thousand years, a tiny fraction compared to the million years that went into creating it.


    Technique were ranked on the efficiency of their qi. When a technique was launched, some of the qi was used to create the effect of the technique, like the attacking power of a sword technique, or the movement connected to a movement technique and so on. The rest of the energy was either wasted or used to balance or keep the technique active.


    The techniques were ranked one to ten based on the efficiency of qi. Rank one meant that a maximum of ten percent of the qi was used for the technique while more than ninety percent was wasted. Rank two was ten to twenty percent and so on. As the rank of a technique increased, the power released for the same qi went up explosively. A rank ten technique was one which used more than ninety percent of the qi, but not one hundred percent. And if a technique used one hundred percent of the qi used, it was called a grand technique. Grand techniques were in a completely different league of strength compared to ranked techniques. Even the Assassin God''s movement technique was only rank ten at the current stage.


    Normal members of the clan only had access to rank one or two techniques. The techniques that he had chosen from the clan library were only rank six or seven. Though during the retreat he upgraded the Moonlight Sword to rank nine, and the other two techniques to rank eight.


    And the techniques he just gave were both rank seven techniques.


    So even though Bai Yun thought of these two techniques as sub par, they could still be considered as among the strongest techniques in the world. So he thought of leaving this to the two of them to train in. After all if they got stronger, it would also help him.


    The two of them were astonished when they received the two techniques from Bai Yun. But as they did not know of the true value of the techniques, they only thought that these were ordinary techniques. And as even Bai Yun was unaware of the true value of these techniques, he did not explain it to them either. It would take many years before they learned the truth.


    Bai Yun returned to his room, and slept. When he woke up, he left to find his parents.


    It was time to tell them the truth of what happened back then.

 65 Towards Alchemist Pavillion

    Bai Yun quickly went to find his parents and tell them about the soul shaking orb. He told them that he had a dream last night about the orb, and that made him remember what send him into the long sleep. He did not speak of the soul shaking orb by name, but he did give enough features so that they could identify the item by themselves.


    Once he was done, Bai Yun immediately set out. He had many things to do, and not enough time to do it.


    An hour later, Bai Yun was standing in front of the Alchemist Union.


    He had told his parents of his desire to be an alchemist. Both of his parents were confused when Bai Yun raised his request. Bai Yun explained that this was a way for him to relax, a side path to follow. He was not planning to make the Alchemy path his main path of cultivation. But even then they could not understand why he wanted to do so. They thought that following two paths at the same time was a waste of energy as well as a disservice to the two paths by splitting the attention between them.


    But they agreed to let him follow both paths in the end. They knew of Bai Yun''s talent, and they knew that he would have no problem following both paths. Not only that, they also offered him a lot of money to practice alchemy. But they were adamant that he was not to use even the smallest amount of this money for anything other than alchemy. They reiterated the importance of using one''s own strength to pave their way. They only relented to give him money for alchemy as alchemy took a lot of money to learn, particularly in the beginning. But the cost of learning alchemy in the qi step was inconsequential to the two of them.


    The alchemy union was the biggest conglomeration of alchemists in the Howling Wolf continent. They dealt with everything related to alchemy. Not only did it act as a way to centralize the power of alchemists, it also conducts competitions, buys and sells pills from alchemists, and even sold things necessary to alchemy to alchemists. It was also the only place in the continent that could give ratings to alchemists.


    Once he reached the alchemy union he quickly went to their beginner section. The alchemy union took up a huge amount of space and was divided into three buildings. The main building straight ahead was the store which sold pills or to handle requests for pills. It was the largest of the three buildings, as most of the people who came to the union came to buy pills. There were more people who needed pills than alchemists after all.


    To the left was the administrative building. Its most important function was to handle the registration and tier requests of the alchemists, and also to handle any special needs of the alchemists. To the right was the building which sold items that the alchemists needed, including pill recipes, alchemy medicines, and cauldrons. It was to this place that Bai Yun had come to.


    When Bai Yun decided to pick up alchemy as a side path, he had decided to get the God of Alchemies legacy. But to this he would have to pass a test. Granted, Bai Yun had a trump card that could help him easily pass the test, he thought that it would be best if he had a solid foundation to start on. With his talent and comprehension, Bai Yun figured that it would not be that difficult for him to reach a suitable level in case his plan did not work.


    Bai Yun entered the alchemy union and bought the starter kit sold there. Since Yellow City was a major city, there were many people who desired to become alchemists. So every day many people would knock on the doors of the alchemy union hoping to start their journey on the alchemy path. Thus they had put together a small kit that could be purchased, which contained some books on the foundations of alchemy, some common pill formulas as well as enough materials to make them. Depending on the amount, the costlier kits have more pill formulas as well as more portions of materials for pills.


    Since Bai Yun was only starting out, he did not think of buying more than the basic material, though he did buy the costliest one. He had planned to used a disguise to buy this so as to make sure that nothing could be traced back to him. But his parents forced him to pick it up using his original identity. They said that it did not matter if people knew he was practicing alchemy along with the martial path. In the end, Bai Yun had to relent.


    Bai Yun took the item and went back to his house. He saw neither of his parents in the mansion, but the rest of the house was operating normally. It seems that his parents have already started to move due to the information he had dumped on them earlier. Bai Yun believed that it would not be long before he found out about the person who attacked him.


    Bai Yun stopped in front of his room and turned around, "You know old Hai, I don''t think I am going to be attacked in my own room. You can go now."


    There was no reply even after a while. "Suit yourself." Bai Yun declared, before he went into the room and closed the door.


    The very first item he had brought out was the foundation manual for alchemy. It introduced one to the path of alchemy as well as the basic ideas behind pill forming.


    Bai Yun read through the book, reading each and every word as he tried to analyze them one at a time. Once he was done, he put the book down and started to meditate on what he had read.


    The alchemy pills were differentiated according to both strength and difficulty of making them. The strength and efficiency of a pill was represented by the class of the pill while the difficulty of making them was categorized in the rank of the pill. The pills could also have circles, which typically meant that the ingredients in pill were of a high grade.


    There were many forms the pill could take, like pills, liquids or even powder, but the essence of the procedure was the same. First, you had to extract the essence found in the materials, purify them as much as possible, and then combine them to create the product. In this process there were two things that were absolutely necessary, they were the raw materials and an alchemy flame. An alchemy cauldron was not absolutely necessary, but without one it would be hundreds of times harder to make a pill compared to without one. So almost everyone used one.


    Even though Bai Yun read the introduction to alchemy book, he was not very impressed. He already knew everything recorded here. Even though he had never participated himself, he had seen the God of Alchemy create pills before. He had even heard many lectures by him before though he did not understand a word of it. But he did have an introductory understanding of Alchemy. The book was more of a propaganda tool boasting the power of the Alchemy Union rather than a proper introduction to alchemy.


    After throwing away the book, Bai Yun decided to start creating pills straight away. He thought that the best way to get started would be to just dive into it.


    Bai Yun started with the simplest as well as the most common pill, the qi recovery pill. The qi recovery pill was a pill that allowed a person who was out of qi to quickly get more. Since everyone would run out of qi when they fought, it was very popular. This also meant there were many formulas with varying effectiveness for varyings stages. Bai Yun started with the simplest one.


    Bai Yun took out the basic alchemy cauldron from his storage ring. It was the simplest cauldron with no extra abilities, which also means that it was the hardest to make a pill in. But if you could make a pill in this cauldron, then it ould be possible to make a pill in any other cauldron.


    After this Bai Yun quietly placed the raw materials into the cauldron. As this was an extremely simple pill there were only four raw materials, and they were also rather easy to process.


    After he closed the lid of the cauldron, Bai Yun took out fire stones and placed them under the cauldron. People in the qi step were generally unable to produce alchemy flames by themselves, so they used fire stones to do so. Fire stones were small stones that were found in nature with the power of flames inside them. If one was to inject some qi into the fire stones, they would give out a very stong flame. But it was very difficult to control the output of a fire stone, so the fire stone from the alchemist union had a small formation inscribed inside them to help the alchemist control the temperature.


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    Bai Yun placed a fire stone inside the and slowly heated up the cauldron. After this he started to follow the steps given in the pill formula to refine the raw materials. He first made the fire stone start at a low temperature, just in case it was too much.


    If there was an alchemist nearby, he would have most likely beaten up Bai Yun. Almost all the alchemist started out by apprenticing themselves to a master, and learning by watching and listening to them talk about the pills and inform them of the pitfall s and other things to watch out for. Even though Bai Yun knew of some high level concepts in alchemy from the God of Alchemy, he was severely lacking in the low level knowledge. As a result, he was in for a tough time.


    And what was to be expected happened. The first batch of materials were all burned to ashes in an instant. Even though Bai Yun thought that he had started off at a proper temperature, it was still too hot.


    But Bai Yun was prepared for this eventuality. He knew that he would fail many times before he could succeed. Once all four raw materials were burnt, he put away the cauldron and picked up the fire stones.


    Bai Yun knew that one of the most important parts of alchemy was fire control, but he had thought that with his control of qi he would be fine. It was only after actually doing it that he realized just how wrong he was. Thankfully he found the mistake after just one test. Bai Yun slowly sank his consciuosness into the fire stone and started to tamper with it, trying to increase and decrease the temperature as well as the strength of the flame. He only stopped after four hours, when he decided that the degree of control he had was satisfactory.


    Then he once again took out the cauldron and put in another portion of raw materials, and started on his second trial. This time the fire he generated was much weaker and did not burn the ingrediants. Baut he realized that the raw materials was being refined much more slowly, and some of the impurities were not being removed. He increased the temperature slowly only to have one of them suddenly burst into flames, and turn into ash.


    Bai Yun started the third round without stopping, this time he learned from his previous mistakes and separated the four ingredients, and started to heat them up separately. This time Bai Yun was able to hold on for quite a while before he failed once again.


    Bai Yun worked through the night, not taking a rest. Now and then a scream of frustration or an explosion could be heard from the room. At first, Bai Yun was thinking that he had bought far too many portions, but now he was thinking that maybe they weren''t enough.


    Anoter day and night passed, and as the dawn of the next day neared, old Hai knocked on his room. "Young master, it is nearly time for the auction. You need to get ready."


    For a while, there was no answer from the room. Just as old Hai was starting to get worried, raucous laughter could be heard from the room. Old Hai was stunned and immediately entered the room. But the moment he did so, he stopped and just looked around the room with his jaw nearly hitting the floor.


    The entire room had mostly turned into black. Ash of various colored decorated the walls, floor and even parts of the ceiling. The bed and parts of the curtians seemed to be burned. The cauldron was overturned and smoke was coming out of it.


    And in the middle of it all, Bai Yun was doubled over laughing while clutching a round black ything.

 66 Meeting Zhang Zi once again

    After old Hai stopped Bai Yun, he went to bed. He had been given a different room considering the current state of his room. The auction was in the afternoon, giving Bai Yun a short time to sleep. He passed out snoring the moment his bead hit the pillow. Even though Bai Yun had not expended much energy, the long amount of time he had to stay awake had put a strain on his mind. Bai Yun slept for nearly six hours before he was woken up by old Hai. He had gone to call on Bai Yun early in the morning even though the auction was in the afternoon purely because he predicted that Bai Yun would need sleep.


    Once he woke up, he quickly got ready. He wolfed down some food as fast as he could and then quickly went to change his appearance to that of Long Tian and then headed towards the auction.


    The auction was hosted by the Hunters Union. It was due to this that the auction had great fame. Similar to the competitions, the auction was also split up into multiple sections. The qi condensation section of the auction was being held at a famous auction hall which was part of the hunters union. Usually, this place held general auctions every week, but just for today, there was a special event happening. The other auctions were done in more famous and important halls in the city. The qi condensation auction did not have much importance in the grand scheme of things.


    When Bai Yun arrived in front of the auction hall, he saw a large crowd waiting in front of it. Even though the VIP seats were already bought, the general seats could be reserved earlier, or tickets for entry could be bought on venue. The people waiting here were all who were hoping for a chance to enter the hall. But Bai Yun did not think that any of them would be able to buy anything even if they went inside. If they couldn''t buy a ticket earlier, that means that they were lacking money and connections.


    Bai Yun skipped this place and went to the side door. The side door was for VIP seats only. It was done so that they could escape the hubbub of the people outside.


    When Bai Yun reached the side entrance, he was blocked by a guard. The guard was there to ensure that no one who was not supposed to be there was let in. The side entrance was empty, as not a lot of people would be there to use it.


    After Bai Yun showed him his hunter''s union id and the guard verified his name on the list, he was allowed inside the auction house. Once he entered, he found himself in a narrow well lit corridor. There was a young lady waiting for him there.


    "Hello. Young Master Long. Where can I take you?" She asked.


    "Zhang Zi." Bai Yun replied.


    The lady smiled and then walked away, with Bai Yun following her. She led him to a door and then waved him inside.


    Bai Yun thanked her and then walked into the room. The auction house had multiple VIP rooms, and each room was booked by different people or factions. The VIP rooms of the auction house were situated above the general area and each had special materials that made it possible for people to look outside from the room but not for people outside to see inside. But it was also possible to deactivate them so that it would become transparent. Some people who enjoyed others watching them used to do this. Zhang Zi was not someone who enjoyed beying the center of attention, so he had kept his room closed from outside, which was just fine with Bai Yun.


    Bi Yun entered the room looked around. The room was spacious about forty feet by forty feet and well furnished. In the middle was a small table filled with delicacies and fruits. Zhang Zi was sitting next to the table eating something. He was the only person in the room.


    Zhang Zi stood up when he saw Bai Yun enter the room. "Ha. You came. I wasn''t sure that you would." He exclaimed.


    Bai Yun looked at Zhang Zi. Unlike when they met during the gold test, Zhang ZI was currently wearing luxurious clothes. Earlier all of his clothes were practical and made for battle. But now the only thing that was similar to the Zhang Zi he met back then was the fact that he still carried his spear with him. He was a true spearman in that sense. His demeanor had changed completely, from a battle maniac to a prim and proper young master.


    Seeing Bai Yun staring at him, Zhang Zi laughed. "I know what you are thinking about. But there is nothing I could do. Since I need to appear before people my grandfather forced me to go out in this getup. Even if no one sees me, I still need to dress up."


    Bai Yun looked over him once again. As Zhang Zi''s grandfather was the chairman of the council of elders of the Little Merchant Union, it was obvious that all of Zhnag Zi''s clothes were extremely rich. But even then Bi Yun could not understand how Zhang Zi became a battle maniac considering that his entire family were merchants.


    "It truly is difficult to recognize you like this. For a moment I wondered if I went into the wrong room." Bai Yun joked.


    He entered the room alongside Zhang ZI and the two of them sat down. They picked up some food and started to eat while chatting with each other. They purposefully ignored important topics and stayed to more common ones. Throughout the talk, Zhang Zi tried multiple times to find out Bai Yun''s identity but he skillfully dodged all the questions.


    Zhang Zi grew tired of the answers to his questions and finally decided to try the direct approach. He preferred it anyway. "So, during the last two months I have tried to find out about your identity quite a lot, but all I got was nothing. Its almost like you just appeared out of thin air. Later on, I found out that you were wearing a disguise the whole time during the gold test. Do you have any reason to hide who you are?" He asked.


    Bai Yun responded by calmly taking a deep sip of the wine, and turned to face Zhang Zi with a smile. "Everybody is entitled to their own secrets. This is mine. Don''t worry, I don''t mean any harm. I''m just a little shy." Bai Yun replied.


    The air between the two of them got tense. Bai Yun''s finger which held his storage ring started to titch, while Zhang Zi started to reach for his spear. Just as it seems as if the two of them were due for a rematch, they heard a noise from outside that stopped them in their tracks.


    The two of them turned to see that someone had entered the VIP room next to them. The room was opaque and the two of them turned to see Bai Qing in the next room.


    The room next door was booked by the Bai clan. Bai Qing had shown up with some of his lackeys looking resplending. He had done so in order to improve his image in the public eye. But he was not the only one in the room. A few other people from Bai clan had also come to the room to participate in the auction.


    Zhang Zi and Bai Yunstared at each other and then simultaneously calmed down. They tacitly agreed that this was not a good place to battle.


    The different major forces in Yellow city all had their own rooms. Almost all of them had left their rooms open as they needed to show off their prestige. In many cases, the prestige was more important than power, as almost all the forces were nearly equal in power and power is not easy to change quickly.


    But neither Bai Yun nor Zhang Zi cared much for the fanfare, so they kept their rooms locked and hidden. They also did not tell anyone who they were, as they did not want anyone to know or interrupt them.


    Suddenly the door to the room swung open. The two of them who were watching the other rooms were surprised by this. The room was only designated for the two of them, and they had already told the people of the auction house not to enter. So they were surprised by the intrusion.


    When they turned to look at the person who entered the room, their jaws hit the floor. Standing in front of the room was Song Hui. She was dressed in a flowing golden dress that made her look like a grown-up. She was followed by a maid, who was standing while holding her head in her hand.


    But what made the two of them surprised was the fact that Song Hui''s chest was bulging. The size of the two globes on her chest was even bigger than her head.


    "Big brother Zi, big brother Tian, long time no see." She shouted as she bounced inside the room.


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    Zhang Zi and Long Tian stared at each other. The two of them could swear that when they met her two months ago, her chest was as flat as a washboard. They had no idea what happened.


    "What are you doing here." Ba Yun asked her.


    "I heard that you guys were here, so I came to chat. No one else from my family came here, so I was bored." She replied.


    As the two of them stared at her, they were surprised. At first, they were taken aback, but it only took a single look for them to realize that the bulges in her chest were not natural. They looked more like balloons.


    "Little Hui," Zhang Zi asked slowly, "what happened to your chest."


    "Oh, this."Song Hui explained. "Big sis told me about it. She said that men are easily swayed by big chests. So I made it big."


    By the time Bai Yun calmed Zhang Zi down and saved the city from an unnecessory homicide, the auction was set to begin.

 67 The auction begins

    Just as Zhang Zi finally calmed down, the curtains that covered the stage was pulled back. A middle aged man walked on to the stage. As he stood there, he exuded an aura of confidence and strength. Considering the fact that most of the people here were here to buy items to prepare for the youngster''s tournament, it made sense to use such a person to inspire them to buy more. Not only that with someone at the soul step in charge of the auction, but they also do not have to worry about anyone stealing anything.


    Zhang ZI pushed Bai Yun away and sat down with a flourish, once again regaining the image of a noble young master. Song Hui just looked at the two of them as if they were acting out a play, not understanding what had happened. Thankfully Zhang Zi had managed to make her take out the balloons, which they were, she hid in her chest before he went mad. Song Hui''s maid, who had followed her inside, nearly kowtowed before Zhang Zi upon his success.


    "Hello and welcome to the youngster''s auction." The middle aged man said. "I am glad to see that there are many enthusiastic people here to buy many unique things. Well, I know that none of you are here to hear me drone on, so without any further ado, I, Zhang Tianyi, declare the start of the auction."


    When Bai Yun heard the name of the auctioneer he turned to Zhang Zi with a raised eyebrow.


    "He is my uncle." Zhang Zi explained.


    Bai Yun was surprised by this. He was under the impression that the auction was conducted by the hunters union. All the members of the Zhang family were in the Little Merchant Association, and this auction was hosted by the Hunters Union instead.


    Seeing Bai Yun''s confused look, Zhang Zi quickly explained. Even though it may seem as if the event is hosted by the Hunters Union, in truth it was jointly hosted by both the Hunters Union and the Little Merchant Association. Only then could they get a truly wide range of products to make the auction a success. And the members of the Association were better auctioneers anyway.


    "The first item up for the auction is " Zhang Tianyi started. Then he waved his hand as a beautiful young lady brought in a tray. There was something on the tray that was covered by a cloth. With a flourish, he removed the cloth to reveal a few small bottles, each with a pill in them. "ten second circle qi breakthrough pills."


    Qi breakthrough pills were pills that aided one in the breakthrough of stages of the qi condensation realm. By having one before trying to break through, it could increase the chances of success as well as decrease the backlash in case of a failure. Bai Yun was never worried about a breakthrough, as he had cultivated to the pinnacle once before. With his experience, all he needed was sufficient accumulation to make sure that there was no instability in his foundation.


    But for most others, this was not true. Since most people were only children when they went through qi condensation, both their age and inexperience would cause problems while cultivating. In fact more people had troubles during qi condensation than foundation establishment.


    As a result, once the qi breaking pills were shown, it caused a commotion in the audience. Qi breaking pills were nothing much for the people in the VIP seats, but for the people in the general seats, it was a great opportunity. Since the auction was or the whole city, and not only for the rich, the first half of the auction tended to be for the general public, with not a lot of valuable items.


    "The auction starts at one hundred gold." Zhang Tianyi stated. "Each increment must be at least five gold."


    While everything inside the clan might be bought with points, the outside world worked with gold and silver coins. A hundred silver coins were equal to a gold coin. The poorer people used silver, while the wealthier ones used gold. But in auctions like this, you could also use clan points in lieu of gold according to the exchange rate at the time. The current exchange rate was two thousand gold for a single clan point of the Bai clan. But this was applicable only in Yellow city. Clan points were useless outside the city.


    "One hundred and ten gold." Someone shouted.


    "One hundred and twenty."


    "One hundred and twenty-five."


    One after the other, people in the general seats started to shout out. The people in the VIP seats did not care much about these items and did not even bother looking at them. In fact, a third of the booked seats weren''t even filled as the people who booked them were waiting for the latter half of the auction before they arrive. Only people who had nothing better to do, like Zhang Zi and Bai Yun or people who had to show off like Bai Qing were there.


    The only exception to this was Song Hui and Bai Yun. Song Hui was excited by the auction and had her face pressed to the glass. As for Bai Yun, he had never been to an auction. It had only been a short time since he woke up, and he had not attended one yet. And in his past life, if he ever wanted something, it would just appear, like magic. There was no need to go to an auction.


    Soon the fighting for the first qi breaking pill ended with the pill bein bought for three hundred gold coins. The next few items were also qi breaking pills. Its price fell to two hundred and eighty gold over the next few pills before it surged towards the end. The final pill ended up being sold for four hundred and eighty five gold.


    The auction continued after that quite quickly. One item after another appeared in the auction. The items that appeared ranged from pills to weapons to even some cultivation manuals. But the cultivation manuals that were put up for auction were at most fifth ranked, which was the costliest item in the first half of the auction at two thousand gold. No one from the major forces was going to care about such a low ranked technique, which was almost freely available in the libraries of their forces, but it was essential for people without a force behind them.


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    Zhang Tianyi stopped at this point and declared an intermission. By now the auction of the items geared only towards the general public had ended. From now on the items appearing in the auction were going to be much costlier. It did not mean that there would be a sudden jump in price, or the items would only be bought by people in the VIP seats, it was just more likey for it to be so. But the people in the general seats stayed on to watch the show and to broaden their horizons.


    Bai Yu turned away from the auction area to look at the other VIP rooms. By now almost all of them had been filled. Only a few ones have been left free. But to his surprise, he found that the Song clan''s room was still empty. It meant that the only person who had come from the Song clan was Song Hui.


    "Why is the Song clan''s seats empty?" Bai Yun asked Song Hui''s maid.


    "I don''t know." She replied. "There should have been one or two people coming from the clan other than miss. But it seems as if they did not think it was worth it. It''s nothing important."


    Bai Yun nodded and turned to Zhang Zi, which was when he found that Zhang Zi had fallen asleep long ago. In fact, it was not only Zhang Zi, but even Song Hui had also curled up next to him. She was watching the action excitedly at the beginning, but the lack of any action other than bidding had left her bored. And Zhang Zi truly showed that he was fit for nothing else but battling by falling asleep very deeply in such a circumstance.


    After a short intermission, the auction resumed. This time the first item that they brought out was a qi breaking pill, similar to the first item for the general auction. But there was one major difference from the pill earlier, and that was that this pill was of the sixth circle in effectiveness.


    Even though the circles of a pill did not represent a pills complexity or effect, it did have an effect on its strength. It would require exponentially more valuable ingredients to make a pill with a higher number of circles. And it would also increase the sheer power inside the pill. Though it would not change its effect, it could change the impact. And a sixth circle pill was extremely difficult to make. That was why the pill went for a whopping thirty thousand gold. It was bought by Bai Qing. He must have been extremely desperate to breakthrough as early as he can so as to win during the clan meeting. And a qi breakthrough pill of this level all but guaranteed a breakthrough in the qi condensation realm.


    The auction continued as before, except that the people involved had changed from the general public to the VIP seats. Also, most of the items changed to pills and weapons or similar artifacts or ingredients for making them. After all none of the people present were in want of any martial techniques.


    Bai Yun also stepped in to bid twice, and successfully at that. The first time he did so, he bid for a sword that cost him twenty thousand gold. The sword was not as good as the one given to him by his father, but it was still leagues away from anything he had on him right now. He had bid on it to use it while using his Long Tian identity. Thankfully his father had given him a lot of gold to act as he please during the auction.


    The second item he bid on was a pill cauldron. This time Bai Yun was not as lucky as before. He got into a price match with someone from the Alchemist Union over the cauldron. In the end, Bai Yun ended up spending ninety thousand gold to buy the pill cauldron. But the moment he won the bid, he was elated for a second, and then became depressed. He had appraised the cauldron at a maximum of seventy thousand gold only, but had kept on bidding in the heat of the moment. But once he calmed down, he decided to treat the other twenty thousand gold he had spend as tuition for learning an important lesson about staying calm. Bai Yun had learned to stay calm during battles with a lot of near death experiences. But this was a different kind of battle, one in which he had never participated before. This was a valuable experience.


    It was at this time that the light in the room of the Song clan finally came on. But surprisingly the room remained closed, and the occupants did not mak the insides visible, which was in contrast to the rooms of the other two clans. The people who belonged to most of the major forces tried to flaunt their wealth to give off a sense of strength. Even though he thought it was weird, Bai Yun thought nothing of it.


    Soon the auction was coming to a close. Finally, there were only five items left to auction.

 68 The five great treasures

    Every time the auction was held, the final five treasures would be in a league of their own. In fact, the other items that came up for auction, while precious, were still within the reach of the major forces. It might be a bit difficult, but any of the people in the VIP seats could definitely find the other items.


    But the final five items were different. They were unique and rare items that were nearly impossible to find, and could only be found by luck. Most of the people here were only here for these final five items.


    Zhang Tianyi laughed as he looked around. He could feel the gazes of all the people in the auction house heating up. They were excited about the final five items. All five of them were currently situated on the stage in identical looking boxes. Each of these boxes were made of highly refined gold essence, and sparkled under the lights.


    "Even though it is fun to tease you guys, I am not that cruel." Zhang Tianyi said with a chuckle. "The first of the five items is this." Saying so, he opened the box at the far left of the stage. At first, they were all blinded by the light inside the box, but when it subsided, they were all stunned. Inside the box was a small book.


    "The first item up for auction is a martial technique." Zhang Tianyi said. Seeing the confusion in the eyes of the people here, Zhang Tianyi laughed inside his heart. "This martial technique is a very rare movement technique called fleeting cloud steps. The people who practice this technique can reduce their body weight and move very fast. As you know flight is possible only after reaching the soul step. The people who practice this technique can even float or even fly for a few minutes, once this technique is practiced to its peak even at the qi step. And this is the fraction of the technique corresponding to the qi condensation realm. The fraction of the technique corresponding to the foundation establishment and core formation steps are being auctioned in the corresponding auctions right now."


    All the people who heard this was still confused. The abilities described were impressive, but they weren''t enough for the skill to be precious enough to be the main attraction of the auction. After all the major forces all had at least one skill that was similar to it.


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    Zhang Tianyi paused for a while, and then he concluded with a smile. "And the most important thing about this technique is that it is a ninth rank technique."


    The moment his words landed, the auction house erupted. Even though they had many many techniques in their libraries, a ninth ranked movement technique was rare. It might even be the case that none of them had a ninth ranked movement technique.


    Even Bai Yun was surprised by the revelation. Even he viewed a ninth ranked technique very highly. After all, the strongest martial technique he developed in this life was only at the ninth rank too. And it was a sword technique developed by someone who had comprehended the sword dao to the god step too.


    But in the end, Bai Yun decided to simply let it go. If it was anything else, he might have been interested in it, but the technique just happened to be a movement technique. The one technique that he did not need was movement techniques. After all, he had not even mastered the Assassin Gods movement technique, which was a tenth ranked technique. In front of it, all other movement techniques would be trash.


    Suddenly Bai Yun felt some movement next to him. He turned around, only to see Zhang Zi standing next to him. Even though he was asleep, he had somehow heard about the movement technique and woken up. Bai Yun''s lips twitched as he thought about it.


    "The auction starts at ten thousand gold." Zhang Tianyi declared. Generally, it was necessary for an auctioneer to drive up the price of items by describing it in detail, but it was completely unnecessary right now. Just the name of ninth ranked technique was enough to motivate them to fight over it.


    For a short while, there was no response from any of the rooms. Then suddenly someone from one of the rooms shouted out "One hundred thousand." Bai Yun did not know from where the sound came.


    Before the sound subsided though, there was a cacophony of sound from the other rooms. One after the other, the other major forces started to bid on the technique. For a cultivator, this technique might be valuable, but for a clan, it was priceless. Soon the value of the technique rose to three million gold coins.


    At this point, even Bai Yun was surprised. He had no idea why the auction would place a ninth ranked technique as only the fifth item in the auction. If the final item is not up to the standard, then it would be a disappointment.


    It was at this point that Zhang ZI finally moved. "Ten million gold." He declared.


    For a moment no one replied. Even though the forces and families behind each of the people in the VIP rooms had billions of gold in reserve, the people here were only the youngsters of the family. Most of them weren''t even teenagers yet. It was impossible for them to be given the responsibility for a lot of money. Thus they were only carrying around ten million gold in total, and most of them had spent some of it already. And calling their seniors would only be humiliating for them.


    Not only that this was only the qi condensation realm portion of the technique. The technique might be effective then but once you broke through to the foundation establishment realm, if you did not have the corresponding portion then its effectiveness would certainly fall. Generally, effectiveness would fall by one rank for every realm. The ninth ranked technique at the qi condensation realm would only be able to show the power of an eighth ranked technique of the foundation establishment realm once the person broke through. And the same technique would fall to the seventh rank at the core formation stage in effectiveness. Of course if one practiced the foundation establishment portion of the technique, it would be a ninth ranked technique.


    Thus, all in all, it was not worth it to spend more than ten million gold on the technique. In fact, even ten million gold was too much.


    So Bai Yun looked quizzically at Zhang Zi when he heard his bid. No one outside the room knew who it was that bid, but that didn''t matter. With the complicated and delicate power structure of the yellow city, it was better not to antogonize an unknown person. Especially someone who could easily throw out ten million gold. This was taught to all the children of major forces from the time they were toddlers.


    As a result, no one bid after Zhang Zi. Zhang Tianyi was a little annoyed at Zhnag Zi for throwing away so much money, but as a professional auctioneer, he did not show it on his face.


    Bai Yun turned towards Zhang Zi confused. "Why did you spend so much on it? It''s not worth that much. Also based on what I know of your fighting style, such a technique doesn''t suit you right?" He asked him.


    "It''s true. But the movement technique I am currently using is only rank seven. Even if I dont get the other two parts of the movement technique, it would still be just as good, even at the core formation level. Besides I can get higher level techniques once I join an academy. And more importantly, I can try and exchange the other parts of the technique from the people who bought them at the other auctions. And if the worst comes to worst, I can simply try and deduce the later portions by myself." Zhang Zi replied.


    Bai Yun nodded when he heard this reply, but he wasn''t as confident as Zhang Zi. It was only that he wasn''t sure if the other party would be interested in an exchange. After all, they would have been sold for much more than ten million gold. Many times more in fact. And as for deducing the later portions of a ninth ranked technique, he was not confident that Zhang Zi would be able to. Even he himself did not have that confidence.


    Once the auction was done, they moved on to the second item. The second box was opened to reveal a small golden silk vest.


    "The second item on our list is this. A quasi artifact level flexible inner armor made of the silk of the golden winged silkworm. It could defend against the attack of an average early core formation level cultivator." Zhang Tianyi introduced the second item.


    Similar to pill making, weapons, and other equipment were also divided based on the strength. But there were major differences.


    All equipment was fundamentally divided into two: artifacts and non-artifacts. Artifacts are the equipments which contain its own spirit, and can thus communicate and even cultivate and thus improve themselves. Non-artifacts were similar to normal weapons made by mortals, except that they were stronger and could handle qi.


    And the strength of artifacts and non-artifatcs could be seen based on the materials used in forging them as well as the skill of the person forging the artifact. Generally, artifacts were much stronger than non-artifatcs, but it need not always be the case. Thus a straight forward characterization like that of pills did not exist, leading to people having to explicitly state the strength of objects.


    And quasi artifacts were objects that had spirituality but did not have a true artifact spirit. They could help optimize the power output and even give small boosts to a person''s combat ability, though they could not work by themselves. They were probably the most common items in the universe, but they were typically too much for someone at the qi step to handle.


    In the end, the fact that there was a quasi artifact suitable for someone at the qi step caused a flurry of bids. Finally, it was bought by someone from a VIP room booked by the Hunters Union at a cost of over seven million gold coins. Throughout the auction, Zhang Tianyi continued to mention more facts about the armor, like how it was tested, the rarity of the materials, and who made it, all in order to drive up the price even further. Unlike the movement technique previously, this armor required a good auctioneer to sell it well.


    In fact even after the auction was done, the commotion caused by it did not de down easily.


    "All right. Now let us move on to the third item of our final five." Zhang Tianyi said. He then moved to the middle box and gently opened it. Just as the previous two times, a light covered the item before it was revealed.


    But just as the box was opened, even before the light faded, Bai Yun''s god sense started to throb in warning.

 69 Shatterstar

    Bai Yun stood straight up when he felt his god sense throb in warning. Luckily the book that Zhang Zi had purchased had just arrived and the attention of the other occupants of the room was on it, rather than him. Even Song Hui had woken up. Thus nobody noticed his abnormal reaction.


    Bai Yun stared at the box intently, trying to find out what was inside it.


    His god sense was throbbing in warning, but it wasn''t the immediate kind. It was the kind that said that whatever was inside the box was extremely dangerous. It was more like an early warning system than anything else.


    Once the box was opened, Bai Yun was finally able to see inside the box. Inside it was a weird mineral. It was shaped like a rising flame but was white in color. On it, small little specks of various colors could be seen. Small specks of light were slowly circling it. All of it looked extremely magical, making it look like something out of a fairy tale.


    "This is the secret item of this auction." Zhang Tianyi said. "We have no idea what it is. It was found in the plains of enlightenment by a hunter. He sold it to the hunters union after he could not find out what it is either. All we can tell you is that even someone at the Dao step cannot see through the item, or even make a dent in it."


    Every single year, the auction would have a secret item as part of the final five treasures. The secret item is usually a box with something hidden inside. It was more like a gamble than anything else. Even the auctioneer would not know what was inside it. Someone would put ten items of various costs into ten identical boxes, and the auctioneer would randomly choose one on the day of the auction. Some years it would be something extremely valuable, and some other years it would only be worth a million gold, or even less. This was a gamble with high stakes, and all the young masters here liked to play the game to test their intuition or experience.


    But sometimes the secret item would be an item that the Hunters Union came across by chance, but couldn''t identify or even use. Thus they would put it up for auction, rather than waste it away inside their vault. Such items would be an even bigger gamble. As the item might be simply worthless, rather than just cheap. But sometimes it had been the case that people have bought incredibly expensive or magical items for cheap this way.


    And when Bai Yun laid his eyes on the rock, he could feel a familiar feeling from it. It came from the rock itself, and not from his god sense. He must have seen it, or something similar in his past life. But with his current cultivation, it would be impossible to search through his entire memory at once and find the memory that triggered it. He could only focus on the important details, and this must not have been one of them.


    "The auction begins at one million gold," Zhang Tianyi said. "And every increment must be at least one hundred thousand."


    For a while no one bid. It was true that the item looked magical, but no one here was stupid enough to judge a book by its cover. Even more importantly, even if the item was valuable, if even the big shots in the Hunters Union could not figure out what it was, how could they. Thus nobody was eager to try it out.


    Zhang Tianyi did not push the item either. The secret items were supposed to be a test for the juniors, and not a true part of the auction. Thus they didn''t care if it was sold or not.


    "If no one is buying it, then I can only suck up and buy it. I bid one million gold." A voice suddenly cut through the silence. Bai Yun was surprised to hear that the voice came from the Song clan''s room.


    The auction house that was silent until now started to rumble as everyone started to whisper. Many people were wondering if it was worth it or not, and whether they should also bid.


    "Is anyone else going to bid?" Zhang Tianyi asked. He then waited for a while. But no one seemed too interested.


    Since he did not have enough money left, Bai Yun was contemplating whether he should borrow some money from Song Hui or Zhang Zi and then bid on the item himself. The warning that the item gave him was making him unsure of what to do. It could be dangerous because it is a weapon. Or it could be dangerous because it is poisonous. In the latter case, it would be a waste to buy it.


    "Waah. How pretty!" Bai Yun heard a sound from his right side, waking him up from his reverie. Song Hui had walked up to the glass by then. Both Song Hui and her maid were staring at the pretty rock. She had gotten bored with the book and had come back to check out the pretty rock.


    Bai Yun turned to see that Zhang ZI was staring at the book with increased concentration, but with a frown on his face. It seems as if he could not understand what was written. That was obvious. If a ninth ranked technique was so easy to learn, Bai Yun would not have had to spend so much time on creating one.


    "One million gold, going once. Going twice. Going -" Zhang Tianyi started the countdown. Just as Bai Yun finally decided to suck up and ask for a loan from Zhang Zi, he heard a shout from his right side "Thirty million gold."


    Bai Yun turned to Song Hui with his jaw dropped. Song Hui was standing there with her hands on her hips and a proud smile on her face. He did not expect her to just shout out thirty million. And that too for a rock whose purpose was unknown. It wasn''t just him, the entire auction house was stunned into silence. Zhang Zi actually looked up from his book. Zhang Tianyi, this professional auctioneer, was just staring at their room in silence. He truly did not think that someone would buy the rock. And it wasn''t because she knew its purpose. Bai Yun would bet his entire life that it was simply because it looked pretty. And that she only had thirty million gold with her too.


    After a moment the first sound to break the silence was from Song clan''s room. "We tried it your way. Now let''s try my way." This was a different voice from before.


    And then Bai Yun''s god sense screamed louder than it had ever screamed before, in both of his lives.


    And his body reacted even before he even recognized what was happening. With his left hand he grabbed song Hui and her maid, with his right he grabbed Zhang Zi, and he leaped into the air with them.


    Not a single one of the people in the room was able to react to it. Barely had he left the floor of the room when, with a loud crash, someone crashed into it, exploding through the glass and sending debris flying everywhere. The sofa they were seating on was crushed, along with the floor, and even the door. A terrifying shockwave nearly knocked Bai Yun over. He looked down to see someone sprawled on the ground, exactly where they were sitting just a moment before.


    Not a single person in the entire auction house, including Zhang Tianyi, was able to understand what happened. Except for Bia Yun.


    What happened was that the movent the voice from Song clan''s room was heard, someone who was sitting in the general seats rushed towards the stage to steal the rock. The person who rushed in was at the colored soul stage, which was the second realm of the soul step. He had rushed in at full speed, surprising everyone, including Zhang Tianyi. But there was a hidden expert at the peak of the soul step from the Hunters Union protecting the items from the auction. As a result, when the man rushed in, he was easily repelled by the hidden master and was coincidentally send flying in the direction of Bai Yun''s room.


    The movement of all of these people were too fast for anyone here to properly notice. Even Zhang Tianyi, who was at the soul step, was not able to react properly.


    But Bai Yun did not see it either. It was that his god sense had somehow identified the sequence of events even before it had happened. In fact, he had begun his jump even before the man had begun to rush forward. This was the magical ability of the god sense.


    The man who crashed into the floor looked up at Bai Yun. The moment his eyes clashed with that of the man, Bai Yun felt death in his eyes. He immediately sends the three people in his hands, who was still in shock, flying towards the door. He used the force of the throw to fly higher, so as to push off of the roof of the room.


    "You dodged me. Impressive. But that means I cannot let you live." The man on the floor said.


    The next instant Bai Yun saw him raise his hand at him and a ray of light emerged from it, heading straight for him. Suddenly Bai Yun felt the whole world slow down as his concentration was placed completely on the beam of light heading towards him. He saw the light get closer to him inch by inch. He knew that his body was not able to react fast enough to dodge it or was strong enough to survive the impact.


    He could feel the grip of death slowly strangling him.


    At that instant Long Tian took over. The thirty millennia of instincts he had accumulated over countess battles activated. Without thinking, without worrying over its consequences, Bai Yun used Long Tian self-created movement technique to get out of the way and dodge the attack. The most terrifying movement technique of all time. The technique that is said to have the greatest potential.


    Shatterstar.


    There were many different kinds of movement techniques famed for different things. The God of Lightning''s movement technique was the fastest. The Assassin God''s movement technique was the most mysterious. And Shatterstar was the most terrifying.


    This was because Shttersar was the only movement technique that could attack, defend, dodge and do other things in addition to simply move.


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    And Bai Yun cast such a technique, a technique far beyond Grand Techniques, in an instant.


    The next second Bai Yun found himself standing in front of Zhang Zi, who had barely managed to stabilize himself by then. Song Hui and her maid, who was at the core formation realm, was still rolling on the floor.


    But before he could say anything, Bai Yun''s body exploded with blood. Bai Yun could feel than half his bones had broken, and all of the organs were impacted. Blood was leaking out of all his orifices along with multiple lacerations all over his body. There was internal bleeding and his strength, body, and soul power were all depleted, with cracks appearing in his foundations.


    This was the backlash of forcefully executing a skill that was beyond Grand techniques, a skill meant to be executed only at the immortal step, during the qi condensation realm.


    Using the last of his strength, he lowered his consciousness into the storage ring and into a talisman his father had given him. The moment his consciousness entered it, it burned up, alerting his father of the danger he was in.


    Someone at the Dao step could teleport. Even though Bai Mu had only just entered the dao step, he had long since mastered it. He would be here in an instant.


    But Bai Yun could feel the Assassin God''s technique dispersing without any qi to maintain it. He fell into Zhang Zi''s arms as he fainted.


    "Please don''t let anyone see me." He whispered.


    Then Bai Yun blacked out.

 70 What happened that day

    Bai Yun blinked repeatedly as he woke up. But the moment he did so, he wished he hadn''t. There was not a single cell in his body that didn''t hurt. He was only able to stop himself from screaming out by the sheer force of his will.


    As he looked down at his body, he found that he was wrapped up like a mummy. He could smell many medicines all around his body.


    But as he focused on his body, he realized that there was an absurdly huge amount of medicinal power flowing inside him. It was constantly trying to heal and fix his body, even as he lay down. A good chunk of his injuries had already subsided. Only the major injuries to his organs, bones, meridians, and cultivation were left. The minor injuries had healed.


    Bai Yun groaned as he sat up. Or he tried to. It was all he could do to gently raise his chest. He sat with both his arms supporting him and pulled off the bandages covering his face. He took a look only to see that the insides of the bandages were red. Bai Yun then touched his face gently. He could still feel the scars on his body.


    But the medicine inside him was both powerful and gentle. It was healing him even now. It must have cost quite a lot.


    He looked around. He was back in his room. His father must have arrived, and then brought him home.


    Suddenly the door to his room opened, and doctor Mu entered the room. He walked up to Bai Yun and took his pulse.


    "It''s good that you woke up so quickly." Doctor Mu said.


    "How long was I out for.?" Bia Yun asked Doctor Mu.


    "It''s been three days since your father called me over to check on you." Doctor Mu explained. "Honestly, it is a minor miracle that you woke up after three days. When I saw you, I wasn''t sure you could survive, let alone recover so well."


    Bai Yun nodded when he heard Doctor Mu''s analysis. It was true. This was the closest he had come to death in both his lives. And if he hadn''t cast shatterstar by instinct, or stopped it midway when he realized what he did, he would be dead for sure. Thankfully, he only managed to cast a tiny part of shatterstar, and thus dodge the worst case result. And the result of his quick recovery must be due to the god sense controlling medicinal power passively.


    "How are you feeling today?" Doctor Mu enquired.


    "Like I should be dead." Bai Yun replied with a chuckle.


    "That''s good." Doctor Mu replied with a smile. "The fact that you can still joke is a good sign. I was afraid that you would be too depressed about your injuries. But there is no need to be scared. I am confident that I can heal you up well."


    Bai Yun was not worried at all. Even though it may look as if there was no part of his body that wasn''t damaged, he was incredibly lucky. None of the meridians had died, and his cultivation bases hadn''t collapsed entirely. He knew six different ways to recover by himself even without the help of the medicinal ingredients and pills that had been fed to him.


    Doctor Mu let go of Bai Yun with a nod. The moment he did so, Bai Yun''s god sense got to work. He started to arrange the medicinal power inside his body to operate according to an ancient formula he had found in his father''s library in his past life. His body started to heal itself at an almost visible pace. Unfortunately, no one was there to see it, or they would have been scared by its efficiency.


    Bai Yun expected that it would be a week before his body was healed up properly. But the shock to his cultivation was even greater. It would take another week or even ten days to heal that too. And the only reason he could recover so quickly was that his parents had spend a truly unnecessary amount of medicinal power in him, which he had long since sealed up by his god sense, or at least ninety percent of it would have gone to waste.


    "It is good that you are fine. I am yet to figure out how you woke up. It would be too sad if you die before I could solve the ancient mystery." Doctor Mu laughed, as he started to leave.


    Bai Yun smiled when he heard the doctor. It was only when the doctor had reached the door that he realized something.


    "Wait doctor Mu." He called out. "What ancient mystery are you talking about?"


    Doctor Mu turned to him. "You don''t know?" He asked him. When he saw Bai Yun shake his head before wincing in pain, he chuckled. "I am talking about the mystery of the damaged soul."


    "For as long as records have existed, every few thousand years or so, someone like you, who has a damaged soul is born in this world. These children are unable to think and can not be healed by any means. No one can also identify the reason for it either. They simply live like a toddler throughout their lifetime. As far as I know, this world is the only one in which this phenomenon has been seen. Though I have heard rumors that there are similar cases appearing in the Immortal plane, but I couldn''t verify it."


    When Bai Yun heard this, he was stunned. Someone who is born with a damaged soul, while incredibly rare, but was not unheard of. As a soul god, he knew all about this. But all the cases of it as far as he knows could be identified and healed by someone in the dao step.


    The only exception to this would be him. Only a titled god of the soul system would be able to identify what had happened to him. But just how impossible would it be for someone to run into one. After all, even in the Grand Immemorial World, only three people had reached the titled god level in the soul system out of seventy two titled gods.


    This meant that he must have appeared in this world every few thousand years. Considering that it took a thousand years on average to go through a reincarnation cycle, it means that he was born in this world every few reincarnations. It was an impossible event.


    Unless someone or something made it happen.


    When his thoughts reached up to here, Bai Yun shuddered. He was scared that his reincarnations were being manipulated. He did not like the feeling.


    But then he took a deep breath. There was nothing he could do about it anyway. He would just have to wait and see who was causing this.


    Just then Bai Yun felt a terrifying force envelop him. Before he could realize what happened he found himself in his mother''s embrace. He flinched from the pain and took a sharp intake of breath.


    "Oh god. Are you okay?" Xiao Mei-er asked after letting him go.


    "Yes." He replied. He could see that she was crying. Even though she had wiped the tears, he could still the traces of the tears on her face. Bai Yun realized just how scared she must have been.


    Bai Yun looked over his mother''s shoulder to see his father standing behind her. He sighed and shook his head when he saw Bai Yun''s look.


    "You are not leaving the house ever again!" Xiao Mei-er declared. Both Bai Yun and his father were surprised by her declaration.


    The two of then spend the next few hours trying to calm her down. But no matter what they said, Xiao Mei-er just kept on shaking her head. The condition of Bai Yun when Bai Mu had brought him back had scared her too much. She refused to budge from her stance.


    In the end, the two of them barely managed to calm her down. Bai Mu then led her back to their room to give Bai Yun some privacy. She fell asleep the moment she laid down. The fact that a peak soul step cultivator collapsed after just three days was enough to tell you just how much stress she was under.


    Once Bai Mu made sure that Xiao Mei-er was asleep, he came back to Bai Yun''s room. He knew that Bai Yun would want to know what happened that day.


    And true to his thought, Bai Yun was waiting for him. Once he saw Bai Yun''s inquisitive eyes, Bai Mu relented and explained what happened that day.


    That day there were four people who tried to get to the mysterious rock. Three of the people were hidden in the general seats and the fourth was hidden in the Song clan''s room.


    By the time Bai Mu had arrived at the scene, the four of them had already attacked. Two of the four were at the colored soul state, one was at the early soul tribulation state and the other was at the peak of the soul tribulation state. With four soul step cultivators attacking, the defensive measures that the Hunters Union had set up was barely enough.


    It was all they could do to barely defend while protecting the VIP seats. The attackers took this opportunity that the defenders gave to steal the rock. Many people in the general seats died in the ensuing battle.


    Bai Mu arrived just as the thieves were escaping with the rock. When he arrived, Zhang Zi was escaping while carrying Bai Yun. After making sure that the two of them would live, he immediately joined the Hunters Union in attacking the thieves.


    It was then that a dao step cultivator stepped forward to block him. Thankfully the reinforcements from various major forces and hunters union arrived soon enough, including two dao seed realm cultivators. This forced the thieves to escape. The dao step cultivator and the peak soul tribulation realm cultivator had escaped, while the other three were caught. But the three of them committed suicide before they could be interrogated. And they could not gain any information from what was on their bodies, though the investigation into them was still ongoing.


    And worst of all the mysterious rock was lost. Without the rock, and with the hunters union having done little research on it, no one knew who the people who stole the rock were, or why they did so.


    And as for the envoy from the Song clan, it seemed as if the reason they were late was that they were intercepted along the way and put under a powerful hallucination. It seems the initial plan of the thieves were to buy the item, but it was foiled by Song Hui. Since Zhang Zi''s room was closed off, they did not know who bought the rock and decided to attack right then and there.


    And Zhang Zi properly took Bai Yun out without anyone finding out the truth. Bai Mu secretly send him back home, and then went and got doctor Mu. But it seems that Zhang Zi had found out about his true identity by then. Bai Mu later explained him being there as for the inner armor. Thankfully Zhang Zi was smart enough to think up an excuse for him.


    Once Bai Mu explained what happened that day to Bai Yun, he left him alone to heal. Bai Yun spend a few minutes trying to recollect what the rock was, and where he had seen it before. After failing, he decided to put it to the back of his mind. considering the cultivation states for all the people involved in it, he would not be able to help at all.


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    He then closed his eyes and focused on his healing.

 71 Recovery

    In a flash, two more weeks passed by. During this time, doctor Mu had been checking up on him every few days and each time he would marvel at the pace at which he was healing. Bai Yun tried to find out more about his previous reincarnations. But even doctor Mu was not clear on the case. Most of these cases happened about ten thousand years apart and they did not live long. Doctor Mu only had some medical documents about the various cases and had no personal information. All of this was of no help to Bai Yun in figuring out what had caused him to reincarnate here again and again.


    During this time he was fed even more precious medicines. All of this caused his healing to speed up even more. By now he had completely recovered from all of his damages. Not only that due to the secret technique he had employed, but his body and cultivation had also become a little bit sturdier and firmer.


    The secret technique was based on the idea of growth after breaking. Thus it had parts that allowed growth even while recovering from critical damage. If it wasn''t for the fact that it was quite slow compared to just directly recovering, and also the dangers associated with breaking your own body, this could have even been a mainstream technique. He was also able to mend his own body to make it more similar to the seamless body he was born with in his past life. Even though it was still nowhere close to his old body, it was still much closer to the dao than his current body. All in all his talent had effectively doubled.


    Bai Yun slowly got up from his bed and stretched. He had spent the last two weeks only recovering, and that had stiffened up his body a little bit. He needed to exercise a little bit.


    Bai Yun went for a run around the mansion. He had calmed his mother down quite a lot. She had relented that her earlier stance of not letting Bai Yun leave the house for the rest of his life was indeed too much. But she was still apprehensive about letting him run free. She was asking him to stay at home and follow the alchemy path for the foreseeable future. Especially considering the monstrous talent that he had shown by creating a pill without any teacher so quickly she decided that the best thing for him would be to be an alchemist.


    But Bai Yun currently had a plan. He needed to win first place in the clan meeting which was only a few months away. He had to reach the peak of qi condensation realm by then. But his mother was absolutely not going to let him run around looking for chances to breakthrough. So whatever move he makes, it would have to be hidden from her, at least for a short while.


    Bai Yun thought very carefully for a while. He needed a new avenue to make money. Once he had enough money, he could easily reach the peak of qi condensation. Due to the secret technique he had employed while recovering from his injuries, he would be able to make quite a few breakthroughs without destabilizing his foundation. And due to his god sense controlling the qi inside him, as long as he had enough qi he would be able to breakthrough.


    By now the sun had set. Bai Yun stopped running and stood there watching the stars in the sky. Suddenly he noticed something. Then an evil grin appeared in his eyes as an idea came to him.


    Bai Yun then went back to his room and got into bed. He calmly laid down and closed his eyes and his breathing fell into a stable rhythm.


    A couple of hours passed by. Soon it was midnight. Suddenly Bai Yun opened his eyes and then quickly sat up. Finally, that consciousness that was keeping tabs on him had gone. His mother had thought that she was being sneaky, but Bai Yun''s god sense had long since caught her keeping tabs on him.


    Bai Yun then crept to the window in his room. He had left the window open in the morning, before he went to sleep. He then looked down. He was currently quite high up. If he tried to jump down, the noise will certainly alert his mother.


    So Bai Yun slowly climbed out of the window and stood on the wall. Anyone who could see him now would certainly be surprised. Bai Yun was currently standing on the vertical wall of the mansion as if it was horizontal ground. He then started to walk downward, toward the ground.


    This was a skill called wall walking. It was a skill included within the Assassin God''s legacy. When you have to sneak in to kill someone, you cannot make any noise, and many of the traditional ways of entering and exiting will not be available. Thus this technique was created by him.


    Once Bai Yun landed on the ground, he turned and gave a wave towards his parent''s room. Then he quickly went into a run. Bai Yun still had not mastered soundless motion of the Assassin God''s so he did not dare to use his movement technique.


    Bai Yun quickly left the clan. Then he took out a piece of paper. Following it , he soon found himself walking deeper and deeper into the darker parts of yellow city. On the way, Bai Yun stopped at a store and bought a large robe with a hood that completely covered him up. He then changed his appearance and quickly slipped into the shadows. No one noticed him as he slipped in and out of the shadows and moved faster and faster.


    Soon Bai Yun reached a small roadside pub. There was no one around in this part of the city, but the pub was still open even now. Bai Yun looked up at the sky at the moon, and then he opened the door of the pub and went inside.


    The inside of the pub was well furnished and well lit. But it empty at this time of the night. The only person in the pub was the bartender. He was standing behind the bar cleaning it.


    Bai Yun slowly walked towards him and stood in front of him. The bartender did not look up from his job. "I came for a job." Bai Yun said while pushing a single gold coin forward.


    The bartender continued to do what he was doing and did not even look up from the bar. "We don''t have any jobs to give."


    Bai Yun grinned. He knew that he was in the right place. "Not that kind of job." Bai Yun replied. As he did so, he leaked a little bit of his killing intent out. The next moment the bartender felt the whole world tremble in red due to the killing intent. For the first time since the beginning, the bartender finally had a difference in expression. He froze while cleaning and looked up at Bi Yun.


    The killing intent that Bai Yun had just emitted was truly too strong. The bartender had met many people before, but it was the first time he had met someone who was so weak but had had a tangible killing intent.


    He looked up at Bai Yun only to see a smiling face behind the cloak, but only up to his lips could be seen. It did not surprise the bartender that Bai Yun was covered up, many people who came to his establishment was like that.


    The bartender did not say anything and simply pressed a button behind the counter. Suddenly a wall at the side of the shop fell back to reveal a corridor leading downwards.


    Bai Yun did not say another word and went down the stairs. The stairs kept on going for quite a while and Bai Yun soon found himself standing in front of a door. Opening the door he entered a bar. The bartender that he met before was once again standing in front of the bar, but he was staring straight at Bai Yun instead of cleaning anything. But unlike the person above, this one gave Bai Yun a feeling of danger. After all the one above was only a clone. This was the true bartender.


    This bar was almost identical to the one above, except that this one was cleaner. Also, the walls of the bar were covered in listings. Each of these listings was a job request. For an assassination.


    That''s right. This was the place where the external or outer section assassins of blood moon came to collect their jobs, and then the rewards once it has been completed. All the actions he had made earlier, including the gold coin, the chatting, and the killing intent was all part of the verifying procedure to enter this place.


    Bai Yun knew that he would have to find a way to make quick money. And the avenue he had ended up choosing was the blood moon. Thanks to the Assassin God''s legacy he could easily claim to be among the best assassins in the entire universe at his cultivation stage. The assassination requests that were given here would be easy for him. And the rewards would be more than enough to help him breakthrough. After all, due to the high turnover rate and risks that come with the job, the rewards for assassination are quite impressive.


    And as for how he knew of the hangout place of blood moon, it was all thanks to Bai Ling-er. Bai Yun had to acknowledge that she truly had terrifying talent in information gathering. She had anticipated that Bai Yun might be interested in blood moon and had found out one of blood moons locations as well as the code for entry. And the fact that she could find this all out without dying was incredibly impressive.


    Bai Yun entered the bar and walked straight up to the bartender and sat down in front of him. Since this was his first time visiting one of blood moons establishments, he would have to take a test to check his qualifications. After all, if they were to simply hand out missions without finding out anything about the people that came, it would only end up as an embarrassment for them.


    "Are you sure you want to play assassin young master?" The bartender asked.


    Bai Yun was stunned by the question. He had changed his appearance to that of an average person. He was certain that the bartender was not at the dao step and could not see through his skill. Then why did he call him a young master? Bai Yun was confused.


    Seeing that Bai Yun was confused, the bartender simply chuckled an did not explain anything. He then took out a small red card.


    "I like you." The bartender said. " The killing intent you gave out earlier was the real deal. So I am gonna make a slight adjustment to the usual test. I''ll give you an actual mission and if you can complete it within four days, I will consider that you have passed the test. If you can complete it within two days, I''ll even give you the reward for the mission. This is unusual as until you have passed the test you won''t be an official external member of blood moon. So technically you are just doing this mission for fun. What do you think?"


    Bai Yun didn''t even have to think. He just nodded.


    "Oh. And don''t think that you can rely on the force behind you." The bartender said ."I''ll be watching this closely. I want to make sure you do this by yourself."


    Bai Yun simply reached for the card without a word. Just as he grabbed the card from the bartender, he paused. He finally noticed the only other part of his body other than his face that was visible to the world.


    His perfectly manicured hands.


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    Bai Yun finally figured out how the bartender knew he was a young master.

 72 First mission

    Bai Yun left the bar before heading home. As he did, he started to read the information on the card given to him. Bai Yun had already told the bartender that he wasn''t going to kill innocent people. The bartender had accepted it. There were many different kinds of personalities in the outer section of blood moon. Some of them were here to hone their craft, some to fight powerful enemies, and some for the thrill. So he was used to some eccentric requests. Besides, he had already thought of Bai Yun as a young master who wanted to play an assassin, so he was given some leeway.


    The person that he was asked to kill was a local tyrant. Even though yellow city was controlled by the major forces of the continent it did not mean that everyone here was extremely strong. Just like anywhere else, there were mortals and weak people eking out a living in the shadows of the strong here too.


    And the further you walk into the neglected parts of the city, the weaker and darker it gets. In places like this, the police of the city, which is controlled by the hunters union to maintain law and order in the city, does not even appear. Thus these places were even worse than the outside world, places where fists rule without reason.


    And there were places where the strongest was only in the qi condensation realm even in the city. These would be places where most of the inhabitants were mortals. And it was in one of these places that Bai Yun''s job was going to take him to.


    In a little slum outside the city, there was a place called leftover lane. It was ruled by a local gang of bullies who would kill anyone who resisted their will and did whatever they wanted, including raping and pillaging. The job was placed by the inhabitants of leftover lane. Here the job was to kill the leader of the gang, a ninth stage qi cultivation realm practitioner.


    Since the job was placed by the poor residents of the place, it was not very wealthy. In fact, the money offered by them was the very least that could be offered for a ninth stage qi condensation realm practitioner. As a result this mission was placed in the bottom of the pile, with no one willing to pick it up.


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    But the blood moon was very professional. If they could not finish the mission in a year, they would return the money deposited. This was the reason the people trusted the blood moon too. And the idea was good for blood moon too. Even if a mission was not completed, they would still gain money that they could keep for a while. The crescent moon organization could invest that money and make a profit in the period the money was deposited with them. Even if a single such mission was very cheap, a lot of similar missions would lead to a lot of money, which would lead to a lot of profit as well.


    And the reason that Bai Yun ended up getting this mission was also because of the soft spot of the bartender. As a professional, he would never do the job for so little compensation, but giving the job to Bai Yun could be considered as public service.


    Bai Yun looked at the map at the back of the card and started to walk home. The place that was mentioned on the map was quite far from the pub, so he had to walk a great distance. If he went there tonight, he would not be able to get back by daybreak. Bai Yun was not even the slightest bit bothered by the mission. He could most likely kill someone who barely reached the peak of qi condensation using the worst kind of techniques even in a frontal match. But he was terrified to his bones of the thought of his mother catching him out of the mansion. Death might be a preferable alternative.


    So Bai Yun directly returned home. Thankfully it was still dark out by the time he returned. It seemed as if his mother had not checked in on him when he was out, his father must have made sure of it. Bai Yun knew that his father was still watching when he left last night.


    Bai Yun crept back into his room and slipped under the covers once again. He slept for a few hours and went out at sunup.


    Bai Yun spent the whole day both exercising as well as devising a plan for tonight. By the afternoon, he had recovered to his perfect condition. And, due to the secret technique he employed, he was stronger than ever before.


    In the afternoon Bai Yun spent it trying to convince his mother to let him out of the mansion. After hours of persuasion and promises by him, and aided by his father, finally she relented. But even then she did not give in completely. She only relented under the condition that old Hi accompanies him.


    Bai Yun was fine with it. After all old Hai was mostly responsible for protecting him from the shadows and would not interfere with his day to day activities. And more importantly, he would be able to get good help in transportation. If he was to travel all over as part of his missions, he might end up spending more time moving rather than killing. Yellow city was truly too vast, and the jobs that he would be getting would be all over the place. After all, the blood moon only cared about how he finished the mission itself, not how he got there.


    Once the sun set, Bai Yun asked old Hai to drop him off near the leftover lane. Funnily enough, there were multiple leftover lanes in the city, so old Hai accidentally took him to the wrong one at first. He had used one of the clan''s map to locate the place. After all, someone like old Hai had no reason to go to such places at all. Only after confirming their location with the map given along with the mission, and realizing the mistake, did they turn back and go to the right one.


    Old Hai dropped off Bai Yun a short distance from leftover lane. Leftover lane was a street in the area that was a few hundred meters long. It mostly had houses or huts belonging to the poor. But some of these houses were also shops selling some basic items. But due to the late time, most of the shops were closed, and most of the houses seemed to be in the darkness, signifying that the people had already fallen asleep.


    Bai Yun walked down the street in the shadows. He was well hidden in the shadows. He wore very dark clothes and was wrapped up in a black hood to blend in with the shadows. He couldn''t completely erase his presence due to his low cultivation, but he was able to use the experience from the Assassin God''s legacy to make his way sneakily. Hiding in the shadows, and moving only when the moon was covered by the clouds, no one was able to make out Bai Yun as he moved.


    This way Bai Yun quickly made his way to a small hut near the end of the street. This was the house of the person who had given the mission.


    Bai Yun looked around. This house was also hidden in the shadows, and there was no light inside. Bai Yun waited outside and looked around before he slipped inside. Not even the slightest sound was made as he entered the house.


    The house was a single room hut. Inside the house, there was a middle aged man sleeping on the floor alone. He was a mortal who had never stepped onto the road of cultivation. Bai Yun knelt next to him and took out his dagger and held it in his left hand. He then covered the middle aged man''s mouth and nose with his right hand. After a moment the middle aged man stirred and woke up. When he realized that someone was choking him he tried to struggle. But his struggle was quickly brought to an end as Bai Yun brought his dagger to rest right in front of his eyes. The middle aged man froze as he stared at the dagger in front of his eyes with terror.


    "I wouldn''t make a noise if I were you." Bai Yun said. The middle aged man turned his eyes to Bai Yun. Bai Yun moved his dagger to the middle aged man''s neck. The terror in his eyes only grew.


    "Now I am going to remove my hand from your mouth." Bai Yun said with a smile. If anyone saw that smile, they would only think that the person smiling was an innocent child who knew nothing of the ills of this world. Though to the middle aged man, it looked like the smile of a devil.


    "And when I do, you should not make a sound, capiche?" Bai Yun continued. "You see if you make a sound, I might be startled. And if I am startled, my hand will jerk. I have this bad habit that when I am startled, I reflexively cut off people''s heads. So you wouldn''t want to startle me would you?" The middle aged man shook his head as if his life depended on it.


    "Good." Bai Yun said. "So you will cooperate with me right?" The middle aged man nodded furiously.


    Bai Yun smiled and gently removed his hand from the middle aged man''s throat. The middle aged man only stared at Bai Yun in terror and did not make even the slightest movement. The two of them stared at each other for a while before Bai Yun reached out with his hands. The middle aged man froze when he saw Bai Yun''s hand appraoching him. But Bai Yun did not say anything and only gently patted his head. "Good boy." He said.


    This image of a middle aged man being patted on the head by a child would only be a funny one anywhere else, but humor was the last thing on the middle aged man''s mind right now.


    "I am from blood moon." Bai Yun explained. "You placed a mission there a month ago didn''t you?"


    The middle aged man was now frozen in terror. He was too terrified to answer. Bai Yun''s face hardened. "Answer." He said curtly. In response, the man nodded furiosly.


    "Good I was afraid I entered the wrong house." Bai Yun said. "Due to your dumb luck, I was given the mission as a test." Bai Yun explained and then removed his dagger from the man''s throat. With a flourish of his hands, the dagger disappeared.


    Bai Yun stood up and then stepped a few steps back. There was nowhere to sit in the hut, so he took out a chair from his storage ring. He then sat cross-legged on to the chair and tiled his head. By now the man had stood up and was standing submissively in front of Bai Yun.


    "Lets talk shall we?"

 73 Infinite Hell

    After a long chat, Bai Yun sat on the chair thinking of his future plans.


    He had come to the middle aged man to both confirm the information on the mission as well as check if the leader of the gang had made any breakthroughs in the past month. Even though it was unlikely, it was still best to check rather than blindly charge in. And he could also understand the situation much better.


    According to the middle aged man, he was just an average mortal. He made his living cleaning the sewers and had no cultivation or desires. He lived in this hut with his wife and his young daughter. Their lives were pitiful, but peaceful and happy.


    But all of that changed when the new local gang turned up a year ago. They killed off the previous gang that was controlling this area and took over from them. Even though the previous gang would also beat them up and force them to hand over their money, it was not as horrible as now.


    But the new gang was different. They were needlessly cruel. The first thing they did was to slaughter a hundred residents of the area, just to show people their rule. Then they tripled the tribute the previous gang was asking for. They also killed anyone that spoke against them or tried to leave.


    Under the terrifying threat to their lives, the people here eked out a living. The gang also did whatever they wanted and took whatever they wanted.


    And the disaster that destroyed the middle aged man''s family struck a few weeks after the gang took over. The leader of the gang took fancy to the middle aged man''s daughter and kidnapped her. His goons kidnapped the wife too while they were at it. In the end, the middle aged man found both of them raped and murdered a few days later. Even though he wanted to exact revenge on them, he was nowhere near strong enough to do so. So he bid his time and waited for a chance.


    And he got lucky a little more than a month ago. While cleaning the sewers, he found a purse that was filled with small jewels. Usually, the people who cleaned the sewers are supposed to turn over everything that they find in the sewers to their superiors. And usually, the middle aged man did so. But this one time, he did not. He took the money to a nearby blood moon location, a map to which he had found in the sewers a longs time ago, and placed a bounty on the leader. He wanted to place a bounty on the entire gang, but he was told that he only had enough to place a bounty on a single ninth stage qi condensation realm cultivator, or two eighth stage qi condensation realm cultivators. So he placed the bounty on the gang''s leader.


    When Bai Yun heard all of this, he sighed. Stories like this was common all over the world of cultivation. He did not have the time and effort to save every single person that he came across. He was only here to complete the mission from blood moon.


    From the middle aged man, Bai Yun had learned of the headquarters of the gang. They were holed up in the only proper house in the leftover lane, which was situated at the other end of the street. It was a two storey house, with the boss occupying the second floor, and the rest of the gang using the first floor. The house was built by the previous gang that ruled these parts, and had then been taken over by the new gang. The gang would typically spend the nights at the house either partying or participating in or planning some illegal activities.


    Bai Yun slowly slipped back into the shadows and headed towards the house. Since even the worst cultivation technique would allow someone to reach the foundation establishment realm in a world with as much energy as the howling wolf world, the leader of the gang most likely did not even have a cultivation technique. He might have a meditation technique, and even he did have cultivation technique it would be the worst kind. Or else he would not remain in the qi condensation realm in his thirties. Bai Yun could kill such a person in a straight forward fight itself, let alone an assassination.


    But if he started a frontal assault, he would have to fight the entire gang in order to kill the leader, and he might not be able to do so. The leader might even run away in the chaos. Thus assassination was the best result. After all, the reward was for killing the leader only.


    Bai Yun quickly reached the gang''s hideout. Bai Yun stayed in the shadows and surveyed the house from afar. He was unable to see anyone outside the house keeping watch. There were lots of noises coming from the ground floor. Obviously the gang was having a party. There was only a single room on the second floor that was lit, while the others were in darkness. The boss was probably in the single lit room.


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    When Bai Yu saw how easy the gang was behaving, he sighed. Not only was there no alarm arrays, which was obvious considering their strength, but they also did not even have anyone on watch These people were simply begging to be assassinated.


    Bai Yun walked up to the house and used his wall walking technique to get to the second storey. He chose a room that was in the darkness and slowly unlocked the window using his soul tendrils. He then slipped inside the room and hid himself. After making sure that there was no one in the room, and his entrance had not been heard by anyone, he slowly walked over to the room the leader was in.


    Reaching the entrance, Bai Yun slowly peeked inside. The moment he did so, his blood ran cold.


    The room was the gang leader bedroom. There was a large bed in the center of the room. Two small girls were lying on the bed and desperately trying to fight off a bald middle aged man who was trying to disrobe them.


    Bai Yun stared at the bald man. Not only was he drunk, but he was also naked. Based on what he saw as well as the description of the person who had placed the mission, this man was the leader of the gang. He was treating this like a game, so he wasn''t using his qi, only using his body''s strength to attack the two girls.


    Based on what he had heard from the middle aged man, he was expecting a scene like this where the leader of the gang was. His original plan was to assassinate the leader after he had gone to sleep after playing with whomever he had in his bed. But what enraged Bai Yun was the ages of the two girls who were desperately fighting the bald man.


    One of them could not be older than thirteen while the other was definitely under ten.


    At that moment a unimaginable rage went through Bai Yun. Without making a single sound, he slipped inside the room and went behind the bald man.


    None of the three original occupants of the room noticed him. He slipped behind the bald man and drew out his sword.


    Just as he prepared to stab him, the bald man froze. He felt something behind him and stood up. Even though the bald man was a useless cultivator, Bai Yun was not even attempting to hide his presence now. Only a drunken useless person would not notice Bai Yun at this point.


    But it was too late. Bai Yun drove his sword right through the bald man''s chest. The bald man stared in surprise at the sword in his chest. He did not seem to understand what had happened in his drunken state.


    The blood of the bald man sprayed onto the two girl''s faces. The two of them screamed in terror when they saw the sword emerging out of the bald man''s chest. But since the screams of little girls were common occurrences on the second floor of the hideout, no one came to investigate.


    Before the bald man could come to, Bai Yun reached around and grabbed at the bald man''s throat. In a single motion, he turned him around and picked him up with a single hand. The bald man tried to scream, but his throat was held tightly by Bai Yun.


    "You are lucky you jerked at the last moment." Bai Yun said. "I was going to slowly torture you, but thanks to that jerk, my sword scratched your heart. You will be dead in a few minutes at most. Too bad."


    The bald man tried to claw at Bai Yun, but Bai Yun had kept every drop of his qi onto his arm, so he was unable to even scratch him. The two little girls were by now stunned into silence and just shivering in terror.


    "But that doesn''t mean you need to go down easy." Bai Yun continued. "I have to apologize in advance, of all the techniques I know, this is the only one I can use right now. Awaken in the Infinite Hell."


    The next instant a terrifying soul force emanated out of Bai Yun. The bald man''s clawing stopped an instant later and he froze and fell powerlessness on to the ground.


    Bai Yun had trapped him in one of the ten great torture techniques of the ancient world, Infinite Hell.


    During the great war, Bai Yun had great attainment in the soul path. And sometimes he was asked to trap some exceptionally powerful devils or traitors in illusions in order to gain information. Ad in the course of this he learned all of the ten great torture techniques. Unfortunately, all of the other techniques were techniques beyond Grand techniques and he was unable to use them right now without dying. Only the tenth ranked infinite hell, which was a grand technique, could be safely used by him.


    Infinite hell was a very simple torture technique. It trapped the person the technique was cast on in the worst hell that could be imagined by either the person who cast the technique or the person who received the technique. The most horrifying thing about this technique was that it could become worse from the imagination and experience of both of the people involved. It was this infinite potential for growth that made it one of the ten great torture techniques.


    And currently, the bald man was experiencing all the horrors that Bai Yun had witnessed during the great war as well as all the horrors that the bald man had committed and imagined as well. He was being repeatedly tortured in the most horrible ways, repeatedly killed off in the torture, only to come to life for the torture to continue once again. He was tortured by some of the most hideos monsters Bai Yun had ever witnessed, and was being repeatedly ripped to pieces, boiled alive, or fed his own body parts. And the cycle continued on again and again without stopping until the bald man''s soul was extinguished.


    And usually, it would have been difficult for Bai Yun to trap someone in a similar cultivation as him in an illusion without having their cultivaton sealed, considering that the infinitude heavenly thought was not focused on illusions and other typical soul related abilities. But unlike his other two cultivation techniques, which were considered only among the best cultivation techniques, Infinitude Heavenly Thought was the undisputed nmber one soul cultivation technique. And even though it was much weaker in hallucination and other typical soul abilities compared to its physical power, it was still among the higest even in that category. And the bald man was using a useless technique for cultivation and technically the two of them were at the same cultivation league. With his soul being weakened from his impending death, he was able to trap him in infinite hell.


    For a few minutes Bai Yun and the other two watched as the bald man slowly bled to death. Once he was dead, Ba Yun cut off the bald man''s head as proof of completion of the mission.


    He then turned towards the stairs. For a few moments, he just stood there as he debated what to do.


    "F**k it. I am going to kill all of these bastards today."

 74 Massacre

    Bai Yun pulled out his sword and walked out of the room. He slowly walked down the steps to the first floor.


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    The steps ended at a big hall. Peeking inside, he saw many people of various cultivation stages, all the way from the third stage to eighth stage qi condensation realm. Almost half of them were playing with women. Some were playing cards, drinking or singing and dancing. He could hear some sobs coming from nearby rooms. They were all more interested in enjoying the vices in life than anything else.


    Bai Yun knew that what he was planning was most likely suicide, but he was confident of killing as many people as he could before escaping. Their speeds were definitely no match for his.


    When he reached the entrance to the hall, he put away his sword and took out two flying daggers in each hand. In a single motion, he threw the two daggers out, before following them with his sword. Even though he had not used them in this life, in his past life, he was very proficient in hidden weapons. Due to the fact that he hadn''t trained specially for them in this life, it was a far cry from his skills in the past life though.


    The first dagger that he threw out kept a low profile and flew by the ground quickly. The second was slightly slower, and flew in an arch well above the heads of all the people here. Bai Yun had coated the blades with black paint everywhere except the edge, so it did not catch anyone''s eyes, as it moved quickly and did not reflect any light. But the color of the blade was not the same as that of the roof, it would have still been possible to see the blade, but the entire gang was too inebriated to do so.


    Bai Yun had sent both of these blades at the only eight stage qi condensation cultivator in the room. He had to quickly take care of the strongest people here as fast as he could, or if he was surrounded by them it could get dangerous.


    The first blade wove through the room below the people and tables very quickly. In a second it was near the eighth stage gang member. Since Bai Yun did not have a direct line of sight to him, it was slightly off in its path. So he gave the dagger a tug with the soul tendril he had attached to it, and it started to curve beautifully in the air.


    The man Bai Yun had targeted was standing at a table drinking and pushing down a woman. The woman below him was simply lying down there as if she had lost her life. The man had no defenses at all, so he was completely unprepared when the dagger sliced through the tendons in his legs.


    With a scream, the man went down on one knee. Due to the noise in the hall, only the people near him were able to react, but even then they had no idea what happened. They all turned to stare at the man as he knelt on the floor. Due to their intrinsic belief that no one would be stupid enough to attack them in broad daylight, and the fact that the knife had long since disappeared, not a single person expected that they were under attack.


    Bai Yun''s timing was excellent. Just then, the second dagger had also reached the man. In an instant, the dagger, powered by the remaining two soul tendrils, plunged downward at an incredible speed. The sudden sound of the dagger startled them as everyone but the eight stage qi condensation realm gangster looked up. But before any of them could react, the dagger buried itself in the man''s neck, severing his spine and killing him instantly.


    By then Bai Yun had already jumped right into the room. In a single swipe, he beheaded one of the gang members closest to the stairs. Even by then no one had reacted. In his left hand, he held a short dagger, and his right hand he held a sword. Bai Yun then dashed into the hall and started to attack the gangsters one by one.


    It was only after he killed three other gangsters that they reacted to his presence. "Enemy attack!" One of them screamed before they took out their weapons and turned to face Bai Yun.


    As he shouted, Bai Yun heard some commotion from the other rooms. One after the other a few people came out of the other rooms. Almost all of them were naked. Bai Yun saw two eighth stage qi cultivation realm gangsters and the rest who walked out were all in the seventh stage of qi cultivation. Some of them had left their weapons in the hall and was rushing to get them.


    A few of the people in the hall ran towards him. One of them shouted "Who the hell are you." before rushing at him. Bai Yun simply stabbed out with his sword and stabbed through the gangster''s heart instead of answering him.


    After he pulled out the sword, he rushed towards the other gangsters. They were all simply rushing in without knowing anything about Bai Yun. Bai Yun weaved his way through the gang and quickly dispatched of them with his sword.


    It was then that Bai Yun found himself surrounded. Around him were five of the strongest cultivators of the gang. They had sent the low level members to fight him first so as to surround him as well as exhaust his qi. Bai Yun knew what they were planning, but in his enraged state, he didn''t care. Besides he had the confidence to escape from anything these people would throw at him.


    Without delay, the five of them thrust their swords at Bai Yun. There was no martial technique involved in it, just a simple attack. But all five of them were poised cleverly around him so that there was nowhere for him to run. Obviously these people had executed this technique multiple times already and were quite proficient at it.


    Bai Yun did not panic. In a single instant, Bai Yun ducked a bit and then pivoted on his left foot and quickly rotated. In a single motion, he swiped four of the swords away from him. But he was not enough. The fifth sword had slipped through his defense and sliced his shoulder.


    Ignoring the pain, Bai Yun leaped forward. His sword stabbed itself onto the neck of the man who had sliced him. The sword entered his throat and came out the other end. Bai Yun pulled out the sword in a single motion and ran past the gangster. The man stared at Bai Yun as he clutched at his throat and tried to speak, but he collapsed a moment later.


    Bai Yun ran straight to the wall of the hall and ran straight up the wall, before pushing off of it and somersaulting and landing on the floor. The other members of the group who tried to ambush him had run towards the wall, and they all found themselves between the wall and Bai Yun, unable to surround him like before.


    Even as he landed, Bai Yun thrust out with the dagger in his left hand. It impaled on the neck of the last man in the group and he pulled it out, killing him almost instantly. Then he took a single step towards another member of the gang. Bai Yun used his sword to knock away the man''s sword, before sharply rotating. He used the rotation to slice his dagger across the man''s neck, nearly cutting it in two.


    Bai Yun left him to die before heading towards the final two members of the top group of the gang. With three members already dead, the remaining two had no chance to resist Bai Yun. They died before they could even scratch his clothes.


    Bai Yun then turned back, only to see a multitude of knives and daggers flying at him. He quickly used his two weapons to deflect as many of the weapons as he could, giving priority to his vital organs. But he was not able to deflect all of them. One of them landed on his abdomen, but thankfully missed his stomach and any other organ. Another one landed on his chest and stabbed into a rib. It did not penetrate his lung, but his rib screamed in pain every time he took a breath.


    Bai Yun then used wind motion and ran into the midst of the rest of the gang. By now the entire gang had come out, but he did not care. He also did not pull out the two knives stabbed into him. It might exasperate his wounds and leave him in great pain, but he had no time to waste. Speed was paramount in the current situation.


    When Bai Yun appeared in their midst like a ghost, the gang was taken aback. They had never faced an existence like Bai Yun before. All of their fights were either with weaklings or mortals or between gangs. The short delay in their reaction was deadly, as with two swings of his sword, Bai Yun killed the final two seventh stage qi cultivation realm gangsters. Now there were only about twenty gangsters left, with the highest level of them being only the sixth stage of qi cultivation.


    Bai Yun elbowed the nearest gangster to him with his right hand. When he stumbled back from the force, Bai Yun''s sword sliced across his neck.


    Currently, Bai Yun found himself in the middle of over ten gangsters. To anyone else, it was a dangerous position. He decided to think of it as wherever he attacked, there was someone to kill.


    First Bai Yun would use his right hand or sword to incapacitate a gangster before using the dagger in his left hand to kill them. It only took Bai Yun two moves to kill one person. It was as effortless as cutting an onion. Of course, the other gangsters did not stand by and attacked him at the same time, which Bai Yun mostly dodged, or if needed blocked.


    In a few minutes, the more than ten gangsters that surrounded him had been killed. But he didn''t escape scot-free either. There was another gash and a dagger on his back now. Bai Yun turned around. There were only nine gangsters left. They were cowards and did not surround him earlier. Bai Yun put away his dagger and sword as he had a premonition of what''s to come.


    "Run!" One of them shouted. The next instant all of them ran off. Three of them ran to the left of Bai Yun towards the rear entrance, while the other six ran to the right.


    Bai Yun leaped to his right while turning in mid air. In an instant, three flying daggers appeared in his left hand. With a flick of his wrist, all three of them flew towards the ones fleeing towards the rear door, and then buried themselves on their knees, crippling them. All three of them fell to the ground and then started to crawl toward the exit.


    By now, Bai Yun had reached the other six. He reached out with his two hands and caught the heads of two gangsters, before clunking them together to knock them out.


    Bai Yun''s sword reappeared in his right hand once again. He leaped forward toward the last four. They were defeated and killed in a second.


    Bai Yun stood there panting for a moment before he turned around. He walked slowly over to the two gangsters he had knocked out before stabbing their throats with his sword. He then walked back towards the final three who were crawling away from him.


    Bai Yun plucked out the three knives that were stabbing him as he walked. As he did so copious amounts of blood started to pour out. But he quickly sealed up his body to reduce the damage.


    "Who are you?"


    "Why are you doing this to us?"


    "Please let us go."


    The three cowards begged Bai Yun. But he did not pause even for a moment and kept on walking towards them. A second later three heads flew into the sky and he beheaded them.


    Bai Yun looked around at the chaos he had caused. From his perception, he could see that all the gangsters in the house were dead. Blood pooled and covered the ground. With each step, he was leaving behind bloody footprints. Some of the girls that the gangsters had kidnapped were hiding in nearby rooms or under the tables and peeking out at him. He could see nothing but terror in their eyes. The masked Bai Yun in the black robe covered with blood standing in the middle of the massacre looked like the grim reaper to them. He even heard some of them retching from the sight of so much blood and gore.


    Without saying anything, he walked away to the door. He was tired and getting a little dizzy from the blood loss. Now that the adrenaline had worn off after the battle, every breath felt like a knife was stabbing into his chest to Bai Yun. He was nearly stumbling with each step.


    "Please wait." He heard a voice call out to him.


    Bai Yun looked behind to see the older girl who was fighting off the gang leader upstairs. She must have come down once the chaos had ended.


    "Could you tell us who you are. Even if we cannot help you, we can at least pray for you." She replied.


    Bai Yun looked at her. Even now he could see no horror in her eyes. Only a clear eye. Speaking of which Bai Yun recalled that even earlier he could only see an endless fighting spirit and no despair when she was fighting back against the gang leader. For a while, he simply stared at her.


    "I am no one."


    And then he sipped out into the night.

 75 Joining blood moon

    As Bai Yun stumbled out of the house, he felt a hand steadying him. Without even having to check, he knew that it was old Hai.


    "Thanks." Bai Yun said softly. His complexion was not too good under that mask.


    "There is no need to thank me. What I am more worried about is what your mother will do to you once you get home." Old Hai chuckled.


    Bai Yun groaned when he heard old Hai. It was true. He was far too severely wounded to just shrug it off or hide it. He knew that his mother would definitely ask about the cause.


    It would have been fine if he had stopped at killing the gang leader, but he continued killing all the others also. It was due to the fight with the entire gang that he became severely wounded. If he had left as per his original plan, his mother would not even have known what had happened.


    "Can you take me to the blood moon''s place. I need to turn in the mission." Bai Yun asked old Hai. He had already told old Hai about what he was going to do. After all, without old Hai''s help, it would take him days just to go from one place to another during his missions.


    Old Hai did not say anything and just waved his hands. A second later Bai Yun found himself being swept alongside an irresistible force. A few minutes later he was once again in front of the pub he had gotten the mission from.


    Once he got his bearings Bai Yun opened the door and entered the pub immediately. Old Hai followed him inside. Even though he knew of the reputation of the blood moon, and knew that they would not attack a potential assassin who wanted to work for them for no reason, old Hai found no fault in being cautious.


    When Bai Yun entered the pub, the bartender was still standing there. But instead of saying anything, he just pressed the secret button and opened the door in the wall. Bai Yun immediately walked over and old Hai followed him. But just as old Hai reached the opening, the bartender''s voice sounded out.


    "Sorry. But the lower levels are strictly for the members of blood moon only. If you aren''t planning to be an assassin for blood moon, I would suggest you wait here."


    Old Hai stopped and looked at the bartender who only smiled politely in response. Bai Yun had asked old Hai to put on a mask too, so that no one, especially blood moon, would find out about his identity. Bai Yun was very careful about this.


    Bai Yun simply nodded to old Hai and then went down the stairs. Old Hai stared at Bai Yun''s disappearing back for a few moments before he sat down at the bar. The bartender calmly poured him a drink, but old Hai did not drink it as he was wearing a mask. Then the two of them just sat there staring at each other silently.


    Bai Yun quickly went down the stairs and reached the lower floor soon enough. But when he stepped inside, he was a little surprised. The inside of the room was different from before. Earlier the walls were covered with mission posters, but now there was nothing left. Right now the only things in the room was the bartender''s true body, who was sitting at a table facing him.


    "I never expected you to finish the mission so fast." The bartender said. "And such ruthlessness. To think that you would even wipe out the entire gang. I''m impressed."


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    Bai Yun wasn''t surprised. When he was in the headquarters of the gang he had felt two other consciousnesses on him. One of them was old Hai, but he couldn''t identify the other one. It seems as if it was someone from blood moon as he had guessed. They were trying to hide it, but they could not escape his god sense.


    Bai Yun sat down at the table. "Did I pass?" He asked.


    "Of course." The bartender replied. " Here is your identity card." He said pushing a small palm sized, black, rectangular piece of card into Bai Yun. He took it to discover that one side of the card was completely smooth, while the other side had a small picture of a blood moon. There was also a long series of numbers on the card.


    "Before you ask," the bartender continued "there is one thing you must do. You need to bind the card to you by blood. Don''t look down on this card. It is extremely valuable and quite pricy. According to your current contributions, you don''t have the rights to use this card, but I am making an exception since I expect much from you."


    "What happened to the walls?" Bai Yun asked.


    "It isn''t necessary." The bartender explained. "The missions on the walls are only something that I put up using a skill. For people who have a blood moon card, there is no need for it. Thus I didn''t waste any qi on putting a show."


    Bai Yun nodded and then used his dagger to make a small cut on his finger and dropped a few drops of his blood onto the card. It quickly absorbed his blood, and a few seconds later it shone brightly before settling down. This was binding the card to him by blood. Bai Yun had seen similar objects in his past life, so he was not surprised. But just then, Bai Yun felt a powerful force enter his soul. With a smile, he isolated the energy with his god sense and snuffed it out.


    Bai Yun slowly sank his consciousness int the small card. Suddenly in his mind, multiple images just popped up. One of them was details about him and his standing in blood moon. He was given only a number and no name. He had no contribution points and his authority rank was given as zero. According to the explanation he received, contribution points were needed to exchange some special items from the crescent moon organization. Normal items could be bought from the crescent moon organization for cheaper than full moon sells them outside, but any rare item could only be exchanged with contribution points. Both of these were common to the entire organization and not only blood moon. For members of blood moon, the points could only be obtained by doing special missions given by blood moon itself. Missions placed by outsiders rarely gave contributions points as a reward. These contribution points were extremely difficult to obtain but easy to spend.


    And the other important thing was the authority rank. As the authority rank increased it became easier to access higher and more important parts of the crescent moon organization. Not only can you exchange for more items with a higher authority rank, you could even have access to the information, cultivation techniques and even secret information that the crescent moon organization does not usually share via new moon.


    Bai Yun also saw the list of missions that he could currently take. As his authority rank increased he could access missions that paid more, but for now, he would have to do with the current authority.


    "There are a few things you should take note of. First of all, you are not allowed to tell anyone of anything you have witnessed or learned while doing a mission for the blood moon. If you do, the death contract that you just signed will kill you." The man smiled and explained.


    A death contract was a type of contract that you sign with another person or entity. It binds both parties to specific conditions, and if either party betrays the conditions, they would be killed by the death contract and the other party would be let out of the death contract. The only way to break the death contract was if the person who signed the contract became stronger than the other party by far and had great attainments in the soul path.


    And the death contract that the two of them signed was quite simple. It simply stated that neither Bai Yun nor anyone he hired to help with his missions were to spill any secrets of the blood moon. In exchange, blood moon would not reveal any secrets regarding Bai Yun to anyone either.


    Most people would tell someone before they put a death contract usually. But blood moon could afford to do whatever they wanted. After all, the contract wasn''t too restrictive and no one would go to war with them for it. Besides, everyone who went to join up with blood moon and was qualified enough to find out about their location would also be able to find out bout the death contract before they joined. It''s not like they tried to keep the death contract a secret. In fact, its existence was a comfort to people who joined blood moon.


    But Bai Yun was even less concerned with the death contract. He had already known about it before he went to join up with them. With his god sense protecting his soul, only a death contract with smeone at the god step would be able to take hold of him. He easily disposed of the power of the death contract. So even though blood moon was under contract to protect his identity, he himself had no restrictions, and the blood moon had no idea.


    "And there is one other thing." The bartender continued. "Since you could accept the missions by the card, there is no need to come here eveytime to accept and submit a mission. The card has a photography funtion, and you can simply take a photo as proof of compleion of mission. If you are unable to get a photograph as proof, you could still ask the blood moon to independently verify the success of the mission, but that will cost twenty percent of your reward. But if you submit evidence, and it is later shown that the mission is not completed, you will have to pay twice your reward as compensation. Thus the only time you need to come here is to collect the rewards of the missions, which you can pile up here. Thus you only need to come here once every few missions."


    Bai Yun nodded as he heard the man. This was a reasonable way of conducting business which reduced the effort of both parties. "Anything else I need to know?" Bai Yun asked.


    "Hmm. Let''s see." The bartender replied. "The card also has an emergency call option. If you are ever in any danger, you could request help from blood moon. But it will cost you a lot of money. It also has a function where we can contact you if we need to inform you of something. Also if you lose the card, you will need to pay a lot to get it replaced. So try not to be in debt to us, okay. I can promise you right now that almost no one who had been in debt with blood moon has ended up in a comfortable position. That''s all. You will have to figure out the rest as you go along."


    Bai Yun nodded and got up. The procedures to join blood moon was finally over. He didn''t collect the reward for his mission right now. Bai Yun decided to accumulate the rewards until he reached a level where he could exchange for something useful. After all, he wasn''t lacking money.


    When he came upstairs he found that there was someone other than the bartender clone and old Hai waiting in the pub. When he exited the opening in the wall, the other man brushed past him and quickly went down the stairs. He was too wrapped up in a cloak for Bai Yun to see his face. He must have been another member of blood moon.


    Once he was out old Hai did not waste any time in taking Bai Yun back to the mansion.


    Once he reached home, he quickly took some medicinal pills and also applied some medicinal fluid to his wounds. By now the blood loss had gotten to him. Bai Yun then collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.


    A few hours later, he woke up. The swelling of his injuries had gone down a bit. But by now he was running out of medicines. He had pocketed a few medicinal pills during his recovery after the incident at the auction, but Bai Yun did not think that those would be able to sustain him for long at his current rate. There was no way his parents would give him even a single pill. He would have to be more careful from now on. Or make more of them by increasing his skill in alchemy.


    Suddenly a terrifying perception seething with rage covered him. Then his mother''s voice sounded in his ear. "Get down here right now!"


    Bai Yun smiled wryly when he heard this. It was time to pay the piper.

 76 Uncommon mission

    When Bai Yun reached the garden he found his mother sitting there and staring at him coldly. His father was sitting to the side and chuckled when he saw Bai Yun enter.


    Xiao Mei-er looked Bai Yun up and down. Bai Yun simply stood there nervously waiting for the verdict.


    "Old Hai told us what happened. Is this going to be a regular occurrence?" She asked.


    "Nope." Bai Yun replied while furiously shaking his head.


    Xiao Mei-er stared at Bai Yun for a long time. After a while, she sighed. The terrifying power that was suffocating Bai Yun disappeared.


    "If you had gotten injured while killing a useless peak qi condensation gangster, I would have disavowed you myself." She said. "At least you are not completely useless. But then again to be this injured while facing a useless gang, if it wasn''t because your cultivation is so low, I would have told you to never tell anyone that you are my son."


    Bai Yun smiled wryly when he heard his mother. She was truly fierce.


    "I just have one question." She continued. "Why did you kill them all?"


    "Huh." Bai Yun was confused. What else was he supposed to do wit trash like that?


    "Killing them is far too generous." Xiao Mei-er said. "You should have let them suffer for a long time. Instead of killing them, you should have ad old Hai capture them. Then you can first cut off their ba**s and then slowly torture them. I mean there are so many good tortures you could try. You could have skinned then or boiled them alive. You could crush their limbs and hang them up on the street or... ."


    For the next five minutes, Xiao Mei-er continued to list various tortures that one could try. By the end, every single person there including Bai Mu was quietly trembling. They all silently decide to never piss off Xiao Mei-er. Ever.


    Once she was done, Bai Yun quickly made his escape back to his room. Thankfully his mother allowed him to continue the assassin job. But she made him promise that if he ever came across a similar situation again, he would immediately call old Hai and not try to be a hero. Once he escaped back, he continued his recovery process as well as his alchemy practice.


    Soon Bai Yun settled into a rhythm. Every morning he would wake up and spend the whole day practicing alchemy. After sunset, he would pick a mission from the blood moon card, and then go with old Hai to complete it. Most of these missions were to kill the leader of a local gang similar to his first mission. Except that these missions were placed by leaders of other local gangs and thus were more profitable than that. These missions were due to wars between different gangs in the area. Due to them placing a lot of missions like these all the time, most gangs, and gang leaders tend to die quite quickly.


    Once he was done with the mission he would come back and sleep. Since he didn''t run into similar cases as the first one, he did not lose his cool and battle with a whole gang by himself. This also meant that he did not get even a single injury during any of his missions.


    In the blink of an eye, two weeks had passed by. Yesterday Bai Yun had finally saved up enough money to buy two skin sewing pills.


    Skin sewing pills were pills that contained a huge amount of energy suitable for creating the mysterious pattern of the skin necessary to complete the first realm of body transformation, skin sewing. Unlike normal pills, the skin sewing pill would release a special qi brimming with life force that is extremely suitable for skin sewing. And the qi would be released in a slow stream and not all at once. Since during skin sewing one used qi as a thread and needle, it was necessary to have a steady stream of energy and not a single big blob. Otherwise, the energy might dissipate before it could be absorbed.


    Usually, a single skin sewing pill had far more than necessary energy to complete a skin sewing. It contained extra energy in case some of the energy of the pill was leaked out during the creation of the mysterious pattern. But the Undying Body needed a tremendous amount of energy to cultivate each skin sewing patch, much greater than any other technique. Thus he needed two. And that was with his god sense ensuring that not even one drop of qi would be lost.


    By using two skin sewing pills, Bai Yun finally managed to reach the sixth sewing level. He chose to place the sixth sewing on his left shoulder. Even though it says left shoulder, the truth was that the sewing covered his shoulder, and his left chest and a part of the upper back.


    In the past two weeks Bai Yun had also reached am extremely high level in alchemy for someone of his age. In fact, both of his parents were quite surprised by his talent in alchemy. By the end of the two weeks Bai Yun had not only managed to perfectly refine the qi recovery pill that he started out with, he even managed to refine three more pills which were even more difficult at the same time. All of them were nearly devoid of any impurities, unlike the very first pill that Bai Yun had refined.


    But the most important thing was Bai Yun''s success rate. He had almost perfect control of his strength and any ingredient he had refined once before, he could refine again without any problem. Bai Yun could reach a terrifying success rate of over ninety nine percent. In fact, the last pill he tried to refine was a simple healing pill. He even succeeded the very first time he tried to refine it, though not perfectly, something which was considered impossible without decades of training in the alchemy path.


    As a result Bai Mu quickly realized that allowing Bai Yun free run to refine as many pills as he wanted was not a good idea. Given a little bit more time, he would be able to refine all the pills he needed for cultivation himself. Even if he cut off Bai Yun source of money, he could easily refine pills for money. So Bai Mu set the conditions that every pill that he refines had to be turned in to old Hai before he used it. If he was to use anything he made himself, then that was to be made using ingredients he purchased with his own money he won from his assassin job.


    But Bai Yun was not too worried about it. The truth was other than alchemy, there were many skills that Bai Yun had extremely high attainments in. In his past life, he was born with a seamless body. The property of a seamless body is that it was extremely close to the heavenly dao. Thus the comprehension that others would take years to even sense, Long Tian could understand in an instant.


    As a result, it was extremely easy for him to reach the god step in any dao. In order to reach the god step, one must fully comprehend a heavenly dao. It was easy for Bai Yun and he had reached the god step level of comprehension in multiple dao''s in his life. In order to improve in the god step though, one must create their own daos. The seamless body was not of much help in this, but even then his perception and innate talent itself was so high that he still managed to break every record made for cultivation breakthroughs anyway. Due to this, he had reached the god level in a total of ten daos, an unprecedented achievement. But only in the destruction, sword, and space daos did he improve after reaching the god step.


    And he had reached the immortal and dao step of comprehension in many more daos. But he was not able to use it at all. Even if he had the high knowledge of the dao, due to his low soul strength, he could not apply them properly.


    Even then, if it was just doing the basic things, it would be easy for Bai Yun do them. He had reached the god step in both Blacksmithing as well as Formation daos. If he only needed to make money he could easily work in either of these fields and do things that made others of his age, or even his seniors, look lie toddlers. But due to the low demand for blacksmiths and formation masters compared to alchemists the pay was much less. After all, people needed to use pills almost every day to cultivate, but a weapon once bought could easily be used for years before it needed to be replaced. And the major forces would rather grow their own formation masters, lest the weakness of their clan or sect protecting arrays be known to their enemies.


    And after finding out the average pay that these professions would give, Bai Yun finally decided to just work as an assassin. Not only does it have the ability to pay well, it was also a way to train both his assassination technique as well as fighting techniques. His skills grew greater in the past two weeks than in the months prior.


    And then today, just as he finished completing the sixth mysterious pattern and was about to start on his alchemy practice for the day, he felt his storage ring vibrate. Bai Yun checked it, only to find out that it was the blood moon card. It was strange for it to contact him on its own.


    When Bai Yun collected it, the backside of the card was glowing. He was surprised by this. A single look was enough for him to tell that there was a message on it. He held the card in his fingers and touched it with his consciousness. The moment he did so, a message played in his ears.


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    "We have received an emergency request from a group of our inner section assassins. They fell into a hidden place during a training mission. Upon checking, we found that it was a secret abode that restricted entry to qi condensation realm cultivators only. Ths we have issued an uncommon mission to enter the secret abode and rescue the assassins. You can keep everything that you gain from the secret abode for yourself. If you are interested in joining the expedition, come to the address given on the map in the card by midnight tonight."


    When he heard this he was excited. Blood moon does not often give missions. There were many ranks to these missions. And this was an uncommon mission, a rather highly ranked one. An uncommon mission meant that he could get both authority ranks as well as contribution points. This wouold help him a lot in his future gorwth. There was no way he was going to miss it.


    BAi Yun left the alchemy cauldren there and ran out to buy all the necessary items he would need in order to explore the secret abode. He had heard many stories about people exploring secret abodes and getting supper strong legacies from the people he knew during the grand war. But by the time he learned about secret abodes, he had become far too strong to vist one and get the thrill of exploration. So Bai Yun was definitely looking forward to this rescue missoin.


    And soon the sun set. As midnight arrived Bai Yun had old Hai drop him off near the location in the address.


    It was time to go exploring.

 77 First Tes

    The address that blood moon had given was for an old warehouse. When Bai Yun reached the meeting point, he found out that there were already many people in the warehouse, over four dozen. All of them were simply standing there, looking at the podium that was situated in the middle of the warehouse. Some of them were talking to each other while others were simply standing back.


    All of the people here were wearing different clothes. Some were dressed similar to Bai Yun in a cloak and with masks. Some were dressed quite simply in a shirt and pants. Some were even wearing weird clothing he had never seen before. The only common feature was that everyone was wearing a mask. It was obvious. As members of an assassination organization, they did not want anyone to know who they were.


    Bai Yun noticed that more than three quarters of these people had a blood moon symbol on their chest. These were the people who were from the inner sections of blood moon. They were also the ones who were standing in the center and chatting. All the outer section assassins were standing in various corners, not socializing with anyone. After all these people were being assassins for various reasons and did not want people to know of their true identity even more than the inner section children. And they also seemed to be taller, and thus older, than the inner section assassins who seemed to be mostly children.


    And as for these outer section assassins, Bai Yun expected that at least half of them might be spies send from other major forces. There was no need, or way, to become an assassin when you were only at the qi condensation realm. You were simply too weak to kill any import characters. Especially in a place like Yellow City. The only reason for entering the blood moon so early was to make sure that you gained a lot of authority, in the outer section at least. Thus it was likely that at least some of these were spies. There might also be some others who have gained a legacy of assassination, or even people like Bai Yun, who were using this as a means to earn some money.


    When Bai Yun entered the warehouse, he simply went and sat in a corner. He did not know anyone here and he did not want to draw any attention by acting out of the group.


    A few minutes passed by when suddenly a man appeared at the podium in the center. It took a few seconds before everyone noticed him. When they did, all the noises in the room died down. The man who came was wearing a black robe and mask. He had long hair down to his shoulders, and only one arm. Where his left arm was supposed to be, his sleeve lay there freely.


    As he stood there, Bai Yun felt an oppressive force surround him. The oppressive force wasn''t a suppression of energy, but of killing intent. He knew that it was the one armed man testing the people here.


    Slowly the killing intent that pressed on the group increased. Bai Yun was able to ignore the killing intent but it was not true for the other people here. If the test was a suppression of cultivation base, Bai Yun might have been in trouble, but this was only the suppression of killing intent. Even though he could not use it freely, Bai Yun''s complete killing intent was higher than that of everyone in the whole world. Combined.


    Bai Yun watched coolly as the killing intent pressed down on others at the warehouse. He felt that not a lot of these people would be able to survive the killing intent.


    One by one the people here started trembling. As everyone was completely covered up, Bai Yun could not see the expressions of the people in the warehouse. But he did see a few eyes through holes in the masks from where he was standing. All of them some perspiration at the corner of their eyes.


    A few minutes later, as the pressure slowly rose, one by one, people started to kneel. There were even someone who straight out laid down on the ground in fear.


    While everyone else was trying their best to struggle and withstand the killing intent, Bai Yun was having the time of his life. His only regret was that he did not have any snacks to properly enjoy the show.


    Just then Bai Yun glanced to his right. There a young man who was trembling while kneeling suddenly grabbed his head and screamed. He then started to roll on the ground and yell "Don''t Kill me! Please don''t kill me!" over and over again. Just as he was about to bump into another person who was kneeling beside him, the one armed man flung his arm and a gust of wind picked him up and threw him out of the warehouse. Soon his screams disappeared in the wind. But everyone else was trapped in a hallucination created by the killing intent that permeated the warehouse. Only when someone''s killing intent was much worse than the killing intent that they were under would they fall into a hallucination due to the killing intent.


    Bai Yun nodded as he saw this. It seems this guy was unable to resist the hallucination and had succumbed to it. The test that the one armed man had put up was a simple test to resist the killing intent he was giving off. There was no cultivation pressure involved in this.


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    Just as Bai Yun turned to look at some others, a voice sounded out in his ears. "Enjoying yourself, are we."


    Bai Yun turned to look at the source of the voice. It was the one armed man standing on the podium. He was staring at Bai Yun intently.


    "It''s not bad." Ba Yun replied. "Though the show is quite silent. And you should have provided some snacks while watching the entertainment."


    The one armed man stumbled when he heard Bai Yun''s reply. He knew that Ba Yun was not affected by the killing intent, but he would have never thought he would have thought of the whole thing only as a show.


    As Bai Yun stared at the one armed man, suddenly their eyes crossed each other. Then the one armed man snorted and a terrifying killing intent suddenly descended on Bai Yun. The one armed man was holding back and only used a small fraction of his killing intent to suppress the others in the warehouse. But he was incensed by the arrogance Bai Yun had shown and simply attacked him with every bit of his killing intent. He did not care if it would have any negative effects on Bai Yun.


    Of course, the one armed man was not stupid. He knew that Bai Yun was dropped off by a peak soul step cultivator. So he did not lose his mind and add his cultivation to the suppressive force he send out at Bai un. Killing intent could be resisted as long as one had a formidable mind. But it was not possible to resist the cultivations suppressive force so easily. He had no desire to antagonize a peak soul step cultivator so easily for no reason.


    But to Bai Yun even the increased killing intent was nothing. Anyone else who was here would have felt as if a legendary white tiger was roaring at them to kill themselves. But to Bai Yun, it only felt like the meowing of a cute little kitty.


    Bai Yun chuckled and closed his eyes. He then took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes. But now, all emotions have vanished from his eyes, only to be replaced by a great emptiness. As his eyes once again crossed that of the one armed man, a shade of red flashed through them for a moment.


    The next second, the one armed man found himself in the middle of a soul shaking killing intent. He felt a hallucination taking over him. Before he could find out what happened, he found himself in the middle of a sea of blood. He was submerged up to his waist and found blood dripping from every part of his body. He could feel an endless killing intent in each of the drops of blood dripping from his body. His entire body was covered in blood, and even though blood was dripping from his body, it seemed endless.


    The one armed man quickly realized that this was a killing intent hallucination created by the kid who was able to ignore his killing intent. He could sense a boundless killing intent all around him, but there was no true qi behind this, showing that the person who created this had a weak cultivation.


    There were three ways to having great killing intent. One was to kill a lot of people. The second was to kill people of very high cultivations. The third was to have an innate nature of killing. Such people would be born with great killing intent. The one armed man believed that the kid was one such person. After all, he was too weak for the other two methods to have such a great killing intent.


    The killing intent behid this hallucination was far beyond anything he had ever felt, but without any true qi to support it, even if he could not break it with his killing intent alone, he could easily break it with the slightest pressure from his qi.


    But he did not choose to do so. This kind of killing intent was not only a test, but it could also be a baptism for a person like him who chose to walk the killing path. If he could survive this killing intent hallucination wthout using his qi, he had a feeling that he would be able to achieve a breakthrough. It would at the very least make it easier for him to resist killing intent.


    The one armed man loked up to see an endless field of stars against a black sky. There was no moon, only stars slowly flickering in the sky.


    The one armed man''s heart slowly started to beat harder and harder. He felt so insignificant inside this world, like an insect that would be crushed beneath the endless river of time.


    Slowly he started to pant. He broke into a cold sweat. Fear appeared in every single cell in his body.


    The one armed man loked at the vast and endless universe before him. He started to feel as if his life was insignificant. As if it did not matter whether he lived or not. Slowly thoughts of simply killing himslef to save time appeared in his mind.


    The one armed man knew that all of these were simply illusions created by the hallucination. But he used only his mind to defend against them to temper himself.


    Suddenly he looked up to see that the furthest stars had gone out. The one armed man saw a darkness slowly creeping forward. The darkness itself filled the one armed man with dread as if he was seeing the end of the world manifested. The darkness was the end of all that ever was, and all that ever will be. The one armed man fell to his knees, but the blood sea still remained at his waist.


    Slowly the darkness crept forward. From only a single speck in the distance, it started to cover more and more of his vision. At first, it was a tenth of his vision. Then it became a fifth. A fourth. Soon a third of his vision was covered by the darkness. The one armed man was now using all that he had just to resist the urge to kill himself.


    Suddenly he looked up. There was something deep within the darkess calling him. When the one armed man looked up, he saw a pair of purple eyes opening deep within the darkness.


    The next second a feeling of despair overcame him. He felt like a prey meeting the eyes of a predator. He felt as if the only reason the one who had those eyes existed was to bring death to everyone. The one armed man felt as if the only reason he had lived for so long was so that he could die at the hands of the owner of those eyes. As if it was an unpreceded honor just to die in his presence.


    And then his heart stopped.


    The next second the one armed man gasped deeply and opened his eyes. He was back in reality. He clutched his one remaining arm and then hit his chest at the location of his heart at full force. Along with a deep breath, his heart started to beat again.


    He had truly died while inside that hallucination. If his body hadn''t instinctively released some qi at the moment of his death, it might as well have been permanent. He took deep breaths as he looked around. Even though he felt as if an entire world had been born and destroyed in the hallucination, in reality, it had only been a single instant.


    The one armed man looked up while panting at Bai Yun. He saw Bai Yun shaking his head and groaning in pain. He could see blood coming from the end of his eyes. When he opened his eyes, it seemed unfocused. It seemed to have taken a lot out of Bai Yun to bring out that killing intent.


    The one armed man realized that Bai Yun had many secrets. Secrets that even Bai Yun might not be aware of.


    After all, in the hallucination, everything, the blood sea, the stars and even the darkness all had the same feeling as Bai Yun.


    But not those eyes.


    Those eyes belonged to someone else.


    To something else.

 78 Entering the abode

    Bai Yun shook his head as he stood there. Two streams of blood slowly trickled out from the corner of his eyes. Not only that, his vision was a bit blurry. This was the backlash of projecting a killing intent that was too much for his current body to bear, even if it was only for an instant.


    Bai Yun quickly looked at his eyes with his god sense, after which he sighed thankfully. A single glance was enough for him to understand what had happened. It seems as if his injuries were only temporary. It was the same as if a mortal looked at a bright light without any protection. His sight would return in a few hours. Or many be a few days.


    He regretted attacking the one armed man with killing intent. Not only had he gotten hurt, but he had also shown a part of his killing intent to the one armed man. He did it simply because of a childish desire to one-up the one armed man. It was entirely pointless. Even though he could explain it away as being an innate killing intent, if the one armed man got suspicious, he would be in trouble.


    As Bai Yun closed his eyes and stood there slowly running his qi through his eyes to speed up his recovery, more and more of the kids started to fall and give in to the illusion. One by one they were all thrown out. Finally, only twenty-four kids, including Bai Yun were left. Only four of them were from the outer section while the remaining twenty were from the inner section.


    At this time, the one armed man finally stopped emitting killing intent. One by one the rest of the kids in the group started to wake up. Some of then were too tired to stand up and just sprawled down on the floor. There were even some of them who started to vomit after waking up.


    But as Bai Yun watched there were five people from the inner section that stood up with great difficulty. Each of them stood there with their heads held high and their hands behind their backs. They were all trying to exude an aura of confidence and ease. But he could tell that each of them were trembling quite a bit.


    These must be the leaders of the inner section. They were putting on a show to tell everyone that they were much better than the others.


    Bai Yun simply watched them for a while before he closed his eyes again. It wasn''t as if he could see well anyway.


    The one armed gave the group only a minute to catch their breath. Then he suddenly said "That''s it. If any of you here are still interested in coming, then stay here. We will be leaving in two minutes. The ones who think that this is too much can leave. This test was not placed for no reason. The entrance to the secret abode that we found contains a formation that is spewing a lot of killing intent. Thus if you cannot even withstand this level of killing intent, then there is no point in coming."


    Even though the one armed man said so, no one decided to leave. They all stood there and quickly tried to recover as much as they could. Everyone here had spend too much of their qi and mental strength to resist the killing intent given off by the one armed man.


    Two minutes quickly passed. Just as the group was getting ready to leave, the floor of the warehouse suddenly lit up. Bai Yun felt terrifying spacial fluctuations coming. He realized that the warehouse had been laden with a space transfer formation.


    Bai Yun was familiar with these formations. There were generally two types of space transfer formations. They were point to point formation and general transfer formations.


    Pont to point formations were set up between two points in space. They were extremely powerful and had very stable internal spaces. Anyone could easily travel using these formations.


    But the general space transfer formation was different. It created a pseudo spacial nexus and anyone could travel from one pseudo spacial nexus to another pseudo spacial nexus as long as they had the correct spatial coordinates of them. But for these, a spatial passage was prepared between two points immediately and temporarily and thus the passageway was not only costlier to make, but they were also highly unstable. Thus it usually required people to be in the dao step or have similar strength before they could use one.


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    And the pseudo spatial nexus that were made by formations were a copy of naturally occurring spacial nexuses. The naturally occurring spacial nexuses were weak points in the space that could be used to travel from one such spacial nexus to another. The main difference from the two was that the travel using naturally occurring spacial nexuses was far smoother than the pseudo ones, and also they do not degrade over time, unlike the pseudo ones. This caused the pseudo spacial nexus to have a high cost of maintenance. But naturally occurring spatial nexuses were extremely rare and was mostly in the hands of top factions of the universe.


    A second later the point to point formation activated and everyone disappeared from the warehouse. Bai Yun closed his eyes and carefully felt the transfer. Usually, it was not possible to tell where one would be transferred to using such a formation. But due to his high attainments in both formation as well as space dao, he was able to faintly guess the direction and the rough distance that they traveled. But the only problem was that his perception was not able to follow it exactly. The only reason he could even guess that much was because of the formation was drawn in haste.


    A few seconds later the space transfer ended. Bai Yun found himself in the middle of a large field. Everybody looked around. They were surrounded by tall mountains with sharp cliffs. They could all hear sharp winds billowing about. With a start, Bai Yun realized that he was in the Blue Moon mountains. He realized that the blood moon must have teleported them directly to the secret abode.


    But this filled Bai Yun with confusion. The secret abode was certainly valuable. But blood moon had promised that the members of the outer section can keep whatever the found.


    But the amount of money that blood moon had already spend on the mission so far was simply absurd. Setting up a point to point space transfer formation was not cheap. Doing this all for a few qi condensation realm kids seemed to be not worth it. Especially for a faction from the underworld.


    By now the rest of the people who had come with Bai Yun had also calmed down. Since this space transfer formation was laid down in a hurry, it wasn''t too stable. Bai Yun was prepared for it and it did not affect him. But some of the others, especially in their tired state, was finding it a bit disorienting. They had difficulty standing up and one of them even vomited.


    "You are here." The one armed man said suddenly. "The entrance to the secret abode is right in front of you." He said pointing to a cliff in front of him. Bai Yun could not see anything, but he figured that the whole thing was hidden by some formation.


    "All the members of the inner section can go and enter the formation directly and wait outside the gate. The members of the outer section wait outside for now." The one armed man continued. Bai Yun realized that the one armed man was about to tell them of the true objective of the mission.


    The inner section members quickly followed his directions and walked in the direction that the one armed man had pointed towards. They only walked halfway to the cliff when they disappeared from the view of the ones waiting outside.


    "All right." The one armed man said. "The call for the mission said that you can collect anything that you find inside. And it is true. But there is one exception. If you find the control node of the secret abode, then you are to turn it into us. Anything else that you find inside is yours. And it''s not like you would lose anything by giving the control node to us. You would not be able to take control of the secret abode with your cultivation. If you cannot agree to this we will not allow you to enter the secret abode." As he said this, a faint killing intent permeated the surrounds, suggesting that refusing their offer wasn''t an option


    Finally, the true aim of blood moon was shown. Considering the strength of the formation, and the fact blood moon was unable to break into it, it was highly likely that the secret abode was an artifact. A true artifact might be common in the Immortal World, but Bai Yun figured that there would be only one or two dozen of them in the entire Howling Wolf world. And it was true none of them had sufficient cultivation to control an artifact. So none of the people here had any reason to refute them.


    In a second all of them had agreed and added the condition that they would give the control of the secret abode to blood moon upon exiting if they found it. But Bai Yun did not have the death contract, so he only pretended that he added it into the death contract. It wasn''t as if they could tell the difference anyway.


    Once they all signed the contract, they were allowed to join the inner section members. They quickly entered the hiding formation and looked inside. The inner section members were waiting for them in front of a huge red door seven meters tall and more than three meters wide.


    Not only them, but Bai Yun also saw three other members of blood moon waiting nearby. Bai Yun was unable to tell their cultivation at a glance, but he could see that they were all very strong. Probably placed here by blood moon to hide the formation and to prevent anyone from getting too close.


    "You can enter the secret abode now." One of the masked men standing there said. As he did so, another member went to the secret door and start to undo a seal that they had placed on the door to hide it.


    Bai Yun joined the rest of them and stood there watching the door. He was intrigued by the various carvings on the door. They gave off an aura of nature as if the person who created it had a deep understanding of the dao. There were carvings of various beats and various demons and others, all of them arranged in beautiful patterns.


    Just as he was standing there analyzing the door, he suddenly felt someone''s eyes on him. He turned to see one of the members of the inner section staring at him. Even though he could not see well, he realized that it was one of the five who struggled to get up in the end by his aura alone.


    "Hmm." The inner section member snorted and turned away with haughtiness when Bai Yun''s eyes crossed with his. Bai Yun looked around in confusion only to see that many of the inner section members as well the outer section members were staring at him, with open hostility in their eyes. Bai Yun was confused for a while as he did not remember angering any of them. Then he realized what had happened.


    His performance in the killing intent test was too eye catching. While everyone else was only able to barely pass it, he was standing there in a very carefree manner. This must have ignited the competitive spirit in them.


    Having a competitive spirit was fine, but he was surprised by the open hostility that he sensed in their eyes. It was only childish to hate someone just because they were better than someone in one small area.


    It was only then than Bai Yun realized that they were indeed children. Bai Yun was used to dealing with people like Bai Ling-er and Zhang Zi, who were much more mature compared to their age. It made him forget that not all people at his cultivation was like this. In fact, almost all of them should be like this.


    As he looked back at the door, they had finally finished unsealing it. As the door started to open, they could feel a terrifying killing intent billowing out of it. Most of the people once again froze when they were faced with that killing intent.


    Bai Yun stared at the door. He could only see a swirling darkness inside it. Everything inside the secret abode was hidden behind the formation.


    Bai Yun glanced at the rest of them and then he moved forward towards the door. When the inner section members, especially the leaders, saw Bai Yun moving forward while ignoring the killing intent, they clenched their hands and then followed after him.


    And then Bai Yun plunged into the darkness behind the door.

 80 The first tes

    The group quickly walked up the bridge. When the group reached the part of the bridge hat curved upwards, they simply continued walking as if on a straight line. The gravity on the bridge was weird making them feel as if they were walking on a straight line on the ground even though they were walking up to the air.


    Soon the bridge started to twist in the air like a screw. They found themselves lost in the clouds. After half an hour, they realized that they had reached above the clouds. On top of the clouds they found another small continent floating in the air. When they reached there, they realized that this continent was much smaller than the one they had come from. On top of the continent, they could see five more bridges leading up to the skies, disappearing into the clouds once again. There were a few waterfalls falling from the skies into the continent here. The continent was filled with vegetation that made it look like a magical forest. Tall tress rose to the skies creating a thick canopy.


    When they saw the new continent, the entire group was stunned int silence. Other than Bai Yun they had all never even heard of something like this. They were shocked at the vastness and the magical nature of the world fragment. Even in blood moon they had never even heard of something like this much less seen one.


    But Bai Yun was surprised by something else. World fragments having multiple floating levels were nothing new to him. He had seen worlds made up of multiple levels of floating mountains. He had seen worlds where the heavenly daos went haywire, like worlds were everything was upside down, where the people were inside out, and even a world where everything was made out of candy. So he was not surprised by the world itself.


    What he did not expect that this was world fragment was still in a lower plane. A world such as this could be easily located by a strong enough god. The very fact that no one had found it yet was a miracle.


    Just as they stepped onto the continent, they saw a sign in front of the bridge.


    "Hello and welcome to the first test: Magical Forest. I am sure that you can all see that there are five paths up to the second test. Your mission is to navigate the forest and reach the five paths. But note that once the first person has stepped onto a bridge, then the bridge will start to collapse after a minute. So you better be quick."


    The group looked at the five paths that were going up and chose the one closest to them. They decided to go for that one.


    The group stood outside the forest and peered inside. They were hesitant to step inside as they had no idea what was inside the forest.


    The trees in the forest were tall. They were over a hundred meters in height. Each tree towered over the group. The trees were completely green without any other color visible. Barely any light was coming through the thick canopy. But there was an eery silence covering the entire forest.


    Bai Yun stood there and watched the forest for a while. He felt an oppressive aura coming from inside the forest. He had a feeling that this place was extremely dangerous.


    But they had no choice but to head inside. Since they had already come this far, it was sink or swim for all of them.


    Bai Yun stepped forward into the forest. Even though it was dark, all of them were cultivators at the peak of the qi condensation realm. They should be able to see, even if not perfectly, but at least adequately in the dark. But Bai Yun could barely see a few meters in front of him due to his injury.


    It was only after he took a few steps into the forest that he realized that the others in his group had not entered the forest. He turned around to see them simply watching the forest. The eerie aura of the forest had completely subdued them. They had never faced anything like this in their lives before.


    "Well don''t just stand there." Bai Yun called out to them. "If you want to win the race, you need to first step inside the forest."


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    It seemed as if his words broke them out of a reverie. The leader of the group, shadow one, seemed to be almost ashamed at the fact that he had not come to himself all on his own. He grit his teeth and quickly stepped inside the boundary of the forest. The others gathered themselves and followed after him.


    Once they were all inside, shadow one quickly directed them to move in a formation. He took the lead position and shadow ten was on the left side. Bai Yun covered their right side, while shadow forty four and shadow ninety brought up the rear. The other two were in the middle.


    Initially shadow one wanted Bai Yun to be in the middle as he did not know of his skills, but Bai Yun vehemently refused. He was not going to be surrounded by a group of people he did not know. It was the same as throwing his life away. Finally they reached an agreement and decided that Bai Yun would take one of the sides.


    As the group walked forwards, the five bridges quickly disappeared behind the canopy. But the seven of them had a good idea of the direction where the bridge was at, and they quickly went in that direction.


    But the group was extremely careful. They took each step carefully as they were worried about the dangers off the forest. Since the person who owned the world fragment called this a test, it was obvious that it was going to be a lot more than simply walking to the bridge.


    As they walked forwards, the forest seemed unchanging. All around them, tall trees rose to the skies. It seemed as if they were only marching on the spot instead of moving forward. Their knees were being scratched by the shrubbery. They could not see anything beyond their immediate vicinity.


    One step at a time, all of them started to step forward. Bai Yun kept his ears open for any small movement that he could hear. They kept on walking for more than half an hour without encountering anything other than the oppressive silence broken only by the footsteps.


    As time passed and nothing happened, the group slowly started to calm down. They were all highly wound up from the dangers of the forest at the beginning, but had calmed down by now. One by one they all started to relax.


    Bu the only person who hadn''t relaxed until now was Bai Yun. His feeling that something was wrong with this world fragment had not gone away. Thus he was still on high alert.


    In this manner, the group advanced another quarter of an hour. Suddenly Bai Yun stiffened as he heard something. The sound was so faint that it was almost impossible to hear. But in the absolute silence bereft of wind, the sound was like rumbling thunder in Bai Yun''s ears.


    The same second Bai Yun froze, shadow one, who was leading the team, also stopped and raised his fist. Seeing his action, all the other members of the group stopped and started to look around.


    Bai Yun was now completely focused on the surroundings, hoping to hear any more sounds. But try as they might, none of them could hear anything else.


    Suddenly Bai Yun''s eyes widened. He sharply turned and threw a knife at one of the two members of the group taking the rear. For a second they were all stunned. Bai Yun''s movements were far too fast and far too sudden for any of them to react.


    The next second the knife passed between the two of them who were standing at the rear and plunged into the middle of the ground just behind one of them. Before they could react and say anything, Bai Yun shouted "S**t."


    He had completely turned around by then. As his eyes fell on the ground, an angry look appeared in his eyes. There, right next to the fallen knife, was a small vine that was creeping forwards towards them.


    Bai Yun had felt something coming and turned. He had taken out the knife just in case. He saw the vine the moment he turned and threw the knife even though he could not recognize it. He just did so because when he passed by that spot earlier, there was nothing there. But due to his bad eyesight, he was not able to properly predict the trajectory of the vine and ended up missing it.


    The vine froze for the shortest of moments and then slithered forwards at full speed towards shadow ninety. Thankfully shadow ninety was alerted by Bai Yun''s knife throw and jumped forwards to avoid the vine. Bai Yun immediately took his sword, leapt towards the side and cut the vine. By now the rest of the group had seen the vine too. In front of their stunned eyes, the vine quickly retreated after being cut, while spilling some green blood like liquid along the away.


    "Be careful." Bai Yun shouted. "This must be demonic plant. Such plants can often surround you. We better group up in a circular formation."


    The rest of the group accepted Bai Yun''s proposal and stood back to back. For a few moments, there was only silence. But then a small rustling was heard from all around them. It felt like hundreds of snakes that had their eyes on then slithering through fallen leaves to strike at them.


    Not being able to see the various threats coming at them, they were all on the edge.


    So the group gulped, held their weapons close, and waited for the fight to begin.

 81 Killing the demon plan

    The group stared outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever was attacking them. The dark shadows in the forest made it impossible for them to identify what was attacking them. At the same time, the slithering sounds that replaced the eerie silence brought extra pressure on to the group.


    Demonic plants were variants of normal plants. They would get affected by evil qi and come to life. Such plants were often mindless beings that lived to only sate its hunger.


    Bai Yun peered at the place where the vine came from, waiting for the next attack. There was no way a demonic plant was going to let them go after only a single attack.


    Suddenly Bai Yun''s ears twitched as he heard something coming at them from the right side. It was a very faint sound, that anyone else would have missed. Without breaking formation, Bai Yun shouted out "Shadow Forty watch out." The place where he heard the sound from was right in front of shadow forty so he decided to simply warn him.


    But just as he said those words, Bai Yun heard a wooshing sound from behind him. From his peripheral vision, he saw Shadow One flash forward in front of shadow forty and wave his sword. The next second, another vine was cut, and the uncut piece immediately slithered back into the shadows.


    Bai Yun nearly cursed Shadow One in his mind but held himself back. A moment later, Shadow One came back to his position. But considering the fierceness he had left out with, his shoulders were slouched. "Sorry" he whispered as he came back into position.


    The instructors at blood moon had told them the importance of staying formation many times before. When you sense something, you should inform the person concerned and not break formation. But being young, immature and full of fighting spirit, Shadow One forgot about it and immediately rushed out, breaking their formation. What made it even worse for Shadow One was that Bai Yun had responded perfectly to the situation.


    As he returned back to his position, he glanced at Bai Yun. There was a complicated look in his eyes. But since Bai Yun was turned away from him, he did not see it. If he had done so, he would have seen the slight resentment deep in shadow ones yes. But they were buried deep indeed. Maybe not even Shadow one might have been aware of it himself.


    Bai Yun''s eyes continued to stare and glance all around him. He was not going to make a mistake in the current situation and end up as plant fodder.


    Soon after that, the plant demon tried to attack them from various sides. But with Bai Yun and Shadow One''s senses, they were able to see all of these attacks coming. Thanks to his earlier mistake, Shadow One did not lose his composure and properly directed the people to react. Due to the cooperation of the two of them, time passed quickly without any injuries.


    A few minutes later, the plant demon seemed to have given up on the hunt. Even after waiting for a few minutes, they did not sense any new attacks coming. But this did not quench the fears of the groups, and only caused them to focus more instead.


    In the dark forest, their vision was severely impeded, so all of them had to focus on various other senses to survive. So they were all focussed on their hearing to predict the plant monster.


    But even after waiting for a long while, the group did not see any action from the plant demon. Just as they thought that the demon had left and their vigilance was starting to drop, Bai Yun heard something coming from behind him, straight in front of shadow one.


    "Damn." He heard shadow one scream. Using his peripheral vision, Bai Yun looked behind him. In front of shadow one, he saw a mess of large collection of vines leaping towards shadow one. It seemed as if the plant demon had given up on trying to pick them off one by one and was now attacking in mass.


    "Watch out for sneak attacks." Bai Yun shouted as he turned around and headed to defend the group. Now that the plant demon had decided to attack in force, it was no longer necessary to maintain a circular formation. But they still needed to be careful as the plant demon might use their distraction to its advantage. After all, it had the advantage in numbers with all its vines.


    In an instant, the group had regrouped into a line and started to slash at the plant demon. Each of them maintained a short distance from each other, so as not to get in each other''s way, but close enough in case they need to help each other.


    Bai Yun used his sword to slash at the plant demon, but other than cutting down some vines, they seem to be completely ineffective. The plant demon semed to have an incalculable amount of vines and seemed to be able to recover easily.


    "This won''t do." Shadow one shouted. "If we keep this up, we will only get tired and will end up dead. We need to change strategies."


    There was no need for him to shoot it out. Everyone could tell that was the case even without his reminder. But there was nothing that they could do due to the current situation.


    "We need to find a weak point of the demon." One of them shouted. "All demonic beasts usually have a weakness in their mouths. It should be the same for demonic plants too. We simply need to find a way to get its mouth open."


    Everyone knew about this. But the only way to get the beast to open its mouth would be to get eaten. And there was no way any of them would be stupid enough to offer themselves up as bait.


    Bai Yun kept on thinking about this problem even as he fought. Since he was well versed with fighting multiple enemies, and with the terrifying power of simple sword, he was able to easily keep the vines at bay even with his blurry vision. But he knew that he could not allow this to continue. After all, the rest of them came from blood moon. If the situation turned for the worse, he might be sacrificed as the outsider of the group.


    Suddenly the noises of fighting were drowned out by a scream. From the edge of his sight, Bai Yun saw that shadow sixteen was falling to the ground. A vine had slipped through his defenses and he had been captured by the plant demon.


    But not a single one reacted. Even though they could all probably save him from the plant demon, they decided to use him as the bait to draw out the demon instead. There was no time for chivalry in the face of death. Besides this was the best plan to save all of them.


    "Does anyone have explosives or a single powerful attack." Bai Yun shouted.


    "I have explosive talismans." Shadow one shouted back.


    "Great." Bai Yun replied. After thinking for an instant, he laid out his plan. "When the demon appears, I will use an area attack and open up a path for you. Use that chance to throw the talisman at the demon."


    "Shadow ten I need a moment free to use my attack. Make sure you cover me at that time. If I get distracted I would fail, and we will lose our one chance."


    Shadow one and shadow ten nodded. They knew about the importance of the task. If they failed to kill or severely wound the enemy, they may die here.


    The group watched as the plant demon slowly pulled shadow sixteen to it. With one less person in the defense, it was much harder than before.


    Suddenly the middle of the group of vines started to spread out. In there, a small reb bulb appeared. As the group watched, the small red bulb became bigger and bigger in front of their eyes.


    When the red bulb became the size of a person, it suddenly opened with a roar. The bulb opened up like a flower with five red petals. But instead of a beautiful, it was a terrifying picture. Sharp shark-like teeth lined the edge of each petal. In the middle of the flower was a big gaping hole from which a long tongue darted out. Along with the mouth, a foul smell of something decaying was spreading. By now shadow sixteen was near the monster''s mouth and was desperately struggling to escape. Due to the danger he was in, he hadn''t heard Bai Yun''s plan.


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    "Shadow ten cover me." Bai Yun shouted. Right after that, he completely threw away his defense and focused all on nothing but his sword. Shadow ten was prepared for this and quickly stepped in. But he was finding it difficult and was barely holding the vines back. It was obvious that he could not do this for a long time.


    As Bai Yun stood there a silvery glow slowly started to appear at the tip of his sword. In three seconds the tip lit up brightly.


    Bai Yun ignored the vines that were coming at him at thrust his sword in front of him. "Rain in the moonlight!" He shouted as he thrust his sword forward.


    In an instant, the region in front of the group was lit up by sword strikes. hundreds of sword images appeared and disappeared in an instant. As the group watched, the vines of the plant demon were split apart rapidly by the attack, along with a painful roar of the demon. In front of their eyes, a path seemed to appear that led directly to the demon''s mouth.


    Shadow one did not waste even a second. Even before the sword shadows disappeared, he ran at the mouth of the demon. He sharply turned and grabbed shadow sixteen, who had almost become plant food, with his left hand. At the same moment, while he was turning, he threw a paper into the mouth of the plant demon. He then leaped back toward the group with all his strength. Just as he passed, the place that he had been standing at was once again covered by vines.


    Just as he landed among the group, there was an explosion behind them. A second later a powerful blast of wind hit them, knocking the air out of some who were not prepared for it. Since the plant demon hadn''t closed its mouth, the shockwave also escaped through its mouth.


    Once things had calmed down, the group looked back at the plant demon, only to find that it had not died yet. It was struggling but it was still alive.


    Bai Yun frowned when he saw this. Plant demons were truly annoying to kill. They had great vitality and no particular weak point.


    He took a deep breath and ran into the demon''s close quarters ready to attack it before it recovers from the explosion. The rest of the team was not able to react quickly enough and only watched as he ran in.


    Suddenly the demon roared once again and attacked again in rage. In an instant, Bai Yun was once again covered with vines attacking from everywhere. Just as the rest of the group were about to make a move, a sharp slashing noise reverberated throughout the place. The plant demon went still a second later.


    As the group watched, the vines of the plant demon started to fall down one by one. Soon the field was clear. What they saw stunned them.


    Bai Yun standing there, in the middle of the plant demons corpse. The mouth of the demon was only inches from him. His clothes were torn in multiple places. He had a few blood stains on his body, but none of his injuries seemed lethal. Most of the blood on his body was from the plant demon anyway.


    But the demon was split in two. It was clearly dead. In fact, there was a deep gash on the ground that coincided with the wound on the plant demon that stretched out a few meters behind the demon.


    The team just stared at Bai Yun, not knowing what to say, their silence indicating their shock.

 82 Spli

    The group only stared at Bai Yun. They could not believe that he had easily killed the plant demon that they could not kill even after such a long fight. So they simply stared at him waiting for an explanation.


    "If you had such a powerful attack, then why did you wait until now to use it." Shadow one asked Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun was gasping for breath, but his back was turned to the group so they did not see it. He had forgotten that these were not his old companions and rushed in thinking that they would be right beside him. The mistake nearly cost him his life. If he hadn''t used his final trump card just now, he would certainly have died.


    Bai Yun calmed himself down, took a deep breath and turned around to face the group. He did not want them to see just how tired he was in case they decided to turn on him in his weakness.


    "As if I could fire attacks like that whenever I wanted." Bai Yun replied with a chuckle. "That was one of the talismans my father gave me. I wasn''t sure if sword attacks were effective against plant demons, so I didn''t use it until I was in great danger. Thankfully it worked. Or else I would be dead by now."


    Shadow one nodded as he heard this. This explanation made sense to everyone. Bai Yun also saw a few of them give a soft sigh in relief. If he could throw such attacks with ease, then he was far too dangerous to be around.


    Once they confirmed that the demonic plant was indeed dead, they decided to rest for a while. While swiftly getting to the bridge was important, getting there alive was even more important. In the present situation with most of the team severely drained of qi and tired and injured, it was dangerous to forge ahead. If another danger of the same caliber as the demonic plant that they had just fought were to come across them in their tired state, they would certainly lose a couple of people.


    The group rested for six hours before they decided to resume their journey. Even though he had exhausted the most qi, Bai Yun had easily recovered by then. After all not only was his cultivation the weakest, his technique was also the strongest. So no one doubted his claim that he did not expend too much energy.


    During the time that they had rested, Shadow One had climbed a nearby tree to ascertain their position. With a start, he realized that they had drifted slightly from the course they were on. Once they found the bridge closest to them, they started to walk in its direction after correcting the course.


    The group walked through the forest carefully. Last time they got lucky. Plant demons weren''t especially known for their stealth. If they were not careful, they could die if the next danger was better hidden.


    Bai Yun''s sight had turned for the better by now. Even though it still looked as if things were out of focus, things were much better than before. This filled Bai Yun with higher confidence.


    As the group started to walk, a fog slowly covered their sights. It was already hard to see with just the darkness of the forest, but with the added fog, it became even harder. Soon it was difficult to even see each other. The group reduced the distance between them so as not to lose each other.


    Even as the walked further the bad feeling that Bai Yun was getting only intensified. He knew that there was a problem with the forest, but he could not tell what it was.


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    As they proceeded further, Bai Yun''s heart suddenly started to palpitate. "Stop." He shouted out to the group.


    The group immediately came to a halt. In an instant, all of their senses tightened and they looked around vigilantly. But even after a moment, nothing appeared in front of them.


    "What''s wrong." Shadow one asked.


    "I don''t know." Bai Yun replied. "My subconscious is warning me. I think something is wrong. But I can''t be sure what."


    For a few moments the group looked around vigilantly. Suddenly shadow forty four exclaimed. "What''s that sound?"


    It was only now that the rest of the group realized that there was a soft murmur coming from all around them. The noise seemed to have appeared and raised itself so slowly that they did not realize it. Like a frog being slowly boiled alive, they only realized it too late.


    "We can''t see anything because of the damn fog." Shadow one replied.


    "I may have something." Shadow forty four said.


    He groped inside his robes for a while before he pulled out a small piece of paper. Members of blood moon were not like Bai Yun and did not receive a storage ring. Once he had the paper, shadow forty four threw the paper up into the air. Once it reached a good height, it slowly caught on fire and then exploded while releasing a huge burst of wind. Very quickly all the fog in a hundred meter radius of the group was dispersed. But the fog which was dispersed was quickly trying to get back.


    But the group did not notice this. They were preoccupied with something else.


    In front of their eyes, hundreds of red eyes dotted the darkness.


    For a while the soft murmur stopped. With a start, the group realized that the murmur they were hearing was the sound of small footsteps. They gulped as the watched the scene outside with horror.


    "Its a horde of black tread mice!" Shadow ten said softly, voicing what they were all thinking.


    Black tread mouse was a species of demonic beasts. They were not very powerful individually, most of them only grew to first circle of the qi step. But they always acted in a group. And these groups could grow to absurdly huge sizes, even covering planets. And in a population of that size mutations were inevitable, creating variants which were much stronger than ordinary mice. Thus they could destroy and devour huge areas and leave them in ruin. After all, with enough numbers, anyone below the immortal step could be defeated. There were even legends of entire worlds completely run over by black tread mice.


    So when the group saw the huge numbers of black tread mice in front of them, they were visibly terrified. It would be extremely difficult to escape from the horde. Especially since they had no idea how large the horde was.


    For a short while, there was only silence. Then the entire horde of mice ran at them with a shrill cry.


    The group immediately took out their weapons and started to attack them. But there were many problems. Not only were there far too many mice, but they were also not very big. So a huge number of them could surround the group at every second and attack every one easily. And since most of them barely went above their knees, it was difficult to properly defend too.


    By now the fog that was dispersed had started to seep back in, impairing their vision. They could only see a few feet in front of them. Not that it mattered, the only thing around them was black tread mice anyway. So no matter where they turned, it was only to kill mice.


    Bai Yun kept on slashing and slashing. Thanks to his great experience in battle, he was able to kill two or even more mice with each swing. Each and every one of his attacks attacked the weak points of the mice. But that did not mean that he was having it easy either. Soon the mice started to climb over the dead bodies of their brethren to get at them.


    "This won''t work." Bai Yun called out while continuing his assault. "There are too many mice. If we keep this up we will be overrun eventually."


    "Any ideas?" Shadow one shouted back.


    "The fact that the demonic plant was able to survive means that the mice have not completely overrun the forest." Bai Yun replied. "They must have their own regions. We only have to get out and they should stop attacking us."


    "Should?" Shadow ninety asked.


    "Well, these things are annoying." Bai Yun explained. "They just might decide to chase after us. In which case we might have to join hands with whoever has the other regions in their control to fight the mice."


    The group agreed with Bai Yun''s decision. It was not like they had a choice anyway.


    As one, while fighting, they started to move towards the bridge. They figured that since they had no idea which direction was closest to the exit of the mice''s territory, they might as well head there.


    With each step that they took, they had to kill even more mice. To them, it felt as if they were wading through an ocean of mice to get to the other side.


    Bai Yun soon lost sight of all the other sin his group. The fog was too thick to see through and they had all run off in different directions altogether. But he could still hear the sounds of weapons and the shrill cry of the mice.


    "Don''t get too far away from each other." Bai Yun reminded them. "If we lose each other, we would have to face much greater pressure."


    When he said this the sounds of weapons slashing slowed down. Then the sounds seem to come closer towards him as if they were all converging on his position. Soon Bai Yun could even see some silhouettes through the fog.


    But this only lasted for a short while. They all had to conserve strength as they did not know for how long the chase will last. Thus they tried to dodge as much as possible and only tried to attack when necessary. Thus they kept on getting farther and farther away from each other. Even though Bai Yun tried to keep them close to each other it was in vain. Soon even the sounds of weapons could no longer be heard, and he found himself all alone.


    Bai Yun kept on running while attacking the mice. He then found that the number of mice seemed to decrease around him. Bai Yun was invigorated by the find and kept on running. He even used wind motion, not giving any thought to the amount of qi he had. His only thought was to escape from the mice for now.


    The chase lasted for nearly an hour before it ended. Bai Yun was panting heavily while leaning on a tree. By the time Bai Yun found himself alone, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar part of the forest. The mice had retreated about five minutes ago, but he had kept on running just in case.


    One he found his breath, he took a look around himself. Not finding any threats, he decided to rest for a while. He had expanded more than two thirds of his qi in the chase. Bai Yun laid down on the ground to sleep, as well as recover.


    Six hours later, he finally woke up. Bai Yun had almost completely recovered by now. The training that he did in the gravity camber was finally showing its effects.


    Once he did so, Bai Yun started to climb a nearby tree.


    He had to find out where he was.


    And get to the bridge at the earliest.

 83 Second tes

    Once Bai Yun climbed to the top of the tree, he found that he was quite close to the bridge. He was at most half a kilometer from the bridge. Bai Yun quickly climbed down and continued on his way to the bridge. For a while, he thought of heading over on the canopy instead of the forest floor, but if there was an avian threat then he would be in deep trouble.


    It did not take Bai Yun too long to reach the bridge. He was not too surprised to learn that he was the first person there. He decided to wait there for a while before heading up. If the rest of the group arrived and he alone had gone up, it could create problems later.


    Bai Yun patiently waited for the rest. Thankfully after half an hour, shadow ten appeared.


    When shadow ten appeared Bai Yun almost did not recognize him. His robes were completely destroyed up to his knees and there were many claw marks on his feet. But other than that he seemed to be fine.


    They two of them just nodded to each other. After this they sat down and waited for the rest to arrive. Shadow ten also tried to use this time to recover from his injuries.


    As time passed the rest of the group also started to appear one after another. Soon all of them except for shadow sixteen had arrived within an hour after shadow ten.


    "Should we wait for him." Bai Yun asked. Since Shadow sixteen was a member of blood moon, he did not feel like it was his place to act.


    The rest of them all looked at shadow one. He waited for a few moments before speaking. "Let us wait for another half an hour. If he still does not appear, we must leave."


    They all nodded their acceptance. Bai Yun had nothing to say to this. He was sure that if it was him who had failed to turn up, they would have long left him here.


    But even after another half an hour, shadow sixteen did not turn up. Without any other choice, the group decided to head on up. They left a message for shadow sixteen in case he did show up. But by now most of the people were not confident that he was still alive.


    Shadow one took the lead and stepped onto the bridge first, followed by the rest of blood moon. Bai Yun was the final one to step on to the bridge, bringing up the rear. Soon after him, the bridge started to collapse behind them.


    Soon the group had left the canopy and reached a much higher level. From here they could see two other bridges that were raising to the skies and disappearing into the clouds like this one. Since only two bridges were left, it meant that they were the third group to have reached a bridge.


    "I bet that if we didn''t have to wait for that idiot, we would have been much faster." Shadow one hundred and ten murmured. The rest of them seemed to agree with his sentiment.


    "Hush." SHadow one reprimanded him. "It could be just bad luck. There is no need to demean him."


    Once he said so all the others quickly quieted down. Bai Yun took a long hard look at Shadow one. He seemed to have the natural demeanor of a leader. Even though he was still filled with inexperience and naivety, those could easily be fixed with time.


    The group passed the lands with silence. From the distance they maintained with Bai Yun, he figured that the silence was due to the fact that he was with them. Else they might be chattering on and on by now. After all, there were no dangers on the bridge.


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    After a while, the bridge finally entered the clouds. Then, just like the first bridge they were on, it started to twist around and around. Finally, they rose above the second layer of clouds and turned to see a land up ahead.


    Unlike the first land beneath, this place seemed to be a dry mountainous landmass. They could see vast rock columns rising from the ground, like fists raised in defiance of the heavens. They also saw many trees and grass interspersed with the rock. But much of their sights were on huge columns and slabs of rock. From afar, they seemed to be looking at an ancient fortress that had fallen into disrepair.


    And from the middle of the giant colosseum like structure, rose a single bridge that rose to the skies and disappeared into the clouds.


    When they stepped off the bridge and on to the landmass, the first thing that greeted their eyes was a small plaque.


    "Hello, all. Welcome and congratulations on reaching the second test. In the second test, there are no dangers. The only thing there is is the test itself. As you can see, in front of you is a maze. And at the very center of it is the only bridge to the third and final test. This bridge will only accept a maximum of ten people and will start to collapse at most a minute after the first person has stepped on it. Thus the challenge of this level is simple. Get to the center as fast as you can. Also, once the bridge is destroyed, a beast far beyond your limits will be released to kill all who stays behind. Good luck."


    When they read the plaque, the color drained from everyone''s eyes. They were already the third team to get here. Who knows how much time the other teams have had to search for the bridge.


    Without wasting any time, the entire group turned and ran towards the maze. They were definitely in a hurry.


    Once the group entered the rock maze, they found themselves lost. Calling it a maze was not correct. It felt more like a large rock city rather than a maze. There were trees and flowers on the road, and the distance between the two walls were very wide. There were even some hill like structures visible.


    "See if we can climb the walls." Shadow one asked. Bai Yun simply shook his head. Even with his poor eyesight, he could see restrictive inscriptions which forbid people from climbing higher than a certain height. But even if he told them, they would still test it out themselves.


    And just as he expected, shadow forty-four, who went to check, was unable to advance once he climbed to six meters. Once they checked this they decided to walk directly towards the bridge as fast as they could.


    Unfortunately, the path forward was often blocked. Even though they had a general idea of the bridge''s location, they could not reach it no matter how hard they tried. By their own estimate, they found that they must have drifted off course by a huge lot by the time two hours had passed.


    Once they found that out, they decided to stop and plan ahead. Each member planned the route they took in their own head and tried to see where they were in relation to the bridge. After all of them had that, they sat down and compared notes to see if they had any idea of where they were.


    Once they did so, they realized almost all of them were in agreement. But it also looked as if the direct route towards the bridge lead them directly towards a hill.


    "There''s no way to climb the hill. We need to go around it." Shadow one said.


    Suddenly Shadow ten exclaimed. "There are caves in the hill."


    "So." The rest of them looked at him quizzically.


    "I am saying what if they are not caves. What if they are tunnels." Shadow ten explained.


    For a while, they only looked at each other. "Can''t hurt to check it out." Bai Yun said.


    Once they decided on the plan of action, they headed straight for the hill. It was only when they reached it that they realized that it was bigger and farther than they imagined. And the tunnels were extremely wide, enough for three people to walk abreast of each other with no problem.


    As the headed down the tunnels,the realized that the tunnels were part of a complex network of tunnels that went through the hill. They quickly realized the direction they need to head in and set off. Thankfully the network of tunnels was not much like a maze, thus it did not make them lose their way.


    As they were walking through the tunnels, Bai Yun gently ran his hands over the walls of the tunnels. It felt rough and unnatural to him.


    "These tunnels aren''t natural or manmade." Bai Yun said. "They seem to have been made by a beast or some other race. But I can sense some very strange minerals in here. There must be precious gems deep in the walls of the hill."


    "It doesn''t matter what made these tunnels or why as long as we can get to the other side." One of them muttered.


    Bai Yun nodded his agreement and the group hurried along the direction of the bridge. But even as he walked, he felt that there was something about these tunnels that reminded him of something. But he just couldn''t put his finger down on what exactly it was. Thinking that it wouldn''t matter in a few minutes, he decided to head on in faster.


    In less than a quarter of an hour, they had left the tunnels and arrived at the other side of the hill. In front of them was a vast plains. They could see a lot of trees and rocks outcrops from there. And from where they stood they finally had another look at the bridge. The bridge was closer than ever before and seemed to be taunting them.


    The group sighed at the sight of the bridge. They were about to run in the direction of the bridge when a small voice ran all around the land.


    "Ding-dong. Times up. The first team has already reached the bridge, and the bridge has started to collapse. So thanks to the rest for playing, but the game is over. I hope that you guys can survive until the first group finishes the test."


    The moment the voice ran out over the plain, the entire land rumbled. For a moment nothing but silence seemed to reign over the landmass. The entire group just stood there waiting for something to happen. But the wait was even more terrifying than anything out there.


    Slowly a roar sounded out. It slowly echoed over to where the group stood. As they heard the mighty sound, each and every one of felt a terror they had never felt before shaking them to their bones.


    "I have heard this sound before." Bai Yun muttered. A memory deep inside him was struggling to come out.


    And then it hit them. A long distance from them a giant elephant head attached to a long neck slowly rose. The beast was so far from them that they could only get a vague look, but that was enough for them to understand its strength. And that realization left them breathless.


    "Grootslang." Bai Yun said as he looked at the far away creature.


    "Oh. We are so dead." Shadow forty four muttered.

 84 The truth

    Grootslang.


    A terrifying monster with the head of an elephant and body of a snake, the Grootslang was considered to be one of the most dangerous of all beasts. A descended of the heaven swallowing python as well as the heaven trampling elephant, it was a mythical monster with incredible powers.


    The Grootslang often stayed in deep dark caves deep in the earth. It''s favorite past time was to kill people and find treasures and gems. Unfortunately the bloodline it inherited meant that it was extremely cruel and liked to even torture and play with its prey before it killed and ate it.


    Due to its nature of being cruel and hungry, it often killed a huge number of people. As a result, a long time before Bai Yun''s previous life, people banded together and started a campaign to eliminate the Grootslang from the universe. It only ended when the Grootslang was near extinction, and the magical beast race finally stepped in to protect the species. By the time Bai Yun was born, the Grootslangs were much fewer and quieter and cases of them attacking humans were few and in between.


    All of this meant that the moment the Grootslang was let loose, it was the end of the group. Their chances of getting out of here alive were minimal at best.


    As the group watched, they saw the Grootslang slowly turn around and start attacking the other team. The group sighed in relief at the sight. At least it would be a while before they are killed. Maybe they could come up with a countermeasure in the meantime.


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    "Let''s run and hide. According to what the voice said, maybe we can escape if the group that went up somehow succeeded in the third test." Shadow ten said. Usually he would be worried about the fact that someone else would be getting the credit for the exploration. But right now they were more scared about losing their lives to about credit.


    "What''s the point." Bai Yun said. "Based on the enormous size of it it must have at least reached the dao step. And the Grootslang is fast even in its own cultivation realm. We have no hope of success."


    "If it has already reached the dao step, then it would have gained sentience and become a magical beast, right." Shadow ninety asked. "Can''t we reason with it, or beg us to let us go."


    "If it was any other beast it would have been possible." Bai Yun replied. "But not with the Grootslang. It enjoys killing humans. They only think of us as prey. And would you communicate with a rabbit? Its the same for the Grootslang.That is why they were hunted to near extinction in the past. I never thought that I would see one today."


    "No matter." Shadow one said. "I have no desire to make it easier for the beast. Let us try to see how long it would take him to kill us."


    After seeing this the group charged back into the tunnels. From the look of things, these tunnels were probably made by the Grootslang. But they had no other choice. Being out in the open would only make them fodder for the Grootslang even faster.


    As they ran, Bai Yun felt a weird kind of peace. He was using every piece of memory in his mind to try and come up with a solution. But no matter how hard he tried he could not. Since the restriction of the small world was powerful, he could not bring anything whose power was over the qi condensation realm. As a result, he had none of his life saving things with him.


    As he realized this, Bai Yun finally realized that he had run out of luck. This was probably where he was going to die. He realized that his habit of heading straight into danger had finally backfired on him.


    Thus was the first time in both of his lives that Bai Yun felt that he had no chance of survival. No matter whether it was when he was chased by an army of devils during the great war, or when he was facing the devil emperor or even when he faced the enemy in the auction house, he had never felt so close to death. He felt as if he was going to die and there was nothing that he could do about it.


    But even as he thought about death, he thought about his parents. His parents from his previous life were gone, but his parents from his current lie were still alive. He was sure that they would mourn him. That they would be sad. Somehow, he felt a pain in his heart when he thought about them.


    Bai Yun had told himself that he should keep a distance from his family. He felt that they were not his true parents. But now he realized that without even realizing it, he had placed them in the heart right next to his parents from his past life. Somehow the image of his mother smiling and teaching him cultivation in his past life overlapped with that of Xiao Mei-er crying and refusing to let him leave the house.


    Bai Yun shook his head and continued running. They quickly reached the other end of the hill and continued running. Their hope was to find a place where they could hide out for long enough to survive. But most of the land was rocky and there was nowhere to hide. Their only consolation was the fact that due to the maze like nature of the place, it would take a while for the Grootslang to find them.


    As he looked up into the sky, Bai Yun was startled. He realized that the inscriptions restricting their ascend were gone. When he pointed it out, the rest was glad for a moment before they calmed down. Even though it meant that they could run in an extra dimension, it didn''t matter much to them. After all none of them could fly. The only way this was useful was if there was a good hole to hide in somewhere above them.


    But even after running for half an hour the Grootslang had not caught up with them. This confused Bai Yun. The Grootslang was known for its speed and cruelty. Why would it take so long to catch up with them? Maybe the beast was playing with its prey or torturing it before killing it.


    When he raised his concerns to the rest, they went pale with fear. Now more than dying, they feared being tortured by the beast. Some of them even thought about ending their own lives if the beast caught up with them.


    Suddenly there was a rumble in the distance. As the group watched, one of the giant rock slabs in the distance crumbled and collapsed in front of them. And from the rubble, a giant elephant head slowly slithered out.


    Seeing the Grootslang in the distance, the group turned pale with fear. "Is this fast enough for you." Shadow ten cursed.


    But even as he watched the approaching Grootslang, Bai Yun felt that something was wrong. In his past life, he had hunted a Grootslang once. Even though this one was nowhere near that in size and speed, it still did not match up with what he knew about Grootslangs. The Grootslang should be much faster than it was being. Based on its size, it should be at the dao step. But a dao step turtle would move faster than the Grootslang was currently moving.


    "We need to run away in different directions. Staying together means dying that must faster." Bai Yun said. He ignored the inconsistencies he saw and threw them to the back of the head. After all surviving was the most important thing for now. Everything else could wait.


    The group agreed with Bai Yun''s thoughts immediately. Without waiting for anybody else, each member of the group turned in different directions and started to run with all their might.


    The Grootslang stared at its prey for a while. Then it looked at Shadow forty four, who was closest to it and started to lazily chase after him. The whole thing seemed to be a fun endeavor for the Grootslang as it seemed to be moving even slower than before. The rest of them let off a sigh of relief before taking off even faster.


    "Damn it, why the hell would a formation master keep a Grootslang as a pet!" Shadow one cursed as he ran.


    Bai Yun heard what he said and continued to run away. But then he came to a sudden stop. "What did you say?" He asked Shadow one incredulously while running to catch up with him.


    "What?" Shadow one was confused. He did not why Bai Yun ran towards him.


    "About a formation master?"


    "Tian Ming, the person who owned this small world." Shadow one explained. "Everyone knows that he is a world famous formation master from four hundred thousand years ago. What, you didn''t know about it."


    The moment Bai Yun heard this, it was like an explosion was set off inside his head. One by one the pieces that he had missed before started to fall into place. As he turned around to look at the Grootslang, somehow his eyes finally recovered. It felt as if he was he finally could see the world clearly, for what it truly was.


    Bai Yun thought of the fact that when they arrived he felt something wrong with the world. His eyes were blurry so he didn''t notice it then, but he finally realized what his perception had caught then. The identical grasses. The uniform flowers. Those repeating patterns sewn into the landscape. The qi that was the same as the world outside.


    Bai Yun thought of the bridges that appeared, and the way they twisted around confusing the senses. He thought of the trees that repeated and the vines and the mice that were identical to each other. As if they were all copies of a single blueprint.


    He thought of the fact that there were five bridges, and there were five teams. He thought of how each team easily found a bridge. As if someone was directing the whole thing from behind. Like a puppeteer guiding the world to play out a script.


    Bai Yun looked at the rocks. Even though they were made to look different, all the rocks were made from the same thing. He saw the repeating patterns hat he had missed making the very fabric of the land that he stood on. Patterns he had missed due to his eyes.


    He saw the Grootslang. He finally realized why it was so slow. Why the scales on it all behaves the same.


    He then closed his eyes and cursed himself. As someone who had reached the god realm in formations, he should have seen this earlier. He should not have been led by the nose for so long. After all, the person who created this wasn''t trying to hide it at all. Everything was laid out in the open.


    That''s right. They were not in a small world.


    They were in a very powerful formation.


    The false world.


    And with this realization came a small piece of hope.


    And a chance at survival.

 85 The False World

    The false world is an extremely powerful formation. Typically only someone at the immortal step would be able to set it up.


    The false world created an entirely new world, complete with qi, life, and land. The important thing was that at first look it would look identical to the real world, but there were significant repetition and patterns inherent in its creation. After all, no matter how much one tried, a virtual world could only be created with limited resources. Thus it was easier to repeat creations rather than make them from the start to save them.


    The false world created huge illusions over huge swaths of land. And these illusions could turn real. But the cost of turning an illusion real was extremely high. Thus usually only the immediate surrounding of a person would be turned into reality. If a person was sitting on a tree, then to save energy, only the tree would be real and the rest of the world that the person sees would be illusionary. Then, if than person jumped from one tree to another, the tree jumped from would turn illusionary, into a virtual tree, and the tree he jumped to would become real.


    Another terrifying fact about the false world was its ability to bend space. It could twist space around as you moved so that you would feel like you have run in a straight line, but could be simply running in circles instead. Thus it was difficult to see where you truly were. The people who seemed to be standing right next to you could in truth be miles away. And even if two people were very close to each other, they could be seeing very different things.


    Another annoying ability of the false world was to overwhelm the senses of people and make them see very different things.


    The power of the false world could change depending on the power of the person and the core of the formation. The core of the formation was what it gave the power to function. If it was powerful enough, even immortals could be trapped in false worlds without their knowledge.


    And the reason there were twisting bridges in the world was so that no one would recognize the twisting of the space and realize that they were in the same plane all along, just seeing different things.


    And this also explained why the Grootlsang was so slow. It took time to render the illusion. The Grootlsang could not move too fast as then the rendering of the illusion would not be able to keep up with the Grootlsang''s speed. This was also why the Grootlsang slowed down when they split up. After all, with the group splitting up the false world had to make a much larger part of the illusion into reality, taking up more resources. Thus it could only render the Grootlsang slower. And it was easy to create stationary things like rocks and trees rather than moving things like the Grootlsang. That was why there was no wind in the world so that there was no movement from the trees or grass.


    Once Bai Yun realize that, he knew that there was a chance at escape. It was not like the danger became less. After all, if you get caught by a rendering of the Grootlsang in the false world, it was the same as if they gat caught by a Grootlsang in real life. There was no difference at their cultivation levels anyway.


    But there was a way out. A way to destroy the false world itself.


    "Hey!" Bai Yun shouted out.


    It had taken Bai Yun only less than a second to realize that the small world was in fact a false world and come up with a countermeasure. Thus he had not taken much time since they had split up. So all of them were still close to each other, within hearing distances. So they all heard Ba Yun''s shout and turned to look at him.


    "If you guys want to survive, do exactly as I say." Bai Yun shouted.


    When they heard this, the rest of the group looked surprised and hopeful. Bai Yun had proven his capability in the path that they had taken here, so they were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. They had nothing to lose anyway.


    "Grab a piece of rock or a twig or something. Then tie a piece of your cloth to it and throw them as far as you can. Make sure that they all land as far away from each other as possible." Bai Yun shouted. While shouting, he did as he told. He picked up a piece of rock on the ground ad then tied a piece of his cloth around it and threw it far away.


    The rest of the group stared at him in confusion. They had no idea why he would suggest something like this. But seeing the seriousness with which Bai Yun followed his words, they decided to follow his actions. When you are at the very end of despair, you would hold onto anything that promised even a bit of hope. Even if it made no sense.


    It was not without reason that Bai Yun asked them to do this. The piece of clothing that they carried with them was a piece of reality. The place around that piece of reality had to be made into a real place from an illusion. At the very least the place the cloth fell on would have to be turned into reality. Else the cloth would simply fall through the floor, creating an anomaly. Complicated false worlds all had their own ways to solve this problem. But from Bai Yun''s quick look, it didn''t look that way.


    And the reason he asked them to tie the cloth to a rock was that clothes don''t fly very far on their own. And the piece of rock would be forced to materialize so that it could further add to the formations resource needs.


    A few moments after Bai Yun suggested this, the effects were quite apparent. The Grootlsang, which was already too slow, slowed down even further. This gave the group hope for survival. They picked up the pace and started to throw things even further and faster.


    And in this time, the Grootlsang slowly crawled closer to shadow forty four. Even though it had slowed down, it was still faster than anyone in the group. Slowly it reached shadow forty four and with a single bite, it ripped him in two. Then it slowly swallowed the body of shadow forty four and then turned around again.


    This time the target of the Grootlsang was shadow ten. Bai Yun was keeping a close eye on the formations, so he could easily see when it would be destroyed. And from the corner of his eyes, he started seeing some discrepancies in the formation. Seeing that their efforts were working, he urged them to go faster.


    "Keep on doing what you are doing. We are almost out of the woods." Bai Yun shouted.


    "What exactly are we doing?" Shadow ten asked. He was scared by the fact that the Grootlsang had chosen him next. He wasn''t sure if whatever Bai Yun was trying was going to work.


    "Just do it. I''ll explain once we survive." Bai Yun shouted back while continuing to throw things once again.


    The rest of the group followed his advice. The kept on throwing pieces of cloth while running. For a while, the land was filled with the woosh of flying things and the slow slithering of the Grootlsang. It even seemed to be too lazy to roar.


    Slowly the Grootlsang came closer and closer to shadow ten. He finally dropped throwing things and just started to run as fast as he could, applying all of his strength and all the movement techniques that he knew. Unfortunately, the movement techniques that blood moon taught were made especially for assassinations and combat, thus they did not have much effect in running away.


    Slowly the Grootlsang gained on him. Finally, it reached shadow ten and slowly raised its head high in the air, blood dripping from its mouth and tusks and then lunged down to bite at him. For a moment shadow ten, was frozen with fear. He could not even use his movement technique to dodge as he was paralyzed with fear.


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    And then the Grootlsang bit shadow ten. As he was bitten, he curled up and put his hands up in defense. But even as he braced for impact, the pain of being torn in half did not arrive. He slowly opened his eyes to see that he was inside the Grootlsang''s mouth, and he could see its sharp teeth piercing his waist. But somehow it did not hurt him, almost as if the Grootlsang was only an illusion.


    Bai Yun who was keeping a close eye on things finally stopped running. He turned around and looked at the Grootlsang, and sat down panting. He had a grin on his face, though it was hidden by his mask.


    Slowly the others also recognized the problem with the beast and slowly came to a stop. As they watched, shadow ten slowly walked out of the Grootlsang''s mouth. As they watched confused, the Grootlsang started to flicker.


    The Grootlsang started to flicker in and out of existence. Not a single person understood what was happening. After a few moments, it finally stopped flickering.


    Then the Grootlsang started to slowly disappear. In its place, a black outline of it was still left. It turned to be just lines, like a topological map of the beast.


    As the group watched slack jawed at the scene, the lines that were once the Grootlsang shattered. Slowly the pieces of the Grootlsang turned into dust and then the dust disappeared into the air.


    "What the -" Shadow ninety said. But before he could even finish his thought, a change occurred. Just like the Grootlsang, the entire landmass started to flicker. And then slowly, they also changed into lines. As the group watched, the sky followed suit right after, turning into a giant spherical cage.


    And then, in front of them, it all shattered.


    For the briefest of moments, there was utter blackness. No one could see anything in front of them. But before they started to panic, light returned.


    With a start, they realize that they were standing on a bright white plane. The white plane extended to all they could see. Even the sky was white as if they were trapped in a hemispherical bowl. There were no obstructions on this field and they could see everything as far as they could see.


    It was only then that they realized that the group was much closer together than they had thought before. The group had run away when they faced the Grootlsang, and they had run a quite good distance from each other. But they realized that they were standing not even a tenth of how far apart they had been before the illusion shattered.


    It was then that they started to look around. The first thing that they saw was the corpse of shadow forty four. His corpse was lying there, ripped in two and bleeding all over the white plane.


    The group then noticed another group quite a good distance from them, slowly looking around in confusion, just like them. They were also confused with nothing better to do.


    And in the white plane, they could also see a few other objects in the distance. Even though it was not clear due to the great distance, it was obvious that they should be the other participants.


    Bai Yun laughed when he saw this. A lethargic feeling settled onto his legs and he collapsed onto the plane. After a moment of silence, a great relief of having escaped certain death with no chance of survival settled on to him.


    As he lay there, the rest of the group started to laugh or cry. They might be training to be ruthless assains, but they were still kids at heart nonetheless. Not a single was was exempt from this.


    Bai Yun looked up at the ceiling, seeing the great white dome and grinned in satisfaction.


    They had survived.


    They had broken out of the false world.

 86 The true treasure

    "So the whole thing was an illusion?" Shadow one asked Bai Yun.


    "Not exactly." Bai Yun said. After this, he explained to them about the false world formation. When the group heard of the intricacies of the false world, they were stunned into silence. When they finally understood just how they escaped from the formation, they thanked their lucky stars that Bai Yun was with them.


    Just as the group was finally finding their footing after the incident, a voice once again boomed out over the plane.


    "Well hello there. If you are hearing this it means that someone broke my false world. It wasn''t particularly hard, but I am still disappointed that someone saw through my deception. But no matter. It is a small matter. But it also means that the traps that I laid out to kill all the invaders would not work anymore."


    "Well anyway, now that the first part is over, it is time for the second part. Now that you have found your way to my true formation, it is time for you to get my inheritance."


    "In the center of this formation disk is a portal. Once you enter the portal, you will leave the formation and enter its heart. There I have kept many treasures for you to find, including my inheritance. Good luck to whoever finds it."


    When the sound voiced out, Bai Yun frowned. He was not too interested in the inheritance of the formation master. Based on what he could sense, the person who came up with it was at most an immortal step cultivator. As someone who reached the god step in the dao of formations, he was only interested in the formation inheritance of titled gods.


    But that did not mean that there was noting here that interested him. The false world was a powerful formation. And it required a formation heart. Something to power and inscribe the formation on. That object would be extremely valuable. But considering the power of the formation and the fact that he was able to break it so easily, the purpose of the formation was most likely to be a test. Thus the heart would also be quite weak. Even then it should still be quite useful to Bai Yun at his current stage.


    When they heard the voice, the participants all looked towards the center of the white plane. There they saw a black vortex spinning in the middle of the ground. Not wanting to waste time all the people who were still alive ran towards there and waited. No one wanted to be the last one to enter, but no one wanted to be the first either, in case it was a trap.


    Bai Yun laid down on the ground for a while before he got up and lazily walked over to the portal. By then most of his cloak had been stripped off in order to destroy the false world, and thus he had to change it for a new one. When he reached there he found that there were only four groups of people there. It was likely that one of the groups had been killed off by the Grootslang. Also one of the groups was trembling and all of their members were barely standing. Bai Yun also did not see shadow sixteen here, indicating that he had likely died. But his body was not here. It was likely that the false world had already dealt with it somehow.


    "So what you are saying is that the whole thing was just an illusion. Then I climbed to the third level for nothing." One of the people who were standing there said with a snarl. It was obvious that he had listened to Shadow one''s explanation of what had happened and was quite irritated at knowing the truth. After all, he had successfully reached the third level only to realize that it was all a lie.


    "It doesn''t matter whether you believe me or not. What matters is that we finally have the treasures within our grasp." Shadow one said.


    As Bai Yun appeared, Shadow one turned to him. He had told everyone else that it was Bai Yun who managed to break the formation. So all of the others also turned to look at him. But they did not think much of Bai Yun. As shadow one hadn''t told them of Bai Yun''s exploits, they only thought that he got lucky and guessed the situation correctly.


    Once he reached the portal, Bai Yun started analyzing it for traps. From the simple one over he gave it, he did not find any. But he decided to give it a closer look and if there was something he missed. After all the secret abode turned out to be a trap.


    As Bai Yun continued to look at the portal, the rest of them continued to discuss what to do. Everyone here knew that they had to head down the portal. There was no other exit visible in the white plane. But they were still discussing who should go down the portal first. No wanted to be the first one in case there was danger inside.


    At that time Shadow one turned to look at Bai Yun from the corner of his eyes. From the look in his eyes, he was clearly asking Bai Yun for his opinion on what to do. Bai Yun thought for a while and gently nodded his head.


    Upon getting Bai Yun''s confirmation, Shadow one immediately stepped up. "If none of you want to do it, then we shall take the lead."


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    When they heard Shadow ones declaration, the rest of them slowed down for a moment. They were afraid that he would get all the credit. But they were too frightened by the false world. In the end, they decided to stay back and allow shadow one''s team to take the lead.


    With his head held high, Shadow One was the first person to step into the portal. Once he went through, the rest of the group, including Bai Yun, followed after him.


    When they reached the other side, they found themselves in a large hall. In front of them was a huge white door. Beside the door, they could see two other paths leading away from it.


    Bai Yun quickly walked towards the door and started to analyze it. The door was covered with complex patterns and symbols etched onto it. As he stood there, a few minutes passed. The rest of the group was too scared to make a move without Bai Yun''s signal. Then the portal trembled and rest of the participants slowly came out one by one.


    "This was a rescue mission right?" Bai Yun suddenly asked.


    "Yes." Shadow one replied while moving towards him. "Why?"


    "A lot of bodies are missing, and no else have joined us when we broke the formation. I think we failed in the rescue." Bai Yun replied.


    It was only then that they all remembered that this was a rescue mission and according to the report they got, there were supposed to be members of Blood moon who were stuck in here. But even after breaking the false world formation no one other than the members who had entered the formation with Bai Yun was here. Thus it was likely that the people who they came to rescue had already died.


    The group sighed for a moment when they heard this. The group who entered the secret abode numbered far more than them. It was only now that they realized just how close to death they actually came.


    Bai Yun ran his hands over the various inscriptions and slowly analyzed the door. Seeing the complex looking patterns on the door and knowing that Bai Yun was the one who broke the formation, the rest of the participants did not bother him. Instead, they went to the other two doorways and slowly peered inside trying to see where they led.


    "Interesting." Bai Yun murmured, looking at the door. The moment he spoke, everyone there turned to look at him.


    "What have you discovered?" Shadow one asked slowly.


    "This." Bai Yun replied. Then the tip of his finger gently lit up and he slowly pressed it against a small circle on the door. The moment he did so, a small click sound sounded out and the part he pressed fell in, just like a hidden mechanism.


    And then in front of their eyes, the entire hall slowly started to change. Inscriptions covered every single surface, and slowly filled their sights. When the whole place was lit up with a giant formation, they were all stunned and simply stared at it dumbly.


    "I think that this door leads to the outside world." Bai Yun said. "Once we open it we can leave this place." Everyone was happy to hear his inference. They had had enough of the dangers of this secret abode. "But before you do, I suggest that you look through the other two passages. It is likely that the inheritance and other things that the person who created this place left behind is there. I can''t see any other traps, so you should be safe."


    When they heard what Bai Yun said, everyone who was here sped off into the two passageways. Shadow one stayed back for a while and stared at Bai Yun "What are you going to do?" He asked.


    "I am going to stay behind. You should go if you don''t want to come out empty handed." Bai Yun replied.


    "Aren''t you interested in the inheritance?" Shadow One asked.


    "Not really." Bai Yun simply said


    Shadow one took a long hard look at Bai Yun and finally left him alone. Bai Yun slowly started to walk around the hall studying the formation inscribed on the walls. Finally, he stood at a particular point of the wall and studied the wall in front of him for a few minutes. Then he slowly reached out and pressed hard on the wall. And then, just like the door, a small click could be heard as a mechanism was triggered.


    Then the wall in front of him started to fall in on itself. Slowly it opened up and an opening wide enough for two people to walk through was opened in the wall. Bai Yun let out a small smile when he saw the opening.


    Bai Yun slowly walked into the opening.


    Inside was a small room, like an antechamber. The walls of the antechamber were also filled with formations. In the middle of the room stood a small podium. On the podium was a large circle of inscriptions. And in the center of that was a small translucent piece of stone.


    Bai Yun knelt in front of the stone. He stared at the inscriptions for a few moments and then smiled. After he verified that there were no traps, Bai Yun slowly reached for the stone piece.


    "If you value your life, stop right there!" Bai Yun heard a shout from behind him.


    Bai Yun''s hand stopped a few inches from the stone. He slowly lifted his head over his shoulder and looked behind him.


    There, on the doorway of the room stood three guys from blood moon, with their weapons in their hands.


    ''This is going to get annoying.'' Bai Yun thought to himself.

 87 Unncessory fighting

    "You don''t need this." Bai Yun told the three guys behind him.


    "I''ll be the judge of that." The guy in the middle said. "You only need to leave whatever it is that is there and get lost."


    "Why are you even here?" Bai Yun asked.


    "You are the only one who can understand the formations here. There is no way I am stupid enough to think that you would leave the best things here for us. And I was right." The guy replied arrogantly.


    "This thing is indeed valuable. But not for you. You have no idea what this is. And you would have no way of utilizing it. So give it up, and fight for the other things. Leave this alone." Bai Yun reminded them.


    "You don''t need to worry about how I would use it. If you can find a use for it, so can I. Just leave it behind and get lost while I''m still being merciful." He said once again.


    Bai Yun sighed when he heard the guy speak. He wasn''t lying when he said that no one would be able to utilize it. It is entirely possible than Bai Yun as the only person who knew how to properly utilize the object in front of him in the entire world. Maybe even the entire universe.


    Bai Yun quickly picked up the piece of stone on the podium and put it inside his storage ring. Standing up, he slowly turned around to face the three people blocking his way.


    "Now that wasn''t very smart of you." The guy in the middle spoke once again. "Now I changed my mind. I don''t want you to just give me the stone, I want you to give me your life. I would kill yourself if I were you. Else you would not die easily."


    "I should warn you, this is a bad idea." Bai Yun tried to reason with them one last time.


    "Yes. For you." The guy in the middle said once again smugly.


    Bai Yun pulled out his sword with a sigh. He knew that this was going to fight. He was already ready to fight.


    "What''s going on over here?" Suddenly a voice sounded out.


    Bai Yun and the other three turned to look only to see Shadow One shading there. He was standing there with a sword in one hand and a small orb in the other.


    "This has nothing to do with you one. Get lost." The guy in the middle said.


    "Oh, I don''t think so Two." Shadow One replied. "You are trying to harm a member of my team. I can''t just let that pass."


    "Do you think I care what you think."Shado Two replied. "This isn''t the classroom. Also, he is an outsider. Don''t think that you can do whatever you want just because you are a little stronger than me."


    "There is no need for you to get involved shadow one." Bai Yun suddenly said. He swung his sword lightly and casually walked over to the trio who were blocking his way.


    "Thinking of going down fighting are we." Shadow two said. "No matter, I''ll end you in an instant."


    "You talk too much." Bai Yun said. "You are training to be an assassin right? Assassins aren''t supposed to talk so much. Their only job is to kill by any means necessary. Let me give you a good lesson on the art of assassination."


    The moment Bai Yun finished speaking, he had reached the trio. Without pausing, he thrust his hands at the neck of the one on the left. They were completely unprepared for the sudden attack, and before they could react, Bai Yun had driven his knife that he had hidden in the folds of his cloak into the one on the left. For a moment the group just watched in silent horror as the one Bai Yun attacked grasped at his neck to try and stop his bleeding. But he was unable to and finally collapsed onto the ground dead.


    "You bastard!" Shadow two was both scared and angered at the sight. He shouted and turned to look at Bai Yun only to find that he had disappeared from his sight. "Where is he?"


    "An assassin is always on the look for a chance to kill." Suddenly Bai Yn''s voice sounded in the ears of the remaining ones. And then his sword suddenly thrust out from the chest of the man standing on the right, right through the heart.


    "An assassin kills first and only then thinks of the consequences." Bai Yun''s voice sounded out from behind the man on the right. He simply stared at the sword on his chest and did not react until it was pulled out by Bai Yun. Seeing that Bai Yun had already killed two of his companions, Shadow two quickly swung his sword at Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun casually took a step back and dodged the attack. The attack fell on the man on the right, causing him to tumble down to the ground, dead.


    "Not bad." Bai Yun said. "You didn''t mind hurting your ally to kill me. That''s how an assassin should behave."


    Shadow two just kept on hacking at Bai Yun. Bai Yun casually just twisted his body to easily dodge the attacks. Shadow felt as if he was simply stabbing at the air, and Bai Yun was standing at a great distance from him.


    Then Bai Yun suddenly took a single step with wind motion Shaodw two felt as if his entire field of vision was covered by Bai Yun. Bai Yun casually swiped away Shadow two''s sword, opening up his defenses in the process. He then sharply turned and jabbed his shoulder into Shadow two''s chest, sending him flying.


    Shadow two stumbled back a few steps and stabilized himself. "You-" he started to say, but he found his words suddenly cut off.


    Shadow two looked down incredulously at his neck. Bai Yun had thrown the knife he had used to kill the guy on the left and it had stabbed into Shadow two''s neck perfectly up to the hilt. Shadow two stared at the knife, feeling his life slowly slip away.


    "And an assassin never misses a chance to kill." Bai Yun said. "Shadow one you should remember this. After all, the chance to kill someone might only be a split second. You should never miss it."


    Bai Yun walked past shadow two and pulled his knife out in the process. Blood spurted out of Shadow twos neck, and he collapsed to the ground, dead.


    Shadow one just stared at Bai Yun incredulously. He had come back as he also figured that Bai Yun had kept the best item for himself and was afraid that Shadow two might harm him when he noticed that shadow two did not go into the two paths. But it was only now that he realized just how useless his actions had been.


    "It seems I was unnecessary." Shadow one said.


    Bai Yun just chuckled when he heard him. "Why didn''t you go for the inheritance or the other items?" He asked SHadow one.


    "I was worried about you. Besides I am an assassin, formation inheritances mean nothing to me." Shadow one replied. "And as for the other items, I am confident in my team. Besides my position will only rise now that two and three is dead."


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    "Shadow three''s was the group that got done in by the Grootslang?" Bai Yuna asked.


    "Yes." Shadow one replied.


    The two of them stood there in silence for a while. Less than fifteen minutes later, people started to return from the two paths. The rest of shadow one''s team who were still alive came back to shadow one. From their reports, it seemed as if the two paths both led to the same place, a giant vault filled with many formation treasures.


    In it were many formation treasures all the way from the most basic to treasures that could be used in the dao step. There was even an inheritance ball containing Tian Ming''s inheritance.


    Since there were many items here, the participants all collected their share. There were more than enough to go around. Besides the only items here were items for formations use. Thus none of them was of any use to any of them. So they decided to hand over all the items to the blood moon and split the credit equally among all the participants.


    Both Bai Yun and Shadow One agreed to this. They had no reason to disagree and start a new round of negotiations.


    When the rest of Shadow Two''s team saw the corpses that were lying behind Bai Yun and Shadow One, as well the antechamber which still hadn''t closed, they were startled. But they did not try to take revenge. The three who died were the strongest three members of their team. If even these three were killed so easily without any injuries to Bai Yun and Shadow One, they knew that stood no chance.


    Even after seeing the antechamber and knowing that Bai Yun must have taken something valuable from there, the rest of the participants also did not ask about it. The three corpses were a good warning. And they had already gained a good contribution from the vault. They had no reason to risk their lives for something else. Especially since they had nothing to do with finding whatever it was.


    Once they were all in agreement, Bai Yun opened the door to the outside world. Then they all left the secret abode and returned to the outside world.


    When they reached the outside world, they were immediately captured by blood moon. They wished to know if any of them had gained the key of the secret abode.


    But the reports that the participants gave them completely stunned them beyond belief. Not a single one of them had expected that the secret abode that they were so hopeful about was actually such a huge trap. At first, none of them believed what the participants had to say. But after separately asking them and still getting the same result, they were forced to accept the truth.


    During this time the remaining members of Shadow Two''s group tried to create trouble for Bai Yun. They mentioned the antechamber and how it was empty when they all arrived. But the blood moon did not take them seriously. They knew that what Bai Yun took was most likely the item that was powering the formation. But since thy had already promised the external members that they could keep everything except the key to the secret abode, they could not stop him. Besides they had gained quite a huge loot from the secret abode anyway.


    Once the entire thing was completed, they were then dispatched back to the warehouse that they started out at. Once they returned, they were free to do as they like.


    Bai Yun walked out of the warehouse and headed towards the place where old Hai had left him. A few minutes later, old Hai appeared before him and took him back home.


    When he reached home, he found a rather angry Xiao Mei-er. She was furious that Bai Yun had gone for a mission with blood moon without informing her. She only let him go after more than an hour of lectures.


    Once Bai Yun was free, he headed back to his room and collapsed on to his bed. Even though a lot had happened since he headed out for the mission, it had barely been a day since he left. But it felt much longer to him.


    And he finally fell asleep for a well needed rest.


    Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.

 88 Chaos stone

    In the Bai clan, there was a large volcano. On the slopes of the volcano, there stoop two very large buildings on opposite sides of the volcano.


    The two buildings were the blacksmithing pavilion and the alchemy pavilion. These were the place where the alchemists and the blacksmiths of the Bai clan came to work. In the early stages of alchemy and blacksmithing, you could generally get by by using fire stones. But as you started to refine tougher and tougher materials you would need to use higher temperatures. Temperatures only the volcano could provide.


    And the stone Bai Yun collected from the secret abode was definitely something that required very high temperatures.


    Bai Yun collected some clan points from his father and left for the blacksmithing pavilion. One he reached there he booked a high grade room for a couple of months. The rooms in the blacksmithing and alchemy pavillions were divided into low, mid, high, supreme and great grades depending on the temperature of the lava inside it. Bai Yun was not sure just how long it would take him to accomplish what he was trying to do. After all, he had only heard about it before. He had never attempted it before.


    But he knew that once he was successful, his strength would certainly rise by a large amount. So he had no choice but to try it. If it looked as if it would take too long, then he could just drop it and try again later.


    Bai Yun then went to the room he had booked. It was a large hexagonal room. In the middle of it lay a small hole out of which a red light was coming out. Bai Yun peeked out into the hole, only to get hit by a sharp wave of hot air. There, at the bottom of the hole, he could see dense lava flowing about.


    Bai Yun took off his clothes and stood there in just his shorts. The temperature of the room was too high to wear too many clothes. Also he did not want to damage them in case he made a mistake.


    And then he took out the piece of stone that he had gotten from the secret abode.


    The piece of stone that he held was a chaos stone.


    Chaos stones were pieces of stones that were imbued with chaos qi. Chaos qi was the purest and most powerful form of qi. It is said that when the universe was first formed it was made of only of chaos qi. And then later it decomposed to form the various types of qi we see in the world. It could be said that the chaos qi was the progenitor of all energy in the world.


    As a result, it was extremely powerful. No one below the immortal step would be able to utilize it, and even then they would barely be able to. Chaos qi was mainly used by god step cultivators to train.


    But the chaos qi had almost disappeared from the universe. It was possible for god step cultivators to make it by themselves. Otherwise it was extremely rare.


    And the way chaos qi existed in the universe was mostly in the form of chaos stones. These were pieces of stone that had chaos qi trapped in them. Each piece of stone could hold a particular amount of chaos qi and it could be extracted and absorbed for cultivation. There were even places were chaos stones were used as currency.


    Bai Yun looked at the chaos stone in his hand. The stone that he held had had all of its chaos qi extracted. It was only a stone that once held chaos qi rather than a true chaos stone. If this was a true chaos stone, its value would have been almost unimaginable. And Bai Yun would have been completely helpless in front of it.


    Usually, when the chaos qi was extracted from a chaos stone, it would shatter. It was extremely rare that the stone would remain intact even after the extraction of chaos qi. It could be due to luck or even due to an extremely careful method of extraction.


    Most people would not know of any use for used chaos stones. But Bai Yun studied under a titled god of smithing from a different universe. He was a person who chased after the pinnacle of smithing and lived in the void, a place beyond any universe. He had come up with a strange hypothesis. Chaos stones had contained chaos qi for a long time. Thus they must have some of its aura or property. If it is possible to extract the aura of the chaos qi, it could theoretically strengthen a weapon.


    And the theory was right. Though only he and his disciples knew how to do it though. When Bai Yun studied under him, one of the first things he had to do was to extract and meld the chaos aura from the used chaos stones into a weapon.


    But when he studied under him Bai Yun was already a peak god realm cultivator. It literally took him a thought to extract the chaos aura. But now he no longer had that ability. He would have to use the blacksmithing skills he had learned in order to extract and use the chaos aura.


    Bai Yun took the stone and took a hammer available in the room. There were quite a few tools that were placed in the room for the use of blacksmithing.


    Bai Yun put the stone in the anvil. He then took the hammer and started to hit the stone at specific points on the stone.


    Bai Yun was using a technique he knew called the nine nine hammering technique. It was a powerful blacksmithing technique that used repeated hits on a material to create microscopic cracks inside it to break and refine it. It had numerous variations, ones including only nine hits to ninety nine hits to nine hundred and ninety nine hits and so on. The stronger the material, the more hits were required to break it.


    After days, the piece of stone finally broke down and shattered into pieces. But he was not satisfied with this. He picked up each of the pieces and continued to break them apart again. Bai Yun only stopped when the chaos stone was finally broken down into a fine powder.


    Once the entire stone had been ground down to powder, it was time to begin the extraction process. Bai Yun collected the all the tiny pieces, not missing even the smallest bit, and put them in a large pot. He then slowly heating the powder until it started to turn red.


    Bai Yun then took out the sword given to him by his father. The chaos aura required a certain level for the materials or they would not be able to withstand it. The only item Bai Yun had that could handle chaos aura was the sword. He then put it directly into the lava at the highest temperature.


    Slowly the sword heated up and turned crimson. Bai Yun kept the sword there and knelt by the pool for hours. As he watched, the sword finally started to melt.


    Bai Yun pulled the sword out at that juncture. He then sprinkled a tiny amount of the powder of the chaos stone that he had prepared onto the sword on both sides. Once that was done, he picked up the hammer and started to use the nine nine hammering technique once again. This time to hammer the powder into the sword.


    Each powder on the sword was struck exactly nine times. With each strike, the powder would break apart a little and release the chaos aura it held into the swod. Once he was done with one piece, he would work on the next.


    Thus one strike at a time he slowly started to reinforce the sword. When the sword cooled down, he would once again dip it into the magma to heat it up. Thus the cycle continued and Bai Yun continued to work without rest. The only times he slept or took rest was when the sword was immersed in the lava to heat it up.


    Days passed by as Bai Yun ingrained the chaos aura into his sword. Finally, it was completed after he used up almost half of the chaos powder. It wasn''t that he didn''t want to use more, but the materials that the sword was made of was too weak. They may be considered as top tier in the howling wolf world, but they were not very powerful in the context of the universe. They couldn''t handle any more chaos aura.


    Bai Yun took out the sword and stared at it. Thanks to his special hammering technique, its strength and sharpness had risen even without the chaos aura. Not only that, but it had also transformed a small amount. What initially started out as a silvery sword had turned grey.


    When he saw the remaining powder, Bai Yun stared at it for a while. He didn''t know what to do with them. None of the other weapons that he had was good enough for the chaos stone powder. They might not be able to handle it and could easily break.


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    As he stood there pondering, a sudden thought came to him. The purpose of the second step of body tempering, muscle tempering, was to use the body as a raw material and temper it like you do a mineral. Bai Yun thought about whether it was possible to use the chaos stone powder in body tempering.


    For a long time, Bai Yun just stood there, staring at the powder. It was a crazy idea and anyone else who attempted it would certainly fail. But Bai Yun was not anyone else. He was confident in his skill and ability.


    After a while, a look of determination flashed through his eyes. He removed his clothes and covered his body evenly with the powder.


    Once he did so, Bai Yun used his soul tendrils to grab hold of the hammer. He then picked it up and struck it towards his own body. The next second Bai Yun grit his teeth in pain as he was hammered.


    Clenching his teeth Bai Yun continued to hammer himself. With each strike, each piece reduced itself and released a small portion of chaos aura, which Bai Yun trapped with his god sense.


    Bai Yun only stopped when he was too tired and need to sleep. He knew that he did not have much time, and the method he was testing may not work. So he tried to do it at the maximum speed.


    Soon time passed. Only the sound of a hammer hitting the flesh and Bai Yun''s grunts were heard in the room. He slowly picked up his pace as his body build a tolerance to the hammering. During his recovery after the auction house incident, he had been fed a great many medicines. Some of them had been hidden in his body and not activated even by his god sense. As he continued to hammer himself, the hidden medicinal effects slowly seeped out, and slowly made Bai Yun''s body even sturdier.


    Finally, after days of torture, every little piece of powder was used up. Bai Yun had completely absorbed every drop of chaos aura in the powder.


    He then started to run the body tempering technique, Undying Body and the qi cultivation technique, Way of Harmony. He split the chaos aura between the two paths and started to cultivate. Cultivating two techniques was not difficult for him thanks to his soul tendrils.


    One by one, Bai Yun completed the skin sewing patterns on his skin. At the same time, Bai Yun''s cultivation slowly crept up. Along with this a wisp of chaos aura slowly infused itself into Bai Yun''s body and qi. It did not increase his strength, but it did make his cultivation much more stable and reduced the chances of instability due to a weak foundation and fast cultivation.


    Slowly days passed. And then one day Bai Yun''s tightly closed eyes snapped open. A small grin lingered on his lips.


    His body cultivation had increased by leaps and bounds. He had reached the nine pattern realm in skin sewing, only one step away from the grand completion of the skin sewing realm. This meant that his entire body was now covered with sewing patterns. And every one of his patterns was reinforced with chaos aura, making them even stronger.


    And his qi cultivation had reached the seventh stage of qi condensation realm. This probably made him invincible in the qi condensation realm.


    He had completed all he set out and more.


    It was time to leave.

 89 Invitation

    Bai Yun finally left the blacksmithing pavilion and returned home. Xiao Mei-er was quite happy that Bai Yun hadn''t left anywhere for a long period of time and had stayed at the Bai clan.


    Bai Yun chatted with his parents for a while. They were impressed by the speed at which Bai Yun was improving his cultivation, but they cautioned him of going too fast. Bai Yun promised them that he would not such a mistake. Bai Mu finally let him go after confirming that his foundation was not unstable.


    When Bai Yun reached his room, he collapsed into the bed and slept for two days straight. Even though he had made some breakthroughs in cultivation, his mind had been wound up too tight during this time. Thus he needed a good sleep to restore himself to his optimum condition.


    When he finally woke up, neither of his parents were home. Then had gone to investigate the devil worshippers situation. After having breakfast, Bai Yun was casually walking and stretching his body when he ran into old Hai.


    "You look good young master. I think you will have a good standing in the youngsters tournament." Old Hai said.


    "Thanks." Bai Yun said. Suddenly he was reminded of something. "Wait. What day is it? How far to the youngsters tournament?" He had lost track of time when he was in the blacksmithing pavilion.


    Old Hai chuckled when he heard Bai Yun''s question. "The youngster''s tournament is only three weeks away. The registrations have already closed two days ago. Don''t worry I already registered Long Tian up for the tournament."


    Bai Yun sighed when he heard old Hai. He was afraid of missing the fight with Zhang Zi. He was itching to rectify his defeat at the hands of Zhang Zi.


    After Bai Yun got confirmation of his participation he was satisfied. He spend a few hours stretching himself before he decided to take a rest. He had spent a long time working on the blacksmithing pavilion. It was not a good idea to only keep training. Moderation is necessary for a balanced body. So Bai Yun decided to simply laze around for a few days.


    He went to the small library in the mansion and picked out a few books on the history of the howling wolf world and the immortal''s world. He spend a couple of hours in the library simply reading books. Then in the evening, old Hai came to him with a message.


    "Young master there is a letter for you." old Hai handed him a letter.


    Bai Yun frowned when he heard this. The only people he knew in the world other than his parents were Zhang Zi, Bai Ling-er and Bai Shi. And all three of them had his voice transmission signature. There was no need to send letters. Bai Yun was confused about who it could be.


    Bai Yun collected the letter and slowly read it. The more he read, the more his eyebrows rose. Finally, he chuckled and threw the letter aside.


    "Who was the letter from?" old Haii asked.


    "Someone named Bai Tian." Bai Yun replied. "He invited me for a meeting at the coliseum. I don''t wanna go so I threw it away."


    "Why don''t you go? Its always good to make new friends." old Hai advise.


    "I have more important things to do." Bai Yun said.


    "Like what?"


    "Sleeping for one. Idling my time. Peeing. You pick one." Bai Yun replied with a chuckle.


    Old Hai was stunned by Bai Yun''s response. He just chuckled and threw the matter out of his mind. But he did send a letter back saying that Bai Yun would not be attending the meeting. After all, it was a matter of courtesy.


    Once that was done, Bai Yun continued his lazy routine. But the next day he was once again interrupted by the letter from Bai Tian. Bai Yun once again casually threw the letter away.


    But when the third letter came the next day, Bai Yun finally haad a reaction. He held the letter in his hands and frowned as he asked old Hai. "Hey, old Hai, who is this Bai Tian?"


    "Bai Tian is the son of the current Bai clan clan head. Unfortunately, unlike his father he is a complete wastrel. He usually wastes his days just gambles and indulging in other vices. The Bai clan is a large clan. Not everyone can be a good seedling." old Hai explained.


    "Okay. What has that got to do with me? I don''t even know who he is. Why is he inviting me so forcefully." Ba oYun asked.


    "I asked around for the last few days. Apparently he is throwing some festival or party in a few days. He has invited anyone who is anyone in the Bai clan or the descendent of someone. It is not just you alone." old Ha explained.


    "Well I understand that. I understand inviting once. But why is he so persistent in inviting me over and over."


    "He most likely thought of you refusing his invitation as an affront to his honor or something."


    "I don''t care about him enough to affront his honor." Bai Yun said curtly replied.


    Old Hai chuckled when he heard Bai Yun''s reply.


    But the letters didn''t stop. In fact the next day, Bai Yun received three letters from Bai Tian. Holding the three letters, old Ha could see a vein throbbing in Bai Yun''s forehead.


    "Fine. Old Hai, send him a message saying that I will be coming to meet him. If he wants me to come, ill go. Just tell him not to regret it." Bai Yun said while laughing evilly.


    Old Hai shook his head and thought how similar the father and son were. When he was young, Bai Mu had also beaten up many a young master of the Bai clan at the coliseum. Old Hai had a feeling that history was going to repeat itself.


    After Bai Yun accepted the invitation the letters stopped coming. Then a few days later a letter arrived with the date, time and place of the meeting. It also mentioned that it was a formal event.


    Bai Yun only casually glanced at the letter and ignored it. He was going there to have fun wrecking the event, not to satisfy Bai Tian''s ego. It didn''t matter to him what the dress code was.


    As the days passed Bai Yun continued to read books. Bia Yun extended his reading genre to include any book that he found interesting in the library. Soon it seemed as if he was studying to be a scholar rather than a warrior.


    Bai Yun had found a rather comfortable couch and had relegated to it. He didn''t leave the comfort of the couch even for sleeping or for food, choosing to have his food on the couch instead. The only time he left the couch was to go to the toilet and to collect new books to read.


    Finally, the day of the party arrived. When Bai Yun realized this, he was annoyed. He had grown quite accustomed to his couch.


    "Why the hell is this guy keeping the party at midnight. Doesn''t he realize that people need to sleep? What a lack of etiquette." Bai Yun grumbled like an old man.


    Old Hai nearly fainted when he heard Bai Yun. Here was someone who was planning on going to a party only to wreck it and was complaining about etiquette. For a while, old Hai wondered if there was something wrong with the young master''s head. But then he remembered the characters of his father, grandfather and great grandfather and finally concluded that it was probably a genetic anomaly.


    Bai Yun put on a simple robe and shoes and had old Hai drop him off near the coliseum. Bai Yun had never been to the coliseum before. So he had come a little early in order to find out more about the coliseum. Even though it was nearly midnight things were still in full swing.


    The coliseum was split into four parts. There were the min arenas, the stands, the underground offices and finally the VIP rooms at the top.


    The coliseum was a place in the Bai clan where the members of the Bai clan could fight against each other or against demonic beasts. These battles would take place in the arena and the people in the VIP rooms and arenas could place bets on them. The only restriction on the battles was that only people in the qi step could fight here. The people who were watching the battles could bet on the results and win if they were lucky.


    Sometimes there were also battles by slaves and prisoners of the Bai clan. They would battle it out and a person who could win a certain number of battles would be promised freedom. A lot of people would come to watch these battles as they tend to be bloody. The seniors of the Bai clan would often bring their juniors to such battles to teach them about life and death battles and the cruelty of the world.


    Bai Yun entered the coliseum and went to the stands. He was going to wander around the coliseum and understand how it worked. Bai Yu was not too interested in betting so he stayed away from that side of the coliseum.


    There were four battles simultaneously happening in the arenas. The arena was divided into the main arena in the center where important battles would take place, and then surrounded on the four sides by four smaller arenas, named after the four cardinal directions.


    Bai Yun was standing on the south side of the coliseum, so he was in front of the south arena. On the arena, a foundation establishment cultivator was battling a demonic beast. Bai Yun watched for a few minutes before concluding that the foundation establishment cultivator would win as long as he did nothing too stupid.


    It did not surprise Bai Yun. The coliseum was set up for two purposes: to provide entertainment and to provide battle experience for the members of the clan. Giving people opponents that they couldn''t defeat would destroy the second objective. Thus the result of the matches would be pretty obvious. Such matches would also not generally be open to betting.


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    Bai Yun''s prediction came true soon enough. The youngster on the south arena won after defeating the demonic beast. But the organizers did not allow the youngster to kill the demonic beast. If they allowed it, then they would soon run out of demonic beasts to battle.


    Bai Yun walked around the arena watching more and more matches. But the more he watched, the less impressed he was with the arena. In all the fights that he saw, the youngsters from the Bai clan won comfortably against demonic beasts. And they way they fought was abysmal. They would run around the demonic beasts hacking at it for a while, before running away and utilizing their secret techniques to take down the beast in one swing. The worst part was how the beast seemed to be standing still to take the beating. It almost seemed like the two of them were doing a play.


    And the audience ate it all up as if it was a great battle that took place. Bai Yun finally understood why his father looked down upon the ones who spend their time in the coliseum.


    As he walked around he finally saw two people fighting each other. Bai Yun watched the two of them fight. But the more he watched, the more his face started to twitch. It took every bit of strength in him not to jump int the arena and beat the two of them up. It was that awful.


    The two of them just stood there and attacked each other. From Bai Yun''s eyes, he could easily see that they were both using a sword style they had learned. But they were simply swinging the swords according to what they learned and not actually caring about the fight. It seemed more like an exhibition match than anything else.


    And in the end, one of them overpowered the other by using sheer strength. When he won, he raised his sword in the air and stood there receiving applause.


    Just as Bai Yun was wondering whether he should leave before he got an aneurism, a voice sounded out from behind him.


    "Look who is here. I never thought you would actually come. Welcome to my humble party."

 90 The party

    Bai Yun turned around when he heard the voice. He had a feeling that the voice was speaking to him.


    When he turned around Bai Yun saw a young man standing there arrogantly in a gold colored dragon robe surrounded by many other young men. With a start, Bai Yun realized that the golden colored robe wasn''t golden colored at all. Instead, it was made with authentic gold threads. With a single look, Bai Yun was able to guess the kind of person he was.


    Bai Yun had seen pictures of him so he knew that the person in front of him was Bai Tian, the organizer of the party. Though he had no idea what he was doing hanging around the coliseum rather than at the party site.


    "Why are you staying here. I came down to call you when I saw you. You should come with us to the VIP rooms." Bai Tian told Bai Yun. He brought a small handkerchief to his mouth as he spoke, almost as if he was trying to block out the smell of the ordinary members of the Bai clan. The people around them were looking at him strangely, some were even frowning. But no one had the guts to stand up and say something.


    "For now I just want to look around. I''ll come up when the time is right." Bai Yun replied. He found something fishy in the fact that Bai Tian came down all the way here just to invite him. He figured that there was a greater conspiracy afoot.


    Bai Tian nodded and turned away as if he was dying to escape from here. Some of his followers were frowning as they did not like that Bai Yun did not accept Bai Tian''s offer. One of them stayed back for a bit and turned to face Bai Yun with a sneer. "You should have accepted young master Tian''s magnanimous offer and come up with us. Now you have to stay here with the rest. Serves you right."


    Bai Yun raised his eyebrow when he heard this. His opinions of Bai Tian was never too high, but it dropped even further after meeting him in person.


    After Bai Tian and his entourage left, Bai Yun stayed at the coliseum for a short while longer. But he did not find anything that impressed him.


    After this, it was already midnight. Bai Yun quickly made his way up to the VIP rooms. There was a need to pay a certain amount of money to usually access the VIP rooms. But Bai Tian had completely booked them for tonight. As long as your name was on the list, you would be let in. After confirming that Bai Yun''s name was on the list, the burly man standing guard at the entrance let him in.


    Bai Yun was a little late due to touring the coliseum, so by the time he had arrived, the party was in full swing.There was a huge podium in the middle where Bai Tian was standing. He was chatting with a few friends there. He nodded to Bai Yun as he entered. Both of the walls were lined with many foods and drinks. The large hall was filled with people who were chatting and laughing.


    With a single glance Bai Yun realized that most of the people here were in the qi condensation realm, though there were a few foundation establishment cultivators too. But from his glance, it seemed that most of the people here were definitely rich young masters and young misses. All of them were wearing very expensive clothing, and flaunting their wealth at every opportunity.


    Bai Yun made a beeline for the food table. Since he did not know anyone here, he figured that he might as well have some food while he was at it.


    But once he started, he realized that the food was excellent. It was even more delicious than what he would normally eat. Bai Yun would normally eat food that was prepared with special medicinal ingredients so they were not focused on taste, but rather on utility. Even with the best cooks, the food mostly tasted bland.


    So this delicious food was a welcome surprise to Bai Yun. Even though it was not very good for the body, Bai Yun could easily dispel the waste with his god sense and cultivation. Eating this food every now and then was fine.


    And so Bai Yun took a large plate full of food and stood in a corner. He didn''t draw any attention to himself and just stood there eating. ''Bai Tian, thank your lucky stars for this food. I have decided to forgive you for your insolence.'' Bai Yun thought. He didn''t think it was right to eat so much of the host''s food and wreck the party too.


    Bai Yun was standing in a corner and minding his own business when he realized that someone was approaching him. With a stat, he realized that it was Bai Qing.


    Bai Qing was one of the so called princes of the Bai clan. During his visit to the beast garden, Bai Yun had stolen some supreme weed fruits from right underneath Bai Qing''s nose. Though at the time he had thought that he had gotten away with it without Bai Qing realizing who he was.


    Bai Qing walked up to him and stood near him. He leaned against the wall just like Bi Yun and observed the crowd.


    "Did you come here to ask about the incident at the beast garden?" Bai Yun asked


    Bai Qing was silent for a few moments. "You don''t look comfortable in these situations. Why are you here." He finally said.


    Bai Yun looked over Bai Qing. He was wearing colorful robes. But from the look of things, they were made to be more practical and comfortable than the clothes others were wearing. Obviously this kind of party was not his style.


    "You also don''t seem too comfortable with situations like these." Bai Yun replied.


    "It is not about being comfortable. It''s about making connections." Bai Qing replied.


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    "What''s the point. In life only the strength of your hands in permanent." BAi Yun replied.


    "Your idea is based on the belief that you can grow to one day defeat everyone else. Even if they come at you together." Bai Qing replied.


    "It is not a belief. It is a fact." Bai Yun stated.


    BaI Qing simply stared at Bai Yun for a while. He thought about saying something about his baseless confidence, but he finally decided to let it go. "And in the real world, we have to deal with people. People who are just as talented as you are. And in such cases, we need to have connections to have enough strength to protect yourself. Everyone needs someone sometimes."


    Bai Yun wondered whether he should explain that his belief of one day becoming the strongest in the universe was not fueled by noting. But if he tried to explain it, it could probably lead to a fight.


    "Everyone in this world is after power. Power to protect their interests. Power to do what they desire. And power to subjugate our enemies. We just have different ideas on what that power means." Bai Qing continued.


    The two of them stood there in silence for a few more minutes. Then Bai Qing stood up and began to leave. "Last time I lost because I underestimated you. Don''t think that you have any chance of victory if we cross swords again." Bai Qing said.


    "I''m looking forward to it." Bai Yun replied with a smile.


    Once Bai Qing left to mingle with the rest, Bai Yun was once again left alone. He ate some more food and simply walked around watching the participants. He had no idea who anyone in the party was other than Bai Qing and Bai Tian. Some of the women saw Bia Yun and came to chat with him. But Bai Yun turned them down gently. After a while, they also shunned Bai Yun as if he was beneath them. This attitude of theirs suited Bai Yun just fine.


    As he stood there, suddenly there was a commotion at the entrance. Bai Yun turned to the entrance to see a young man walk into the party. With a start, Bia Yun realized that the newcomer was Bai Song.


    Bai Yun had run into Bia Song when he had just started to train in cultivation. At that time Bai Yun had defeated Bai Song''s younger brother Bai Shun and was severely suppressed by Bai Song in turn. Later on, Bai Yun killed Bai Shun in the beast garden, though no one knew about it.


    When Bai Song entered the room there as a small commotion. He was a celebrity in these circles. Even more than Bai Qing. Even though Bai Qing was called as a prince of the Bai clan, it was mostly due to his cultivation as well as management talent. He was not the descendent of someone important, unlike everyone else in the room.


    But Bai Song was different. Not only was he the descendent of the ninth elder, he was also quite talented. Unfortunately, his personality and other talents were not quite up to the mark. Thus he was never officially considered as a prince of the clan. But offending him was worse than offending a prince. After all, Bai Qing was reasonable. Bai Song was not.


    Bai Song stared at the group for a while. Unlike Bai Qing, who almost always had a smile on his face, Bai Song seemed to have his head on top of the clouds. When Bai Song entered, the host of the party, Bai Tian immediately went up to him to greet him. Seeing the way that Bai Tian was groveling in front of Bai Song, Bai Yun nearly burst into laughter. But he held himself back.


    One by one all the others came to Bai Song to come and gave their greetings. They were all very polite, almost as if they were talking to a superior. Bai Yun thought that Bai Song was quite childish for showing up so late in a fashionable way and to get all of them to greet him.


    As he looked around the room, Bai Yun finally noticed Bai Qing. He was standing there looking at Bai Song with a frown on his face. After a moment of thought, Bai Yun felt that this was natural. Bai Qing was a very diplomatic person. Bai Song with his holier than thou attitude would definitely rub him the wrong way.


    At that moment Bai Song also noticed Bai Qing. He turned to him with a sneer and said. "Not coming over?"


    The frown on Bai Qing''s face deepened. "How do you do." He gently replied. Even though he hated Bai Song''s guts, Bai Qing was not going to lose his decorum here.


    Bai Song chuckled when he heard Bai Qing''s reply. "Don''t think you are all that just because a couple of people called you a prince. That''s just a title that means nothing. It has no power."


    Bai Qing shook his head. "As long as civilization exists, words will always retain their power." He said with a smile.


    Bai Song sneered when he heard Bai Qing''s reply. He then turned away and started to chat with others near him.


    Bai Yun was hoping that a fight would grow out of their conflict. But it ended just like that. He continued to munch on the food there until he ran out.


    Bai Yun returned to the food tables. One by one he started to pile more food on to his plate. Suddenly he sensed some movement behind him. For a moment Bai Yun froze, but then he continued without stopping.


    "There you are I''ve been looking for you for a while."


    Bai Yun threw a small dumpling into his mouth and slowly turned to face the person behind him.


    Bai Qing stood there glaring at him.

 91 Fighting Bai Song

    Bai Song was glaring at Bai Yun. But Bai Yun simply brushed it aside. In the entire universe, there were barely anyone who could truly intimidate him.


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    "Did you ask Bai Tian to invite me to his party to meet with me." Bai Yun asked Bai Song.


    "Wrong. I asked Bai song to throw a party to meet you." Bai Song replied.


    "Wow. All this just for little old me. You shouldn''t have. You know, you could have just come to talk with me." Bai Yun replied.


    Bai Song snorted. "There was no way I would allow you to run away. what if you refused to meet with me. Or slithered away and hid."


    Bai Yun chuckled when he heard Bi Song''s answer. "So what''s the matter?" Bai Yun asked casually while chewing on some snacks.


    "Do you remember my brother?" Bai Song asked.


    As expected Bai Song was here about Bai Shun. But Bai Yun was completely calm. There was no way for them to know what he did unless he confessed.


    "The moron. Yeah sure." Bai Yun said.


    "How dare you-" Bai Tian started to defend Bi Shun. But Bai Yun cut in before he could finish.


    "We can debate this all you want. But by now it is established fact that the kid is a moron. So what about him." Bai Yun said.


    "My brother," Bai Song continued, ignoring the interruption. "Has been missing for a while."


    "Sorry to hear that." Bai Yun said. "Wait a minute. No, I''m not."


    "That last place he was seen was the beast gardens. Specifically at the weed valley." BaI Song continued.


    Bai Yun simply raised an eyebrow in surprise. Killing a clan member was a major crime. He was not going to admit to it. Even if he explained the circumstances, the fact of the matter is that he assassinated him. And there would be a whole mess and a trial over this. After all, it was simply his word of what had happened. Thus the opposite party could use this to trap him. All of this could end up costing a lot of time and effort even if he came out unscathed. So Bai Yun would never do something as stupid as admitting to what he had done.


    "You were also seen at the beast garden at the same time." Bai Song finally finished.


    "So you think I killed him. I see. Don''t take this the wrong way, but I don''t care about your brother enough to kill him." Bai Yun said.


    "Even after he humiliated you?" Bai Song continued.


    "You should have your brain checked." Bai Yun replied with a snort. "I beat his ass back that day. It was you who suppressed me. So even if I was to kill someone. It should be you right?"


    "But knowing that you had no hope of ever killing me, you aimed for my brother. This could have happened right." Bai Song finished.


    "Don''t flatter yourself. Things have changed from when we met back then. If I wanted you dead, you would be dead." Bai Yun coldly said.


    "You bast-" Bai Tian started. But before he could finish the words, he froze. Bai Yun had turned to look at him.


    "Shut up." Bai Yun said quietly. The moment he did so, Bai Tian felt a horrifying pressure descend on him. He felt as if the reaper himself was standing there with a scythe at his neck. The entire room fell completely silent for a moment. Even though it was not directed at them, Bai Yun''s pressure completely cowed this group of wastrels. For a short while, some people even forgot to breathe under the suppression.


    Bai Yun turned away from Bai Tian and turned to look at Bai Song. Bai Song was frowning. When Bai Yun told Bai Tian to shut up, he wanted to stop him. But the sudden pressure that descended made him completely unable to do anything. His hands were still lightly trembling inside his sleeves.


    "So what is it you are asking me? Surely I can''t be the only one who could have killed your brother? Bai Qing was also there." Bai Yun asked lightly. He had completely retreated his killing intent. So once again the party started to move. But now everyone was staring at him and Bai Song.


    "I am talking to everyone who was at the beast gardens at the time to see who it could be. You are the only one left. And the only one with motive. If you killed him, confess now. I will make sure that you have a quick ending." Bai Song continued calmly, not showing them just how shaken he truly was.


    "I didn''t do it." Bai Yun said. "In my eyes what he did is only childish."


    "Childish?" Bai Song asked.


    "Yes. Childish. In fact, even your acts can be considered as childish." Bai Yun said.


    Bai Song snorted when he heard Bai Yun''s words. He then took a step closer and looked down at him while sending out the pressure of foundation establishment. But Bai Yun calmly looked back at him, easily brushing off the aura.


    "Do you think I wouldn''t dare to harm you just because of who your father is?" Bai Song asked.


    "I think you wouldn''t be able to even if you tried." Bai Yun replied.


    Bai Song was angered by Bai Yun''s response. He clenched his teeth and punched out at Bai Yun with great force.


    Bai Yun casually bend his body and dodged the attack with a smile. The before Bai Song could even react, Bai Yun took a step in and stepped of Bai Song''s foot.


    With a scream, Bai Song tried to step back. Bai Yun then released his foot at the same time, so Bai Song lost his balance and took a few steps back. Bai Yun immediately took a few steps in and jabbed at Bai Song''s chin, disorienting him in the process. He took a few more steps back and fell to the floor.


    Suddenly with a shout, some of the other fellows here charged at Bai Yun. He looked up to realize that it was Bai Tian and a couple of his followers. Suddenly a thin grey sword appeared in Bai Yun''s hands.


    Bai Yun swung his sword and deflected Bai Tian''s punch. He then took the hilt of his sword and drove it into Bai Tian''s forehead. The moment the hit connected, Bai Tian fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. By then a few others had had also joined Bai Tian. But fighting a few idiots was nothing to Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun took a step to dodge an attack and swung his sword. The next second blood flew as Bai Yun''s sword left an inch deep, foot long gash on one of the follower''s chest. This was Bai Yun being merciful. If he wanted to, he could have easily killed him.


    When they saw this, the others froze in fear. It was their first time seeing someone of their group be injured so easily so close to them. But Bai Yun did not give them any chance to recover. In a few moves, all of them were on the floor groaning and bleeding.


    Bai Song had recovered by then. He then gave a loud shot and punched forward at Bai Yun while utilizing a battle technique. From the color around Bai Song''s arms, Bai Yun realized that it was lions roar. But looking at Bai Songs punch, Bai Yun only chuckled.


    "What''s the point of a powerful technique, if you can''t hit anyone." Bai Yun asked.


    Next moment he launched wind motion. With a loud boom, Bai Yun appeared behind Bai Song. With his left hand, Bai Yun landed a jab on Bai Song''s kidney. Bai Song screamed and the glow around his fists disappeared. Bai Yun then swiped his sword over Bai Song''s calves, shedding blood. He then spun and drove his elbow into Bai Song''s chest, making him stumble back.


    Bai Yun then spun around and kicked Bai Song in the chest. Bai Song flew across the hall and fell down on to the floors, knocking against the table full of food. He tried to stand up with rage, but just as he stood up, he clutched his leg and once again fell down. Bai Yun had thrown a knife at him, which had buried itself up to the hilt in Bai Songs'' leg the moment he stood up. Bai Song could not handle the pain and he fell down, unable to stand up again.


    Bai Yun sauntered over to Bai Song, leaping over the other fallen idiots. He then smoothly squatted over Bai Song''s chest and took out a dagger from his storage ring and held it over Bai Song''s neck. Bai Song, who was clutching his leg, finally looked up when he felt the cold steel against his neck.


    "Do you think I wouldn''t dare to harm you just because of who your ancestor is?" Bai Yun asked him the same question he was asked.


    Bai Song looked at Bai Yun with fear in his eyes, but he was met with only indifference. In his entire life, Bai Song had never felt failure or a setback. So when he looked at Bai Yun and saw the eyes of someone who had taken countless lives, he finally felt true terror.


    Bai Yun smiled down at Bai Song. But to him, it felt like the smile of a devil.


    "Remember this little Song, I''m not like you. I wouldn''t hesitate to cut you up into tiny little pieces if you piss me off too much. Now, I didn''t kill your brother. My guess is he is already beast shit. But I wouldn''t hesitate to kill you. Do you think anyone here would side with you if you are already dead? They would all be rushing to wash their hands off of you, to put distance between you and them. SO I could end you and nothing would happen to me." Bai Yun mildly threatened Bai Song.


    There was utter silence in the hall. No one expected that the party would take such a sharp turn.


    Bai Yun then tossed his knife into the air and caught it by its tip. In a single motion, he threw it over his shoulder. The next moment a shriek broke the silence of the hall. The knife had embedded itself into the shoulder of Bai Tian, who had tried to sneak up on Bai Yun.


    "Now, next time you want to talk to me, just come to my house. My door is always open." Bai Yun finished.


    He then stood up and grabbed a dumpling off the table next to Bai Song and threw it into his mouth. As he walked out he grabbed a glass of juice that a little girl was holding and drained it. He then placed it back into the girl''s hands and said thank you with a smile.


    The little girl was frozen in fear. She finally reacted after that. She dropped the glass onto the floor and tried to get away from Bai Yun. In her haste, she tripped over her clothes and fell to the floor with tears in her eyes.


    Bai Yun just chuckled when he saw this. "Don''t worry I''m not going to hurt you." He said with a soft smile. Everyone who saw this smile felt like a summer breeze was flowing through the air. No one could match this smiling gentleman with the cold blooded monster from a few moments before.


    Bai Yun nodded to Bai Qing, who was staring back at him solemnly and left the hall. As he left the coliseum, he saw old Hai standing there. He knew that old Hai had seen what happened inside.


    "Had enough fun?" Old Hai asked in exasperation. Bai Yun was too much like his father.


    "For now." Bai Yun replied with a smile.

 92 Training for the figh

    Old Hai took Bai Yun back to the mansion. On the way, he said that there might be repercussions to his actions, but Bai Yun wasn''t worried. Not only did Bai Song, a foundation establishment realm cultivator threw the first punch, they also ganged up on him. And yet he still beat them up. If Bai Yun was going to be in trouble, they would be in even more trouble.


    And Bai Yun was certain that Bai Song would not want to spread the truth of what had happened there. The truth was extremely embarrassing to him. So he would definitely try to make sure that no one would spread word of what happened. Whether he would be able to do so was another matter altogether.


    And later events would prove him right. Even though most people came to find out what happened, no one came to confront Bai Yun. After all, it was only a fight between kids. And pretty much everyone in Bai Yun''s family had beaten up someone in the coliseum before. So none of the older generations thought much of it, other than thinking that the apple doesn''t fall far from the tree.


    Once Bai Yun returned to the mansion, he continued to read and laze around for a few more days. Once he felt that all of his stress and small instabilities that came with his rapid improvement had stabilized, he decided to once again return to training.


    In his parent''s mansion, there was a room specially tailored for training. Bai Yun had never been there as he had been going to more specialized training locations. But the reason Bai Yun had been training at a breakneck pace was because of the clan meeting that was coming up in one and a half months. Bai Yun initially thought that he needed to at least reach the peak of the qi condensation to win the clan meeting. But after seeing how poor the battle capabilities of the members of the Bai clan were, he had changed his idea. He was already strong enough to defeat people like Bai Song, who were considered as top geniuses of the clan. Bai Yun had already reached the seventh stage of the qi condensation realm. He was confident that he could at least reach the eighth stage by the clan meeting. By then no one in the clan at the early foundation establishment would have any chance against him.


    But before that, he had a fight with Zhang Zi left. Zhang Zi was unlike the others. From his one fight, Bai Yun could see that he had a rich fighting experience. While nowhere close to Bai Yun''s, just his battle experience would allow him to defeat foundation establishment at qi condensation. Even without his shockwave innate ability.


    The training room contained some training dummies. These dummies could be configured to have various strengths and one could fight against them to test out their strength.


    There was a reason Bai Yun had come to this room. He had realized that he was too reliant on his sight and the god sense for fighting. Back in his days he had used his perception to have a great view of the world around him. But now his perception was much weaker. So he had been relying on his eyes to fight.


    But during the secret abode incident, he had realized just how mistaken he truly was. Bai Yun''s eyes were damaged and he nearly died. Bai Yun realized that he was too reliant on his sight. He had to hone his other senses, or might be in trouble later.


    So he first calibrated three dummies to the strength of a ninth stage qi condensation realm cultivator. Bai Yun figured that he shouldn''t bite off much more than he could chew in the beginning. Once he did so, he took a blindfold and covered his eyes, to make sure that he could not see anything.


    Once he confirmed that he was completely blind, he activated the dummies. Bai Yun stood there in the dark, and tried to sense the approach of the dummies.


    As he stood there, Bai Yun''s god sense suddenly started to tingle. Bai Yun sensed something coming at him from the left side. Bai Yun turned rapidly and blocked an attack that was aimed at his face. But the next second, Bai Yun felt a kick land on his stomach. He flew back quite a good distance, until he rolled and came to a stop. A drop of blood slowly seeped out of the edge of his mouth.


    Bai Yun once again concentrated his senses. This time he was able to hear a sound coming from behind him. Bai Yun leaped forward to dodge the attack. As he stood there concentrating, he could slowly sense three vague figures around him.


    Once again Bai Yun charged at the closest dummy to him. But after just a single exchange, he missed an attack and was punched in the face. Bai Yun stumbled back a few steps and stabilized himself. He felt the three dummies surrounding him. Bai Yun spit out some blood and wiped his lips. With a shout, Bai Yun leaped forwards, towards another one of the dummies. Slowly Bai Yun continued his fight. He would often get injured, but he would just get up and fight on.


    When old Hai saw how Bai Yun was training, he was surprised. Bai Yun''s training was extreme, and all for a fight that may never happen. But he did not want to say that Bai Yun should stop. So old Hai just watched over him and made sure that Bai Yun was not getting too injured.


    When he was done with the training for the day, Bai Yun went back to his room. In the night he started to focus on alchemy and meditating to increase his cultivation. Bai Yun had already mastered the qi recovery pill. So he started to branch out into a more and wide range of pills. Thanks to his wealth, he was never in need of any materials. Thus his skill in alchemy grew at an almost unbelievable pace day by day. If any of the alchemists of the Bai clan were to see Ba Yun''s improvement, they would most likely kill themselves in shame for the lack of their talent.


    With each passing day, Bai Yun''s familiarity with the dummies grew exponentially. From getting hit all the time at first, he was able to slowly adjust to it. Soon Bia Yun was able to dodge all the attacks and even fight back slowly. After a few days, Bai Yun was moving amidst the three dummies like a fish in the water.


    Seeing that it was getting easier to fight, Bia Yun slowly increased the number of dummies from three to four to finally nine. By then, once again Bai Yun felt the pressure on him increase. But it only took him one more day to get used to the number and fight back. But unlike when he only had three dummies, he could not defeat each dummy so easily as there were eight others fighting against him at the same time. Thus the training sessions tended to last longer.


    When Bai Yun finally got the hang of fighting with his eyes closed, Bai Yun decided to take things up by a notch. He bought two talismans that sealed his hearing and then reduced the number of dummies to three and started his training all over again. When he began, it was a repeat of what had happened when he started without his sight. But thanks to his terrifying talent, Bai Yun was able to once again adjust to it in a short time. He then mirrored his training regime in the past and once again increased the number of dummies to nine. When Bai Yun was able to dispatch them all without much difficulty he finally stopped his training.


    There was still time before the youngster''s tournament. So Bai Yun knew that he had to do something to fill the time. It was at the time that Bai Yun finally thought of something. Something he was able to do in the past but couldn''t replicate now.


    From then on no one was allowed in the training room. The only ones allowed inside were butler Fang and old Hai anyway. Now they both had to stand outside if they had to tell him something. Even though they were curious about the special training Bai Yun was talking about, they could only hide the curiosity withing them.


    The days passed by one by one. Bai Yun never left the training room during this period of time. He had entered with enough food to last a week. So no one was worried about him. Finally, the youngster''s tournament was just around the corner.


    \"Young Master Yun. The youngster''s tournament is tomorrow. You need to rest.\" Old Hai knocked on the door to the training room.


    For a long time, there was no sound coming from inside the room. Just as he was about to get worried, the door opened slowly. But when old Hai saw the person who came out, he was shocked.


    Bai Yun''s clothes were almost completely torn. Old Hai couldn''t find a single piece of clothing that was still intact. He was bandaged up quite badly too. And on his face was a very good black eye. All in all, it looked as if he had been getting beaten for the past week.


    \"Young master, what the hell happened.\" Old Hai asked.


    \"Nothing. It''s just the price of success.\" Bai Yun replied. \"Did butler Fang get the necessary medicines.\"


    Before he had gone in for his special training, Bai Yun had asked them to prepare many medicines that could quickly heal his body. Back then neither of them had understood the reasoning. Even with the insane training, Bai Yun was undergoing, he was barely injured. But old Hai finally understood Bai Yun''s words.


    \"I''ll take a medicinal bath and then sleep until tomorrow.\" Bai Yun continued. He then walked back to his room while stretching his body and giving a great yawn. All the people who came across him stared at him in shock.


    Old Hai stared at the disappearing back of Bai Yun for a while. Then curiosity got the better of him. He stepped into the training room. There in the middle of the room stood a single dummy. It was just standing there with its body outstretched in an attacking position. But old Hai could not see any injuries or damages to the dummy.


    He walked up to the dummy, only to realize that it was still in attack mode, but for some reason, it was completely still. Old Hai walked up to the dummy and gently poked it with a finger, only for the dummy to collapse to the ground. But from a quick look, the dummy was completely uninjured.


    Old Hai stood there and looked around. He had no idea why the dummy had collapsed.


    ''What the hell kind of training was the young master doing.'' old Hai thought.

 93 Youngsters tournamen

    Bai Yun woke up in the morning on time. He put on a short sleeve shirt and pants and arm guards. He then changed his look to that of Long Tian and headed straight for the youngster''s tournament.


    The youngster''s tournament was held by the city itself. The major forces of the city would come together to organize the event. It was considered as a good way to encourage the younger generation to do better, as well as have interaction between them to understand how good their rivals are. It was also a chance for the forces to recruit promising youngsters who were not part of any major force. There were many people who flocked to the city to participate in the tournament in hope of a better future.


    The youngster''s tournament was held in the city arenas. The main arena was used for the higher cultivation realms. The qi condensation realm was conducted in one of the minor arenas. Even though it was called a minor arena, it was still extremely large with nearly a hundred smaller arenas to battle in. As the rounds became higher and higher and the number of players decreased, the number of arenas would be reduced to let the spectators have a better view.


    The tournament was a simple elimination type tournament. There were over twenty thousand participants in the tournament. With the high number of people who would be participating in the tournament, they could not hope to do a round robin type tournament. This way there would only be fifteen rounds.


    Old Hai dropped off Bai Yun a good distance from the arena. When Bai Yun finally made it to the arena, the opening ceremonies were just coming to an end. The official in charge of the youngster''s tournament for the qi condensation realm this year was an elder of the hunters union. He quickly announced the start of the tournament and let it start without any fanfare.


    Bai Yun had already been issued a participant number when old Hai went to register him for the tournament a month ago. He quickly found his arena as well as his time of the fight. It was in one of the smaller arenas in the afternoon a few days later. Due to the number of participants in the tournament, some of the people, including ninety nine seeded contestants, would get a bye in the first round. Depending on the other fights before his, it could potentially be delayed.


    Bai Yun walked around the arena. By now the matchups had been decided and the matches had started. He walked around and saw for himself the kind of fights that were happening in the arenas.


    It would be a lie to say that Bai Yun was not impressed by what he saw. Even though not to the extend of Zhang Zi, the people here almost all had a much better fighting experience than the likes of Bai Song. But it was obvious that their cultivation techniques were lacking. The force they could generate was much weaker than what the people at Bai clan could generate. Bai Yun figured it was probably due to this reason that the major forces could keep their power.


    Suddenly, he froze. On one of the arenas, Bai Yun saw Song Hui.


    Bai Yun had no idea what she was doing in the arena. He knew that she was a seeded contestant, just like him. Bai Yun had registered using the Long Tian identity he used for the gold test. Many people had seen the battle video of his fight with Zhang Zi. So many people had an idea of his strength and he had gotten the tenth seed. Zhang Zi was obviously the first seed. Due to this, he did not have to fight in the first round.


    And Song Hui was also needed at the fifty eighth place. By right she should not be fighting now. Unless she did something insane. ''And what were the chances of that happening?'' Bai Yun thought.


    Song Hui easily disposed of her opponent, a poor guy in the eighth stage of the qi condensation realm. Just because her whip technique was nothing in front of Bai Yun''s eyes, it was not the same for the rest of the world. Her opponent was unable to cope with the rapid change of direction and was struck out easily.


    Bai Yun stood there watching Song Hui. She was jubilant upon her victory and had thrown up her hands and started to jump around. She only stopped when the judge finally reminded her.


    With a happy hop, she finally got down from the stage. Coincidentally, her eyes closed with that of Bai Yun''s at that moment. ''Shit'' Bai Yun thought. He was a little scared of this strange creature and had no desire to interact with her.


    \"Big brother Long, long time no see.\" Song Hui shouted. She then bounded up towards him. Bai Yun initially wanted to run, but after Song Hui''s shout, all the people here were looking at him. It felt wrong to run now. Bai Yun resigned himself to his fate.


    \"What are you doing here?\" He asked Sing Hui when she reached him.


    \"Participating in the tournament.\" Song Hui responded innocently. The look in her eyes was asking why Bai Yun would ask such a question. Bai Yun almost thought that he was the fool for asking such a question.


    \"I meant why are participating in the first round. Arent you a seeded participant. Don''t you get a bye in the first round.\" Bai Yun asked.


    The moment he said so, Song Hui looked startled. She looked around as if to make sure that no one heard him and then turned back to look at bai Yun. \"What are you talking about, big brother Yun. I''m not a seeded contestant.\"


    \"Song Hui what are you talking about. I just checked. You are the fifty eighth seed.\" Bai Yun replied.


    \"Song Hui, who''s Song Hui? My name is Hui Song.\" She replied. Bai Yun looked at Song Hui, who simply stared back at him with her big rabbit eyes, the very picture of innocence. BAi Yun suddenly felt the oncoming of a migraine.


    Bai Yun calmed himself down after a few moments. \"What are you talking about?\"


    Song Hui looked around as if to make sure that no one was watching. Then she took a couple of steps closer to Bai Yun and slowly started to whisper. Bai Yun had to bend his head to hear her.


    \"Shh. Don''t tell anyone. I registered a second identity as Hui Song to battle.\" Song Hui explained.


    In the youngster''s tournament, it was difficult to check if someone had registered multiple times. Thus they just made it legal to participate in the tournament with multiple identities, even though it wasn''t encouraged by the organizers. The advantage of this was that even if you had a bad matchup and lost a battle, you could still have a second chance to fight on.


    But not many people would choose to register multiple identities. The reason was that it was extremely taxing. They would have to fight often and if both of their identities got scheduled to a match at the same time, then you had to forfeit one. And the stress of all those extra fights could easily cause problems. And anyone who was confident in themselves would not stoop to such levels to prove themselves.


    So Bai Yun was completely stunned when he heard Song Hui say that she registered a second identity. Bai Yun could not understand why she would want to do so.


    \"Why?\" Bai Yun asked her. He was genuinely curious now.


    \"Being a seeded competitor is too boring. I''m not gonna fight as Song Hui.\" Song Hui replied mischievously. \"Just think about it. If I participate as an unknown fighter and defeat everyone, they will be all surprised. They will call me a dark horse and all. Then they will be all like, can she do it. Will she win. And when I do, everyone will cheer for me. Doesn''t that sound more exciting.\"


    \"But you''re not even hiding your face.\" Bai Yun tried to reason with her. \"They can still see you. They''ll know you are you.\"


    \"How will they know. I''m fighting as Hui Song.\" Song Hui replied with confidence.


    Bai Yun wanted to strangle her when he heard her reply, but he was afraid he would get a bit of her stupidity on him. Even just talking to her, he could feel his brain cells dying.


    \"Brilliant plan. Only you could have thought of this.\" Bai Yun finally said with a sigh.


    \"Yay.\" Song Hui shouted and did a small twirl. Bai Yun just watched her with a smile.


    \"Its too soon to celebrate.\" A voice sounded out from beside them. Bai Yun looked to his right to see Zhang Zi standing there. Bai Yun had felt Zhang Zi coming, so he was not surprised.


    \"What do you mean?\" Song Hui asked.


    \"Did you check the latest seeding rankings.\" Zhang Zi said with a smile. \"Both Song Hui and Hui Song are now the fifty eighth seed. They already found out about your dual identity trick.\"


    \"How did they know!?\" Song Hui asked. She seemed genuinely surprised that someone was able to see through her tick.


    \"Who knows how they found out. Maybe they are just that smart.\" Zhang Zi replied with a chuckle.


    \"This won''t do. I have to fix this.\" Song Hui shouted. She then ran off in the direction of the organizer''s desk, fully intent on changing her seeding status. Bai Yun watched her as she ran off. He could not sense anyone following after her, not even the maid who was with her at the auction.


    \"Why aren''t there anyone with her. Aren''t they afraid someone will tempt her away with candy? Or she would just get lost.\" Bai Yun asked Zhang Zi.


    \"She always finds her way home. Sometimes after a few days. But always.\" Zhang Zi replied. \"And they used to be worried about her safety. That was until she got kidnapped.\"


    \"I see. What?\" Bai Yun was confused. Why would someone be worried until their child got kidnapped? Usually, that''s when you start to worry.


    \"The kidnappers returned her two days later. And then they turned themselves in. I heard that some of them went mad after two days with her.\" Zhang Zi explained.


    Bai Yun understood it when phrased like that. The strange creature was truly powerful. Bai Yun had a feeling that even the devil emperor himself might be helpless in front of her. ''Next time someone invades, we should just send her.'' Bai Yun thought.


    \"I''m looking forward to our fight. \" Zhang Zi suddenly said.


    \"Me too.\" Bai Yun replied. \" Don''t think it will be a repeat of the last time. I''m not the same guy you faced before.\"


    \"Me neither.\" Zhang Zi said. \"But too bad. Based on the current schedule, it won''t be until the finals. Don''t g losing until then.\"


    Bai Yun chuckled. \"The same to you.\"


    The two of them shared a look filled with fighting intent. Then they smiled and walked away from one another.


    They both went back to their homes after this to train. Their next fight was only a few days later, but seeing each other burned both of their fighting spirits.


    Neither of them wanted to lose.

 94 Fighting in the tournamen

    Two days later, Bai Yun headed towards the youngster''s tournament once again. Today was his first fight.


    When Bai Yun arrived at the arena, there were already a lot of people there. Bai Yun realized that compared to his arena, the others were relatively emptier. After a moment of thought, he understood the reason.


    Bai Yun was the tenth seed in this tournament. Not only that, he had only fought once before. Thus he was a very mysterious person with not much known about him. So naturally, he would attract attention. Especially from the other top seeds.


    When Bai Yun reached the arena, there was already a fight going on in the arena. His fight was scheduled to be the next one.


    Bai Yun stood near the arena and patiently watched the fight. The two people fighting were much weaker than him but they were close to each other in strength. So the fight continued on for a while. Finally one of them won by a fluke. But the one who won did not see to be in a good enough state to continue on.


    Once they were done, it was Bai Yun''s turn next. He calmly walked up to the arena and waited there for his opponent. A few moments later, he saw a young man walk up to the arena.


    The young man got up and stood there arrogantly. \"You better get down before I make you into minced meat.\" The young man said.


    Bai Yun simply smiled at him in response. It was obvious that the young man hadn''t done a thorough job in researching his opponent. If he had, he would not have said so. But BaiYun couldn''t fault him in not checking up on the opposition. After all, Bai Yun did not even know the youth''s name.


    The referee asked the two of them to get ready. Bai Yun simply stood there calmly without even taking out his weapon. The young man on the hand took out a great saber.


    \"Begin.\" The referee shouted. The moment the fight began the young man ran forward with his saber. Bai Yun stared at him calmly.


    Just as the young man was about to reach him, Bai Yun finally made his move. He took a single step forward and grabbed at the hilt of the saber. The young man was startled and tried to shake off Bai Yun. But before he could do so, Bai Yun spun around and drove his elbow into the throat of the young man. The young man grasped at his throat and took a few steps back. But before he could stabilize himself he froze.


    Bai Yun stood there with the young man''s saber in his hands and the tip at his neck. A single drop of blood slowly coated the edge of the blade.


    \"Do you concede or should we continue?\" Bai Yun quietly asked.


    The young man stared at Bai Yun with fear. \"I-I concede.\" The young man finally stammered.


    \"Bai Yun wins.\" The referee declared.


    Bai Yun smiled and retuned the saber to the young man. The young man was feeling weak and actually dropped the saber once before he quickly picked it up. Bai Yun simply turned around and left the arena. He was done for the day. He two more fights tomorrow. But other than that he was quite free.


    Bai Yun was walking back to the meeting place with old Hai while thinking abuts the assassin god''s movement technique. He had already mastered the first part of it: wind motion, but was far from mastering the second portion, soundless motion. Even though he understood the principles behind it, mastering it seemed to be quite a difficult feat.


    Just as Bai Yun was thinking and walking, he found his path suddenly blocked. Bai Yun looked up to see a young man in a huge coat standing in front of him. But due to their age, Bai Yun was much taller than the other guy. But it seems like the young man was not intent on looking up at Bai Yun. Thus instead of looking at Bai Yun''s face, he looked at his chest.


    Bai Yun was quite interested in this child that just appeared in front of him. He seemed to be different from the rest.


    \"Can I help you?\" Bai Yun asked him.


    \"I don''t know what the matter with the organizers is, ranking you higher than me. If this is all that you are good for, then you will be dead before you can you how you died.\" The young man replied.


    Bai Yun suddenly understood the situation. The young man must have been seeded lower than him. And since Long Tian was generally considered as an unknown person, he must have felt wronged.


    \"You know its never a good idea to look down on your opponent.\" Bai Yun kindly reminded the young man.


    \"I will do whatever I want. Who are you tell me what to do? You better just hope that you make it to the round of sixteen so that I can deal with you personally.\" The young man said. Then he finally looked up at Bai Yun, snorted and left.


    Bai Yun was more amused by this exchange than anything else. He simply shook his head and went on his merry way. There were a lot of people staring at him due to the conflict. Bai Yun could also sense a few rather powerful presences around him. He figured that they must be the other seeded competitors.


    Bai Yun returned home and continued his training. He wanted to increase his strength as much as he could. Even though he was sure that he could defeat Zhang Zi with his current strength, he was still a bit concerned. Zhang Zi knew his true identity. Which means that Zhang Zi also knew just how long he had been training for. So he would be prepared for a great increase in Bai Yun''s strength. So if he had prepared a counter for him, things could turn problematic. Thus Bai Yun had to be prepared for all eventualities.


    The next day Bai Yun had two more fights. It also ended quickly just like the first one. Considering Bai Yun''s strength, it was almost too easy for him.


    The next couple of days passed by more and more quickly. Bai Yun had a couple of fights every day. Since there were a lot of people participating in the tournament, there was no time to rest and do things one by one. If they only held one round per day, it would take too long for the tournament to end.


    Soon the round of one twenty eight began. This was the first major round in the tournament. This was the first round in which seed participants would fight against each other.


    All the seeded contestants had survived till now. Most of them had had it relatively easy. But all the people who had survived until now were quite strong. Each battle was going to be much harder than the one before.


    There was also a change in the number of arenas. The number of areas had been reduced to thirty two. There were sixty four matched to be had, and they will take place in two rounds. The number of arenas was finally reduced so as to make sure that no one missed the major matchups.


    That day both Bai Yun and Zhang Zi had fights in the second part of the round. But Bai Yun came early enough to watch the first part. Until now he had not cared about the fights of other seeded competitors. Bai Yun had figured that their opponents would not be powerful enough to push them to their limits. So Bai Yun had not bothered to check up on his enemies.


    But today at least some of them would be forced to show their true strengths. It was always better to have some idea of the opponent''s strengths before a fight. After advising others not to look down on their enemies, if he himself did so, it would be quite funny.


    Since there were thirty two fights happening simultaneously, Bai Yun was unable to focus on all of them. But he still looked at the major ones.


    Bai Yun was surprised by a couple of the fighters. For example, both the second seed and the sixth seed impressed him with their fighting prowess. They were quite different from the others and were fighting quite well.


    At the same time, there was also an unseeded competitor who was fighting well. He was up against the twentieth seed but was easily suppressing him. It seemed as if there was finally a worthy dark horse in the competition.


    As he watched the unknown fighter, Bai Yun felt that he was familiar. But he just couldn''t place him anywhere.


    As he walked around the arena, he ran into Bai Qing. Bai Qing was one of the dozen people the Bai clan had send to participate in the youngster''s tournament. He also had his fight in the next round and was the third seed. Bai Qing did not recognize Bai Yun but knew that he was the tenth seed. So the two of them just nodded to each other as they pased by.


    Soon the fights in the first round were over. Most of the higher seede particpants won against unseeded or lower seeded participants. The notable exception was the dark horse Bai Yun had noticed. He won against the twentienth seed, creating the first major uspset of the tournament.


    Now it was Bai Yun''s turn to fight. He was up against an unseeded cultivator in this round.


    Bai Yun took out his sword. From now on there would be no more weaklings. What if someone like the dark horse turned up, and he lost because he was careless. He would never hear the end of it from Zhang Zi. And his parents wont let him off easily either.


    Bai Yun''s opponent for this round was a young woman. She held a soft sword in her hands. She was quite good to have made it till now. But unkuckily for her, she ran into Bai Yun.


    When the referee ordereed the start of the match, neither of them moved for a while. This was a first for Bai Yun in the tournament. Usually, the others would come charging in and he would easily disable them. But it seemed as if neither he nor the young woman was of the type to start a conflct.


    But Bai Yun was in a hurry to end the fight. He wanted to check out his other opponents. So he finally made a move.


    Bai Yun moved and closed the distance using wind motion. He thrust his sword at the young lady. She simply defended it. Bai Yun then took another step and swiped his sword again, but it was once again blocked. It was the first time Bai Yun had to make more than a single move in the tournament.


    But with just the two attacks, he had already felt out the opponent. She was using a defensing sword technique to battle him. He knew all he needed to know.


    Bai Yun then struck out with full force. The young lady had to take a step back to defend herself. But before she could stabilize herself properly, Bai Yun once again stabbed out with his sword. The young woman tried to defend the strike, but with a shake of his wrist, his sword slid past hers and struck her hilt. And at the same time, Bai Yun rapidly vibrated the sword, to generate an extra shock. Even though not to the extend of Zhang Zi''s shockwaves, his extra power was enough to make the young woman loosen her grip. And the next second, Bai Yun struck her sword and it flew off of her hands.


    The young woman seemed surprised at the sudden change in the fight. But before she could recover, Bai Yun''s sword point came to rest on her neck. The young woman softly sighed and said. \"I concede.\"


    After the referee gave Bai Yun the victory, he quickly left the arena. As he walked out, he saw both Zhang Zi and Bai Qing leaving, along with a couple of others. Bai Yun quickly remembered their faces, as it meant that they were strong. He then looked at the rest of them, but he couldn''t find anyone else who was worthwhile.


    There were still two more rounds today. Bai Yun couldn''t wait for time to pass.

 95 Round of sixteen

    The next two rounds of the youngster''s tournament happened similar to the previous one. They were held in two parts, though the people participating in the two parts were mixed. Thus Bai Yun had a chance to see both Zhang Zi and Bai Qing in action. Both of them were pretty good. There were also a few others who got passing marks from Bai Yun.


    And Bai Yun''s two fights were also nothing much. He had to fight a bit, but both of them went down without giving him much trouble.


    The next day Bai Yun arrived at the tournament site on time. Today both the round of sixteen and the quarterfinals would be held. The semifinals and the finals would be tomorrow.


    Unlike the previous rounds, the round of sixteen was conducted in a single go of eight matches side by side. But the format would change from the quarterfinals onwards. From then on it would be one match at a time. After all, there would only be eight matches left, four quarterfinals, one semi final, one final and one third place fight.


    When Bai Yun lazily walked into the arena, he saw that he was the last to arrive. The other fifteen fighters were already there. They were waiting near the main arena, inside the stadium. Everyone else had to wait in the stands. Looking around, Bai Yun was quite impressed by the wide variety of people here.


    Zhang Zi was sitting in a corner, napping. Bai Qing was chatting with a few of his friends, and also making new friends, widening his circle. The idiot that shouted at him after the first match was also there. He was standing in the middle with a proud expression. There were some of them standing alone, and some of them standing together and chatting. There was even one guy who was sitting there slowly sharpening a large axe.


    As he looked around he realized that he only knew four people here. Once was Bai Qing, then Zhang Zi, Meng Qi, the archer he saw during the gold test and finally Gong Ming, the flashy guy he met during the gold test. Based on the strength they had shown then, Bai Yun was a little surprised that the latter two could make it here. And true to his nickname given by Zhang Zi, reptile, Gong Ming was showing a completely different look right now. He was casually chatting with Bai Qing and a few other young men. Meng Qi was standing near Zhang Zi silently. Bai Yun had heard from Song Hui during the auction that Zhang Zi had persuaded Meng Qi to join his Little Merchant Association.


    Bai Yun looked around once again. He suddenly saw the dark horse he had seen standing off in a corner, in the shadows. Bai Yun once again felt that he was familiar, but just couldn''t place him.


    There were a lot of cheers coming from the stands, though most of it was not legible in the noise.


    The organizers suddenly appeared in front of them. \"Good you are all here. We can finally begin.\" The head referee said while staring at Bai Yun. Bai Yun simply shrugged in response. He got here one minute before the scheduled time. He wasn''t late. There was no need to stare at him.


    Once the referee declared the start of the round of sixteen, the group started to move toward their respective arenas. The cheers from the crowd rose. Zhang Zi finally woke up and walked towards his arena.


    \"Big brother Zhang, big brother Long. Good luck out there.\" Suddenly Bai Yun heard a loud shout from the stands. Song Hui was standing there waving a huge banner with the word fight written upon it. He could see her maid standing next to her, covering her face with her hands.


    Bai Yun awkwardly waved to Song Hui with a chuckle. The strange creature was adorable in her own way. She reminded him of a bunny.


    \"Big brother Zhang, beat that baddy for me.\" Song Hui shouted.


    Song Hui was defeated in the previous round. The person who defeated her was facing off against Zhang Zi. That was why she asked him to defeat him.


    Bai Yun walked up to his arena. His arena was right next to Zhang Zi''s so he had a good view of that fight.


    Bai Yun glanced at his opponent. It was the same guy who had come up to him after the first round. It seemed that he had survived until now.


    \"Not bad, you survived until now.\" The young man said in a condescending tone. \"But your luck ends here. Get ready to go home crying.\"


    Bai Yun simply shook his head. He was far more interested in Zhang Zi''s match than this one. Zhang Zi was very calm even after meeting him. Bai Yun had a feeling that Zhang Zi had a trick up his sleeve to deal with him.


    The young man took out a saber and stood there glaring at Bai Yun. He took off his huge coat and put it into his storage ring. He seemed to be incensed by Bai Yun''s total disregard of him.


    Bai Yun stared at the young man from the corner of his eyes. Even though it looked as if he was not paying attention, Bai Yun would never make such a basic mistake. He had three soul tendrils. Other than splitting up to act, they could also be used to split his focus and think multiple thoughts at the same time. Having three soul tendrils means that he can split his consciousness into three. He was using two of his soul tendrils on his opponent, and only one on Zhang Zi.


    Then the referees declared the start of the matches.


    The moment the match started, Bai Yun''s opponent ran towards him. Bai Yun was staring at Zhang Zi''s arena, though in fact, he was placing most of his attention of the young man coming towards him.


    The young man swung his saber down at Bai Yun. Bai Yun simply took a step to the right to dodge the attack. The young man swung his sword sideways, which Bai Yun dodged by bending his body.


    Bai Yun glanced at Zhang Zi. He was engaged in a fight with his opponent. He directly smashed against his opponent using his shockwave power. He used his overwhelming power to disorient his opponent before attacking in force once again.


    Bai Yun knew that that fight was probably not going to last for much longer. He wanted to finish his fight quickly too. So he finally turned his full attention back to his opponent.


    Since it seemed as if Bai Yun was disinterested in their fight, his opponent had become enraged. Throwing caution out the window, the young man he was fighting against simply attacked him again and again without bothering about defense. Bai Yun was able to easily dodge his attacks, which only fueled his fury.


    When Bai Yun finally turned to him, the young man was halfway into going insane. He completely threw away any semblance of fighting form and started to wildly swing his saber. \"Stand still you slippery bastard.\" He screamed. Bai Yun''s plan to agitate him had worked.


    When he swiped at Bai Yun again, instead of dodging, Bai Yun took a rapid step inside. He stepped on the young man''s feet and punched at his throat, causing him to stumble. Before he could recover, Bai Yun grabber the young man''s saber and hit him on the head with his sword hilt, disorienting him. As the young man stood there shaking his head, Bai Yun kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying.


    The young man fell down quite a good distance away. Bai Yun used wind motion to approach him. But the young man quickly stood up and lifted his saber and swung it downward in Bai Yun''s path.


    But Bai Yun did not slow down. Wind motion was designed to handle close combat. Without slowing down, Bai Yun simply took a single step to the side to pass by the young man and appeared behind him. Bai Yun put his sword at the throat of the young man and quietly said \"Yield.\"


    But the young man was not ready to do so. His pride had been hurt. Without caring about any repercussions, he swung his saber over his shoulder to hit Bai Yun. But Bai Yun casually blocked that strike and kicked at the young man''s right leg. As the young man stumbled on one leg, Bai Yun drove his elbow to the young man''s right shoulder and chest, knocking him down. Before he could stand up, Bai Yun leaped and landed on the young man''s saber and then held his sword to the young man''s throat once again, this time slightly pushing it just enough to make him bleed.


    \"Give up. There is no scenario in which you can win.\" Bai Yun said.


    By now the young man had finally come to see reason. He stared at Bai Yun in terror. Then he slowly nodded.


    \"Bai Yun wins.\" The referee announced.


    Bai Yun put his sword back into his storage ring. He had made it to the quarter finals. Now there were only a mere two matches between his fight with Zhang Zi.


    As Bai Yun left the arena he saw Zhang Zi standing down there waiting for him. He had finished his fight while Bai Yun was playing around. The rest of the fights were still going on.


    Bai Yun glanced at the sixth arena. The winner of that fight was going to be his next opponent in the quarterfinals. The fight was between the second seed and the dark horse. The fight was close. The dark horse had a slight edge, but the fight was too close to call. Among all the fights in the round of sixteen, it was the closest one.


    One by one, the others finished their fight. Bai Qing was the next to end his fight with a victory, securing a position in the quarterfinals. The fights continued after that. Gong Ming lost his fight and had to leave. But he was not too down by the result and seemed quite chipper. He had ended his fight before he was too injured, so it looked as if he had taken a jog rather than be part of a severe fight.


    Meng Qi also won her fight. From the way she moved, it was obvious that her weapons and movement techniques were far superior to the ones she used during the gold test. Advantages of joining a major force.


    Soon the other fights also ended. Bai Yun did not know who the other fighters were, but he still played close attention to them in case they became his opponents in the future.


    Finally, the last battle also ended. It was the fight between the dark horse and the second seed. The dark horse won the match after a tough fight. He was quite injured in the fight and was directly taken to the medical area to rest.


    The organizers had a small meeting after this. Then they declared that Bai Yun''s fight with Luo Ting, the dark horse, was postponed to the end so that the injured party can recover as much as possible. Bai Yun did not mind the extension. Then they all broke for lunch and after which the quarterfinals would begin.

 96 Old friends cross swords

    The first fight in the quarterfinals was between Bai Qing and a young man from the Gong clan. Usually, the youngster''s tournament would be completely dominated by the major forces of Yellow City, but this time there were two people from outside the major forces in the quarterfinals. Though in truth Bai Yun was a member of the Bai clan, no one else knew. Meng Qi had also joined a major force quite recently, so she could also be considered as an outsider. This was an embarrassment to the major forces of Yellow city.


    The fight between Bai Qing and the young man from the Gong clan lasted for a while. But in the end Ba Qing won a resounding victory.


    The second fight was between Zhang Zi and a girl from the Song clan. This was the least exciting of the quarterfinal matches. The fight ended without any unexpected factor and Zhang Zi won. Now the first of the two semi finals had been decided. It would be between Zhang Zi and Bai Qing.


    The third fight was between Meng Qi and a girl from the hunters union. This fight was extremely close. These two were considered as the weakest members of the quarterfinals and the fight lasted for nearly half an hour. Finally, Meng Qi won by exhausting her opponent and made it into the semi finals.


    The last fight in the quarterfinals was between Bai Yun and Luo Ting. Luo Ting was still recuperating when the fight started. He had barely returned from the medical section when he was asked to enter the fight. His face was slightly pale when he stepped into the ring. He was still a little weak from his previous fight.


    Bai Yun thought that it was a shame. Due to his weakness Luo Ting was not at his best. Bai Yun had a rather good view of this dark horse. He fought rather well in the few fights he had seen.


    As he walked up the stairs Bai Yun heard a loud cheer. He turned to see Song Hui waving her giant flag. Bai Yun waved back to her and climbed up the stairs. As he did so, an uneasy look appeared on his face. This was the first time his fight was the center of the attention of the entire stadium. Usually, there would be other fights happening simultaneously that would draw the audience''s attention. Bai Yun did not like the feeling of fighting in front of others. He was used to fighting with his life on the line. He did not like fighting for sport.


    Once Bai Yun entered the arena with Luo Ting, he still got a familiar feeling from him. He had a feeling that he had met Luo Ting before, but he just couldn''t place him anywhere. Bai Yun continued to study Luo Ting. But up until the moment the referee said to begin the fight, Bai Yun could not recollect the person.


    Bai Yun and Luo Ting ran at each other. They both swung their swords and the two swords clashed in the middle. The moment the swords crossed, Bai Yun''s eyes flew wide open. He suddenly used his full strength, along with the strength he gained from the other two cultivation paths and pushed Luo Ting. The next second the two of them flew back away from each other and landed near the edges of the ring. It wasn''t just Luo Ting, even the spectators were stunned by the sudden change.


    Bai Yun just stood there staring at Luo Ting for a while before he chuckled. He finally recognized Luo Ting. It was true that fate always brings people together.


    Luo Ting was Shadow One in disguise.


    Bai Yun chuckled at the coincidence. But even though Bai Yun recognized shadow one, he did not recognize Bai Yun. After all, Bai Yun had used the Assassin Gods technique to change his identity. So the fight was to continue.


    Shadow One was stunned by the sudden push. But he didn''t dwell on it too much. Without waiting for Bai Yun to come back to his senses, Shadow One reacted and attacked once again.


    Bai Yun smiled when he saw this. He simply took a few steps and slowly swung his sword to block shadow one''s sword. Shadow One then rapidly thrust his sword into Bai Yun, which he also defended against. The two of them then continued to joust against each other for a few minutes. Bai Yun was calmly defending against Shadow One''s attacks, but he also did not get any chance to strike back.


    Bai Yun knew that he had to make a break in Shadow One''s defenses to win. He could probably win if they drag out the fight, but Bai Yun had no intention to do so.


    Suddenly Shadow One turned and slashed at Bai Yun with increased force. Bai Yun used the increased force to slide around Shaodow One and attack him from behind. But Shadow One leaped out of the way. Bai Yun quickly caught up to him and kicked at him, only fo Shadow one to block it with his arm. But the force of the kick was too strong and he ended up flying away instead.


    Bai Yun used wind motion to cover the distance. Shadow One was still on the ground. Bai Yun had not given him any time to get up.


    So Shadow One kicked up at Bai Yun from the ground. He stood on his hands and kicked at Bai Yun. The kick forced Bai Yun to come to stop and defend with his sword. Shadow One got up and slashed at Bai Yun. Bai Yun swiped the attack away and stepped in, punching at Shadow One, but it was blocked. Bai Yun then stepped in forcefully and shoved him away. Shadow One flew and fell down on to the floor.


    Bai Yun stepped up to Shadow One once again. Shadow One then stabbed at Bai Yun with his sword. With a shake of his body, Bai Yun allowed it to pass by him, between his arm and his chest. He then gripped Shadow One''s arm with his own, trapping him in the process. Shadow One was kneeling on the ground as Bai Yun caught his arm and twisted it, locking him in a painful posture.


    \"Caught you.\" Bai Yun said with a chuckle.


    \"Wrong. I caught you.\" Shadow One replied.


    Before Bai Yun could understand what he meant, Shadow One punched up at Bai Yun with his left hand. His left fist left a crimson glow trailing on the air as it approached him. Seeing the danger, Bai Yun immediately activated false armor, the defensive technique he had taken from the Bai clan library. Unfortunately, he had not spent much time in training the technique. So by the time fist reached him, he had only partially deployed it. A small and weak blue aura covered Bai Yun''s stomach, jus as shadow one''s fist landed on him.


    Ba Yun got his wind knocked out of him by the punch. He let go of Shadow One''s arm and stumbled back. Just as he stabilized himself, Bai Yun''s eyes flew wide open. He hastily got down on one knee and rapidly put his arms over his head and activated false armor. Barely had a weak blue armor covered Bai Yun''s body when Shadow One''s crimson fist landed on his head once again.


    Bai Yun rolled on the floor and came to a stop. He stood up facing away from Shadow One with his eyes closed. Shadow One approached him and attempted to hit him again. But Bai Yun suddenly sank to his knees and grabbed behind him. After getting hold of Shadow One''s clothes, Bai Yun rolled forward, throwing Shadow One forward. Shadow One flew to the edge of the arena and came to a stop.


    Bai Yun slowly stood up as he coldly glared at Shadow One. He wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth and stood there panting slightly. The entire stadium was cheering wildly at the fight.


    \"Good one.\" Bai Yun said.


    Shadow one did not respond. He simply ran towards Bai Yun with his sword. In response, Bai Yun dropped his sword to the ground. It was time to get serious.


    Shadow One stabbed at Bai Yun once again. Bai Yun blocked the sword with his arm guard and stepped in. Shadow One was forced to take a step back in order to maintain his distance. Just as Shadow One stepped back, Bai Yun kicked out at him. The kick connected with Shadow One''s knee while his other leg was still in the air. Shadow One stumbled and fell to the ground on his knees. In his haste, Shadow One struck back at Bai Yun. But it was easily negated with a combination of false armor and his arm guards.


    The next moment Bai Yun tried to knee shadow one. But Shadow One used the kick as a source of strength to fly back. Bai Yun kicked at his sword on the ground, sending it flying into the air. With a single motion, he grabbed the sword. A small light slowly lit up at the edge of the sword. Bai Yun had activated a ray of moonlight.


    Bai Yun then used wind motion to approach Shadow One. At the same time, he used every bit of strength he had to move as fast as he could, even using a slight amount of traceless motion in the process. He then stabbed his sword at shadow one, who desperately tried to defend.


    With a woosh, Bai Yun''s sword stabbed into Shadow One. A deep gash could be seen on Shadow One''s chest, extending up to his shoulder.


    Shadow One stumbled back. But he was not done.


    Shadow one stabbed back at Bai Yun. Bai Yun blocked the attack. Then Shadow One gripped his sword with both hands and cleaved at Bai Yun. Bai Yun blocked the attack and used the force behind it to lean back. At the same time he leaned back, he lifted one of his legs and kicked at Shadow One. Shadow One tried to defend, but it was too late. He flew back in an instant but landed on his feet.


    Then the two of them ran at each other again. This time Shadow One''s sword was giving off a red aura. He seemed to be charging up to use an attack. But Bai Yun only smiled coldly in response.


    As the two of them neared each other, Shadow One suddenly thrust his sword forwards. Bai Yun gave a small smile in response. Instead of meeting Shadow One, Bai Yun suddenly ducked his head, and rolled to the side, getting out of the way. Shadow One''s eyes flew open in surprise. He hastily tried to swing his sword at Bai Yun, but as the two of them passed by each other, Bai Yun swiped his sword at Shadow One''s calf. A thick line of blood sprayed out, as a deep cut appeared on Shadow One''s leg.


    Shadow One clutched his leg and fell to the ground. Bai Yun quickly stood up and appeared behind him. Bai Yun used his full strength, drawing on all three cultivation systems, and kicked at the top of Shadow One''s back. Shadow One flew forward and fell on the floor. By now he was bleeding too much and had gotten too weak. He could no longer hold on to the sword and it flew away from his hands.


    Shadow One desperately tried to stand, but he fell down immediately. Bai Yun was on top of him in an instant. He drove his knee to the small of Shadow One''s back and grabbed his hair and yanked his head back. Then he slid his sword up against Shadow One''s neck.


    \"This time, I really did catch you.\" Bai Yun said with a chuckle.


    Shadow One was panting. \"Good one.\" he replied. After a moment of silence, he finally continued. \"I yield.\"


    \"Bai Yun wins.\" The referee shouted.


    Bai Yun put away his sword into his storage ring. He then stood up and extended a hand to Shadow One. Shadow One declined, preferring to stay on the floor until the medics arrived.


    And then the stadium erupted into cheers.

 97 Semifinals of the youngsters tournamen

    Bai Yun slowly walked down the steps. He was still in pain from when he was punched in the stomach by Shadow One. He used his God Sense to check on his injuries. After confirming that he wasn''t too injured to fight tomorrow and that there would be no lasting damage, Bai Yun decided to head back home.


    At the top of the stairs, he hesitated and wondered whether he should tell Shadow One he knew who he was but then decided against it. It was better to leave as little a trail as possible in case the blood moon found out who he was through this information.


    As he walked down the stairs he winced. Zhang Zi saw this and walked up to him.


    \"You''re injured?\" Zhang Zi asked him.


    \"It was my fault. I was careless.\" Bai Yun said.


    Zhang Zi frowned when he heard this. Bai Yun immediately understood what he was worried about.


    \"Don''t worry, we''ll have our fight. I''ll be fine after a night of rest. You just worry about getting into the finals.\" Bai Yun said with a chuckle.


    Zhang Zi nodded and accepted Bai Yun''s reply. There was a short event after this where the rewards for those outside the top four were given out. The prices for those below the top sixteen were already given out yesterday. Tomorrow the focus was on the final four. So they did it to make sure that no one else would steal the limelight. Also, the people who lost need not come the next day and relive their loss.


    Bai Yun didn''t stay for the ceremony. He left right after his fight ended. The medics wanted him to stay back, but Bai Yun declined.


    Old Hai took him back in secret. When Bai Yun reached home he was surprised to find his parents back home. They had left for a while in order to search for traces of devil worshippers.


    \"Are you alright?\" Bai Mu asked with a smile. Both of them had a much greater cultivation than him. They should be able to see that he was injured with a single glance.


    \"It''s fine. I should recover once I take a medicinal bath.\" Bai Yun said.


    \"Good luck with your fight. Don''t lose face for us okay.\" Xiao Mei-er said.


    \"You know other parents would try to comfort their kids if they were injured.\" Bai Yun said.


    When they heard Bai Yun''s words they stared at him for a while. Finally, Xiao Mei-er said. \"We watched your fight you know. Old Hai send us a live view of it. Honestly, you deserve that punch for being so stupid.\"


    \"I could understand if you got hit because you were worse than the other person .\" Bai Mu continued with a chuckle. \"But this was just plain sloppy. Honestly, I am happy that you can hide your identity. At least no one will know you are our child.\"


    Bai Yun winced when he heard them. With a grimace, he went back to his room. He could hear laughter behind him as he left.


    When he reached his room, a medicinal bath was already drawn for him. He got into the bath and started to draw in the medicinal essence to heal himself. At the same time, Bai Yun also continued to cultivate. Bai Yun only stopped when he felt himself reach the peak of the seventh stage of qi condensation. There was still some residual energy of chaos aura left within him and that helped him to quickly increase his cultivation recently. Bai Yun could break through to the eighth stage of qi condensation if he wanted. But he decided to wait for a natural breakthrough. That would lead to a better and more stable foundation for later.


    Once this was done. Bai Yun finally went to sleep late in the night. He expected a tough fight ahead of him tomorrow. So it was better to rest.


    Old Hai finally woke him up the next day. Bai Yun lazily got ready and left for the stadium. His parents wished him good luck when they saw him leave. By the time he got there, he was a little late. When Bai Yun walked into the arena, Bai Qing and Zhang Zi had already begun their fight. Bai Yun got an earful from the referee for being late.


    Bai Yun carefully watched the fight between Bai Qing and Zhang Zi. They were both pretty good. But Zhang Zi was definitely in the lead. Bai Yun carefully watched Zhang Zi''s fight. Finally, Zhang Zi knocked away Bai Qing''s sword using his shockwave innate ability and won the match.


    Once their match was over, it was time for Bai Yun''s. He and Meng Qi walked up the arena to the stadium.


    Mng Qi had her bow out. Bai Yun carefully studied her. She didn''t talk much and kept to herself. There was not much that he knew about her.


    \"Start.\" The referee declared once the two of them had gotten into position.


    Meng Qi immediately pulled out her bow and arrow and shot one at Bai Yun. Bai Yun casually took a step to the side and dodged the arrow. Meng Qi stood there with an arrow in her bow but did not shoot anymore. She had the feeling that if she did so Bai Yun would dodge it.


    And it was true. Bai Yun''s comprehension of the archery dao was far beyond Meng Qi''s. Bai Yun had reached the immortal realm in archery dao in his past life. At this distance, Bai Yun could easily predict the path of the arrow and calmly dodge the attack. While it might be difficult at close quarters, it was no problem for Bai Yun at such distances.


    Bai Yun slowly started to walk towards Meng Qi, keeping his attention on her bow. As he walked towards her, Meng QI would often let loose attacks at Bai Yun. But Bai Yun was able to evade them with ease, often by just bending his body. Sometimes he would even be able to evade an attack even before the arrow left Meng Qi''s bow.


    One step at a time, Bai Yun closed the distance between Meng Qi and himself. As he walked forward, Meng Qi tried to draw away from Bai Yun, but he would not allow her to do so. Soon Meng Qi found herself being cornered by Bai Yun.


    Meng Qi rapidly put away her bow and stabbed at Bai Yun with her arrows. But Bai Yun casually blocked it with his sword. Meng Qi then dropped her arrows and picked up two daggers and continued to attack Bai Yun. But Bai Yun was able to easily deflect her attacks.


    Bai Yun was surprised by Meng Qi''s new attack. She had not used it previously. But it was clearly a systematic attack style. He figured that it was something she gained after joining the little merchant association.


    Suddenly Meng Qi dropped her daggers and leaped backward. In the blink of an eye, her bow and an arrow were back in her hands. But Bai Yun had also jumped along with her. So when she held her bow and arrow, the arrow was only inches away from Bai Yun''s chest.


    Bai Yun immediately launched wind motion just as Meng Qi released her arrow. But it only pierced through an afterimage of Bai Yun. The next second Bai Yun appeared behind Meng Qi and rested his sword on her neck. On Bai Yun''s chest, a long tear was visible from where the arrow tore through his robe. Thankfully the arrow had not scratched Bai Yun, only his robe.


    \"Bai Yun wins.\" The referee declared seeing that Meng Qi had no more moves to make even after a while.


    Meng Qi was quietly glaring at Bai Yun as he walked down the arena. She seemed to be the type to take her losses seriously. But Bai Yun wasn''t too bothered by it. It would be a long while before she could match up to him in a fight.


    After the fight was over, there was a break for lunch. But most of the spectators didn''t leave. There were still two fights remaining in the afternoon, and they were the most important fights. They didn''t want to lose their good seats if they left now.


    Food was provided for the final four by the organizers. All four participants ate in silence. They all had a fight left in the afternoon. After lunch, Bai Yun quickly changed his robe into a new one.


    Once the tournament restarted the first fight was between Bai Qing and Meng Qi for the third place. The fight proceeded without any suspense. Even though Meng Qi was strong, she was still far from Bai Qing''s match. After a short beginning where Meng Qi suppressed Bai Qing with her sniping, Bai Qing retaliated when Meng Qi made a mistake. Bai Qing quickly closed the distance and disarmed Meng Qi. Soon after that, Meng Qi admitted defeat.


    Once the fight was over Bai Qing tried to chat with Meng Qi and draw her into his circle of friends. But Meng Qi was disinterested in anything but fighting and gave him the cold shoulder. But Bai QIng was not disappointed. He knew different people had different personalities. He quickly left the arena with a chuckle.


    Bai Yun thought that the third place fight was a waste. A fight between Bai Qing and Shadow One would have been much better as the third place fight. Based on what he knew, Shadow One was slightly stronger than Bai Qing. Unfortunately he was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Bai Yun.


    Once the fight was over it was finally time for the finals.


    Bai Yun and Zhang Zi glanced at each other. They saw a look of determination pass through each other''s eyes. Then the two of them got up and slowly walked up the steps to the arena.


    As the two of them walked up to the arena, the cheers from the crowd rose to an incredible high. Most of the cheers were for Zhang Zi but Bai Yun did hear his name here and there.


    Once he reached the arena, Bai Yun closed his eyes and calmed down. When he opened his eyes, the sound of the crowd had faded away from his ears. A terrifyingly calm look appeared in his eyes. The only thing he could see was the arena.


    Bai Yun turned to Zhang Zi only to see that he had two spears with him. One of them was the spear he had used for the tournament, the spear he had carried during the gold test. The other was a special spear Bai Yun had never seen before. It was coated in gold and looked even more special and ferocious than other one.


    \"Is that a secret weapon just for me?\" Bai Yun asked while nodding at the new spear.


    \"Obviously.\" Zhang Zi replied.


    \"Second time we are meeting like this.\" Bai Yun said with a chuckle.


    \"And it will end the same as the fight time.\" Zhang Zi replied. He then put his old spear on his back and stood there holding his new spear. Bai Yun also got into a fighting stance. For a moment there was silence in the arena.


    \"Begin.\" The referee finally announced.

 98 Their second figh

    Zhang Zi and Bai Yun ran at each other. Zhang Zi knew that Bai Yun was better than him at close combat so he couldn''t let him get too close. So just as Bai Yun got close to him, get swung his spear to make Bai Yun stop in his tracks.


    Bai Yun returned the attack with his sword. The two of them exchanged a few attacks, but neither of them could gain the upper hand. After a while, Bai Yun grew frustrated. He then suddenly used his full strength to jump backwards and create some distance between them.


    It was time to use the secret technique he had been developing just to deal with Zhang Zi.


    Bai Yun took a deep breath. Suddenly Zhang Zi had a weird feeling. He felt hat Bai Yun was not really there, even though he could see him. Zhang Zi was having a difficult time telling where to strike.


    Suddenly Bai Yun took a step to the right. The moment he did so, Zhang Zi thrust out his spear and it pierced exactly where he was standing at a moment ago. For a moment everyone was confused because it felt as if Bai Yun had moved even before Zhang Zi struck out.


    The spectators were not the only ones confused. Zhang Zi was too. He had no idea what just happened.


    But he was not too easily discouraged. Putting it out of his mind, Zhang Zi thrust out with his spear again. But a weird thing happened again. Bai Yun had moved before he had even attacked. Once again he missed.


    Bai Yun smiled at Zhang Zi. Then he suddenly knelt to the ground. The next moment Zhang Zi''s spear passed over Bai Yun''s head harmlessly.


    One after the other Bai Yun took steps in the arena with a smile. Right after he moved Zhang Zi would strike at the place Bai Yun was at. Each and every one of his attacks were being completely useless. Zhang Zi roared in frustration while attacking. He could tell that Bai Yun wasn''t simply dodging his attacks, that there was a trick involved. He just couldn''t see it.


    It wasn''t just Zhang Zi who was frustrated. Even the crowd had gone quiet. Even Song Hui had stopped waving her flag. The entire crowd and the referee watched the show on the arena in stunned silence. And as far as they were concerned, it was a show.


    For every time Bai Yun moved, Zhang Zi would attack the place he had been at. If Bai Yun moved to the right, Zhang ZI would then strike at the left. If Bai Yun tilted his head, Zhang Zi would then strike past him. They were even more clear than Zhang Zi that his attacks were coming after Bai Yun had already moved. It looked as if the two of them were putting a play or the audience.


    But they were wrong. It wasn''t a play. It was a puppet show.


    A puppet show set up by a masterful puppeteer.


    What they were seeing was the result of Bai Yun''s special training. The special weapon he had come up with just to deal with Zhang Zi.


    What Bai Yun was doing was studying his opponent and predicting his moves. But not just predicting his moves. He was moving just before Zhang Zi struck. But just doing this alone won''t be enough to confuse Zhang Zi.


    The more difficult part laying in confusing the opponent. People like Zhang Zi had ample fighting experience. Just moving at the last minute won''t be enough to stop then. What Bai Yun was doing was tricking that fighting experience.


    When someone is fighting, they take in a lot of information. The pose of the opponent, their breathing, which muscles are tense and so on. One might not even be aware of all that information he is receiving. But it is not possible to calculate all of this information to come to a judgment quickly. So the subconscious mind takes over analyzing all that information. So what one calls fighting intuition is the judgment given by the subconsious by analyzing all the information in front of it.


    And Bai Yun was giving Zhang Zi''s subconsious wrong information. By posturing wrongly, he was making Zhang Zi calculate wrongly. It was this posturing that gave Zhang Zi the feeling that there was something wrong with his eyes. It was incredebaly difficult to master this skill. Bai Yun had been beaten up to an inch of his life when he was training to remaster this skill. Even training dummies used the same kind of information to judge how to fight. Except they had formations instead of a subconsious brain. But once he mastered it, the training dummies could no longer hit him. In fact, some of them even overheated due to the problem with the information and reality and broke down.


    And this skill was also only useful against people like Zhang ZI who had a good amount of fighting experience. If one had no fighting experience, like Song Hui, there was nothing to fool. At the same time, if their fighting experience was abundant, like Bai Yun, it was impossible to fool. Unfortunately for Zhang Zi, he fell in the narrow gap where the fighting experience was just enough to be fooled.


    And thus the fight continued for a while. One step at a time, Bai Yun slowly closed in on Zhang Zi. He could not go too fast as otherwise, his technique would fail. But Bai Yun finally got withing Zhang Zi''s range. Zhang Zi was no longer able to strike at Bai Yun. With a loud roar, Zhang Zi finally crashed his spear into the ground. But Bai Yun easily dodged the attack. The next second, Bai Yun rapidly closed the distance between them and then drove his sword through Zhang Zi''s right shoulder.


    Zhang Zi stood there panting as blood slowly trickled out of his shoulder. He pointed to his shoulder. "You never attacked anyone else before. What is this, a special treatment just for me?" He asked.


    "You''re too dangerous. I can''t take any chances." Bai Yun replied. He put his other hand on Zhang Zi''s spear and held it in place.


    "You know, I thought that you are too dangerous too. Thats why I prepared a trump card to deal with you." Zhang Zi said grabbing Bai Yun''''s arm tightly and holding him in place.


    "What?" Bai Yun said. But the next secoond his eyes flew open. His god sense was screaming. There was danger close by.


    Bai Yun threw away the spear that he was holding on to. With his full strength, he tried to jump to the side. But Zhang Zi had a death grip on his hands, and it wasn''t successful. Barely had Bai Yun jumed, when the spearhead of Zhang Zi''s spear exploded. Pieces of the spearhead raced outwards like small little daggers, piercing into both Bai Yun and Zhang Zi.


    Searing pain raced through Bai Yun''s body as he felt shards of the spearhead stab into his body. Bai Yun rolled down on the ground, bleeding and in pain. He slowly stood up, with pieces of the spear stuck into him.


    "I should have known somthing was up when you didnt use your shockwave ability until now. I suppose that the spear was hollow and it exploded using your shockwave abilty?" Bai Yun asked.


    "That''s right. Specially made just for you." Zhang Zi replied. He then groaned as he pulled out Bai Yun''s sword that was stabbed into his shoulder. With a wince, he then threw it out of the ring, so Bai Yun could not retrieve it.


    Bai Yun looked down at himself. There were five shards stabbed into his back and side. One by one Bai Yun sloly pulled them out. As he did so, copious amounts of blood started leaking from his body.


    Bai Yun stared at Zhang Zi. Two shards had missed him and had stabbed into Zhang Zi''s chest and right arm. Zhang Zi pulled the two shards out and dropped them. Zhang Zi then tried to grab his spear from his back, but his left shoulder and right arm were both too damaged. He didnt has the strength to hold on to the spear and dropped it. But he picked it up with great determination and got into a fighting posture.


    "Well, this is a nice little pickle we have found ourselves in. We are both too severely wounded and losing a lot of blood. Me from your spearhead, you from my sword. I bet we won''t last another five minutes before we pass out from blood loss." Bai Yun said.


    Suddenly the referee stood up. Just as he was about to say something both Bai Yun and Zhang Zi raised their arms.


    "Not now." Bai Yun said.


    "Just tell the medics not to let us die once we have a result." Zhnag Zi continued.


    The referee thought of intervening, but one look at the two young men glaring at each other and the thought flew out of his mind. He sighed and sepped down. He then gently signaled the medics to get ready to treat them as soon as there was a result.


    Zhang Zi and Bai Yun ran at each other. When he got close, Bai Yun suddenly used wind motion and closed the distance between them. Zhang Zi''s spearhead glowed with the shockwave ability, but it missed Bai Yun. Bai Yun jabbed his hands at Zhang Zi''s injury in his right arm. Zhang Zi groaned in pain, and his grip on the spearhead loosened. Bai Yun grabbed the spear, leaped back and threw it away.


    Bai Yun and Zhang Zi stared at each other. Neithor of them had any weapon. And they were seriously injured. So they tried to stop the bleeding as much as they could and continued.


    When the two of them reached each other''s range, they both threw a punch at each other, which was easily blocked. Zhang Zi attacked with a kick, but Bai Yun easily blocked it with his knee. Zhang Zi was slightly faster than Bai Yun, but Bai Yun was easily holding Zhang Zi back by predicting Zhang Zi''s attacks.


    Zhang Zi and Bai Yun contined to trade blows for a few minutes. Suddenly Zhang Zi slipped on a bit of blood on the floor and lost his footing for a moment. Bai Yun was waiting for this moment. He immediately landed a punch on Zhangi ZI''s injured shoulder. Zhang Zi grunted in pain. But Bai Yun did not stop. He immediately punched him again, and then send him flying with a kick.


    Zhang Zi fell on the ground but got up quickly. He looked down to see that his robe had turned bloody. He knew he had to finish it soon.


    Then Zhang Zi and Bai Yun ran at each other once again. They knew that they did not have long to fight, so they both charged up with their strongest attakcs. Bai Yun was using the lion''s roar, while Zhang Zi had poured all that he had had into his shockwave ability. One step at a time, the quickly closed the distance between them.


    With a shout, their arms collided. When the two attacks hit each other, there was a powerful impact. For a moment, the two of them stood there pushing against each other. After a few minuts, there was an explsion and both of them flew back.


    Both Zhang Zi and Bai Yun fell on the ground. The entire stadium watched them in stunned silence. But then the two of them started to move, almost at the same time.


    Slowly one step at a time, the two of them stood up. Both of them were bleeding too heavily by now. They barely stood up and stood there glaring at each other. But both of their eyes were barely functioning, so they could hardly see anything.


    "Damn." Zhang Zi said.


    And then Zhang Zi slowly collapsed to the ground. In front of the silent stadium, Zhang Zi slowly fell.


    Bai Yun stood there silently. He caught what happened. And then slowly he raised his fist to the air.


    "Long Tian wins." The referee finally announced.

 99 Call of information

    When Bai Yun returned home that night, his mother was nearly hysterical. Even though she knew that Bai Yun was fine thanks to the medics at the tournament, she only let him go after confirming that he was alright, and there was n lasting damage.


    Bai Yun slowly walked up to his room. The medics and sewn him up and had given him plenty of pills to refresh the lost blood. But there was nothing they could do about the tiredness due to the fight. So when he reached home, Bai Yun immediately collapsed into his bed.


    Bai Yun suddenly felt something come up his throat. Bai Yun then started coughing. When he looked down, he realized that he had coughed up blood. Even though the people at the tournament had done their best, they had only stopped the bleeding and given him some medicines to replace the blood. Bai Yun had escaped before they could finish their treatment. So he still had some hidden injuries left inside him.


    Suddenly the door to his room opened up. Old Hai walked in carrying a huge tub of water. There was a strong medicinal scent coming from the water. Inside the tub was a thick black liquid that was made by mixing various medicinal plants in water.


    "Thought you might need this." Old Hai said.


    "Thanks." Bai Yun replied. Bai Yun quickly took off his clothes and jumped into the tub of water. Old Hai stood there for a while and made sure that Bai Yun was fine before he left, closing the door behind him.


    Bai Yun sat in the vat of medicinal water and slowly started to absorb the medicinal effects in it to heal himself. As he lay there, the medicinal effects slowly started to seep into his body.


    As he sat in the tub, he felt the tiredness take over his body. Slowly, Bai Yun fell asleep while still in the tub. But even as he was sleeping, his body continued to absorb the medicinal effects of the liquid.


    As the night progressed, the medicinal liquid slowly became transparent. More and more of the energy started to seep into Bai Yun''s body. A long time passed. Suddenly Bai Yun''s god sense started to wake up and started to work on its own. Slowly his body started to cultivate, even though he was asleep.


    Just then Bai Yun''s aura flared up. The water in the tub started to spin around Bai Yun. Soon a whirlpool formed around him. Then his aura suddenly broke through to new heights. Along with this the small barrier that was stopping his cultivation broke, and he stepped into the eighth stage of the qi condensation realm. But Bai Yun was in a deep sleep and did not notice anything.


    Suddenly a powerful sense covered Bai Yun''s room. When it saw that Bai Yun had broken through, it was startled and fluctuated for a moment before calming down. It then quickly left.


    When Bai Yun finally woke up, it was a day and night later. When he realized that he had broken through while resting, he was pleasantly surprised. His current breakthrough was extremely peaceful and made his foundation exceptionally stable.


    Thanks to his rest, strength had returned to his limbs once again. Bai Yun then stood up to find a plate full of food on his table. He was staring and wolfed down the food as fast as he could.


    After he ate, Bai Yun stood in front of the mirror. He slowly undid the assassin gods technique he had kept up all the time.


    Slowly one by one, scars that he had accumulated started to show itself. On his face was a scar that he got from Song Hui. There were also various cuts and bruises that had scabbed over. Even the places he had gotten stabbed by Zhang Zi''s spear had scars.


    Bai Yun was able to hide them thanks to the assassin gods disguise technique, but it still annoyed him seeing all those scars.


    As Bai Yun stretched his body to see it in the mirror, he was glad to see how far he had come since his rebirth. Even though this body had a great talent, it was completely wasted by his previous condition. Bai Yun had not only quickly raised his cultivation, but he had also made the body very suitable for fighting.


    It was then than Bai Yun had remembered the rewards for the youngster''s tournament. Thanks to the serious injuries the two of them had suffered in the finals, there was no official ceremony. The rewards were just given to the two of them, and to Bai Qing and Meng Qi without any fanfare.


    Bai Yun took out a small packet from his storage ring. The packet consisted of his rewards. He hadn''t checked them yet, but he was quite interested in seeing what they were.


    The first item that Bai Yun took out was a small crystalline box. He opened the box to find a small red pill inside. There was also a letter inside the box explaining the effects of the pill.


    Bai Yun took out the pill and played with it after reading the letter. The pill was a foundation establishment pill. The foundation establishment pill was a pill that aided one in their breakthrough to the foundation establishment realm, increasing their chances of a breakthrough. Depending on the rank and circles of the pill, they could have varying degrees of effectiveness, which could increase one''s breath through percentage by different amounts.


    But Bai Yun had no use for this item. The cultivation techniques he was using were very powerful. He could breakthrough to the foundation establishment realm even without any external help. So Bai Yun simply put it away.


    The second item Bai Yun had was a collection of small stones. When he saw this he was surprised, but he finally had a dejected expression after he studied them for a while.


    The stones he held were spirit stones. Spirit stones were small stones that had pure heaven and earth qi imbued in them by nature. This qi tended to be purer than the qi found in nature. Thus it was easier for cultivators to absorb this qi to rapidly icrease their cultivation. For most people absorbing qi from spirit stones was faster than absorbing qi from nature. So they would spend a lot of money to buy spirit stones.


    There were four grades of spirit stones, low, middle, high, and perfet. Depending on the grade of spirit stones, the cultivation of people who could absorb them also increased. For example, qi cultivation realm cultivators could only absorb the qi in low grade spirit stones. If they tried to absob the qi in higher grade spirit stones, they would mostly fail. And even if they succeeded, it could still damage their bodies.


    The second reward from the youngster''s tournament was a thousand low grade spirit stones. The qi in a thousand low grade spirit stones was enough for someone in the peak of qi condensation to breakthrough to foundation establishment a couple times over, even without a foundation establishment pill. But just like the foundation estblishment pill, low grade spirit stones were also useless for Bai Yun.


    The reason was the same. His cultiation techniques were of a far too high level. The speed at which he absorbed the qi from nature was so fast that they were even faster than the speed at which you could absorb qi from low grade spirit stones. So these had no use for Bai Yun. It was also because of this that Bai Yun did not buy any spirit stones until now, instead simply training by himself. Only middle or higher grade spirit stones would be useful for him, but he could not stand the qi in them with his current cultivaion.


    So Bai Yun dejectedly put the spirit stones away. But it did not mean that the spirit stones were useless. He could use spirit stones instead of money. Based on what he knew, a single low grade spirit stone went for a thousand gold coins. So he could definitely buy a lot of good things with this much money. That thought calmed Bai Yun down a little bit.


    Bai Yun then took out the third and final item he got from the youngster''s tournament. Bai Yun was surprised to see that it was a large piece of ore. Bai Yun was familiar with all the major blacksmithing materials in the world and he quickly identified the ore as meter heart iron, a very suitable and valuable material for making weapons. It was only found in the remnants meteors that crashed into the earth, making it quite rare.


    But the more Bai Yun stared at it, the worse his expression became. There was quite a lot of meteor heart iron ore given to him. But his own sword that his father gave him was made from a much better material. And after infusing chaos aura into it, it became even more powerful. If something was to break that sword, a sword made of meteor heat iron would also break in front of that. So Bai Yun had no idea what to do with this material.


    The rewards that he got were not bad, but all of them were useless for Bai Yun. Bai Yun nearly screamed and threw the big ball of ore at the wall in frustration. The ore bounced around the room for a bit before falling on Bai Yun''s feet, causing him to curse in pain and hop on his feet.


    Bai Yun them laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. There were still three weeks left before the clan meeting. He had no way of making a breakthrough to the ninth stage of qi condensation in that time. He also was severely lacking in resources needed for the body cultivation path, so that he could complete skin sewing. He also could not break through in soul cultivation before the clan meeting. So he had nothing left to do. So Bai Yun figured that he might as well practice his alchemy techniques and his fighting techniques. He may not be able to make a major breakthrough in the remaining time, but he might as well not waste the time.


    It was then that Bai Yun''s storage ring vibrated. He realized that someone had sent him a message.


    Bai Yun opened the ring to find out that the message was from Bai Linger. He frowned when he saw this. He hadn''t asked Bai Ling-er to do anything.


    "We have found traces of the soul shaking orb. We are looking into it." The sound of Bai Ling-er sounded out from inside his message orb.


    Bai Yun had a thoughtful look on his face when he heard this. He had asked them to look into the soul shaking orb a long time ago. After they failed, Bai Yun handed over the information to his parents, in the hope that they could find something out. He was surprised that Bai Ling-er continued to look into this, and even more that they actually found something.


    "Be careful." Bai Yun send a message back. "It''s not an emergency. If you think things could get serious, retreat immediately."


    A few moments later, he got a confirmation from Bai Ling-er. As he thought about them, Bai Yun realized that even after hiring them and asking them to do things for him, he hadn''t given them anything in return. He then remembered the meteor heart iron that he received. There was quite a large piece of it. Bai Yun thought that it would be a good idea to forge a few weapons for the two of them as compensation.


    In truth, Bai Yun was overthinking things. The two techniques, as well as the cultivation techniques Bai Yun had given them, were things far beyond their imaginations. They could not put a price on these techniques and thought that they owed Bai Yun greatly for them. It was just that they were all truly trash compared to the techniques in Bai Yun''s memories, and he did not think much of them, leading to Bia Yun thinking that he had not given them anything in return for their services.


    Once Bai Yun decided on what to do, he quickly left his manor and headed to the blacksmith pavilion. Bai Yun had a lot of spirit stones with him, and it could be exchanged for clan points. So Bai Yun could easily spend a lot of time in there. Besides, making weapons from meteor heart iron was far less complicated than extracting chaos aura, so he only needed a little time.


    Bai Yun quickly reached the blacksmithing pavilion. He decided to make a couple of knives and a few flying daggers from himself. After that, there should still be enough for two swords for Bai Linger and Bai Shi.


    Once he decided on what he was going to do, Bai Yun quickly got to work.

 100 Clan meeting registration

    Bai Yun spend the next two weeks in the blacksmithing pavilion. He slowly build up an arsenal. He made two swords for Bai Shi and Bai Ling-er, three daggers for his own use, and a few flying daggers and small needles to use as hidden weapons.


    Bai Yun then spend the last week of his free time working on his alchemy technique and his movement technique. He made a small improvement in the movement technique, improving his speed by another ten percent, but he was no closer to a breakthrough.


    Bai Yun spend the whole time in his room and did not take even a step outside. Someone would arrange all his meals and other necessities for him. Xiao Mei-er was more than happy with this arrangement and gave Bai Yun a lot of medicinal ingredients to experiment with. In her eyes Bai Yun was even worse than his father. It seems as if every time he went outside, he returned injured. And each time was worse than the time before it.


    Bai Yun was sitting in his room working on his alchemy. He was almost completely oblivious to the passage of time. When the door to his room suddenly opened, Bai Yun was stunned. He was nearly blinded by the sudden beam of light that came in. He was working hard on alchemy and had neglected everything else so his room was in near total darkness.


    "My eyes." Bai Yun screamed and covered his eyes.


    Bai Mu who had stepped into Bai Yun''s room was amused. He looked around the room for a while before turning to face Bai Yun. The room was not even close to tidy. Most of the objects in the room were overturned. There were dirt and grime on the walls and the floor. The ceiling was black with smoke. All in all it was a horrible sight.


    And there was a reason for this mess too. Once he succeeded in concocting a pill, Bai Yun would easily be able to make it again. But he would typically fail a few times before he succeeded for the first time. So most of what he tried to concote these days were failures. As a result there were a lot of by products that were made. But all of this wasn''t without any result. Bai Yun''s alchemy skill had improved by leaps and bounds. Now he was better than a genius of alchemy who had spend a couple of years in the profession when it came to concoting pills. He was just lacking a bit on the familiarity with various medicines.


    "You know, we do have an alchemy pavilion where you can work." Bai Mu said.


    "And who will pay for it." Bai Yun retorted. "If you will give me the clan points, I''ll gladly spend it there."


    Bai Mu simply chuckled when he heard this. His way of upbringing that was passed down in his family required that someone be responsible for their own expenses. So he had not give Bai Yun much money. Though Xiao Mei-er was more than happy to spend money to make sure that Bai Yun would stay indoors.


    "True. But you can get to know other people." Bai Mu continued.


    "Other people are idiots. It''s much easier to do things by myself." Bai Yun responded.


    Bai Mu groaned when he heard this. No father would want his children to grow up as loners. But it wasn''t as if Bai Mu could say anything else either. He was just like Bai Yun when he was his age.


    "Anyway, why did you come in. What''s going on?" Bai Yun asked his father.


    Bai Mu looked at his son in amusement. "Its the final day for registering for the fighting competition in the clan meeting. You already missed the first few days. I came in to confirm you really are going to attend the meeting." Bai Mu said.


    "Really. Already?" Bai Yun was surprised.


    "What day do you think today is?" Bai Mu asked Bai Yun .


    "Sunday?" Bai Yun replied quietly.


    "Which date?"


    "The nineteenth?"


    "Try Thursday the twenty seventh." Bai Mu said with a laugh.


    "You know, how can we truly say that today is really a Thursday." Bai Yun said. "For all we know, today could be a Sunday, and someone made a mistake in-."


    "Get ready if you want to register for the meeting." Ba Mu cut him short.


    "On it." Bai Yun said, jumping up and running to the bathroom.


    An hour later a sharply dressed, but half sleepy Bai Yun was walking next to Bai Mu. When Bai Yun walked out of his room after taking a bath he was dressed in comfortable clothes suitable for fighting, and not an official Bai clan robe. Xiao Mei-er nearly had an aneurism when she saw how sloppily dressed Bai Yun was. Both Bai Yun and Bai Mu got an earful before Bai Yun changed into the clan''s robes and was finally allowed to leave the mansion.


    Bai Mu then grabbed Bai Yun and then the two of them disappeared. The place for registration is quite far from their mansion, and it would take Bai Yun a couple of days if he was to go there by walking. The only other option was to take the bus but it was easier for Bai Mu to take him there by flying.


    A few moments later, Bai Yun found himself in a large field. There was a row of tables in one end of the field and there were a huge number of people queuing up in front of them. There was also one table that was at the very end that was empty. No one was queuing up in front of that table alone.


    Bai Yun immediately identified the location he was in as the place to register for the fighting competition in the clan meeting.


    "Why is that table empty?" Bai Yun asked his father.


    "That is the table for important members of the clan." Bai Mu explained. "Only direct descendants of clan elders or the princes of the clan are allowed to register there. So it is almost always deserted, as only a few people qualify for such treatment."


    "That doesn''t seem fair. Everyone else has to queue up." Bai Yun said.


    "The world isn''t fair. It is a place that is ruled by strength. The clan will try to be fair, but it will also make things easier for those in power. This small table is meant to teach everyone that truth." Bai Mu said.


    Bai Yun nodded as he heard this. "In that case, I''ll go queue up." He said.


    "Why? You are qualified for the special table?" Bai Mu said quizzically.


    "Huh. But you are not an elder are you?" Bai Yun asked.


    Bai Mu understood what happened. "I may not be an elder, but your great-grandfather is. Due to that you are qualified for the special treatment." Bai explained with a chuckle.


    "I have a great-grandfather?" Bai Yun exclaimed while being surprised by the information.


    "No you don''t. Your grandfather just came into existence out of nowhere." Bai Mu replied sarcastically.


    "It''s just I''ve never heard of him." Bai Yun replied.


    For a moment a sad look passed in Bai Mu''s eyes. "It''s not surprising." He responded. "After you were diagnosed with being born with a broken soul, he has been traveling looking for a solution to your problem. For the past few months, he was stuck in a special zone and didn''t learn of your recovery. He only returned to the clan this week. One of the reasons I came out with you today is to let you meet him."


    Bai Yun nodded his understanding. By now many people had noticed Bai Mu and Bai Yun. There were a lot of people pointing at them and whisperng. It was not surprising. Both of them were rather well known in the clan. Bai Yun was born with a damaged soul, while Bia Mu was the youngest Dao step cultivator in the world in recent times.


    Bai Yun then walked over to the special desk. Today was the last day of registration and there were a lot of people queuing up. Bai Yun simply walked past them confidently. Seeing Bai Yun walking to the special desk made many of them look at Bai Yun in envy. Though many of them did not recognize Bai Yun and looked at him quizzically.


    As Bai Yun walked towards the special desk, he found that there were two people in front of him. With a start he realized that the first one was Bai Qing.


    "Look, its prince Qing." Bai Yun heard someone whisper. As the rest of the group heard this, they all turned to look at Bai Qing. As a prince of the clan Bai Qing''s popularity was extremely high.


    Bai Qing turned to look at the crowd and smiled. Some of the crowd immediately swooned as they thought that the smile was for them. Bai Yun simply rolled his eyes when he saw Bai Qing''s tactics. But no one was paying attention to him by now.


    Bai Qing went and registered himself at the table. The person at the desk did not put on any airs in front of Bai Qing and quickly got his registration done. When Bai Qing finished, Bai Yun had just reached the special table behind him and another young man.


    Bai Qing turned and came face to face with Bai Yun. Bai Yun gave a smile and said "Long time no see."


    Bai Qing frowned and did not reply. Instead he turned to look at the person between them.


    The person who was standing between them was a young man who was nearly as tall as Bai Yun. Considering that Bai Yun was older than most people here, it was a surprising development. Bai Yun also turned to look at him and studied him closely for the first time.


    But the look gave Bai Yun a surprise. The young man in front of him was extremely strong. Bai Yun could feel that his aura was in a state of flux. The young man was definitely suppressing his cultivation, possibly even with the help of some external treasures. Otherwise he would have broken through to the foundation establishment realm a long time ago.


    Bai Yun could also sense the presence of the body as well as the soul path cultivation on the young man. Even though he had not traveled for much in that path, he had definitely taken a few steps. Bai Yun didn''t think he would run into someone like him today.


    The young man turned to look at Bai Qing with a sneer. "What''s the point of participating in the clan meeting now. You are going to lose the fight anyway."


    Bai Qing simply shook his head and said. "I''m not like you. I don''t think the only reason to fight is to win. There are more important things in life that winning every fight. Besides I wouldn''t want to win like you anyway."


    The young man in front of him simply laughed at Bai Qing. "Sounds like a real loser. Well, that''s to be expected. After all you didn''t even reach the finals of the youngster''s tournament. If it was me who went to fight, I would have won." The young man said.


    The young man then walked forward. He simply pushed Bai Qing aside and went to the registration desk. He loudly slapped the desk and announced himself. "Bai Mo, registering for the clan meeting."


    The middle aged man who was sitting at the special desk frowned when he saw the young man''s arrogance. But he did not say anything and simply started the registration process. He was already used to the arrogance of the people who were coming to register here.


    Bai Yun stared at the young man, Bai Mo. He took a look around himself. He saw that many people were staring at Bai Mo, and he could see frowns and even disgust on their faces. But none of them stood up to say anything to Bai Mo.


    Bai Qing stared at Bai Mo for a moment and shook his head. He then turned away from him and walked away from the registration desk.


    As he passed by Bai Yun, Bai Qing suddenly whispered in a voice that only Bai Yun could hear. "Be careful of Bai Mo. He is arrogant, ruthless, and small minded."


    Bai Yun raised an eyebrow at Bai Qing'' warning. But by the time he looked back, Bai Qing had already walked away.


    Bai Yun turned back to look at Bai Mo. He was now a little interested in this arrogant young man who even Bai Qing took seriously.

 101 Registering for the clan meeting

    Bai Yun listened to the rest of the group as he stood in line behind Bai Mo. By listening to the discussions of the group, he slowly put the pieces of Bai Mo''s story together.


    Bai Mo was the descendent of the tenth elder. But the reason for his infamy was not that.


    Bai Mo was someone who loved to abuse his power. And his talent was high enough that the tenth elder valued him greatly. So he would often do things that made many people angry at him. Like hitting on girls, taking things that belong to others, and so on. But he as also a little smart. Thus he never went to annoy people with great backgrounds. So no one with any power would come after him. His was a typical case of fearing the strong and abusing the weak. Since the tenth elder would cover up his mistakes, he grew up without handling the consequences of his actions.


    But that was not the only reason people looked down upon him. There was a reason Bai Mo was so strong.


    Bai Mo actually reached the peak of the qi condensation last year. He could have participated in last year''s clan meeting. But last year there were a couple of strong contenders who were also participating including Bai Song who eventually went on to win the clan meeting in the qi condensation realm. Fearing that he may not win, Bai Mo actually hid away during the clan meeting and trained for it during this year. He didn''t break through to foundation establishment just so that he could participate in the clan meeting. He even started to train in other cultivation paths just so he could win this year''s meeting.


    This kind of behavior obviously won him the derision of the plan. But no one would say anything to his face. The elders of the clan were all at the dao tree real and no one would antagonize a dao tree realm cultivator for such a trivial reason.


    After finding out about Bai Mo, Bai Yun also looked down upon him. There was nothing wrong with losing a fight. But to not even have the courage to fight against our opponents was something Bai Yun looked down on.


    Bai Yun waited as Bai Mo completed his registration process. Bai Mo left with his head held high, without even giving Bai Yun a second glance.


    Once he was gone Bai Yun stepped up to the registration table. Since not many people knew who Bai Yun was, he did not register much excitement from the crowd.


    "You are?" the man sitting on the table asked him.


    "Bai Yun." Bai Yun said his name. For a moment the man was confused. Then he suddenly realized who Bai Yun was. As someone who was assigned to handle the registrations at the special table, he knew about the important people who would come to register here. After a moment, he immediately recognized Bai Yun.


    But when he did so, he looked at Bai Yun strangely. He also knew that Bai Yun was born with a damaged soul, and it was miraculously cured only a few months ago. He couldn''t believe that Bai Yun would be able able to participate in the clan meeting so soon. Almost all the people who registered was at the peak of qi condensation. And people usually took a few years to reach the peak of qi condensation.


    But it wasn''t his place to judge, only to register people who wanted to participate. If Bai Yun wanted to recklessly register for the competition, it was none of his business.


    "Age?" The man asked.


    "Fourteen." Bai Yun replied.


    Once he was done, the man quickly took down this information and branded it onto a small token. This token contained a talisman that would allow the organizers to quickly keep track of who all were registering for the tournament.


    Once this was done, Bai Yun was asked to drop his blood onto a small form on the desk. This formation was a record keeping formation that was done to make sure that no one registered twice. The rules of the clan meeting were different from the youngster''s tournament. There anyone could register as many times. It wasn''t that difficult to cheat on the formation test anyway, so they made it a feature instead. But it was different for the clan meeting.


    Once Bai Yun dropped his blood, the formation ran for a few seconds before it turned blue, confirming that Bai Yun had not registered for the clan meeting.


    Then the final test for the clan meeting began, the cultivation test. The man sitting on the table pulled out a small orb and passed it to Bai Yun. Bai Yun could feel a small power slowly flowing inside the orb.


    This orb was used to check the cultivation of people. The power in the orb would flow into one''s body and check the cultivation before flowing back into the orb to report it.


    As Bai Yun felt the power flow into his body, he smiled a little bit. This kind of checking was nothing in front of Bai Yun''s god sense. He could easily fool it. Bai Yun had not broken through to the foundation establishment realm in the soul path, that is the four circle realm, because he was afraid that the cultivation checker tool would be quite sophisticated and he would not be able to foil it. If he knew it would be so simple, then he would have definitely broken through a long time ago and trained in that path much more. But it didn''t matter, he still had time to break through before the clan meeting began.


    Then again, he should have expected that the test would not be too complicated. Bai Yun had a great outlook and knew of many ways to check cultivation that could not be fooled by a weak god sense. But he should have known that they were all out of the Bai clans reach with their shallow history and resources.


    Once the power checked Bai Yun''s cultivation, it flew back into the orb. The orb slowly lit up with a blue color. The color reached a bright blue hue and stopped. Different colors would represent different realms in cultivation and their brightness represented the degree of cultivation. Since Bai Yun''s soul path had reached the peak of qi condensation and his other two paths were still one step away from reaching the peak, the orb was displaying Bai Yun''s attainments in the soul path. It would look at all cultivation paths and would only show the cultivation of the path with the highest attainments.


    The man sitting at the table had a surprised reaction when he saw the color. He stared at it for a while before saying, "Peak of qi condensation."


    He was surprised by the result. It wasn''t that there were no ways for someone to reach the peak of qi condensation in a few months. The Bai clan could easily access resources that could help with that. But such quick rise in cultivation often left behind unsteady foundations.


    The man at the table shook his head and handed Bai Yun the token that was filled with his details. When he saw the man''s disappointed look, Bai Yun knew what he must be thinking. But Bai Yun only smiled and didn''t explain anything.


    Bai Yun took the token and walked back to his father. When he turned around, he saw that there were two others standing behind him. But Bai Yun did not recognize them, and they did not recognize Bai Yun either. So he just passed by them.


    As he walked back, he quietly studied the token that was given to him. On one side of the token was the Bai clan''s seal. The other side had a number, eighty five. This was probably the token number. Bai Yun figured that the token numbers must go to the thousands. But since he was a special registrant, he got a token with a small number.


    "Finished everything?" Bai Mi asked him when Bai Yun reached him.


    "Yes." Bai Yun replied while putting away the token.


    "We will now go to meet your great grandfather." Bai Mu said.


    The next second a great force surrounded Bai Yun. Before he knew it, he was lifted up by a strange power, and then he flew away. Bai Yun saw the images flashing outside quickly, too fast for him to register anything. Before he knew it, they had stopped. Bai Yun looked up and saw that he was standing in front of the gates of a large mansion. Bai Yun looked around, but he could not see anything in the nearby lands. It was an isolated mansion hidden away in some corner of the clan.


    "Let''s go." Bai Mu said and walked into the mansion. Once he opened the door, there was a grand hall inside. There was no one standing guard outside the mansion. Not that it mattered. A dao step cultivator was the strongest defense possible in this world.


    "This is your great grandfather''s mansion." Bai Mu said. " He has been staying here alone ever since your great grandmother passed away. He drove away all the servants and has been living like a hermit since then. He doesn''t even go out for clan meetings. The only time he has left in recent times was to find a solution for your problem."


    When Bai Yun heard this, he was once again struck by the fact that he had a loving family in this life. It strengthened his decision to live this life for himself and to forget his past life as much as he could.


    "I don''t know much about great grandfather. What''s his name?" Bai Yun asked.


    "His name is Bai Tianji. He is one of the three grand elders of the clan." Bai Mu replied.


    Bai Yun lost his steps for a moment. The elders of the clan were at the dao tree realm, the second realm in the dao step. But the grand elders were at the dao flower realm, the highest realm in the dao step. Since the people in the howling wolf world could only be up to the dao step, it meant that his great grandfather was one of the strongest people in the world.


    "Are you telling me I could have thrown my weight around as a descendent of a dao flower realm cultivator all this time?" Bai Yun asked his father.


    "You could have, but would you?" Bai Mu asked.


    Bai Yun thought for a while. "Nah, it would be too boring." Bia Yun finally replied.


    Bai Mu chuckled when he heard Bai Yun''s reply.


    "One more thing, if I have a great grandfather, there must be other relatives too right. Where are they?" Bai Yun asked.


    A look of sadness passed through Bai Mu''s eyes when he heard Bai Yun''s question. "Ther isn''t anyone else." He finally replied after a while." Me, you and your great grandfather are the only ones left of our branch of the clan. Everyone else has already passed away."


    "Oh." Bai Yun replied somberly. Bai Yun could see that there was probably more to the story, but it didn''t seem as if his father was going to explain anything more.


    The two of them walked in silence for a while. They walked through winding corridors in the mansion. Of course, considering the size of the mansion, the corridors were wide enough to be called halls. The finally reached another door and Bia Mu opened the door and the two of them stepped into a large garden.


    When they stepped into the garden Bai Yun was hit by a strong scent of flowers and plants. Then he saw an old man with long white hair and a white beard standing in the garden. He was slowly pouring water on a small shrub. Once he was done he slowly straightened and turned to look at the two visitors with a smile.


    "Little Mu, Little Yun, its good to see you." He said with a smile.

 102 Bai Tianji

    As Bai Yun looked at Bai Tianji, he quickly sized him up. But Bai Yun could not sense anything from him due to the great difference in their cultivation. He was standing there smiling, simply wearing a simple gray robe, and his beard swaying in the wind. He felt like he was looking at a mortal old man, albeit one who has great strength.


    "Little Yun, little Mu, would you help an old man water some plants in his garden. I seem to be losing my strength. I am getting old after all." Bai Tanji asked while taking out two watering cans.


    "Sure grandfather." Bai Mu said and took one of the watering cans.


    Bai Yun rolled his eyes when he heard his great grandfather. His great grandfather was at the dao flower realm. And Bai Yun could not see any indication that he was losing his power due to age or injury. There was no problem for him to water the entire garden. If he wanted, he could even use his powers to do so quickly.


    But Bai Yun did not fight with him. He took the last watering can with a smile and went towards the plants in the garden.


    Bai Yun slowly started to water the flowers. As he did so, a strange smell wafted into his nose. Slowly Bai Yun found himself becoming more and more peaceful. Bai Yun slowly fell into a trance as he started to water the plants.


    Bai Yun did not notice it himself as he moved automatically. He was slowly moving away further and further from the other two. Slowly his cultivation technique started to turn. Even without noticing anything, his cultivation base started to climb slowly. At the same time, it became more and more sturdy.


    Bai Yun quickly fell into an ethereal state. He then stopped moving and slowly stood there and started meditating. As he stood there, Bai Yun felt the wind moving all around him. Slowly insights into the wind motion started appearing in his mind. His proficiency in both wind motion, as well as the dao of wind, was increasing at a rapid pace.


    Bai Yun was in a rare moment of enlightenment. A moment of enlightenment could greatly help someone in comprehending a dao or a technique. Such things could only be found by chance and not looked for. Even with Bai Yun''s talent resources, he could count the number of times he had went into moments of enlightenment with both of his hands. Then again, with his terrifying comprehension, it was not too necessary for him.


    Bai Yun stood there in the same spot for half an hour. All around him there was a deafening silence. In a two foot region around him, all wind slowly stopped. It was as if Bai Yun had become the lord of the air, and all wind was prostrating before him.


    Bai Yun smiled as he came out of his reverie. His comprehension of wind motion had increased by a great deal. His speed has more than doubled. Even though he was still a short distance from completely comprehending wind motion, it was no longer too far. He could almost see the day he would be able to completely comprehend the move.


    But just a second later Bai Yun''s eyes narrowed. He felt a terrifying killing intent coming from behind him. Bai Yun could also feel a strong force coming from behind him straight at his heart.


    Bai Yun moved in an instant. He leaned forward and then sharply turned on his left leg. Due to the lean, when he turned around, the attack that was coming at him simply slid past him without hurting him. Bai Yun touched his right hand over his left hand, and quickly took out a dagger he had recently forged. The next second he turned around and drove the dagger into the neck of the person who attacked him and twisted it sharply.


    It was only then that Bai Yun got a chance to breathe. He stopped and stared at his attacker. Bai Yun was surprised to find that it was his great grandfather.


    The two of them stood there staring at each other. Bai Tianji was standing there with his hand outstretched in an attacking posture. Blood was dripping down his neck, and his eyes were staring at Bai Yun. Bai Yun was standing in an awkward posture with his two legs outstretched and his body twisted in a weird way.


    Bai Tianji suddenly grinned as he looked at Bai Yun. "Outstanding." He said. Then suddenly his body started to break up. In a matter of moments, Bai Tianji''s body quickly broke down and disappeared.


    Just as Bai Yun was wondering what the hell was going on, he heard thunder like rumbling coming from quite far away. Bai Yun straightened up and turned to his right. In the distance, he could see two figured rapidly fighting. But they were moving too fast for Bai Yun to recognize them. He could barely see two blurs.


    And his great grandfather was standing in front of him. He was using his power to suppress the waves created by the fight. Else both the garden and Bai Yun would have turned into powder a long time ago.


    Suddenly the fight came to an end. Bai Yun suddenly realized that the two fighters were his father and his great grandfather. But currently, his father had driven a sword through the heart of his great grandfather. Then his great grandfather slowly broke up and disappeared.


    "Not bad little Mu." Bai Yun suddenly heard his great grandfather, the one who was defending against the power, say. "But I must say, you have grown a little worse. It took you longer to defeat my clone than last time. You are getting rusty after not fighting for a long time. You should learn from your son. He finished the fight in a single move."


    Bai Mu rolled his eyes when he heard his grandfather. "I haven''t fought anyone in a long time. Of course, I would be rusty." He said." And I see you haven''t changed your ways, you crazy old man."


    Bai Tianji laughed when he heard Bai Mu. "Why should I change, this old man is perfect." He said.


    Bai Yun''s mouth twitched when he heard the two of them. He could almost guess what had happened. But he asked anyway just to be sure. "Could someone explain to me just what happened?"


    Bai Tianji laughed. "It''s nothing." He said." I was just testing the two of your combat ability by having you fight with a clone of mine with the same cultivation as you guys."


    "It''s this old man''s hobby." Bai Mu continued. "Every time I come to visit, he always makes me fight his clone to test how well I do. One of the reasons I can fight so well is due to this crazy old man. You have no idea how many times I came close to dying under his arms."


    "Almost dying builds character." Bai Tianji said. "Besides the reason you are still alive is due to my training. And by the way," he asked turned to Bai Yun, "you dodged my attack and even counter attacked very well. How did you learn to move and fight like that."


    Bai Yun''s mouth twitched when he heard the question. He didn''t know how to reply. Both his father and his great grandfather was looking at him expectantly. What was he supposed to say? That he was trained by a genius in the way of the sword. That he had the inheritance of the Assassin God. That he had spent more time than their entire lifetime fighting in a Grand War. Any one of those excused could easily explain his fighting ability. But it wasn''t like he could tell the truth.


    "I don''t know." Finally Bai Yun said. "Maybe I am just a genius."


    The two of them simply looked at each other, before swinging their arms. Two slaps fell on Bai Yun''s head instantly. Bai Yun held his head and scowled. "Does everyone in this family solve all problems through violence." Bai Yun asked. "don''t hit me just because you aren''t good enough."


    The two of them only chuckled in response. Bai Tianji then waved his hands and a table and a few chairs appeared. The three of them then sat down and started to chat. Bai Yun was curious about the rest of his family, and he slowly brought the conversation to that side. When he finally asked about his grandfather, a look of sorrow passed by the eyes of the two men.


    After a while Bai Tianji sighed and explained. "Our branch of the clan is quite famous. There is even a saying that we made a deal with the devil. That we were blessed, but for a price."


    "What are you talking about?" Bai Yun asked.


    For a moment Bai Tianji looked really old. He then continued with a sigh. "Almost all the people born in our branch are extremely talented. And they are extremely courageous. They live great lives that could all be turned into stories. But there are only a few people born in every generation. And the number of people in the brach also never grows too large."


    "It has been this way for generations. Almost all the generations only had a single male heir. And they also had the children late in life."


    "I had two children. Both sons. When your granduncle was born, it was a huge moment. My father was so happy. He thought that the curse was finally lifted. But he passed away not two years later. And my second son died before he even reached twenty in a beast wave. But he saved tens of thousands of people before he died. There is still a statue of him in the city he defended."


    "And your grandfather died shortly after your father was born. The curse continued when you were born, and you were born with a broken soul. When I went to look for a cure for you, I honestly didn''t expect to return." The old man finally said.


    As Bai Yun looked at Bai Tianji. He felt as if the old man aged just by telling the story of their family. Bai Yun checked his body with his god sense just to make sure that there was no curse. But it was more likely a result of upbringing. If all the people in their family were like his father, people who would rather die than give up and change their ideals, then it was a miracle that the family actually survived to this day.


    Bai Yun then looked at his father and asked, "Arent you afraid that you are going to be killed by the curse soon."


    Bai Mu just laughed. "First of all, I am confident that I won''t be killed. And even if I die, so what? It doesn''t matter when you die. It matters how you lived and why you died."


    As he said so, an unbreakable momentum rose from him. Bai Yun saw that both of them had that faith that did not allow them to bend in front of adversity. Bai Yun was familiar with that breath. Many powerful figures in his past life had similar breaths.


    Bai Yun just chuckled and quickly changed the subject to more happier ones. They discussed the upcoming clan meeting, as well as what Bai Mu and Bai Tianji had experienced in the outside world. They were hoping to educate Bai Yun on the various things he could face. Even though Bai Yun had stories that would make their experiences look like children''s tales, he just simply listened to them.


    Soon many hours passed and evening came. Suddenly Bai Yun felt a movement in his storage ring. Someone had sent him a message.


    Bai Yun took out his communication tool and listened to it. His face changed the moment he heard it.


    It said, "Young Master Yun, please help. Ling-er''s been poisoned."

 103 The poison

    Bai Yun''s face changed when he heard the message. In a moment it turned harsh and serious.


    "Where are you right now?" He sent a message back to Bai Shi.


    Bai Shi immediately send back the address. They were in a remote area of Yellow city.


    "Dad I need your help." Bai Yun said. " A couple of my friends are in trouble. They have been poisoned. I need you to get me to them."


    Before Bai Mu could respond, Bai Tianji cut in, "Where are they? I''ll just bring them here."


    Bai Yun gave the location Bai Shi provided him with to Bai Tianji. Bai Tianji then disappeared in front of his eyes. He used the teleportation ability available to dao step cultivators to fetch the two of them.


    After a few moments, Bai Tianji appeared once again. He then wrapped up Bai Yun and Bai Mu in his power and teleported them to another room. When Bai Yun came to, he saw that he was standing in a large room with only a bed in the middle. Bai Ling-er was lying on the bed and Bai Shi was standing next to her looking worried and confused. He was looking around vigilantly. He was surprised because he was suddenly transported to a new place without any explanation.


    "Young master Yun." Bai Shi cried out when he saw Bai Yun. His mind was pretty good. He was able to adapt pretty quickly to the change in scenery.


    "What happened to Bai Ling-er?" Bai Yun asked while he studied Bai Ling-er''s condition.


    Bai Shi then took a deep breath and explained what had happened.


    It seems that the two of them were investigating the soul shaker orb. They found someone who claimed to know about the soul shaker orb and was present during its sale. The man they found was interested in selling that information for money.


    The two of them met up with the guy in order to make the exchange. But the two of them did not expect that the exchange was actually a trap. Thankfully Bai Ling-er figured out the truth quickly and they were able to escape. And thanks to the movement technique Bai Yun had given them, they were much faster than the people who were attacking them. The other party had only sent people at the qi condensation realm to make the exchange in order to not alarm the two of them. So the two of them were able to escape to a safe place. But during the chase, Bai Ling-er was hit by a poisonous powder from the enemy and fell into a stupor. Bai Shi did not know what to do and immediately contacted Bai Yun.


    When Bai Mu heard that the two of them found traces of the soul shaker orb, he was surprised. He hadn''t found anything even after investigating for so long. He then explained the situation to a confused Bai Tianji, who didn''t know the background of the situation with the soul shaker orb, and left for the place the meet was supposed to take place. He wanted to see if he could find out some information from the people there.


    "Great grandfather you must know some people who could help detoxify the poison in Bai Ling-er right?" Bai Yun asked Bai Tianji. "Could you ask one of them to help out?"


    Bai Tianji walked up to Bai Ling-er and took her pulse. He stood there for a while. The longer he stood there, the more he frowned.


    "Did she run for a long time while suppressing the poison in her?" Bai Tianji finally asked.


    "Yes." Bai Shi said. He could see that there was something wrong from the way Bai Tianji asked the question.


    "This kind of poison is not too much trouble usually." Bai Tianji explained. "I could easily expel such a poison with my power. But the problem is compounded by the fact that she suppressed the poison for too long. It has entered her marrows. In fact, I am quite impressed by this little girl''s determination. She must have been in agony while the poison entered her marrows. She then kept on suppressing it instead of passing out as a normal person should."


    "Thus the problem was created. It has spread all over her body and entered deep into her marrows. I reckon that she has an hour to live, maybe two at most. But this poison is specifically synthesized using an unusual combination. Even the best alchemist would take longer than the time she has left to prepare an antidote for this poison."


    "And her body is too weak for me to try to use my power to force the poison out. The backlash alone will kill her. Honestly, I cant see a way to save her at all." Bai Tianji explained.


    Bai Shi went pale when he heard Bai Tianji. Bai Shi and Bai Ling-er grew up together. Their bond was stronger than that of siblings. He could not bear to have the thought of her passing so early.


    "But still you should call an alchemist anyway. Who knows if they could save her." Bai Yun said.


    Bai Tainji nodded and disappeared. Bai Yun then sat down next to Bai Ling-er and took her pulse. He send his perception into Bai Ling-er''s body. The more he sensed, the more he could see that what Bai Tinaji said was true. Even with his experience, he could not see any method to save her. But he didn''t major in alchemy. His only hope was that someone else could save her.


    A few minutes passed by as the condition of Bai Ling-er worsened. Suddenly Bai Tianji appeared alongside another man. Bai Yun quickly got out of the way, while the old man who came back with Bai Tianji took Bai Ling-ers pulse. After a few moments, he shook his head.


    "There is nothing I can do." The old man finally said.


    Bai Yun frowned when he heard this. "There must be some precious items in the clan''s treasury that can heal her right?" Bai Yun asked the old man.


    "There are many treasures that can save her. But the problem is that anything that can heal her in such a critical condition would be too powerful. She wouldn''t be able to handle it with her cultivation. And anything that is mild enough for her to absorb would only be wasted. This little girl truly held on for an absurdly long time, worsening her condition to the limit." The old man explained.


    "It''s not as if there are no pills or medicines that have a mild power right?" Bai Yun asked.


    "True, but the clan has no stock of such items." The old man said. "Her condition is extremely unique. A normal person at the qi condensation realm would not be able to hold on until the poison has done so much damage. So the clan has never needed anything like that. Anything that is powerful enough to help her and mild enough to not cause any extra damage would be too rare. So finding something like that in the outside world would take more time that she has got."


    "Honestly, I would try to help her if I could." BAi Tianji said. "Anyone able to persevere through such pain must have an incredible will power. And losing someone like that would be a waste to the clan."


    "And in the meantime, I will try to extend her life or try to find an antidote. Who knows, we might get lucky." The old man said.


    "And I''ll try to see if anything can be found that can save her life." Bai Tinaji said before disappearing.


    Bai Yun quietly watched as Bai Ling-er''s condition worsened. The old man fed Bai Ling-er with various pills and medicines. This seemed to slow down the poison, but it did not do much to save her life. The old man also took some blood from Bai Linger and threw it into a few cauldrons along with some herbs. He slowly started to refine the medicines in the cauldronS.


    Bai Yun and Bai Shi simply stood aide waiting for some news from somewhere. Bai Shi was nearly sobbing. Bai Yun watched the whole thing with interest while also thinking of a way to save Bai Ling-er. But he couldn''t come up with anything useful.


    Time passed by quickly. Sonn nearly half an hour had passed. There was no change in Bai Ling-er''s situation. Suddenly a fishy smell started to waft out from all the cauldrons. The old man sighed and put down the cauldrons. There was some kind of smoke coming from the cauldrons. It seemed as if his attempt to find an antidote had failed.


    "It seems as if I need more training." The old man finally said. "It would seem as if it would require a much better alchemist that I to save this girl."


    "Is there anyone else." Bai Shi asked in desperation. "Someone who is better than you when it comes to poisons."


    "There are a few who can claim to be better than me at alchemy in yellow city." The old man said. "But they are not so good that they can instantly come up with a solution when I can''t even see the faintest clue. It wouldn''t matter even if all the others came together. We would need an immortal tier alchemist to save her life at this point."


    "Just an immortal tier alchemist could save her life?" Bai Yun asked incredulously.


    "What do you mean just an immortal tier alchemist?" The old man said. Bai Yun could see a bit of anger in his eyes. "Even the best alchemist in the howling wolf world can only claim to have reached the beginning stages in the dao of alchemy. We are all far away from reaching the immortal tier. The powers of an immortal tier alchemist aren''t anything you can imagine. Is it possible for you to find an immortal tier alchemist so easily."


    Bai Yun could see that he had insulted the old man. But he was no longer focused on that. It was true that Bai Yun had no idea where to find an immortal tier alchemist.


    But he knew where to find a titled god tier alchemist. The God of Alchemy.


    His legacy was there in the dao repository.


    If Bai Yun could enter the dao repository, he could easily gain the legacy of the alchemy god as well as the solution to this problem. And to enter the dao repository he only needed to breakthrough to the foundation establishment realm, something he could do any time he wished.


    Finally, Bai Yun could see an idea that would work.


    Bai Yun moved immediately. There was no time to waste. He quickly reached the side of Bai Ling-er and cut her arm drawing some blood. He then quickly guided the blood into his own arms. If he wanted to get advice on how to create an antidote, then he needed a piece of the poison.


    "What are you doing?" The old man asked Bai Yun. Even though he saw Bai un draw some blood into his arms he wasn''t too worried. The amount of poison in it was too little. It would easily be neutralized by Bai Yun''s body.


    "I want to try and see if there is a way to save her by seeing how my own body handles the poison." Bai Yun immediately came up with a stupid excuse.


    The old man simply shook his head. He could see that Bai Yun was lying but it wasn''t his place to ask why.


    Once he got a piece of the poison Bai Yun quickly left the room. He found another room adjacent to this one and sat down in meditation in the center of the room.


    It was time to break through and reach the fourth circle level.

 104 Fourth circle level

    Bai Yun sat in meditation and slowly started to run Infinitude Heavenly Thought. Slowly power started to converge on Bai Yun and seep into his soul. AS he stood there, a fourth soul tendril started to be visible. Slowly the outline came into being followed by the tendril itself.


    As the fourth soul tendril was slowly coalescing, the other three soul tendrils were also strengthening at a rapid pace. Slowly Bai Yun''s entire body sunk into a meditative trance where he was rapidly becoming stronger.


    Even though it seemed to be taking a long time, it was actually happening in a flash. Bai Yun had long ago reached the necessary conditions for a breakthrough. So his power was increasing rapidly at an incredible pace.


    Finally, after a moment Bai Yun''s fourth soul tendril came to existence. At that same time, a fourth circle also appeared around Bai Yun''s soul in his sea of consciousness. At that moment Bai Yun had finally stepped into the foundation establishment realm in the soul cultivation path.


    As Bai Yun sat there, he felt a power slowly descend upon him. This was the power of the heavenly laws.


    Every time someone made a breakthrough to a new realm for the first time, the heavenly laws would descent and make a change to their soul mark. The soul mark was given by the heavenly daos to every cultivator. This was done in order to mark the realm of a cultivator as well as record their path in case they broke through to the titled god realm and needed to be given a title.


    Bai Yun slowly felt the power of the heavenly daos fill him. This was a rare chance that everyone could get. During the descend of the heavenly daos one could get in touch with the purest form of the heavenly daos. One could use this chance to perceive and study the heavenly daos.


    But to sense the heavenly daos, one needed god sense. Thus only title gods could sense the heavenly daos when they broke through. To them, this small chance did not mean much. So this could easily be ignored.


    But Bai Yun was only at the qi step. Currently, the descent of the heavenly daos was allowing him to quickly understand more and more of the truth behind the heavenly daos. This would be of great help to him when he wanted to study anything else later.


    Suddenly the heavenly daos that were studying Bai Yun''s body started to tremble. Bai Yun opened his eyes in confusion. He had no idea what was happening.


    As he sat there, the power of the heavenly daos slowly started to transform. It turned into a flame and started to slowly burn Bai Yun''s body and soul. But Bai Yun felt no pain from this.


    Ad Bai Yun stood there not understanding what was happening, Bai Yun felt that something was wrong. He felt his connection with his god sense was growing weaker.


    In an instant, Bai Yun understood what was happening. God Sense was something that only those at the god step was supposed to have. It was a right for the gods. Even though those below the immortal step could get immortal sense, it was absolutely impossible to get god sense below the god step.


    And when the heavenly daos sensed the god sense, it was starting to remove it. It was not permitted to exist within Bai Yun. He had gotten away with it last time as then the heavenly daos were only leaving a blank soul mark. This time it was studying the soul of Bai Yun to update the soul mark.


    As Bai Yun saw the god sense slowly peeling away he felt lost. He had always counted on the god sense to do everything. Now that he was losing it, Bai Yun did not know what to do. He couldn''t even enter the dao repository if he lost the god sense. He might not be able to save Bai Ling-er.


    As he stood there stunned, suddenly Bai Yun realized that the flame of the heavenly dao was not only burning his god sense, but it was also burning his soul. As he stood there, small purple lines started to become visible in his soul. It slowly slipped out of his soul and became a purple mist that slowly lingered around his soul in his sea of consciousness.


    As he stared at the purple mist, Bai Yun got the second shock. He could sense the power of the devil emperor from the purple mist. The purple mist was the power of the devil that had merged with him when the devil emperor self exploded. The heavenly daos were slowly purging that power form his soul.


    Bai Yun stared at it for a while and then turned away. He had no need for the power of the devil. He was more concerned with his god sense.


    As Bai Yun stared at the god sense that was slowly peeling itself from his soul, Bai Yun did not know what to do. He just stood there staring at it. He was thinking hard, but could not come up with any solution.


    As he stood there thinking, Bau Yuns felt his soul becoming purer. He took a look at the devil mist. And then just as he looked at it, Bai Yun got a crazy idea.


    Both Bai Yun and Long Tian were good children. He always obeyed his parents and his elders. He never played pranks on others. He always did as he was told.


    But for the first time in his life, Bai Yun had a crazy desire. A desire to defy the will of others. A desire to defy the will of the heavens itself.


    What Bai Yun did not realize was that this will did not originate from within him. When he died a piece of the devil emperors soul merged with him. This intense desire was born from the desire of the devil emperor to struggle against his fate.


    Bai Yun decided that he was not going to simply let go of his god sense. He was going to fight to keep it. Even if he lost it, he was not going down without a fight.


    Bai Yun used his full strength and grabbed at the god sense. He rapidly ran his power and tried to lock the god sense in place.


    As Bai Yun started to fight against the god sense, the flame of heavenly daos seemed to be enraged. It slowly started to burn brighter. But this time it not only burned Bai Yuns'' god sense, but it also started to burn Bai Yun''s soul.


    A terrifying pain shot through Bai Yun''s soul. For a moment he blanked out from the pain. But he was back in an instant. He grit his teeth and started to pull on the god sense harder. But the harder he pulled on the god sense, the harder the flame of heavenly dao burned.


    No matter what he tried, Bai Yun was unable to extricate the god sense from the pull of the heavenly dao. The only result was shooting pain that seemed to burn up Bai Yun. Bai Yun grit his teeth so hard that blood started to seep from his mouth. Bai Yun was perspiring extremely hard, and slightly trembling in pain. If the old man next door wasn''t so focused o Bai Ling-er, he would have already come running to Bai Yun''s side after seeing his condition.


    But nothing he did was fo any use. He tried one method after the other, all to no avail. Bai Yun couldn''t even slow down the extrication of his god sense.


    Bai Yun looked around crazily. His eyes were red from the pain. He needed an idea. Something that could work. The god sense was almost completely peeled from his body at this point.


    Suddenly his eyes fell on the power of the devil that was floating around his soul. Suddenly a completely crazy idea appeared in Bai Yun''s mind. The reason the heavenly daos did not notice him and he was able to enter the reincarnation cycle was due to the power of the devil that merged with him when the devil emperor exploded. The heavenly daos couldn''t identify the thing born of the merging of two powers. Bai Yun suddenly wondered if he could keep his god sense if he were to merge the two powers being expelled from his body.


    He didn''t wait even a second to find out. Just as the god sense was being peeled off him, he took control of the power of the devil and brought it over to the god sense. Bai Yun had no idea how to merge them, so he decided to use the simplest method and just ram them together.


    What Bai Yun did not expect was that the moment the two powers came into contact with each other, they started to mix together. The mixing process was so smooth that Bai Yun was stunned. It was as if the two powers were two sides of the same coin, and they were dying to mix up and become one.


    What Bai Yun didn''t realize was that the reason the two of them were merging so quickly was due to the instinct of the power of the devil. The power of the devil in Bai Yun''s body was born from the devil emperor, who had an instinctive rejection towards the heavenly dao. The power of the devil wanted to reject the heavenly dao and its actions.


    So when the heavenly dao wanted to strip the power of the devil from Bai Yun, the power of the devil tried to reject it and stay with Bai Yun. So when it finally found a chance to reject the will of the heavenly dao, it took the initiative to merge with the god dense of Bai Yun. It understood Bai Yun''s will and moved automatically, merging with the power of gods and becoming something new in the process. Otherwise, it would have taken Bai Yun centuries to figure out how to merge the two powers.


    As the power of the gods merged with the power of the devil, the power of the devil quickly refined Bai Yun''s god sense. The power of the devil was of a much higher quality than the god sense Bai Yun had, but there was too little of it. As Bai Yun''s god sense merged with the power of the devil, the god sense''s quality increased, while its quantity quickly fell.


    Soon the process was completed. The power of the devil and the power of the gods in Bai Yun''s god sense quickly merged to create a new source of power. This new power was not recognized by the heavenly dao, so the heavenly dao stopped burning the power. The flame of the heavenly dao slowly transformed into a brush and it started to update Bai Yun''s soul mark.


    Bai Yun knew that he did not have much time. He quickly grabbed hold of the new power that was just born. It was disjoint from his body and might even fly away. So Bai Yun quickly transformed that power into a seal and cast it on itself to trap it in his body.


    By now the heavenly dao was finished. Bai Yun quickly transformed the new power into immortal sense and made the immortal sense touch the last vestiges of the power of heavenly dao that was leaving.


    In an instance, Bai Yun felt his surroundings blur. He once again found himself at the base of a long flight of stairs.


    Bai Yun smiled as he felt his surroundings.


    He was back at the Dao Repository.

 105 Entering the dao repository again

    Bai Yun stood there at the base of the stairs once again. He looked up to see many stairs and many statues on those stairs.


    Bai Yun stood there at the bottom of the stairs for a while. He was still in pain from the burning he suffered at the hands of the heavenly dao. Bai Yun sat down and meditated fo a while. Thankfully the dao repository was set up so that no matter how long you stayed in the dao repository, no time would pass in the outside world.


    After a half an hour, Bai Yun stood up feeling refreshed. All the effects of the burning he had suffered were gone. It was mainly because it was not his true body in the dao repository, but only a clone made from the heavenly daos. If it was his true body, it would have taken quite a lot longer to recover. He might not even be able to recover properly.


    Bai Yun then took his first step onto the flight of stairs. One step at a time he started to climb the stairs.


    In no time at all Bai Yun reached the place where he received the Assassin God''s legacy. But he did not stop and continued to climb after giving the statue a look.


    Bai Yun kept on climbing the stairs. As he climbed the pressure on his body became bigger and bigger. Bai Yun quickly turned on the new power he had gained after mixing the power of the devil with the god sense and used it to resist the pressure falling on him.


    As he climbed the stairs, Bai Yun was surprised that it was much easier to resist the pressure than he thought. The new power was much more effective than god sense when it came to resisting the pressure in the dao repository. As Bai Yun climbed higher and higher, the pressure increased. But the new power was able to easily resist it. Bai Yun had to barely spend any energy.


    Soon Bai Yun had climbed an uncountable number of stairs. He could no longer see the beginning or the end of the staircase. At first there were many statues in the staircase, but now they were few and far between.


    As Bai Yun started to climb, his body started to hurt. He was able to easily resist the pressure, but climbing all of these steps took a toll on him. His cultivation was not too high. This was an exhausting ordeal for him. But Bai Yun did not stop. He kept on climbing higher and higher. He knew the rules of the dao repository better than anyone. If he passed out here, he would be kicked out and would lose the chance to gain a legacy. But it wasn''t too much for Bai Yun. After all, he had many more chances left. But if he got kicked out, then Bai Ling-er would die.


    So he kept on going.


    As he climbed higher and higher, the tiredness overcame his boy. His muscles were trembling. Bai Yun was now using his entire body to climb. A river of sweat was visible in the places he walked. Bai Yun could barely see in front of him. His eyes were trembling. But he kept on going up, almost on instinct alone.


    Suddenly Bai Yun stopped his climb. He was standing on a step. From here he could see a few more empty steps above, after which there was a large gate leading to the area with the titled gods legacies. He had almost reached the end of the flight of stairs.


    Bai Yun looked to the side. There was a statue standing on this stair. This was the stair with the final statue in the god legacy area.


    Bai Yun stared at that statue for a while. As he stood there his eyes finally cleared up. He could clearly see the statue that was there.


    Standing there was the statue of a beautiful woman. She was smiling down at Bai Yun in a gentle way. Anyone who was looking at her would soon find themselves lost in her eyes and find that they have been kicked out before they knew it.


    But Bia Yun wasn''t trapped in her power. Bai Yun stood there staring at the statue for a long time.


    It was the legacy statue of his mother.


    Both soul gods and titled gods could leave behind a piece of their soul in the legacy statues. This means that they could effectively survive in the legacy site. They could affect the legacy and control it, ad even interact with the trial takers and not just run it automatically like others.


    And his mother, as a god realm soul cultivator, had left a piece of her soul behind in the legacy site.


    Bai Yun''s initial plan was to go and meet up with his mother during his first breakthrough. He wanted to see her for one last time and properly say goodbye.


    According to Bai Yun''s thoughts, during his breakthrough to foundation establishment realm, he would enter the legacy of his mother, and then enter the legacy of his father during the core formation realm breakthrough. Only later would he go to the legacy site of the god of alchemy.


    But circumstances had changed his plans. Due to the poisoning of Bai Ling-er he had to reach the god of alchemies legacy site first.


    So Bai Yun stared at his mother''s statue for a while and then turned away determinedly. He then walked up the final few steps and stepped into the legacy area for titled gods.


    As he walked up Bai Yun recalled that he had not seen his own statue. It should have a few steps in front of his mother''s statue. But Bai Yun was sure that he had not passed by it.


    Bai Yun stopped at the top of the stairs and looked back. He could not go back to check, or else he would be kicked out. But even after carefully checking he could not see his statue. And his statue was at the top near the end. So he should have seen it soon. After a while, Bai Yun figured that he must have missed it because he was too tired and it should have been further in front than he remembered and turned back to the legacy area for titled gods.


    When Bai Yun stepped into the area for titled gods, he found himself in a large garden. Bai Yun could not see the ends of the garden. Here and there Bai Yun could see various trees.


    Even though Bai Yun had never been to the titled god section of the dao repository, he had heard about it before. Each of the trees in the garden was the legacy area for a titled god.


    Once Bai Yun entered the garden, the pressure disappeared. There was no longer any need for the pressure. The pressure was to restrict the people who could make it here from those who were not powerful enough. Once you entered the garden, it means that you have what it takes to gain the inheritance of a titled god. Of course, that is if you can pass whatever tests the titled god might have designed.


    Bai Yun first rested at the entrance to the garden. He was quite tired from the trek. Once he recovered, Bai Yun quickly tried to find the tree corresponding to the God of Alchemy''s legacy. He knew that it was here, but he didn''t know where it was.


    Bai Yun walked out from the entrance and walked up to the first tree in the garden. There were many trees in the garden and Bai Yun could see quite far. But they were all spread far apart, with many miles between them. There were only seventy two titled gods in Bai Yun''s time. Even though a long time had passed, Bai Yun did not think that more than that many titled gods would be born. So the total number of trees should be around a hundred at most. But Bai Yun could only a two dozen trees at most. Which means that he had a good long search in front of him.


    The first tree he looked at was a large tree that stood tall. It was not just a simple tree though. Each leaf of the tree was like a small flame. Each leaf was different and there were thousands of leaves on the tree.


    As Bai Yun stood in front of the tree a powerful heat wafted outwards from it. Bai Yun could also sense a kind of pressure from the tree. But Bai Yun could not figure out whose tree it was. The presence of the tree did not feel like anyone he knew. Bai Yun finally concluded that the tree must belong to a titled god born after his time.


    Bai Yun then ran towards another tree. This tree was quite different from the previous one. It was a tall tree that rose to the skies. Each of the leaves of the tree had lighting bolts wrapped around it. Some small lighting bolts would often appear on the surface of the tree. As Bia Yun stood near it Bai Yun felt a familiar breath coming from it. The breath of the tree resembled the God of Lightning. Bai Yun realized that the tree must be the legacy tree of the god of lightning. It was not what Bai Yun was looking for, so he left the tree.


    Bai Yun spend nearly an hour searching the garden before he found the tree corresponding to the Alchemy God. During this search, Bai Yun found out many things about the dao garden.


    For one thing, the different trees all had a different look. By looking at the tree as well as the aura coming from the tree Bai Yun could tell who the tree belonged to. Or at least what kind of dao the person whose legacy it was followed. Almost all of the tress he came across were legacy trees of people he knew. Only a few of the trees were made by titled gods of the new era.


    For example, in his search, Bai Yun found the God of Swords tree. The tree was a large pine like tree where each leaf was a small sword. The tree of the God of Alchemy was a large banyan tree where each leaf was in the shape of a medicinal herb or pill. Thus Bai Yun found many different types of trees in the garden.


    Another thing was that the stronger the legacy, the further it was from the entrance of the garden. Bai Yun found the legacy trees of quite a few early stage titled gods. But he did not see any legacy of his father or the rest of the supreme titled gods.


    So Bai Yun quickly found the tree of the God of Alchemy and walked towards it. He stood in front of the tree. There was no pressure on the tree itself. But there was a faint aroma of medical pills wafting around the tree. Bai Yun then reached out and gently touched the tree.


    The moment he did so a strange suction power came from the tree.


    In an instant, Bai Yun was sucked into the tree.


    He had entered the legacy site of the God of Alchemy.

 106 God of Alchemy

    When Bai Yun came to, he found himself standing in a large room. In front of him were dozens of rows of plants and medicinal herbs. Barely had Bai Yun found his footing when a voice sounded out inside the hall.


    "You have to identify every plant and medical ingredient in this room and write three uses for each of them. Some of them are made by grafting various plants. You need to identify each plant that makes up the drafted plant. The answers should be written into the jade placed in front of the plant. You have half an hour. The more materials you identify, the higher your final score will be."


    Ba Yun took a look around the hall after he heard this. He saw that there were hundreds of plants in this hall. And among them, Bai Yun recognized maybe five of them. And if he was asked to identify them, Bai Yun would not be able to do so. This was only the first test, and Bai Yun had already failed miserably.


    "Uncle Qin, I know you can hear me. Its Little Tian. Long Tian. I need your help. Would you come out and see me." Bai Yun shouted.


    But even after he shouted there was no change in the air. Bai Yun stared ahead for a while. He then smiled lightly. He knew that if the God of Alchemy had left behind a soul portion in his legacy site he would be able to communicate with hi. If he hadn''t, well then he was out of luck. So Bai Yun decided to continue and test his luck.


    "You know I can prove who I am." Bai Yun continued. "You were there on the day I tried to condense the nameless star. You saved my life that day."


    Bai Yun then continued to tell stories about the two of them, and the times that they had met. But even after ten minutes, there was no response from the God of Alchemy.


    Bai Yun sighed. "I was hoping it wouldn''t come to this." Bai Yun said. "You know there is a story I know about you that I have kept hidden. This is a story that maybe you wouldn''t mind if I told everyone. There was a day when you came to our mansion when father was out in order to meet mother. You had come in order to the infinitude heavenly thought technique. But mom wouldn''t hand it over. So you did something."


    Bai Yun stood and stared for a while. Not seeing any reaction, he continued.


    "You know I can tell this story to everyone in the outside world." Bai Yu said. "So should I continue or-"


    Just as he was about to continue a sigh rang through the hall. Then the entire hall started to transform and slowly fade. "There''s no need to go any further, I believe you." Then the voice rang out one more time.


    Bai Yun stood there and watched as the hall slowly disappeared. After a moment the entire hall changed into a small room. Of course, it was only small from the perspective of the earlier hall. It was over a hundred meters in each of the three directions. There was a small table in the center of the room, and a young man was sitting at the table. He glanced at Bai Yun as he appeared in the good.


    "It''s been a while uncle Qin." Bai Yun greeted the God of Alchemy.


    "You were such a good kid." The God of Alchemy said. "Now you have even learned to blackmail people. What happened? How did you come in here? Why did your looks change? And why is your cultivation base so low?"


    "It''s a long story." Bai Yun said as he sat down opposite to the God of Alchemy. Bai Yun then spend the next half an hour explaining what happened to him. The God of Alchemy was quite surprised that Bai Yun was able to kill the devil emperor. This piece of the God of Alchemy was from just before the final battle and knew the strength of the devil emperor well.


    He was also surprised by the fact that Bai Yun had managed to reincarnate. After Bai Yun explained everything that had happened to him since his reincarnation as well as the reason he came to find the God of Alchemy, he fell silent.


    The God of Alchemy stared at Bai Yun for a while. Just as Bai Yun was wondering what he was going t do, the God of Alchemy finally asked him "What are you going to do with your life?"


    Bai Yun was confused by the question. He stared at the God of Alchemy questioningly before answering "Just live normally I guess. Cultivate and become a titled god once again."


    "Don''t you have any other desires?" The God of Alchemy asked.


    "What else is there?" Bai Yun replied.


    "Let me ask you in another way. In your entire life other than fighting and training what have you done." the God of Alchemy asked.


    Bai Yun was confused by the question. "What else is there?"


    The God of Alchemy was exasperated with his answer.


    "I meant have you ever loved." The God of Alchemy asked. "Have you ever lost anything. Have you ever wanted to desperately hold on to something, yet had to watch as it slipped through your fingers."


    "No." Bai Yun said. "But why does it matter? All of that sounds quite horrible. Shouldn''t you try to avoid such incidents?"


    "You said that the people who are your family in this life have less experience than you." The God of Alchemy said. "But that is only with respect to your fighting experience. When it comes to life I am sure that they have much greater experience than you. That is why you should listen to them and not be dismissive as you currently are."


    "You were born with the greatest talent in history as the son of some of the greatest and strongest people in the universe." the God of Alchemy continued. "In many ways, it gave you an advantage in life and a great outlook on the world. But in many ways, it also restricted your path. Unlike some, I never believed that you would be able to reach the titled god level without experiencing life. And I was right. You only managed to break through after you felt the pain of loss. I think that this life will help you a lot. I think you will go much farther than you could in your past life."


    Bai Yun stared at the God of Alchemy for a while. He did not know what to say.


    "It''s fine. let''s talk about happier things." The God of Alchemy said. "How far do you intend to go on the Alchemy path."


    "I intend to go the distance." Bai Yun said. "This time I intend to reach the titled god level in Alchemy. Alongside the titled god level in other paths also."


    "Then do you know what is the important thing in reaching titled god realm for the Alchemy path." The god of alchemy aked.


    "I know that you need to master a technique, but I don''t know which one." Bai Yun replied.


    "True." The god of alchemy explained. "The thing is to become a god realm alchemist you not only need to master the relevant knowledge and recipes, but you also need to master the skill of perfect concoction. In perfect concoction, the entire medical effect of the pill is used and it is no longer able to distinguish its components from the final pill. But I have recorded perfect concoction in the legacy. You can study it in detail later."


    "But the path to a titled god requires you to master creating something out of nothing." The God of Alchemy continued. "Most importantly this skill is done differently for each person. So I haven''t put any explanation about it in the legacy. Even if I did, it wouldn''t be of any help as it is impossible for you to understand my experience. You will have to reach that level on your own. So what I am going to do is to explain to you what it means. You may not understand it right now. Just remember everything I say."


    Then the God of Alchemy spend the next hour explaining the key points regarding the final level of Alchemy. Bai Yun sat patiently and remembered every word he heard.


    "Alright. That is that. I''ll give you my legacy now." The God of Alchemy finally said.


    Then the God of Alchemy slowly raised his hand. There a small cauldron appeared. This was the highest level legacy reward of the Alchemy path, Then the God of Alchemy slowly started to modify the contents of the legacy. The legacy was originally geared towards those at the dao step who had a great foundation in the alchemy path. But Bai Yun did not have it. So he needed to change the legacy in order to make it so that he would be able to accept it without any faults.


    As time passed the small cauldron became more and more perfect. Complex patterns started to appear on it. At the same time, the God of Alchemie''s soul incarnation started to become more and more transparent and fainter.


    "Uncle Qin, what are you doing?" Bai Yun asked after seeing that something was wrong.


    "I am not just adding the knowledge that you require. I am also adding my experience, my failures, and everything else that I have ever done in the alchemy path. This will make it easier for you to comprehend the alchemy path." God of Alchemy explained.


    "But that is the same as putting a part of your soul into the legacy. This will cause your soul incarnation to become destabilized. You would die!"


    The God of Alchemy laughed when he heard this. "What do you mean I would die." He asked. "I am already dead. All that is left of me is a soul incantation that cannot leave this legacy site. It doesn''t matter if I exist or not. The important thing is that it will help you grow."


    "Why is that important? Besides I don''t need your help in rowing." Bai Yun replied.


    The God of Alchemy only smiled. "You might have reached the titled god realm, but there are many things about this world that you don''t know. Things that were hidden especially from you. If you want to know the truth about yourself, then you should find that crazy old man. Only he can truly explain the reasons for your existence."


    Bai Yun was stunned when he heard this. He did not understand what the God of Alchemy was talking about. Was there some sort of secret behind his birth.


    While Bai Yun stood there confused, the God of Alchemy had finished his task. A small exquisitely crafted cauldron stood in the center of his palm. It was slowly rotating while giving off a divine glow.


    But the God of Alchemy also had to pay a certain price for it. The lower half of his body had disappeared, while the top half was mostly transparent by now. He was flickering like a candle in the wind.


    "Quickly take it. I won''t be able to hold it for much longer. Once I disappear, you will have to properly pass the trials in order to get it." The God of Alchemy said.


    Bai Yun awoke from his stupor immediately. He looked at the God of Alchemy with a complex look in his eyes. He then stood up and kowtowed before the God of Alchemy before walking up to him and reaching out to the small cauldron without a word.


    The moment Bai Yun''s hands touched the cauldron, it melted as it passed through his body into the middle of his forehead. As Bai Yun stood there, he slowly let himself go and allowed the force of the legacy site to take him out of the dao repository.


    The God of Alchemy watched as Bai Yun slowly disappeared. The surroundings also became dark and he also started to fade away. He then spoke aloud as if to no one.


    "Old man I think you were wrong at that time. I think the reason this brat was born is just beginning."

 107 New eyes

    Bai Yun returned to his consciousness. He had received the method for detoxifying Bai Ling-er from the God of Alchemy. Bai Yun took a look at his sea of consciousness. There, right next to the dagger he had received from the Assassin God, was a small and exquisite cauldron.


    Bai Yun stared at the small cauldron. As he looked at it a complex feeling arose in his heart. He could tell from the final words of the God of Alchemy that there seemed to be a secret about his birth. A secret held specifically from him.


    But Bai Yun decided to forget it. He would know it when the time is right.


    With a sigh Bai Yun opened his eyes and stood up. But a moment later Bai Yun felt that there was something wrong. Even though he had opened his eyes, he couldn''t see anything.


    Bai Yun was stunned when he realized this. Just as he was wondering what was happening, a itchy feeling came from his eyes. Bai Yun touched his eyes, only to feel a liquid like substance stick to his fingers.


    Suddenly the itch like feeling transformed into a biting pain. In seconds the pain shot up to levels Bai Yun had never felt before. Even with his incredible resistance, Bai Yun was unable to contain the pain. It was the most severe pain he had ever felt in his entire life.


    Unable to withstand the pain Bai Yun finally screamed out loud.


    A moment later the door to the room opened up and the man that came with Bai Tianji rushed in. "What is going on?" He shouted out, but he stopped as soon as he entered. The moment he saw the sight inside the room he was stunned.


    Bai Yun was sitting in the middle of the room kneeled over. He was clutching at his eyes. But from between his fingers a black liquid was oozing out. With horror the old man realized that the black liquid was Bai Yun''s eyes!


    The old man came to Bai Yun''s side and touched his shoulder and said "Let me take a look."


    But before he could say anything else, a horrifying force came out of Bai Yun''s body and pushed the old man away. The old man flew through the air and crashed through a few walls of the mansion before he came to a stop. When the old man stabilized himself, he was stunned. He had an extremely high cultivation base and yet he had been sent flying by Bai Yun. Not only that, when he looked down at his hand, but he also realized that his palm had been burned back.


    He looked back at Bai Yun and got the second shock of the day. Bai Yun was no longer screaming. But he was floating in the middle of the room. A giant purple and gold colored sphere was rapidly rotating around him. The ceiling and the floor that was inside the sphere had long since disappeared. Thankfully the rooms in the mansion were all very large. Else the entire room would have been destroyed.


    The old man quickly ran up to the sphere and gently tried to press on to the sphere, but realized that it would not budge. Not only that, but his hand was also signed by the power.


    But the situation did not last for long. In front of his eyes, the purple and gold sphere slowly started to contract. As he watched, the purple and gold colored sphere rapidly contract and disappear into Bai Yun''s eyes.


    For a moment the old man stood there not knowing what to do. He was old friends with Bai Tianji and knew about Bai Yun, and also how much Bai Tianji cared about Bai Yun. The old man then walked up to Bai Yun, who was kneeling on the ground by now and asked. "Are you alright?"


    Bai Yun suddenly stood up and raised a hand to stop the old man from approaching. The old man remembered the terrifying power from just before that blasted him out when he touched Bai You and held his hand. His palm still hadn''t recovered from the burn, even after he took a medicinal pill.


    Bai Yun touched his face. He could sense two new eyeballs in the place of his eyes. His previous eyes had melted away, and two new eyes had grown in its place. But even after Bai Yun opened his eyes, he still couldn''t see anything.


    As Bai Yun slowly studied the new eyes of his with his perception, he realized that he felt a very familiar power coming from them. With a start, he realized that the power he felt was the new power that was born of the merging of the god sense and the power of the devil.


    Bai Yun quickly turned his senses to his sea of consciousness. But he could no longer sense the mixed power there.


    After a moment Bai Yun understood what had happened. After he sealed the new power, it must have wandered aimlessly in the sea of consciousness. And it must have then fallen into his eyes and bonded with it. If Bai Yun had been awake, he would have bonded the power to his soul. But he wasn''t and things took a weird turn.


    After the power bonded with his eyes, it caused some sort of transformation to happen to his eyes. Bai Yun''s previous eyes were not powerful enough to withstand the strength of the new power and they were destroyed. But then the new power caused a new set of eyes to be grown.


    As Bai Yun slowly probed his new eyes Bai Yun realized that the new power was still in the process of binding with them. The reason he could not see anything was that the new power still hasn''t finished remaking his eyes. From the way the power was working, Bai Yun figured that it would take about two weeks before the new power was done remaking his eyes. Which means that he would be blind for the next two weeks.


    As he looked closer, Bai Yun also found out another special thing about his eyes. The powers in each of his two eyes seemed to be slightly different. The power in his right eye seemed to be more geared towards that of the power of gods, while the power in his left eye was more geared towards that of the power of the devil. Bai Yun realized that when his eyes finally awoke, it was extremely likely that he would awaken two new powers.


    But he would have to wait until his eye awoke to study both the abilities of his eyes as well as the new power born from the mix of the god sense and the power of the devil. At least temporarily he was unable to utilize them.


    As Bai Yun stood there he suddenly realized that what was happening to his eyes was kind of like the awaking of an innate ability, like Zhang Zi''s shockwave ability. Except that this was an innate ability that was created artificially by Bai Yun''s new power. But it wasn''t like anyone else could say anything. He could just tell them that he broke through and gained a new innate ability. There was no way for anyone to challenge it.


    Once Bai Yun decided on how to explain to them about the eyes he finally woke from his thoughts. Seeing that Bai Yun had come back, the old man finally asked. "What just happened?"


    "Senior its nothing." Bai Yun replied."I think that just awoke an innate ability."


    "WHAT?" The old man was surprised. And rightfully so. Just how rare was an innate ability. The only person in the whole of Yellow city who had an innate ability in the recent memory was Zhang Zi. An innate ability was an extremely rare thing. The fact that he got to see the awakening of an innate ability stunned the old man.


    "Are you alright?" The old man finally asked after a pause. He had a great shock, but he was able to quickly calm down.


    "I think so." Bai Yun replied. "Though I can''t see anything. But that is just because of the awakening of the innate ability. From my guess, it will take about two weeks for it to completely awaken and I will be fine by them."


    "Let me check you anyway." The old man said. Bai Yun had no problem with this. The fact that his great grandfather left him alone here meant that he definitely trusted him.


    The old man placed his hands on Bai Yun''s shoulder and sunk his perception into him. After a while, he retreated his hand. "You are right." The old man said. "I can''t sense anything strange about you but your eyes. And a strange power seems to be modifying it slowly. My guess is also the same as yours. It will be two weeks before you can see again."


    Bai Yun nodded. Suddenly he heard a sound coming from the entrance of the room. "What the hell happened here?" Bai Shi''s shaky voice rang out.


    It was at that moment that Bai Yun finally remembered about Bai Ling-er. He had forgotten about her situation in the excitement of his new eyes.


    "Senior is Bai Ling-er still alive?" Bai Yun asked.


    "I was able to extend her life by an hour, so she is fine." The old man replied. "But her situation has worsened. Unless we can find an antidote for the poison or an extremely powerful medicine, it is not possible to save her now."


    "Senior, just now I was thinking about this problem and a solution came to my mind." Bai Yun said.


    "What solution" The old man interjected. "Junior don''t think that alchemy is so easy. It is a complex and ancient path." Without stopping the old man went on about the nature of alchemy.


    Bai Yun only smiled when he heard about this. He knew that the old man was speaking from a place of love and didn''t feel like telling him off. He then suddenly interjected and started to speak of the recipe the God of Alchemy had provided him with. At first, the old man looked at Bai Yun as if he was an idiot, but when he finished, the old man was staring at him with his jaw on the floor.


    "Senior, will it work?" Bai Yun asked once he finished.


    "Yes, it will." The old man exclaimed." Why the hell didn''t I think of that? The solution was so simple. How the hell did you come up with this?"


    "Senior it doesn''t matter how I came across this recipe." Bai Yun replied. "It is more important to save people."


    The old man rolled his eyes and then disappeared. He knew that Bai Yun had some secrets and was unwilling to speak of his methods. Since Bai Yun was the junior of his friend, he didn''t feel like probing too deep. A second later Bai Yun could hear the old man rummaging around in Ba Ling-er''s room as he prepared the antidote.


    "Young master Yun, Will Ling-er be alright." Bai Shi asked softly.


    "Didn''t you hear the senior." Bai Yun replied. "Of course she will be. But right now I need you to do something for me."


    "Anything young master." Bai Shi replied. He was over the moon by the fact that Bai Ling-er could be saved.


    "I can''t see a damn thing. Can you guide me to the other room."

 108 Healing Bai Ling-er

    Bai Yun slowly walked over to the other room with Bai Shi''s help. Bai Yun could smell the medicines that were being made by the old man. But he had not yet integrated the alchemy inheritance he had gotten from the God of Alchemy. So Bai Yun had no idea what the old man was doing. Though he believed that the old man was making the antidote that he just gave him.


    "I''ll sit down right here. You go and check up on Bai Ling-er." Bai Yun told Bai Shi.


    "Yes, young master." Bai Shi replied and let go of Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun sat down and started to meditate. He checked up on his eyes and made sure that he could not see or sense anything. Both his sight and god sense had left him. He then sat there and slowly stabilized his breakthrough.


    Suddenly the air shimmied and Bai Tianji appeared. "I couldn''t find anything in the clan or the city that could help her." He said.


    "Not to worry. We have the antidote." The old man explained. Even though he was in the middle of making the antidote, the old man still had enough ability to talk to Bai Tianji. After all, this wasn''t a difficult antidote to make, it was only difficult to find the specific recipe.


    "You found an antidote." Bai Tianji was surprised. "I didn''t think you would be able to do so so quickly. Your skill must have improved quite a bit."


    "It''s not me." The old man replied after a small chuckle. "It''s actually your great grandson who found it."


    "Oh is it?" BaI Tianji said and turned towards Bai Yun." How did you do that? Wait what happened to your eyes!?"


    It took a while to calm him down. After Bai Yun explained to Bai Tianji what happened, Bai Tianji was quite pleased. He never expected that one of his descendants would awaken an innate ability. Though Bai Yun was blinded, Bai Tianji knew that it was temporary after checking Bai Yun''s eyes.


    Time passed quickly. The old man was able to easily make the antidote that Bai Ling-er needed. Once he was done he fed it to Bai Ling-er. He had to use his power to make sure that the antidote circulated properly. Once Bai Ling-er started to improve, he stopped. All the people there watched as Bai Ling-er''s situation slowly improved. Once the poison started to subside the old man also fed her with some drugs to her improve her situation. Bai Shi finally put down the rock in his heart.


    The two old men were also quite happy to see that Bai Ling-er''s condition had improved. Originally they would not care about someone like Bai Ling-er given their status. But her incredible will that forced the poison deep into her moved them. People with such will would be an asset to the clan. They would certainly be happy to not lose such a member.


    Then the air shimmied again and Bai Mu appeared. He took a look at Bai Ling-er and nodded. He could see that her condition had improved. But he had a stern look on his face. Bai Tianji could see that things had not gone well.


    "How are things." Bai Tianji asked.


    "Not good." Bai Mu replied. "The guys who attacked them were paid to do so. They were a group of local thugs. They were hired by a masked man who told them to attack whoever turned up at that specific location. The masked man also gave them the poison. They used it all on the girl. They did not know who hired them. We struck an end in the investigation. We still don''t know who attacked Yun with the soul shaker orb. The good thing is from what they said I don''t think the identity of the two kids has been exposed."


    Bai Tianji nodded as he heard this. He hadn''t expected much anyway. The old man who came with his frowned when he heard this.


    "Attacked little Yun with a soul shaker orb. What is going on?" He asked.


    Bai Mu obviously trusted the old man very much. He did not hide anything. Bai Mu quickly explained everything about how Bai Yun was attacked with a soul shaker orb and all the things they did later. The old man frowned when he heard all this.


    "You found out nothing even after investigating." The old man asked. "Who did you ask to investigate?"


    "Some people who we trust in the clan special department." Bai Mu replied.


    "I''m not surprised." The old man said. "If you gave the job to them, its highly unlikely that they would be able to find the culprits."


    Bai Yun, Bai Mu, and Bai Tianji looked at the old man in confusion. Only Bai Shi seemed to understand something. He smiled a little. His mood had improved now that Bai Ling-er''s life was no longer in danger.


    "Of course you guys wouldn''t know. You guys only think about cultivation. You have no idea about the intricacies of the political forces in Bai clan." The old man explained.


    The trio still continued to look confused. The old man laughed when he saw this.


    "It is obvious who did this. It''s one of the higher up in the clan." The old man said.


    The three of them stared at the old man with wide eyes. They couldn''t understand why the old man would say so.


    "Let me explain." The old man said. "Before Bai Yun''s soul mended, you were spending all of your efforts on him. Thus one of the Bai clans three great elders, and their most promising youth were both wasting away. Not only that, but a lot of the clan''s resources were also being wasted on him. The clan would have the greatest interest in trying to kill little Yun. After all, it involves the clan''s basic interests."


    "If you say it like that then it seems like the clan does have an interest in hurting Yun." Bai Mu said. "But I can''t imagine anyone in the clan doing something like this. Also, isn''t it likely that one of my enemies attacked Yun? Why do you think its the clan?"


    "It is true." The old man said."They are also possible suspects. But it would be very unlikely for any one of them to attack Yun in the clan. And even if they did, the special team would have found traces of it by now. Considering that they haven''t, it must have been someone from the clan. If it was someone from the upper echelons of the clan, the special force would not investigate too closely. Even if they found something. They would try to hide it. After all, a charge against a leader of the clan would destabilize the clan. So they would try to cover it up."


    The more the old man explained the more it seemed to be true. Bai Yun fell into a deep thought and found that what the old man said sounded reasonable.


    "Ling-er also thought so." Bai Shi suddenly interjected. "Her investigation was on whether there was someone from the can who was looking for the soul shaking orb."


    "That also explains why they were caught, while the special department failed to find anything." Bai Yun said. "The special department would not look inside the clan, while they did. Considering their inexperience, they must have stumbled on to the truth."


    The rest of them nodded when they heard Bai Yun. By now they all started to understand that it was someone from the clan that had hurt Bai Yun.


    "Who did you talk to in the special department." Bai Tianji asked.


    "I talked to Bai Min." Bai Mu said.


    "Bai Min huh." Bai Tanji said. "I know him. He is smart and loyal to the can. It is unlikely that he hasn''t caught wind of any news while some kids managed to do so. He must have figured out the truth and has been dragging his feet. I don''t think he has the guts to lead the investigation in the wrong direction. He most likely hasn''t even started looking inside the clan. I''ll go and have a talk with him."


    Saying so Bai Tianji immediately disappeared. After seeing that Bai Ling-er had basically recovered, the old man also left.


    After this Bai Mu took Bai Shi and Bai Ling-er back to their place. The poison in Bai Ling-er''s body has been completely purged, and the damage done had also been reversed. So there was no longer any need to keep them here. He also asked one of the people who follow him to keep an eye on them to make sure that they are safe.


    Bai Mu soon returned. "Those two are good. They have both smarts and loyalty. It''s good to keep people like them as subordinates." Bai Mu said. He then looked at Bai Yun closely. His cultivation was lower than that of Bai Tianji so it took him a minute to notice it. "What happened to your eyes?" Bai Mu finally asked.


    Bai Yun smiled wryly before explaining. Bai Mu was surprised that Bai Yun was able to so easily break through to the four circle realm. But he was even more amazed and happy at the fact Bai Yun awoke an innate ability.


    "The timing is too bad though." Bai Mu said. "If it takes two weeks for the eyes to heal, you will miss the clan meeting."


    It was only now that Bai Yun realized that the clan meeting was in three days. But he was deprived of both his sight as well as his god sense. But he only smiled in response.


    "Of course I am participating." Bai Yun said. "I guess it is a good thing I did all that training with a blindfold. Besides now that I am blind, the others will have a slight chance at winning."


    Bai Mu was stunned by Bai Yun''s declaration. He tried to talk Bai Yun out of this, but Bai Yun vehemently held on to the idea of participating. Finally, Bai Mu had no choice but to take Bai Yun home, in the hope that Xiao Mei-er would be able to convince Bai Yun otherwise.


    When Xiao Mei-er saw that Bai Yun''s eyes were hurt, she nearly ripped Bai Mu in two. After explaining what happened she calmed down. But Xiao Mei-er did not oppose Bai Yun''s decision to participate in the clan meeting. Since the chance of Bai Yun being severely hurt is very low due to the presence of the clan leaders in the meeting, she was all for Bai Yun getting more experience in fighting blind. Finally, Bai Mu gave in and agreed.


    The clan meeting would start three days later. So Bai Yun spend the next two days practicing how to fight blindly with Bai Mu. Even though he had trained for such a situation, more training never hurt. Xiao Mei-er also joined in and helped Bai Yun.


    During the night Bai Yun would meditate and slowly merge the alchemy inheritance with his soul. Even though the God of Alchemy made it as light as he could, it took Bai Yun a long time to merge with it. Even after two nights, Bai Yun hadn''t even finished merging with the part of the inheritance containing only the qi condensation section. But his skill had improved by leaps and bounds. Most importantly he also learned how to make many pills. The experience of all those pills also flowed in along with the inheritance.


    Bai Yun finally rested and went to sleep on the night of the clan meeting. Bai Yun decided to not train for the duration of the clan meeting in order to be at his peak levels. WInning the clan meeting was too important for his plans for the future.


    Bai Yun woke up early the next day. It was finally time for the clan meeting to begin.

 109 Clan meeting begins

    Bai Yun left with Bai Mu and Xiao Mei-er to the clan meeting. The clan meeting was divided into two segments. The first part was a clan gathering and the second part was the clan meeting tournament.


    The clan gathering was held in a large ground at the center of the clan. The entire clan was not invited for the gathering, only the important members. The Bai clan was too large after all. If the entire clan was called, then there was no place in the Yellow City large enough for them to congregate. Even if there was, there was no way to hold a gathering with that many people.


    Bai Yun went with Bai Mu and Xiao Mei-er and entered the grounds. Since he couldn''t see anything, Bai Mu was leading him by his arm. But it wasn''t too necessary. Due to Bai Yun''s great control over his perception and his recent training, Bi Yun could easily sense the short area in his surroundings. He could walk on his own even without help.


    Bai Mu took Bai Yun and went towards the front of the grounds. Bai Mu was the only descendant of a grand elder as well as the most promising youngster in the clan. He was obviously well appreciated in the clan, and thus had a prominent position.


    As Bai Mu walked up, a lot of people came up to him to say their greetings. As a rising star in the clan, people wanted to get close to him.


    And Bai Mu did not decline anyone. He had an easy going personality and did not care much about these things. So Bai Mu simply replied to their courtesy and went on his way.


    By the time the family had arrived at their spot, the grounds were mostly full. As they stood there, Xiao Meier- and Bai Mu started to chat with some of the people who were standing close to them. It seemed as if they had people they were close to and were socializing.


    Bai Yun looked around him. Even though he could not see anything, due to his training, he could infer many things from the sounds here. He found that there were also a lot of children here. The parents were all in the same group, so the children were also forced to socialize with each other.


    Bai Yun noticed that quite a lot of them were grouped together and were chatting with each other. Some of them had already formed their cliques and were happily chatting with each other. Some of the younger ones were even running around and playing with each other.


    But there were also a few who stood around different from each other. Bai Yun could sense that there was a region that was mostly empty, but he could vaguely sense a presence standing there. Even though he could not see it, there was a slightly older young man who stood there with his head held high, ignoring everything around him. Even the other children seemed to be a little wary of him. He was isolated from the rest and no one would go near him. There was also fear in the eyes of anyone who looked at them.


    "You know you should socialize a bit. Get to know your peers." Suddenly Bai Mu''s voice sounded out beside his ear.


    Bai Yun smiled wryly when he heard this. He was over thirty thousand years old. He had no peers. To Bai Yun, all the kids he met seemed to be no different from toddlers. The only ones he saw who were mature enough for Bai Yun to tolerate were Bai Ling-er, Bai Shi, Bai Qing, and Zhang Zi. Most others, even Shadow One, still had childish tendencies. There was no way Bai Yun could socialize with them.


    It seemed Bai Mu also saw the problem. He knew just how mature Bai Yun was and just how these kids behaved. Bai Mu did not push Bai Yun after that.


    Suddenly Bai Yun felt a small tug at the bottom of his robe. Bai Yun felt a weak presence standing near him.


    "Big brother I heard that you are retarded. Are you okay?" A small voice sounded out. The moment the voice asked so, the hubbub in the surrounding area stopped. The people here were all cultivators and had excellent hearing. Bai Yun could guess that they were all staring at them.


    Bai Yun could not see, but he could sense a small little lifeform standing near him. Bai Yun guessed that it was probably a little girl, maybe five or six years old.


    "Who told you that?" Bai Yun asked gently.


    "They did." The little girl said pointing to someone. Bai Yun could sense a group of children in that direction, though he couldn''t see anyone.


    "No, I''m not." Bai Yu replied after taking a deep breath.


    "Oh." The little girl said. "Big brother can I ask you one more thing."


    "Sure."


    "What''s retarded?" The little girl asked innocently.


    Bai Yun was stunned. Even though he could not see the look on the little girl''s face, he could imagine it. He felt that it was easier to engage in a debate with the unreasonable dragon emperor than to answer this little girl.


    "Is your mother here?" Bai Yun finally asked after a while.


    "Yup." The little girl replied.


    "You should go ask her." Bai Yun said.


    The little girl then nodded and ran away. Bai Yun quickly wiped the sweat off his brows. There were some mild chuckling from his surroundings. Bai Yun ignored them and stood there waiting for the clan meeting to begin.


    And then a few people came flying over. For the Bai clan meeting, flying was strictly prohibited. Even Bai Mu had to come by walking after landing outside the grounds. So these people who just entered must be very important.


    As soon as they entered, the hubbub stopped. Bai Mu and Xiao Mei-er came and stood next to Bai Yun.


    Bai Yn looked towards the people who entered. He could sense that there were over twenty of them. They were led by a middle aged man wearing a dragon robe. The others stood behind the middle aged man looking majestic. A small but powerful and majestic presence was being emitted by them.


    Bai Yun silently chuckled when he felt their presence. He knew that they were knowingly emitting this presence in order make the members of the clan, especially the younger members who don''t know much, feel awe at them. This way their feelings towards the clan would increase. Unfortunately, Bai Yun had felt the presences of truly terrifying and awe inspiring people. Bai Yun almost laughed when he felt their attempt to awe them.


    "Who are they?" Bai Yun quietly asked Bai Mu.


    "The man in the middle who is leading the group is Bai Chen. He is the leader of the clan. The people around him are some of the elders of the clan. Not all of the elders are here. Only a few important ones and those whose descendants have done something commendable in the past year are here." A sound transmission from Bai Mu sounded out in Bai Yun''s ear.


    "What about great grandfather. Why isn''t he here?" Bai Yun asked.


    "This kind of annual clan gathering is too small for the grand elders to attend. They would only attend the great clan gathering held once a century." Bai Mu replied.


    Bai Yun nodded when he heard. Considering the life span of dao flower realm cultivators, a year was only the blink of an eye.


    Once the clan leader arrived he quickly became the center of attention. He looked around the grounds and gave a small smile.


    "I am glad to see that there are so many people from our clan who have come together to celebrate yet another glorious year for the clan." The clan leader said. "Many of you have worked hard for the clan. Due to your efforts, the Bai clan remains one of the strongest forces in the world. You should take a moment to celebrate this fact."


    As Bai Yun listened on, he realized that most of what the clan leader was saying was propaganda. It was mostly to instill in the populace a feeling of dependence and awe towards the clan. Most of the people here had a prideful look in their eyes. Not just the adults who have been here for a long time, even the children had fanatical look in their eyes.


    Suddenly Bai Yun understood the reason for these clan meetings. Most of the important members of the clan would most likely come out of this group of people. Even if there were some others who showed potential, they would quickly be added to this group. As a result, they would all have to undergo this round of brainwashing.


    Bai Yun could feel that some of the children were looking at the clan leader with stars in their eyes. He had said that they could become the clan leader if they could work hard. That had stirred their ambition.


    "What do you think?" Bai Mu asked.


    "Its a nice brainwashing scheme." Bai Yun replied.


    Bai Mu lightly chuckled. "It is good that you understand that." Bau Mu replied. "You should take all of these in stride and not fall for it."


    The clan leader continued his talk for a while longer. The members of the clan quickly got riled up by the speech and cheered for him when he ended.


    After this, there were short speeches by a few of the elders of the clan. They also declared the major events that happened in the clan in the past year. Bai Yun was definitely not mentioned, but Bai Mu was. His record of being the youngest dao step cultivator was announced with great pride. The rest of the clan applauded and cheered for Bai Mu, but he simply smiled in response.


    The various speeches and so on lasted for hours. There were many things that were happening in the clan. A few of the promising youngsters of the plan were specifically noted and they were encouraged by the clan. One of the promising youths mentioned was Bai Yun, but his name did not set off any waves amidst the rest of the names.


    Finally, the clan also named a new prince of the clan. This new prince was named Bai Jingchen and was at the nascent soul state. Even though becoming a prince was a great honor, becoming one at the nascent soul was not as big a deal as becoming one at the qi condensation realm like Bai Qing. So while the youngsters all responded to him enthusiastically, the older members were more lukewarm in their reception.


    Bai Yun felt that the whole thing was rather droll. He had to fight off sleepiness due to boredom. He nearly nodded off at one point and Xiao Mei-er had to wake him up.


    Once the various shows were held, finally the meeting came to an end. As it ended Bai Yun could feel that the energy in the grounds rise up quite a bit. Many of the youngsters in the clan were quickly becoming more restless and excited. Some of them had registered for the fighting tournament, while most of them had not. But they were still excited to watch. After all, fighting was what interested youngsters in this world.


    The clan leader saw this and smiled. He quickly got up and spoke a bit more about the need for unity in the clan. After this he quickly ended the speech and declared the gathering over, leaving immediately.


    The moment the clan leader and the elders left, the clan members, especially the younger ones, almost ran out of the grounds and into the fields where the fighting tournament was being held.


    Bai Mu held Bai Yun''s hand and walked him out to the field.


    Bai Yun felt excited as he felt the oncoming fight.


    He had been preparing for this for months.

 110 First fight at the clan tournamen

    Bai Yun soon came to the field where the clan tournament was held. It was a large field that was cordoned off into multiple arenas. Each of these arenas were used for holding a fight.


    Unlike the Youngsters tournament, the fights in the clan meeting did not take place simultaneously for different cultivation realms. The whole tournament was hed over seven days. The morning of the first day was for the clan meeting that just took place. The afternoon of the first day and the second day was for the qi condensation realm tournament. The third day and the first half of the fourth day was for the foundation establishment realm tournament. The next one and a half days were for the core formation realm tournament. And the final two days were for the nascent soul realm tournament. Due to the strict time constraints, fights would happen throughout the day and night. Thus people often had no time to rest. Thus only those who were truly excellent would emerge as the final winner.


    As a result, the main leaders of the clan would all come to watch the fights. It was also considered a great honor to fight in front of them. The clan leader and some of the elders were all in attendance. They were sitting in a large stand a little distance from the field. But with their cultivation, they could easily see the entire field.


    And there was a lot of space between the arenas. Thus the spectators who had a high enough cultivation could watch from outside the field, while the youngsters who wanted to participate would typically mingle around inside the field near the arenas.


    Bai Mu led Bai Yun to the place of his first fight. The details about the fight could be sensed through the token that was given to Bai Yun when he registered. Nobody knew his true strength, so Bai Yun was not a seeded participant. So he did not get a bye in the first round. The point of seeded participants was to make sure that the strong ones did not fight early. Since the total number of people who registered was not an exact power of two, there were a lot of people who would get a bye in the first round. Some of them were the seeded participants, while some of them were just lucky. Bai Yun wasn''t one of them.


    The people who saw Bai Yun being led by Bai Mu was surprised. They quickly realized that Bai Yun was blind. Bai Mu led Bai Yun to the location of the first fight and stood near the arena. Suddenly the voice of the clan leader sounded out near Bai Mu''s ear "Nephew Mu, what happened to little Yun." As the grandson of a grand elder and the rising star of the clan, the clan leader was paying special attention to Bai Mu. Ths he saw Bai Yun''s situation immediately.


    "Its nothing serious." Bai Mu replied. "He accidentally hurt his eyes while training. It is recovering well and he should be back to full strength in two weeks. It''s just that the timing is a bit bad." Bai Mu did not tell anyone about the fact that Bai Yun had awoken an innate ability. There was no need to publicize such things. Especially now that they knew that someone in the clan had tried to hurt Bai Yun.


    The clan leader did not delve too much into this. Even though Bai Yun was a member of that crazy family, he had yet to show his strength. Add to that was the fact that his impression of Bai Yun was that of a weak child due to his damaged soul. Thus he didn''t think much of Bai Yun, though he did keep an eye on him.


    And he wasn''t too worried about the fact that Bai Yun was fighting in the clan tournament even though he only started to train a few months ago. Considering the personality of all the people in that family, they might even send a toddler to fight a dragon, just for the experience. So sending Bai Yun to get some experience, even when he was blind, was entirely keeping up with their character.


    Bai Yun waited outside the arena for a while waiting for the other participant to come. Since the field was so large in order to accommodate many arenas, it took time to navigate it. When he finally arrived, it was time for the fight to begin.


    Bai Mu took Bai Yun to the base of the arena and let him go. Bai Yun took out a walking stick form his storage ring. He then slowly walked up the steps into the arena.


    There were a lot of people who were watching this fight. It was not every day that a blind man was going to fight in the clan tournament.


    When Bai Yun stood up at the arena, the young man at the other side was visibly confused. He looked at Bai Yun up and down before bristling in anger.


    "Are you trying to anger me to death by sending a blind man to be my opponent?" The young man said.


    Bai Yun stared at the young man''s direction in confusion. "You do realize the matches were arranged randomly right?" Bai Yun asked.


    For a moment the young man was surprised. He did not expect such a response from Bai Yun. "Whatever." The young man continued. "Considering you are blind I will give you a chance. Leave now while I am still being merciful. Later on, you won''t get the chance."


    Bai Yun chuckled when he heard this. He simply put away the walking stick and motioned his opponent to come.


    "Hmph. Fine." The young man said.


    The referee who was standing there seemed to be quite amused by this exchange. He then raised his hand and shouted "Begin."


    The moment the match began, the young man ran at Bai Yun. But Bai Yun stood there motionless. When the young man reached Bai Yun he jumped up. A red glow lit up on his palm.


    "Demon subduing palm." The young man shouted as he attacked Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun was unfazed at the face of his attack. Bai Yun simply smiled and took a step to the right at the last moment, allowing the attack to pass him by without doing any harm.


    "Stand still scoundrel." The young man yelled while he turned around and struck at Bai Yun once again.


    But Bai Yun simply rotated and allowed the attack to pass by him once again. Just as the young man was about to pull his arm back, Bai Yun took a step into the young man''s area and arrived just in front of him. The young man was surprised by the sudden appearance of Bai Yun.


    But Bai Yun did not give him any time to care. In a second, Bai Yun reached forward and grabbed the young man by his shoulder. He then sharply drove his thumb, imbued with his full strength into his shoulder bone, and rapidly pushed. With a snap, the young man''s shoulder was dislocated.


    With a scream, the young man fell to his knees. He couldn''t handle the sudden pain and grabbed his shoulder. "What did you do to me?" He asked Bai Yun while screaming in pain.


    "Nothing much. I just dislocated your shoulder." A voice came from behind the young man. When the young man was incapacitated, Bai Yun had slipped behind him.


    The young man had a bad feeling when he heard Bai Yun''s voice coming from behind him. But before he could say anything a sharp hand struck him at the back of his head. The young man directly fainted.


    "Winner Bai Yun." The referee announced. He wasn''t too surprised by the result. He had seen Bai Mu leading Bai Yun. There was no way Bai Mu would let his son participate if could be defeated by any random member of the clan.


    But the people who knew more about the situation was surprised. Many people including the clan leader knew that Bai Yun had only recovered a few months ago. He was surprised by the speed at which Bai Yun grew. He could see that Bai Yun had reached the eighth stage of qi condensation from that one movement. He was surprised at Bai Yun''s rapid growth. But he was even more surprised at the stability and fighting powers that Bai Yun showed.


    After Bai Yun won the fight he took out his walking stick once again. He then slowly walked down the steps towards Bai Mu. Bai Mu had released his presence so that Bai Yun could recognize him.


    "How was it, fighting while blind." Bai Mu asked.


    "It wasn''t too much trouble." Bai Yun replied. "But then again that''s not surprising. My opponent was only at the ninth stage of qi condensation. But there are a lot of foundation establishment realm cultivators here. Fighting them will be a challenge. More so now that I am blind."


    Bai Yun was right. Even though he had the confidence to fight foundation establishment realm cultivators while at qi condensation, there was a wide chasm between the strengths of foundation establishment and qi condensation. Bai Yun was able to fight against peak qi condensation realm cultivators while he was only at the fifth stage of qi condensation. But Bai Yun could only fight against those who have just stepped into foundation establishment at his current strength of eighth stage qi condensation realm.


    The foundation establishment realm was different from the qi condensation realm. Unlike the nine stages of qi condensation, there were only three stages in the foundation establishment realm, initial, middle and high. All of Bai Yun''s cultivation techniques focussed on building a strong foundation and only became terrifyingly strong towards the later stages. Thus even with his current cultivation of fourth circle soul path, eighth stage qi condensation, and ninth skin sewing pattern, he would be hard pressed to match a middle stage foundation establishment cultivator. Even if his eyes were all right, he could barely defeat a person at the peak of early stage of foundation establishment. Without his eyes, this would be a challenging fight.


    But he didn''t have to worry about foundation establishment cultivators for just now. Bai Yun had great luck in matchups. His next few fights were only with qi condensation realm opponents.


    And Bai Yu won all of those fights in a similar way to the first. Many of them looked down on Bai Yun due to his blindness and paid the price.


    Since Bai Yun could not see, he had to grab on to the opponent in order to understand his movements better. And once Bai Yun grabbed his opponent, their defeat followed shortly. He would either dislocate either an arm or a leg or drive his elbow into the opponent''s throats. Either way, Bai Yun''s fighting style was to dodge the first few attacks, get close to the opponent, disable him, and then knock him out. Since Bai Yun had quite a few fights left before he could win, he did not want to waste any energy. So he opted for a quick and efficient victory.


    The fights passed by quickly. There were a lot of fights happening in each round, far more than the number of arenas. So each round lasted for a long time. Bai Yun was able to meditate and recover between rounds, and even take a short nap, all so as to stay at the top of his game.


    Soon the day and night passed. Bai Yun won all the matches he had participated in until then. He quickly entered the top two fifty six of the tournament. Due to his luck, he only ran into qi condensation realm cultivators in the tournament. So he was able to easily win, even while many people who broke through to foundation establishment before the clan tournament began lost. If it wasn''t for the fact that everyone knew that the matchups were random, and this was only sheer dumb luck, they would have certainly said that Bai Yun was cheating.


    But his luck had finally run out of luck this time. All the others in the round of two fifty six were at the foundation establishment realm. From now on Bai Yun would have to face foundation establishment realm cultivators.


    Bai Mu had quietly bought Bai Yun to his next fight. Bai Yun woke up from his nap when the referee called for him. He then took out his walking stick and slowly climbed up to the arena.


    It was time to fight a foundation realm cultivator while blind.

 111 Fighting foundation establishmen

    Bai Yun slowly walked up to the arena. His opponent had already arrived and was waiting for him. Once Bai Yun reached the arena, he put away his walking stick and took out his sword. Against someone at the foundation establishment realm, Bai Yun was not confident in defeating them barehanded.


    Bai Yun''s opponent this time was a burly young man. With a single pass of his perception, Bai Yun could tell that his opponent this time was quite strong. And he was also a strength based martial artist. It would be quite a feat to defeat him.


    Bai Yun''s opponent this time was named Bai Mo. He was the fifth seed for this clan tournament. This meant that he was quite strong. But it also meant that once Bai Yun defeated him, he would not have to face anyone stronger for quite a while.


    "I heard that there was a qi condensation realm kid who managed to make it in here." Bai Mo said. "Who would have thought that I would be lucky enough to face him. Unfortunately for you, your luck ends here. Get ready to lose. I am not going to give you any chance just because you are blind."


    Bai Yun chuckled when he heard Bai Mo. He had heard threats like this many time before in this tournament. But he was able to dispatch all enemies easily until now. And he was especially amused at Bai Mo calling him a kid. Bai Mo was one year younger than him.


    Bai Yun did not say anything in response and only silently released his soul tendrils. Four soul tendrils, each with a certain strength slowly seeped out and wrapped around Bai Mo. But Bai Yun did not put any strength on his soul tendrils. The use of these soul tendrils was to catch Bai Mo''s movement so that he could react in time.


    Bai Yun took his sword and got into a fighting stance in response. Bai Mo just snorted and took out a hammer from his storage ring. Bai Mo was the descendent of an elder and had a storage ring. Almost all of the first few seeds were descendants of top powerhouses.


    Bai Mu took out his hammer and swung it around a few times. As a strength type cultivator, Bai Mo was definitely using a weapon that suited him.


    Seeing that the two of them were both ready, the referee raised his hand and shouted: "Begin."


    The moment the match began, Bai Mo rushed at Bai Yun. Bai Yun calmly waited for him. It did not matter to him who had the first attack. What mattered was controlling the rhythm of the battle. And in a situation where you knew nothing of your opponent''s strengths, defending was a better moving first.


    When Bai Mo reached Bai Yun, he pulled his hammer back and swung it at Bai Yun.


    Bia Yun took a step back to dodge the attack. But even though he dodged the attack, the wind pressure of the attack blew over and blew his hair away.


    Bai Yun then tried to stab at Bai Mo with his sword. But the reaction speed of a foundation establishment realm cultivator was extremely high. Bai Mo was able to easily dodge the attack. He then swung his hammer hard, which forced Bai Yun back.


    Bai Yun found his footing and raced towards Bai Mo. Bai Mo raised his hammer and waited for Bai Yun to approach.


    When Bai Yun approached him, Bai Mo suddenly took a swing with his hammer. But at that exact moment, Bai Yun''s footsteps became weird. For a moment it was as if Bai Yun stood still even while charging forward. The hammer harmlessly passed by in front of his nose.


    The next second Bai Yun cast wind motion. In a moment Bai Yun''s speed rose to the pinnacle. He thrust his sword forward at a very rapid speed.


    A look of horror appeared in Bai Mo''s eyes. But he bend his body out of the way. Thanks to that, Bai Yun''s sword only slid past Bai Mo''s shoulder, drawing a line of blood in the process.


    Angered by the fact that he was hurt, Bai Mo rapidly rotated and swung his hammer at Bai Yun. Bai Yun felt the wind coming from behind him and accelerated to get out of the way. But the swinging speed of Bai Mo was faster than Bai Yun. The hammer crashed into Bai Yun''s shoulder. But since Bai Yun leapt forward at the moment of impact, the swinging speed of the hammer was not much faster than his own speed. Thus the hit did not hurt Bai Yun too much.


    Bai Yun was thrown forward by the hit. He fell on the ground and stood up quickly. He heard Bai Mo coming at him with a growl.


    But Bai Yun only smiled in response. He waited for Bai Mo to get close to him, and just as he did so, he took a single step to the right. The moment after he moved, Bai Mo''s hammer smashed into the place where he was standing.


    Bai Yun casually took step after step in the arena. It almost looked like he was taking a stroll in the arena. After each step, Bai Mo would attack the place he was standing at just before.


    Bai Yun was using mystic steps, the same technique he had used to trap Zhang Zi. The fight until now had given Bai Yun the necessary understanding of Bai Mo''s rhythm. But this time it was a far greater burden on Bai Yun. Not only was Bai Mo''s cultivation an entire realm higher, but Bai Yun also could not see. Thus Bai Yun was using his four soul tendrils to the maximum. They were all wrapped around Bai Mo and he was using the feedback from them to predict Bai Mo''s moves. Thankfully Ba Mo''s rhythm was quite simple. Else he would not have been able to do so.


    But just as he was getting used to mystic steps, a mistake happened. Bai Yun reaction was a little strained since he couldn''t see. So he could make an accurate enough judgement in time and moved a little late. Thus the powerful wind from an attack hit Bai Yun, destabilising him a little bit. This affected his reaction to the next move. Soon Bai Yun was finding it harder and harder to stay one step ahead of Bai Mo.


    Without any other choice, Bai Yun decided to end mystic steps. He put his strength on his feet and leapt backwards, putting distance between them.


    "Finally you stopped running around." Bai Mo said while panting a little. He had gotten angered due to the fact that Bai Yun had escaped all of his attacks.


    Bai Yun had a determined look on his face. He would have to take some risks in order to win.


    Bai Mo roared and ran at Bai Yun once again. He raised his hammer up high and smashed it down at Bai Yun. Bai Yun immediately cast wind motion with everything he had. In that instance, Bai Yun moved faster than ever before. In a second, he had dodged Bai Mo''s attack and slipped by him. As he passed by Bai Mo, Bai Yun quietly sliced him with his sword. It wasn''t deep enough to harm Bai Mo, but it did add an injury to him.


    Bai Yun slipped behind Bai Mo and tried to elbow him in the head. Seeing this, Bai Mo roared and exuded a powerful force. But when Bai Yun''s elbow smashed onto Bai Mo''s head, his entire body vibrated in a weird manner, dissipating the force generated by Bai Mo. The next moment Bai Mo leapt forward and turned in mid air. Bai Yun had swung his sword at just that moment. So his sword left a trail of blood on Bai Mo''s chest.


    Bai Yun tutted as he felt the blade slice over Bai Mo''s chest. It wasn''t too deep. He wasnt able to properly judge the distance and the cut ended up being too shallow.


    Bai Mo then roared and took another swing. But Bai Yun slightly bend and dodged the attack. At the same time, he left another shallow mark on Bai Mo.


    One after another Bai Mo kept on attacking Bai Yun. But Bai Yun would dodge all the attacks at the last moment and then strike back at Bai Mo. But none of Bai Yun''s attacks had much strength. But they all stuck without fail. So one by one, the injuries on Bai Mo''s body started to increase.


    Even though it looked as if Bai Yun was in a superior state, the truth was that Bai Yun was in an extremely dangerous position. He had to dodge all of Bai Mo''s attacks. If he got hit even once, it would be game over for him. And he couldn''t cross weapons or else the force of the attack might spell doom for him.


    Bai Yun kept up the attack while Bai Mo grew more frustrated. Suddenly Bai Mo grabbed his hammer with both hands and lifted it high.


    A glint appeared in Bai Yun''s eyes. He immediately cast wind motion. He also used the strength of skin sewing, which he had kept hidden until now, all to increase his speed to the maximum. In a second Bai Yun appeared right in front of Bai Mo. At the same time, the tip of his sword lit up as Bai Yun cast a ray of moonlight. Then Bai Yun''s sword rapidly thrust towards Bai Mo''s throat.


    Bai Mo was surprised by the sudden attack. He suddenly realized that he could not dodge the attack. He closed his eyes and waited for death. But the painful feeling he was expecting did not come.


    "Winner Bai Yun." Bai Mo heard the referee say. He then opened his eyes in surprise. Bai Mo saw that Bai Yun''s sword had just slipped by his throat, drawing a thin line of blood on his neck. If Bai Yun had just changed the trajectory of the attack just a little bit he would be dead by now.


    Once the fight ended, Bai Yun put away his weapon and carefully walked down the steps and went back to his father. He ate a pill to speed up the healing of his shoulder that was hit during the fight. But it wasn''t hit too hard, so it didn''t affect his performance too much.


    The location of his next fight came up in his token. It was actually quite close to where he was. So Bai Yun was able to quickly reach there. When he did reach there, Bai Yun quickly sat down and started to meditate to recover the energy he had lost in the fight.


    After this fight, Bai Yun''s luck returned to normal. None of the enemies he faced were particularly strong. So he was able to defeat them, albeit with some difficulty. But none of them had a speciality and none of them were stronger than Bai Mo. So Bai Yun was able to coast into the quarterfinals.


    Bai Yun''s luck seemed to have completely gone mad at the quarterfinals. Originally Bai Yun should have had to face the third seed in the quarterfinals. But the third seed was severly injured in the night before and had to withdraw from the competition. Thus Bai Yun coasted on his luck and entered the semi finals.


    The final results for except for the top three were quickly announced. Most of them were normal. Only a few results ssurprised the organisers. Like Bai Yun replacing Bai Mo in the top, or the third seed ending his run in the quarterfinals.


    But there was a result no one expected. And that was that Bai Shi and Bai Ling-er somehow managed to reach the top sixteen. This came as a great shock to the top members of the clan, even more than Bai Yun reaching the semifinls. After all, Bai Yun was a member of that family. Even if he reached the semifinals with only a qi condensation realm cultivation, they could still accept it.


    But no one expected Bai Shi and Bai Ling-er to go so far. Even Bai Yun.


    The reason they could get so far was due to the cultivation and combat techniques that Bai Yun had passed on to them. Those techniques were beyond what anyone else in the clan practised, and they were able to win many fights thanks to those. If they had more time to train, they might even have had a better result.


    But everything soon came to an end. While there were some anomalies, it was common and no one paid any attention to it.


    Soon it was time for the semifinals to beginn. There were only two fights left before he could win the tournament.


    And Bai Yun had to face a rather formidable opponent before he could reach the finals.


    Bai Qing.

 112 Fighting Bai Qing

    Bai Yun woke up from his meditation when the referee finally called for him. Bai Yun had rested during this time. The injuries he had suffered under Bai Mo had mostly healed by now.


    Bai Yun slowly walked up the steps of the arena. He could hear the cheers of the crowd. He could feel the cool air of the night. By now the sun had set and the moon had started to rise.


    Bai Yun stood opposite Bai Yun and took a deep breath. He stared at Bai Qing. This fight was bound to be the hardest fight he has had in a long time.


    Sparks flew as Bai Yun and Bai Qing stared at each other. If the two of them were at the same cultivation realm, or if Bai Yun could see, this fight would have been short. But under the circumstances, the result was uncertain.


    "Was it you in the youngster''s tournament." Bai Qing suddenly asked.


    For a moment Bai Yun was confused. Then he understood. Bai Qing must have recognized his mystic steps.


    "Yes." Bai Yun replied.


    "I was quite disappointed that I didn''t get to fight you during the youngster''s tournament." Bai Qing said. "At least that regret can be made up for now."


    "You might not be happy with the outcome." Bai Yun said with a chuckle.


    "If we were at the same cultivation state, I would not be confident of a victory." Bai Qing continued. "But ever since I saw your strength at Bai Tian''s party I have been preparing for a fight with you. I have trained just to face you. And I also prepared to face the mysterious Long Tian, by studying his movement technique and finding a counter to it. Now I am glad I did."


    The next movent Bai Qing''s aura started to fluctuate. Bai Qing''s breathing changed and his posture also became weird.


    "So this is your response." Bai Yun said. "It is true that disrupting your breathing can indeed make it more difficult to predict your moves. But my mystic steps focuses on a person''s rhythm. Unless you can change your heartbeat and your instinctive responses, you will not be able to escape its clutches."


    Bai Qing''s face changed. But he didn''t change his weird posture. "Perhaps." Bai Qing said. "But without your eyes, I want to know how good your mystic steps will be."


    Seeing that the two of them had gotten ready, the referee waited for a moment longer. After seeing that neither of them spoke again, he raised his hand and shouted "Begin."


    The moment the fight started, the two of them ran at each other. Bai Yun send out his four soul tendrils and they wrapped around Bai Qing''s body.


    When the two of them neared each other. Bai Qing swung his sword at Bai Yun. Bai Yun thrust his sword forward and stopped it before it could gain momentum. One after the other, the two of them exchanged strikes. But Bai Yun was able to easily defuse Bai Qing''s strikes. He had studied Bai Qing''s fighting style during the youngster''s tournament. Along with his experience now, Bai Yun was able to understand Bai Qing''s rhythm and was able to fight back easily.


    Of course, another factor was that Ba Qing was not as strong as Bai Mo, who he had fought earlier. Bai Mo was a strength based cultivator and Bai Yun did not dare to cross weapons with him. But Bai Qing was not as strong and Bai Yun was able to easily diffuse Bai Qing''s attacks.


    Of course, even though Bai Qing was weaker than Bai Mo, he was stronger in other aspects, especially speed. But since Bai Yun was predicting Bai Qing''s moves, it did not matter much to him.


    Bai Qing then struck out with his sword. Bai Yun slightly swayed and struck back at the fastest speed. Bai Qing was prepared for it and quickly defended. One after another, the two of them quickly exchanged blows.


    In the middle of the fight, Bai Yun quietly activated mystic steps. But due to his blindness and the fact that Bai Qing had changed his breathing, Bai Yun was unable to do it perfectly. Even though he was able to force Bai Qing to make a few mistakes, Bai Yun''s movements were not as smooth nor as elegant as when he fought Zhang Zi.


    This situation continued for a while. Bai Yun frowned when he felt this. His cultivation wasn''t as high as Bai Qing''s and he would tire out first if this continued. He also needed to conserve some strength for the finals.


    Bai Yun suddenly jumped back and drew away from Bai Qing. Bai Qing followed after Bai Yun closely. Bai Yun then stopped and swept his sword at Bai Qing''s legs, forced him to jump.


    Bai Qing leapt up and charged at Bai Yun. Suddenly Bai Yun smiled. He activated one of his soul tendrils that was wrapped around Bai Qing''s right arm. Just as Bai Qing was about to bring down his arm, Bai Yun''s soul tendril caught hold of Bai Qing''s wrist and pulled back hard.


    A shocked look appeared on Bai Qing''s eyes as he suddenly felt the strange power restrict his movements. But the power of a single soul tendril was too small. It was only able to delay Bai Qing''s arm for a fraction of a second.


    But that delay was enough for Bai Yun. He rapidly thrust his sword at Bai Qing''s throat. At the same time, Bai Qing''s sword came down on Bai Yun''s shoulder. But due to the short delay caused by the soul tendril, Bai Qing was a beat too late. If this continued, Bai Yun''s sword would penetrate Bai Qing''s throat before his sword could cut Bai Yun''s shoulder or head.


    But the referee would not let anything happen to these two. So he would intervene and stop the weapons. But since Bai Yun was faster, the final decision would probably leave Bai Yun as the winner.


    Realizing this, Bai Qing changed his attack. He rapidly brought down his sword and defended against Bai Yun''s attack. But the moment the two swords crossed, Bai Qing felt that something was wrong. There was no power behind Bai Yun''s sword. The next moment Bai Yun''s sword vibrated in a weird manner, and Bai Qing''s sword somehow seemed to pass through the body of Bai Yun''s sword. The next second a horrifying force was transmitted into Bai Qing''s sword, blowing both it and Bai Qing''s hand to the side.


    The next second Bai Yun swung his sword back at Bai Qing. Since his hand was blown away and they were too close, Bai Qing had to lean back to dodge the attack. At the same time, Bai Qing kicked out with his right leg at Bai Yun.


    But the moment he kicked out, Bai Qing saw that Bai Yun and let go of his sword. The next second, Bai Yun caught Bai Qing''s leg with both arms, twisted his body, and threw Bai Qing with full force to the ground.


    Bai Qing reacted quickly, sending a powerful blow to the ground in order to stop himself. But it wasn''t enough and he crashed into the ground in full force. Bai Qing found himself disoriented by the blow and tried to quickly get back to normal. Almost instinctively, he kicked out with his leg, trying to shake Bai Yun off.


    But Bai Qing felt that something was wrong when he realized that Bai Yun had already let go of his leg. Waking himself up, Bai Qing tried to get up from the ground. But just as he was about to get up, Bai Qing saw a fist emerging in front of his eyes.


    With a loud bang, Bai Yun''s fist smashed into Bai Qing''s face, blowing him away. A shaken Bai Qing tried to gather his strength, but before he could do so, he felt a sharp hit land on his temple, disorienting him once again.


    Bai Qing shook his head and came to very quickly. But he felt a strong force on his arms. Before Bai Qing could reinforce his arms with qi, Bai Yun dislocated them with a twist.


    With a scream, Bai Qing leapt back. He knew that the important thing was to retreat so he did so while forcibly putting his arm back in place. But when he looked up afterward Bai Qing realized that Bai Yun had disappeared from his vision.


    Suddenly a whooshing sound sounded out in Bai Qing''s ears. Before he could identify it, he felt a force land on his leg. Since he was backing away to get away from Bai Yun at the time, Bai Qing lost his balance and fell back.


    As Bai QIng fell back, Bai Yun quickly got from behind him and kicked him in the chest. Bai Qing flew away from the force of the kick.


    Bai Qing quickly tried to get up, but before he could do so, Bai Yun punched him in the stomach. Just as Bai Qing doubled over from the punch, Bai Yun elbowed him in the throat. As Bai Qing straightened up, clutching his throat, Bai Yun kneed him in the chest, sending him to the floor again.


    As Bai Qing fell down, he coughed up a bit of blood. He then tried to get up, only to freeze when he felt a pressure on his chest. Sometime during the struggle, Bai Yun had taken Bai Qings sword. Bai Qing looked up to see a slightly panting Bai Yun holding Bai Qing''s sword to his heart.


    Bai Qing coughed a couple of times. "The last ten seconds were intense." Bai Qing said in a hoarse voice.


    "Sorry about that." Bai Yun replied with a chuckle. "You are not someone I can take it easy on and win in my current condition."


    "Winner Bai Yun." The referee announced after a moment. He was slightly stunned by Bai Yun''s ferociousness. Not just him, but even the other members of the clan were staring at Bai Yun in shock. The only one not surprised was Bai Mu. He had seen enough of this in the last two days.


    Bai Yun then handed the sword back to Bai Qing and helped him get up.


    Good luck in the finals." Bai Qing said as he was leaving.


    "Thanks but I don''t need it." Bai Yun replied.


    Bai Qing looked at Bai Yun for a moment and then chuckled. He then went down the arena.


    Bai Yun then picked up his sword and went down the arena and sat down and started to recover. There was a lot of cheering as he stepped down. All the fights from the quarterfinals onwards took place in the central arena and thus he did not have to move anywhere else for the finals.


    After Bai Yun and Bai Qing''s fight, the other semi final fight happened. This fight was between Bai Mo, the one Bai Yun ran into when he registered for the clan meeting, and another member of the clan.


    Bai Mo had suppressed his cultivation for too long before he broke through. So he had directly reached the peak of the initial stage of the foundation establishment realm. As a result, his cultivation was higher than anyone else here. Bai Mo thus won the semi finals comfortably and secured his position in the finals opposite Bai Yun.


    After this there was the third place fight, which Bai Qing won comfortably. Bai Yun had not hurt Bai Qing much, but Bai Mo''s opponent in the semifinals was ruthlessly hurt by Bai Mo. Even otherwise he would not have been a match for Bai Qing, but with this, the fight ended quickly.


    After this there was a short break for an hour so that Bai Mo and Bai Yun could rest and reocver.


    Once it was done, it was time for the finals.

 113 That sword in the moonligh

    Bai Yun slowly opened his eyes. Even though he could not see, he could still feel the excitement in the air. He heard a lot of clan members cheering for himself. For a moment, Bai Yun wondered if he was really so popular. But then he realized that it was most likely due to Bai Mo''s infamy rather than his own popularity.


    Bai Yun slowly walked up the steps to the arena. As he did so, Bai Yun thought about the past few months. He had been working for this moment for a long time. He had participated in battles that took decades, even centuries to plan. But somehow, this moment felt longer to him.


    By the time Bai Yun slowly reached the arena, Bai Mo was already standing there. Bai Yun grinned as he saw Bai Yun. "I was expecting to fight Bai Qing in the finals. Who would have thought that you, a qi condensation realm guy, would be the one to make it all the way over here." Bai Mo said.


    Bai Yun did not say anything. He simply took out his sword and waited for the fight to begin. He had met people like Bai Mo before. Talking to them would be a waste of time. They only understood strength.


    Seeing that Bai Yun was not in a mood to converse Bai Mo simply chuckled. He took out a saber and stood there waiting for the match to begin.


    The referee for this match was the second elder of the clan. The elders of the clan were the referees in the four finals of the clan tournament. This was done in order to ensure that there was no accident and also to make sure that there was no unfair advantage given to anyone in the fight. Thus the second elder, someone who was close to neither Bai Tianji nor the ninth elder was finally chosen to be the referee.


    "Begin." The second elder finally said, after seeing that the two of them were ready.


    The moment the fight began, Bai Yun and Bai Mo ran at each other. When Bai Mo reached Bai Yun, he swung his saber hard at Bai Yun.


    Bau Yun did not want to entangle with Bai Mo. He knew nothing of the other party''s strength. So Bai Yun chose a more cautious approach. He took a step back and weakly crossed swords with Bai Mo in order to ascertain his strength.


    When their two weapons crossed, a terrifying force was transmitted into Bai Yun''s arms. Bai Yun shook his arms to shake off the force, but the remnants of the force threw his arms off course. Knowing that he was at a disadvantage in terms of strength, Bai Yun immediately leapt back in order to make some space.


    Bai Yun quickly assessed Bai Mo''s strength. Bai Mo had reached the peak of the initial stage of the foundation establishment realm, and he had also traveled a bit in the body tempering path, probably covering five or six skin sewings. Bai Mo''s strength was much greater than Bai Qing''s. While not as much as the other Bai Mo he ran into, it was still not a strength he could easily resist.


    As Bai Yun stepped back, Bai Mo chased after him. Bai Mo suddenly cast his movement technique to speed up and swung his sword at Bai Yun. But Bai Yun instantly cast wind motion and got out of the way. But even then his robe was slightly cut by Bai Mos saber.


    Bai Mo laughed when he saw this. "Our cultivations are far too different. You have no chance of victory." He said and ran back at Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun stood still and awaited Bai Mo. Just as Bai Mo neared him, Bai Yun suddenly cast wind motion and closed the distance between them, and thrust out his sword. But Bai Mo saw this and put his saber in front of his chest. But the moment the two weapons collided, Bai Yun''s sword vibrated in a weird manner and almost slipped past Ba Mo''s saber. But Bai Mo suddenly exploded out with his strength and thrust out in full force to make Bai Yun''s sword go astray.


    But Bai Yun was still moving forward. He put up his left hand and punched at Bai Mo''s head. But Bai Mo easily caught Bi Yun''s hand. He then laughed and raised his saber to strike at Bai Yun.


    But Bai Yun''s movement changed before Bai Mo could strike. In an instant, Bai Yun appeared behind Bai Mo. Both Bai Yun''s as well as Bai Mo''s hands were now wrapped around Bai Mo''s throat. Without waiting Bai Yun immediately caught Bai Mo in a chokehold.


    For a moment Bai Mo struggled to escape the chokehold but was unsuccessful. With a roar, he leaned forward and threw Bai Yun over his shoulder. Bai Yun struck out with his sword at Ba Mo''s back as he flew out. But instead of cutting Bai Mo, there was a feeling as if Bia Yun''s sword cut metal instead.


    Frowning, Bai Yun kicked out. Hs leg landed on Bai Mo''s face, blowing him back. In an instant, Bai Yun had leapt a great distance, once again putting a distance between them.


    Bai Mo shook his head as he felt the aftereffects of Bai Yun''s kick. He grinned as he saw Bai Yun standing a short distance away.


    "Are you surprised you couldn''t hurt me." Bai Mo said while laughing.


    Bai Mo then pulled off his upper robe to show that he was wearing a golden inner shirt. This inner short was glowing in the moonlight.


    "I know that your style is to slowly inflict damage, and then to go for the victory when a chance presents itself." Bai Mo said. " But with this golden silkworm vest, your sword will be unable to hurt me. I want to know how you will win now."


    Bai Yun frowned when he heard Bai Mo. But he was actually chuckling inside. He had already felt the existence of the inner shirt when his soul tendrils wrapped around Bai Mo. This was why he tried to choke Bai Mo, instead of attacking him with swords. The strike just now was to test the strength of the inner shirt.


    Bai Yun then stood up straight. He pulled out the scabbard of the sword from his storage ring.


    "Are you giving up." Bai Mo asked. "That''s a good idea. You should know the difference between us quite well by now."


    "If you have any trump cards, you should use them." Bai Yun said. "Because I am about to use mine."


    "You still have a trump card left." Bai Mo said incredulously. "Are you telling me you reached here without using your full strength while you are still at qi condensation. And blind."


    "Of course." Bai Yun said. "I haven''t had a chance to use it until now, as I was afraid no one could withstand it. But with your inner shirt, you might stand a chance."


    Bai Yun pulled his sword into his scabbard. As Bai Mo stared at Bai Yun, he got a weird feeling. Sensing that something was wrong, he started to move towards him. As Bai Mo ran at Bai Yun, his blade started to vibrate and a black aura rose from it.


    "Referee." Ba Yun suddenly said. "Please be ready to interfere ad save Bai Mo. I can''t control myself pretty well."


    And then, just as Bai Mo neared him, Bai Yun pulled out his sword. And as he pulled out his sword, Bai Yun used the first of the six truths of the sword god, sword drawing.


    As Bai Yun pulled out his sword, it seemed as if a bright light was shining from his sword. The sword seemed to be shining more beautiful than the moonlight. The sword seemed as if it was cutting the moonlight itself.


    As the sword was drawn, an attack flew from Bai Yun''s sword. It flew towards Bai Mo at an incredible speed. When Bai Mo saw the sword coming towards him, a look of horror appeared in his eyes. For some reason, he had the feeling that he would not be able to stop that attack.


    Bai Mo put everything he had on the line and struck out with his full strength. But it did not help. Bai Mo''s saber was broken through in an instant by Bai Yun''s sword. The next moment, the sword continued on towards Bai Mo without even slowing down.


    The sword was too fast and Bai Mo had no way to dodge. Bai Mo looked on in horror as the sword strike cut Bai Mo across his chest He felt the force of the cut through his golden armor, shaking his inner organs.


    Just as Bai Mo was immobilized by terror, he felt a great force take hold of him. The next moment, he was pulled out of the way of the sword strike by the referee.


    In an instant, all of these movements were completed. When it was over, Bai Yun stood there with his sword drawn and slightly panting. He had spent every drop of qi in his body to pull off sword drawing and was completely spent.


    And everyone else was staring at him. The referee was holding Bai Mo and was staring at Bai Yun. Bai Mo had broken into a cold sweat and was staring at the place where he stood just a second ago in horror.


    The clan leader and the rest of the elders had all gotten up from their seats. They were all staring at Bai Yun in surprise. In their mind, they could still see that perfect sword strike over and over. The more they saw it, the more horrified they felt. They had a feeling that that sword strike was superior to even the strongest attack in the clan.


    "Wi-winner Bai Yun." The referee finally announced the result after a moment. He could hardly believe the strength of the strike that he just saw and was stunned into silence.


    For a long moment, there was only silence in the clan. Every single person who was watching was entranced by the beauty and power of that sword strike and had forgotten to cheer. Bai Yun put away his sword and pulled out his walking stick. He slowly made his way down the steps and towards his father.


    As the crowd watched Bai Yun in stunned silence, scattered applause started to appear. One by one people soon came to and started to applaud Bai Yun''s victory. By the time he stepped off of the steps, the entire crowd was cheering for him.


    Bai Yun quickly came to the side of Bai Mo. "I am too tired." Bai Yun said. "Let''s go back." Bai Mo nodded stiffly.


    Bai Yun knew that there would definitely be questions from the clan leaders about his sword strike, but he was in no mood to answer them. And even if he tried to explain to them, they would not be able to understand the sword strike he just made. Only someone who had traveled a great way in the path of the sword dao would be able to comprehend the sword strike.


    Bai Mo then took Bai Yun back to their mansion. The moment he reached his room, Bai Yun collapsed on the floor and fell asleep.


    After all that work, it was finally time to sleep.

 114 God and devil eyes

    Bai Yun slept through the night and woke up only at noon the next day. Once he was done, Bai Yun chose not to go back and watch the rest of the clan tournament and instead chose to sit down and merge with the rest of the alchemy inheritance. Day by day Bai Yun''s skill in the alchemy paths rose by leaps and bounds. As the alchemy inheritance contained the skills and experience covered by the God of Alchemy, it was as if Bai Yun had made millions of low levels pills every day.


    Soon the clan tournament came to an end. When the tournament ended, the prizes for the winners were distributed. But Bai Yun did not bother to go and collect them. They were deposited into Bai Yun''s account and he could withdraw them whenever he wanted. Of course, as the prize of a clan tournament, these weren''t too important. The prizes were things that Bai Yun could get any time he wished through his great grandfather or parents.


    The only thing that was truly valuable was the opportunity to go to the clan treasury and collect one treasure that was given to the winners. That one treasure would most likely be something that Bai Yun would not be able to get even with his connections.


    When the inquiry came as to when Bai Yun would go to the treasury, Bai Yun said that he would go after his eyes had healed. The delay was only a few days and as the direct descendant of a grand elder, no one would care if Bai Yun was a few days late in collecting his prize. So the others went to the treasury to collect their prizes, while Bai Yun waited for his eyes to heal. After all, only with the god sense could he tame something that he otherwise wouldn''t be able to with his god sense.


    Soon four more days passed. Bai Yun could feel that his new eyes were growing more and more powerful. Soon they would awaken.


    Bai Yun was sitting in a large hall in his mansion. Bai Mu, Bai Tianji, Xiao Mei-er, and old Hai were all standing around him. They were the only ones who knew Bai Yun was awakening an innate ability. They had noticed that Bai Yun''s eyes would awaken any moment now and were eagerly waiting.


    Bai Yun slowly felt the power growing in his eyes. He could feel the power adding the finishing touches to his new eyes.


    The moment his eyes were completed, Bai Yun opened them. A bright purple golden light shone from his eyes, lighting up the whole room. A moment later the light disappeared and retreated back into his eyes. At the same time, a power ran through Bai Yun''s body, helping him to break through from the eighth stage of qi condensation to the ninth stage of the qi condensation realm. This breakthrough was extremely stable and smooth, as it was triggered by Bai Yun''s eyes.


    When Bai Yun could see once again, he realized that his sight had improved by multiple times. He could see everything in front of him in much greater detail than before. Before his eyes mutated, he could see a fly a hundred yards from him only as a vague spot. Now he could clearly see the fly, and even the flapping of its wings. Not only that it was also as if the fly was beating his wings in slow motion. Everything was clearer and slower to Bai Yun.


    Suddenly having a great improvement to his perception, Bai Yun was slightly disoriented. While it is possible to reach this level of sight with cultivation, it was a slow and gradual process. The sudden change in his sight was a bit difficult for Bai Yun to adjust to. It would probably take a few days before he could act as normal. And this improvement was before Bai Yun activated the ability in his eyes.


    "Well." An impatient Bai Tianji said. "Let us see your ability."


    Bai Yun smiled when he heard Bai Tianji. When his eyes opened the knowledge about teh new powers had automatically appeared in Bai Yun''s mind.


    "Alright." Bai Yun said. Then he triggered the innate ability of his eyes.


    The next second Bai Yun''s right eye lit up in a golden color. Bai Yun''s right pupil then turned golden. At the same time, a calm and revered feeling originated from his right eye. It felt like a god looking down from above and inspecting the world before him.


    At the same time, Bai Yun''s left eye lit up with a purple color. His left pupil then turned purple. Unlike the right pupil, an unsettling feeling came from the left eye. It felt like it was the eye of a devil, forcing the world to bend to his will.


    The people who were watching him all felt very weird when they saw Bai Yun''s eyes. The dichotomy of the two powers made them feel wrong. But they could still feel the horrifying power and potential behind those eyes.


    For a while, Bai Yun activated the ability and stared at them. Bai Yun slowly got used to the ability of his eyes. As he used them Bai Yun also understood more about the abilities of his eyes.


    Suddenly Bai Yun''s eyes turned back to black. The innate ability had come to an end.


    "What happened?" Bai Mu asked. "Why did you stop the ability after only a few seconds?"


    "I can''t use it anymore." Bai Yun said. "The energy that the ability use is too great. I can only manage it four seconds at full strength. And if use any of the special abilities of my eyes, it would only deplete my qi faster. Maybe I can use their abilities better when my cultivation increases."


    "Are you telling me you have abilities in eyes other than simply activating them?" Bai Mu asked.


    "Yes." BAi Yun replied. " When I activate my innate ability my eyesight improves by a factor of a hundred. I can catch things that even people at much higher cultivation realms cannot. And at the same time, it is like time slows down. My reaction speed increases and I can even move faster than before."


    When they heard Bai Yuns description they were happy. The ability descripbed by Bai Yun seemd to be quite powerful.


    "And you said that your eyes have even more powerful abilities." Bai Tianji asked.


    "Yes." Bai Yun replied. "My two eyes have two different abilities. My right eye has an ability that I call truth seeker. Its basic ability is to amplify my sight and reflexes. It can also see through the lies in anything and seek out the truth. For example, if someone lies in front of me, I can tell. Not only that I can see through things and even find the hidden truth. That is, if there is a formation in front of me, then even without knowing anything about formations, I can find out how to break it."


    When the group heard Bai Yun''s description of his ability, they were stunned. They did not know much about innate abilities and thought that Bai Yun''s abilities were amazing. Bai Yun on the other hand had seen even more horrifying abilities.


    "And my left eye has a completely different ability." Bai Yun continued. "It can create illusions. It can both trap a single person or a group of people in an illusion. And the people who are trapped in an illusion may not be able to tell that they were in an illusion. And it can also project an illusion around me. By that, I mean that everyone who looks will see an illusion I designed in a small area around me. That is a demonic plant may appear. Or I could disappear. And no one would be able to tell just from looking. And all of this is only in the initial stages. I have a feeling that when my cultivation grows, more and more abilities will open up in my eyes."


    When they heard Bai Yun''s left eyes ability they were even more amazed. They urged Bai Yun to show his powers over and over. Once Bai Yun recovered, he had to cast the special abilities of his eyes over and over again to satisfy their curiosity. When they saw that Bai Yun''s left eye could even trap them for a fraction of a second, they were very impressed by its power. The left eye would be a terrifying force against people who were not used to it. The more they thought about it, the more they were impressed by the new ability. Just think, if Bai Yun thrust his sword, but his left eye makes it look as if Bai Yun was actually swinging his sword. If that happened, the opponent would definitely defend against the wrong attack and would be easily killed.


    The only thing that they were disappointed by was the consumption of Bai Yun''s ability. If he was using his special ability then he could not maintain it for a second. But in many battles, a second was enough to change the outcome.


    But Bai Yun was even more confused by the limit of his ability. He knew a lot more about innate abilities than his family. He had met many people with very powerful innate abilities. And the stronger they were, the shorter they could be used for. But even the strongest one of them could be used for dozens of seconds even in the qi condensation realm. He had never even heard of an innate ability that couldn''t be used for even a second.


    But from what he could tell of his eyes, it doesn''t seem as if it was too overbearing. While its power was simply horrifying, Bai Yun knew of a few abilities that were just as strong as his eyes.


    Finally, Bai Yun figured that it was because he hadn''t reached the true potential of his eyes. It was purely Bai Yun''s conjecture, but he had a feeling that the day his eyes reach its full potential, especially his left eye, the whole world would tremble.


    After the family found out about his ability, they left Bai Yun to get used to his new ability and sense. So Bai Yun sat down and studied his new abilities. He decided to call his right eye, the god eye, and the left eye the devil eye, due to which power was more concentrated in each eye. Together they would form the god and devil eyes.


    And Bai Yun also studied the new power made from the merging of his god sense and the power of the devil. It was not as expansive as Bai Yun''s original gd sense, but it was far more pure and powerful. Bai Yun had a feeling that there were some changes to how the ability operated. For example earlier, if an attack came at Bai Yun, then the god sense would warm Bai Yun of it. But now if the same attack was coming at Bai Yun, he would only be notified of it after it came much closer. But at the same, the predictions would be far more accurate.


    Bai Yun slowly studied the changes to his god sense. He decided to call the new power the god devil sense. He then sat there for the next two days slowly stabilizing the breakthrough in his cultivation as well as getting used to his new eyes.


    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    At the same time when Bai Yun was gettign used to his new eyes, in a place far away a black robed youth with blue eyes slowly opened his eyes.


    When he got up an ancient feeling was slowly emitting from him. He stood at his window and stared out at the scenery while thinking.


    Suddenly the door opened, and a little girl wearing a red dress walked into the room. The moment she walked in, she stopped. The youth felt different today. As if something about him had changed.


    "Young master are you okay?" The little girl asked timidly.


    "Better than ever before." The young man said with a smile. He then turned to the young girl with a smile. The moment he did so, the young girl felt a warm breeze flow over her body.


    The young man studied the little girl. The little girl fidgeted a bit, looking scared. Suddenly the young man asked "Little red, do you want to study cultivation."


    The little girl was scared by the question. "Young master you know that the servents like me are not allowed to cultivate." The little girl replied.


    "Who says that?" The young man said with a laugh. "From now on what I say goes. I want to see just who has the guts to go against me."


    Then the young man moved towards the little girl and slowly imparted a cultivation technique to the little girl. Even though she was scared, the little girl followed the young man''s orders. Being able to cultivate was a dream come true for the little girl.


    Seeing that the little girl had started to cultivate, the young man stood up and walked away. He once again stared out the window with a smile that could light up a million worlds.


    Within that smile was the confidence that the whole world was his oyster.

 115 Going to clan treasury

    Bai Yun took two days to get used to the new abilities he had gained. The especially difficult part was getting used to the sudden increase in his sight. Bai Yun was getting more information than he could process. It took Bai Yun a while to get used to his new reality. And it took even longer to use it properly in a fight. But he still managed to do so in just two days. And that was due to Bai Yun''s great comprehension. If it was anyone else, they would have taken months for the same task.


    Once Bai Yun was fine, he asked his father to take him to the clan treasury. It was finally time to get his rewards from the clan tournament.


    So one day morning, Bai Mu, took Bai Yun and flew to the clan treasury. The clan treasury was located in a secret location and only Dao step cultivators of the Bai clan were allowed to know its location.


    Bai Mo used teleportation to travel. Due to Bai Yun''s cultivation, teleportation disoriented him a bit. When Bai Yun finally came to, he found himself standing in front of a tall pagoda.


    The pagoda wasn''t exceptionally tall or large. It wouldn''t look out of place in a random street in Yellow city. But Bai Yun could tell that this pagoda was extraordinary.


    With a single look, Bai Yun saw that the pagoda was covered with many formations. But Bai Yun could not identify the formations. The formations inscribed were very small. Even with Bai Yun''s current eyesight, he could not see them clearly. But just from the feel the pagoda was giving him, Bai Yun could guess some of the functions of the formations laid on the pagoda.


    Suddenly an old man appeared in front of Bai Yun. He was wearing a grey robe and had long white hair and long moustache that reached his shoulder. As the old man stood there, he gave off a stiff pressure that suppressed Bai Yun. If Bai Yun was feeling such a presence for the first time, he might''ve kneeled in terror. But even with the great pressure on him, Bai Yun simply smiled and ignored the pressure given off by the old man. This wasn''t a pressure given by cultivation, but only the pressure of experience. And he had felt much stronger presences before. So Bai Yun could directly ignore it.


    Seeing that Bai Yun wasn''t affected by his presence, the old man was surprised. He then nodded and took back his presence.


    "This junior has seen elder San." Bai Mu said to the elder while cupping his hands and slightly bowing.


    "I haven''t seen you for a few years, and you have already reached the dao seed realm." The old man said with a smile. "At this time you will overtake us old guys in no time."


    Bai Mu only smiled in response. The old man then turned to face Bai Yun. "Is this your son?" The old man asked.


    "Yes." Bai Mu said. He then turned and introduced the two of them. "This is my son Bai Yun. Yun this is the first elder of the Bai clan, Bai San. He is responsible for the protection of the clan treasury."


    "They told me that you had won the clan tournament, but you could not come with the rest of them to collect your rewards since you were injured." The old man asked.


    "Yes. This junior injured my eyes, and had to wait until they recovered." Bai Yun said.


    The old man laughed when he heard this. "You actually won the clan tournament while blind. I must say you must be even more terrifying than your father." Elder San said.


    Bai Yun only smiled lightly in response, while Bai Mu looked quite proud of this.


    After this elder San directly took out the rewards that the first place for the clan tournament got. It included a million gold coins, five hundred low grade spirit stones, and a few pills that aided in cultivation in the foundation establishment realm. It wasn''t much, after all the most important reward was inside the treasury.


    "Well lets not just stand here talking. Let''s go inside and choose a reward." Elder San.


    Elder San then turned around and walked to the pagoda. When he reached the entrance of the pagoda, elder San touched it gently. Then a light lit up the door, and it slowly turned into a silver whirlpool. Then elder San stepped into the silver whirlpool and disappeared. Seeing this Bai Yun and Mu also hurried behind him. They also stepped into the whirlpool and disappeared. After they went in, the whirlpool slowly dimmed and turned back into a normal door.


    For a moment Ba Yun was blinded by the light of the whirlpool. When he came, to, Bai Yun realised that he was standing in the middle of a large room. To his left were many boxes filled with various items. To his front were many shelves all filled with colorful items. To his right were what looked to be many lockers. And finally, there was a large hallway right behind him.


    "Welcome to the clan treasury." Elder San said. "The important items of the clan are stored here."


    "I doubt that." Bai Yun said. "considering the size of this, and the size of the clan, I bet there are are more treasuries like this. A smart person will always hide their treasure in multiple places. And I think that the truly valuable items must be hidden somewhere else. Most likely under the guard of a grand elder."


    Elder San and Bai Mu only laughed when they heard this. "Do you have any idea what you are looking for?" Elder San aked Bi Yun.


    "Let me take a look around and see what items are here." Bai Yun replied.


    "Be quick about it. You only have a day to choose your item." Elder San explained.


    "In that case can you give me an introduction to this place. Knowing what is here would help me choose an item faster." Bai Yun said.


    Even though he had already decided to get a transcendent flame, it was a good idea to check out what is here. This way if there was something better he would miss out on it.


    "Surely." Elder San said. "To your right is the special security boxes of clan members. These items are personal items of the clan members that are stored here for protection. You cannot choose any of them."


    "To your left is the clan''s treasury. It is here that the clan''s money, as well as spirit stones, are stored. Since you can only choose one item from the entire treasury you should ignore them for the time being. Else you might end up going back with only a single gold coin."


    "Finally we come to what you can choose. In front of you are the treasures that the clan has collected over time. These treasures are kept in boxes on the shelves. The hallway behind you is also filled with treasures. Except that those are either extremely valuable items that are in need of special protection, or items too large to be kept in a box."


    "You can choose any item on the shelf or hallway, given that you can use it. This means that you cannot choose a pill or an item that you cannot use at the current level of cultivation, like a pill that can help you to break through to the nascent soul realm. If you select something like that and I feel like it will be wasted, then I can choose not to allow you to collect it. At that point, you can choose another item, or prove that you can indeed use it by consuming or utilizing it on the spot. If you can do that, you can redeem that item."


    "So what will it be." Elder San asked.


    "What do you think I should select?" Bai Yun asked his father.


    "There is nothing here that you would need right now. Anything you need, we can easily buy. And as for weapons, you would not be able to find a better word than the one I gave you. I would suggest that you get a life saving talisman or a powerful defensive robe or armor. When it was my turn, I choose a teleportation talisman the first time and a powerful single use attack talisman the second time. I already used up both of them, showing that they can be effective."Bai Mu explained.


    "You only won the first place twice?" Bai Yun asked. There were four chances to win first place, once in each of the cultivation levels for which the clan tournament was held.


    "Yes in the qi condensation and foundation established realm tournaments." Bai Mu explained. "After that, I joined the shadow stream academy and did not participate in later tournaments."


    Bai Yun nodded when he heard this. Even he had to admit that his father in this life was quite talented. It would be a miracle if he could not win the clan tournament.


    "Let us go and take a look at the items on the shelves." Bai Yun said. "After that, I will look at the items in the hallway ad then make a choice."


    "Even if you go to the hallway, it won''t be of any help." Elder San said. "The items there are all either too valuable or too large for someone like you to use. In all my time in the clan, I have never heard of anyone at the qi step collecting something from the hallway."


    Bai Yun only nodded and slowly walked towards one of the shelves. There were many shelves extending as far as he could see. Bai Yun frowned when he looked at this. There was no way he could look through all of them and choose a suitable item.


    "There is no need to look through all of them. There is a catalog in each shelve detailing everything on the shelf. There is also a master catalog there." Bai Mu said while pointing to a small podium that stood right in front of the shelves.


    "And you just need to skim through the first few shelves." Elder San said. "The further back you go, the more precious and thus the higher the cultivation needed for the items. Thus you only need to scan past the first few shelves.


    Bai Yun nodded and walked towards the podium. When he touched his hands on the podium, it lit up and a small display appeared. The display showed various shelves in the treasury. By focussing his attention on the various shelves, Bai Yun could see what was inside the shelves. Bai Yun could also see the details of the items by focussing on the item name.


    Bai Yun quickly looked through the item list. But he saw nothing that truly moved him. Bai Yun also had an idea to see if he could find any item that the clan couldn''t identify and thus kept here without knowing what it is. But he found that every item here was well documented and there was no loophole for him to exploit. It made sense after he thought about it. After all, the clan wouldn''t keep unknown and potentially dangerous items in the same place as their treasures. There was probably a dedicated treasury just for unknown items.


    Finally, Bai Yun looked up from the podium after an hour. "I found nothing that is particularly interesting. I know you said it is pointless, but let us check out the hallway anyway." Bai Yun said. "Who knows, I might find something fun."


    Elder San nodded with a smile. He was clearly used to this request. After all, even if they couldn''t utilize the items in the hallway, they could expand their horizons. Thus many people asked to check out the hallway.


    The three of them turned around and headed for the hallway.

 116 Hundred beast flame

    Bai Yun went with Bai Mu and Elder San into the hallway. The hallway had many doors on either side of it. Unlike the shelves, there was no master catalog. Bai Yun had to go into each item individually and choose them.


    Bai Yun walked up to the first doorway and looked inside it. Bai Yun saw a small cauldron sitting inside the room. The cauldron had some small cracks in it. It was obvious that the cauldron was an alchemy cauldron, but it was no longer usable.


    "This is a cauldron we found in the blue moon mountains." Elder San introduced it. "It is obviously broken. But the techniques contained in making it are beyond our current knowledge. So sometimes there would be people who would come to study it every now and then."


    As a god level blacksmith, Bai Yun could easily see the various intricacies of the cauldron. If it was intact he might even be interested in taking it. But it held no interest to Bai Yun now. After taking a look at it, Bai Yun resolutely looked towards the next door.


    Inside the second door was a large piece of rock. It was over ten meters tall and even larger in the other two dimensions. It had a few silvery and golden veins on it. Bai Yun, immediately recognized as a rare forging material.


    "Are you interested in it." Bai San asked. "This is a piece of mineral that the clan has been studying for a few thousand years. No one has been able to identify it. Do you want to take it and have a go at it."


    Bai Yun knew what that piece of the mineral was. He had half a mind to explain how to use it. But he wouldn''t be able to explain how he came to know of it. And even if he took it, he would be unable to process it with his current cultivation. So Bai Yun only shook his head and moved on.


    Bai Yun spent the next couple of hours looking over the various items in the hallway. Over half the items that were in the hallway were things that the clan had no idea about. Most of the other items were broken or things that no one at their cultivation could use.


    The more Bai Yun looked, the more he was certain that this place was not a true treasure house. Most of the items here were useless to people of low cultivation. The main purpose of this place must be to awe the young and inexperienced members of the clan.


    "So how is it." Elder San asked. "Find anything you like."


    Bai Yun rolled his eyes when he heard this. "I would if I could." Bai Yun replied.


    Bai Mu and Elder San chuckled when they heard him. Obviously, they understood what Bai Yun was talking about.


    Finally, Bai Yun could not take it anymore and just asked right out. "Is there any transcendent elements in the clan."


    Elder San and Bai Mu looked at each other. "Why do you need a transcendent element?" Finally, Elder San asked.


    "You have a great talent in the martial path." Elder San said. "It is not a good idea to walk two paths at the same time."


    "I am only following the alchemy path as a side path." Bai Yun explained. "I am focusing most of my efforts on the martial path."


    "Well, I suppose we have a few beast flames here." Elder San said before walking back down the hallway. Bai Yun sighed and followed after him. There was no way a clan like the Bai can did not have earthly flames or even a couple of heavenly flames. It seemed as if they were determined to not give any good things to the younger generation.


    Bai Yun and the rest then went back to the place where they arrived at the treasure hall. Once they arrived, the small stage lit up once again and send them to another space. The place they were in was the end of a long hallway.


    "This is the place where we keep our transcendent elements." Elder San said. "If you can find one you like, you can take it."


    Bai Yun looked in the first room. Inside it was a small podium in which there was a piece of dirt. The piece of dirt was blue in color and was slowly shaking. Bai Yun knew almost all of the major transcendent elements, but the thing in front of him was unfamiliar to him. Obviously, it wasn''t powerful enough to be remembered.


    Bai Yun did not spend much time looking at the transcendent earth. Bai Yun was looking for a transcendent flame. So he quickly left it behind and looked at the rest of the rooms.


    Bai Yun started to look through the collection of transcendent elements. If it was a transcendent flame Bai Yun would enter the room and study it closely to understand its strength. With the help of the God of Alchemies legacy, Bai Yun''s understanding of the transcendent flames was top notch. So he was able to easily rank them by their strength. Also, they were all beast flames and Bai Yun did not want to waste time strengthening them.


    Bai Yun kept on looking through the collection. As a top notch clan, the Bai clan had a truly great collection of transcendent elements. Even though it was only low level beast elements, it was quite impressive.


    Bai Yun was looking through them when he saw a small branch sitting in a room. Bai Yun only glanced at it and moved past. But then he froze and slowly turned back to the brach. Bai Yun then went into the room with the brach and studied it closely. The more he looked at it, the more he was sure of his guess.


    "You like it." Elder San appeared behind him suddenly. "This is a piece of transcended wood that I found during my travels when I was young. Unfortunately, I was unable to identify it. So it has been sitting here for a long time. Do you want to change your choice and choose it."


    Bai Yun''s lips twitched when he heard elder San. Bai Yun was honestly tempted to collect it. That was because he recognized the brach in front of him.


    The small brach was the transcendent wood nine regeneration undying wood. An extremely rare heavenly wood that was ranked sixty third on the treasured wood rankings.


    The process for the birth of a nine regeneration undying wood was extremely complex. First, there had to be a tree that was struck by lightning and died. Then from it, a new sapling should grow. That should once again be struck by lightning and die. A new sapling should be born from the wreck of it. This process had to repeat nine times and at each step, the tree should die but must still have enough life force left over to give birth to a new tree. Thus this was an extremely rare transcendent wood.


    The powers of the nine regeneration undying wood was regeneration. If you absorb it into your body, you would get a nearly undying body. It would be very difficult to kill a person who had nine regeneration undying wood. Due to its powers, even Bai Yun was tempted to take it.


    But he resisted this temptation. He was here for a transcendent flame.


    One by one Bai Yun quickly went through all the transcendent flames in the treasury. None of them caught his fancy. They were all beast flames, which were difficult to upgrade or had limited potential. Bai Yun did not want to repeatedly change his beast flame. But from the look of things he might just have to settle for a low level flame. Or maybe the nine regeneration undying wood.


    It was without any hope that Bai Yun entered the last chamber. In that chamber, a weak gray flame was slowly burning. It was weak even compared to the rest of the flames that he had seen. It was more like a candle flame than a transcendent flame. But the moment he saw that flame, Bai Yun froze and his eyes went wide. The next moment an undisguised joy appeared in his eyes.


    But without showing anything Bai Yun slowly walked over to the small gray flame. He then slowly asked, "What is this flame, it looks quite weak?"


    "Oh, you like it?" Elder San asked.


    "Just curious." Bai Yun replied.


    "Honestly we don''t know what it is." Elder San said. "This flame is the oldest beast flame in the clan. It was found by the founder of the clan. He could see that this was a beast flame. But he was unable to identify the type of beast that gave birth to this flame. Since then, this has been a mystery of the clan. And since no one could tell what it was and it was quite a weak flame, no one bothered to take it. Why do you want it?"


    Bai Yun then understood why this flame was kept here and not in a more secure place. After all, if one did not know of the flame''s true nature, it was easy to mistake it for a beast flame.


    In the transcendent flame listings, which listed all the beast, earthly and heavenly flames, the top thirty was all dominated by heavenly flames. There were only two earthly flames in the top thirty and no beast flames.


    The two earthly flames were the fallen god flame that was ranked first, and the billion beast flame ranked seventh.


    And this small gray flame was the prototype of the billion beast flame, the hundred beast flame.


    Unlike many other flames, the billion beast flame is born as a much weaker flame and had to be slowly evolved to the billion beast flame level. The flame is born as a ten beast flame, or a hundred beast flame or at most a thousand beast flame. These flames were born by the deaths of many flame type beasts and then their flames would condense together to form a multi beast flame.


    And even though it called a billion beast flame, it did not mean that there were a billion different beast flames in it. It was an earthly flame that grows by devouring beast flames. And it was classified as ten beast flame, hundred beast flame, thousand beast flame all the way up to the maximum which was a billion beast flame. And it did not mean that it required a billion different beast flames to reach that level. Once the core of the fame is formed, if it is fed a powerful beast flame, a ten beast flame can jump all the up to a thousand beast flame level instantly. But if the beast flame fed is too powerful, the beast flame could devour the ten beast flame too.


    And another thing that made the hundred beast flame very precious was that its birth was a heavenly phenomenon. Unlike many other earthly flames, it could not be artificially produced. In fact, it was even rarer than some of the heavenly flames ranked higher than it.


    After thinking of all this Bai Yun wanted to laugh out loud. But he held back by sheer will. He could not believe his luck. Even though the hundred beast flame was was not the most powerful flame he could absorb right now, Bai Yun was confident that he could bring it all the way to the top.


    "I quite like tis little flame." Bai Yun said with a smile. "Ill take it."

 117 Absorbing the hundred beast flame

    "Are you sure about your choice." Elder San asked. "We don''t know what this flame is. It could be quite weak. There are much better flames in the treasury."


    "I am sure." Bai Yun said. "This is the one I want." He would have to be crazy not to take it. This was probably the most valuable item in the entire world.


    For a moment Elder San stood there and wondered whether to let Bai Yun have the flame. This flame had a great importance to the clan. Even though it looked quite weak, it was also the very first transcendent element ever collected by the clan.


    After a while Elder San finally gave in. "All right you can have it." He said. Rather than just put it here, it was better to give it to Bai Yun. Who knows Bai Yun might even find out about the secrets of the flame. "Then again, this flame is probably the only one you could actually absorb given your current cultivation. All the other beast flames might be too powerful for you."


    Bai Yun rolled his eyes when he heard this. Not only would he have no trouble absorbing any of the flames here, but the hundred beast flame was also the strongest flame here. Due to its special properties, it was extremely difficult for it to show its true power before it was absorbed.


    Elder San walked into the room and started to press at a secret point on the podium. Slowly the restrictions that were placed on the hundred beast flame started to come undone. Elder San then took out a small bottle and carefully transferred the flame into it. He then bottled it up and gave it to Bai Yun.


    After he got the hundred beast flames Bai Yun and Bai Mu quickly left the treasury. Bai Mu took Ba Yun back to the mansion. When they reached the mansion, Bai Mu took Bai Yun to the library and sat down and stared at him.


    "What?" Bai Yun asked after a while.


    "Out with it." Bai Mu said. "Why did you choose that flame? You wouldn''t have chosen that flame for no reason."


    Bai Yun smiled when he heard his father. "There is no reason. Just an instinct that there is something special about that flame."


    Bai Mu glanced deeply at Bai Yun. Then he nodded and said "Fine. Here is a book on how to absorb a transcendent flame, along with some techniques necessary to do it. Now go and absorb the flame."


    Bai Yun quickly left the library and went back to his room. He then took out the small flame and held it in his hands.


    The hundred beast flame was a powerful flame. It wasn''t something Bai Yun could absorb with his current cultivation. Thankfully he had the god devil sense. Without it, Bai Yun would be burned to ashes by the hundred beast flame.


    The process of absorbing transcendent elements was to take a transcendent element and transfer it into your dantian and then mark it with a special soul mark. There were two separate parts in this. The first part was to take the transcendent flame into the body and into the dantian. This required the help of a very strong body. Without it, your body could be destroyed by the transcendent element. There were also some special pills and materials as well as techniques that could reduce the burden on the body. Bai Yun had access to some of the most powerful pill recipes as well as techniques available to him. But thanks to the god devil sense, Bai Yun was sure that he did not need any of them.


    The second part was to place your soul mark into the transcendent element. This required one to create a soul mark and place it on the transcendent element. This was a dangerous practice. The transcendent elements had their own spirituality. They would fight back against the soul mark. And this meant that there was a chance for the soul mark to fail. It was especially the case for beast flames which has a violent will.


    There were different means to create the soul mark. Depending on the method used, they had differing chances of success. Bai Yun was currently studying a method created by the God of Alchemy that had a very high chance of success. Even with his great comprehension, it would take Bai Yun a while to completely comprehend the technique.


    And the fact that all transcendent elements had to be stored in the dantian and they had spirituality meant that a person could only have one transcended element at a time. If you had two or more transcendent elements at the same time, they could clash against each other and the resulting collision could kill you. Of course, nothing was absolute. There were some special people with mutant dantians that could hold multiple transcendent elements at the same time.


    And if you want to change your transcendent element, there were two ways that it could be done. The first to free the current transcendent element and to once again mark a new one.


    The second method was to feed the current transcendent element to the new one. A free transcendent element had a small chance of feeding a much weaker transcendent element of the same type. This meant that a transcendent flame could only feed on a transcendent flame, and a transcendent earth could only feed on a transcendent earth, and so on. The powerful transcendent element would eat the weaker one and the soul mark would get transferred to the new one. This could only be achieved under some dangerous conditions and if the feeding method failed, you would be crippled at the very least. But some people still tried this method. This was because the new transcendent element also had a small chance of merging the abilities of the two original elements or even awakening some new abilities.


    Bai Yun knew all this so he was very careful. Even with the god devil sense, if he was careless for a moment, the hundred beast flame would burn him up.


    Bai Yun studied the soul marking method deep into the night. Once he was certain that the soul mark had been perfected, Bai Yun began the process of absorbing the transcendent flame.


    Bai Yun took the flame out of the bottle and held it in his hand. Even now Bai Yun could not sense any power coming from the flame. If Bai Yun hadn''t seen the billion beast flame before, he would not have been sure that this was the hundred beast flame.


    Bai Yun then took a deep breath. He then opened his mouth and swallowed the hundred beast flame.


    The next second the hundred beast flame followed Bai Yun digestive tract and ended up in his stomach. For a moment everything was silent. The next moment the flame erupted into a powerful force that started to ravage all over Bai Yun''s body.


    An indescribable pain assaulted Bai Yun. But he grit his teeth and started to operate his god devil sense. The next moment the ravaging flame was subdued. It was as if the flame was trapped in an indestructible cage.


    Bai Yun then slowly started to control the flame. By now the flame had arrived at every single part of Bai Yun''s body. There was even a weak gray flame burning on his skin. His clothes had all been burned away by now.


    Bai Yun then slowly started to drag the hundred beast flame piece by piece into his dantian in a particular rhythm. At each step, it was as if his entire body was being burned alive. But Bai Yun simply ignored the pain and continued to bring the entire flame to his dantian.


    Actually, Bai Yun had many other methods available to him that were much gentler and did not have to suffer through so much pain. But this method of absorbing the flame was created by the God of Alchemy and had a special advantage. This method allowed one to modify one''s body to take on the properties of the flame being absorbed. This would increase one''s affinity towards that flame, and also make it easier to control it. But there was no pro without con. And the con was the severe pain Bai Yun was suffering now. In order to make his body more in line with that of the flame, it was necessary to destroy it first. There was no creation without destruction after all.


    Slowly Bai Yun brought the flame into his dantian. Then inside his dantian there was a small cluster of gray flames slowly burning.


    Bai Yun then took a deep breath and slowly operated his soul power. Slowly a weird mark appeared in his sea of consciousness. Anyone who saw that mark would find themselves drawn into the beauty of it. But no matter how much they wanted, they would not even be able to describe it, much less copy it.


    Bai Yun slowly brought his soul mark into his dantian. For Bai Yun, the upcoming part was the most dangerous. His god devil sense would be of little help here. He would have to depend on his soul and will power to complete the soul marking process.


    Bai Yun took a deep breath and drove the soul mark into the flame cluster. The next moment a terrifying pain shot through Bai Yun''s soul. The hundred beast flame was indeed a little too much for Bai Yun to try and tame for now.


    Bai Yun clenched his teeth so hard that his gums started to bleed. He was soon doubled over and curled up on the floor. But no matter what, Bai Yun did not lose his objective even for a second. Bai Yun''s soul power quickly covered the hundred beast flame. Slowly it was being tamed by Bai Yun''s will.


    Soon half an hour passed. Then a sound as if something broke was heard from Bai Yun''s body. Along with it, a soothing power spread throughout his body, healing the wounds he had suffered. Bai Yun had succeeded in taming the hundred beast flame.


    At that time a powerful perception that was covering that room, retreated with a sigh of relief.


    Slowly a black impurity appeared all over Bai Yun''s body. When he absorbed the hundred beast flame, Bai Yun had used its power to push out the various impurities in his body. This had increased the difficulty of absorption. But the gains were better than the losses. Now Bai Yun''s cultivation would be smoother in the future.


    Bai Yun slowly stood up and studied the flame in his dantian. There was a small cluster of gray flames floating and slowly rotating above his qi whirlpool. The process was also helpful in completely solidifying his cultivation. Bai Yun could feel that he was very close to a natural breakthrough. He would be able to breakthrough to foundation establishment very soon.


    Bai Yun then saw that his entire body was covered with a thick black substance. He quickly jumped into the bath and scrubbed the black substance off. He then laid in the bath and slowly started to relax.


    Bai Yun then raised his hand and held it outward. Suddenly a small gray flame appeared on his palm.


    As he stared at the flame, Bai Yun slowly thought about the past few months since his awakening. Bai Yun had spent almost every day in a hurry cultivating, just to get this little flame. With this, the first phase of this cultivation plan had come to an end.


    It was time to start phase two.

 118 Tenth skin sewing

    Bai Yun stood up and slowly walked around. Bai Yun was thinking about his next move.


    Bai Yun had always thought that the reason he took such a long time to reach the titled god realm was because he had lacked life experience. Bai Yun had spent almost the entirety of his life either training or fighting. When comparing his life to that of his compatriots, Bai Yun had always thought that his life was a little too bleak.


    Bai Yun had heard many of them speak of their experiences during their path. What Bai Yun had found was that many people who had experienced many things had gone much further in their paths that their talents or births should have allowed them to. And there were a lot more ordinary people who had become gods than disciples of superpowers. All of this made Bai Yun think that rather than talent, the path one walked in their life was more important.


    Of course, Bai Yun knew that most people who walked this path ended up dying. But the ones who survived went further than they could ever hope. And Bai Yun had enough confidence in his abilities to survive anything that the world might throw at him.


    If Bai Yun only wanted to reach the level he had reached in his previous life, Bai Yun was sure that he could do that easily. But after his reincarnation and seeing the might of the devil emperor, a hidden desire had appeared in Bai Yun''s heart.


    A desire to go further than his previous life. To go beyond even the devil emperor. To reach heights he could not imagine previously.


    And Bai Yun had an instinctive feeling that if he followed his current path of a sheltered life under the protection of the Bai clan, he would be unable to do so.


    This feeling was further strengthened when he met the God of Alchemy. The God of Alchemy did not care about his training methods. He was more interested in his experience and emotions. All of this further strengthened his hypothesis that maybe it was the most important element in cultivation. It simply hadn''t mattered in his past life due to his absurd talent. But if he wanted to go further than he ever knew, then both were indispensable.


    And Bai Yun knew that in order to experience the vicissitudes of life he would have to leave the Bai clan. Even though he had experienced much in the clan, none of those had truly moved his heart. The only exception when he nearly died in the false world formation. So Bai Yun knew that he had to leave the clan to experience life.


    And Bai Yun''s plan was to go on a journey for a couple of years to gain experience.


    And the biggest obstacle to this wasn''t the difficulty of the journey.


    Nope.


    The biggest obstacle to this would be his mother.


    But no matter how hard the thought about this, he could not find a way to ensure that he could leave successfully. Bai Yun had been thinking about this problem since his reincarnation, but he still did not have a successful solution.


    But the basis for all of this was strength. If he was strong enough, he could easily escape and also gain permission to journey wherever he wanted.


    Thinking of this Bai Yun suddenly froze. His soul path had just broken through and he couldn''t improve it in a short while. Bai Yun was hoping for a natural breakthrough in his qi path, and did not want to forcibly make a breakthrough. If he did so, it might cause his foundation to be unstable.


    But Bai Yun was at a critical point in his body cultivation path. Bai Yun had currently reached the nine skin sewing pattern realm. Bai Yun was only a single skin sewing away from reaching the peak of skin sewing.


    Realizing this Bai Yun quickly sat down. The cultivation technique Bai Yun was following was the undying body of the God of Battle. In the Undying Body, the first nine skin sewing patterns were nothing special. But the tenth one was different. Different from all other patterns, the tenth pattern was used to tie together the first nine patterns to create the perfect single pattern. Thus it was much harder to create compared to the first nine. It was because of this that Bai Yun hadn''t tried to create it until now.


    The tenth pattern required a truly massive amount of energy compared to the previous nine. And this was true even considering the fact that the patterns for the undying body required much more energy than any other body cultivation. Thus the God of Battle created a medicinal pill that would have enough energy in it to complete the tenth skin sewing pattern. And Bai Yun had also gained this pill formula from the God of Alchemy.


    Bai Yun''s initial plan to try and concoct this pill. Even though he would fail many times, Bai Yun was certain that he would eventually be able to make the pill.


    But his thought changed when he finally got the God of Alchemies legacy. After studying the alchemy legacy, Bai Yun''s alchemy skills had improved by a whole lot. Now he could easily create that pill.


    But the God of Battle was not a true alchemist after all. The pill that he made had many defects. Bai Yun found a pill that was much better for the tenth skin sewing in the God of Alchemy''s legacy. Originally this pill was supposed to be used during the muscle tempering portion of body cultivation, but due to the overwhelming power of the Undying Body, it could barely be enough for the tenth skin pattern.


    Bai Yun already had all the necessary ingredients for the pill. This was just a pill that the God of Alchemy created in his spare time after he reached the tilted god level. Thus even though it was a very powerful pill, it had no name. Bai Yun decided to call it the little body tempering pill. This was because Bai Yun knew that this pill was the simplified version of a far more powerful pill called the true body tempering pill.


    Bai Yun slowly pulled out the ingredients for the pill. Even though the pill was very powerful, the ingredients for the pill were very common. Bai Yun had already gotten all of them from his mother. She had given him nearly a small warehouse full of ingredients in order to make sure that Bai Yun would stay at home and focus on Alchemy.


    But the problem with this pill was the sheer number of ingredients. This pill required thirty three different ingredients. Until now even the most complicated pill Bai Yun had made only used eight ingredients. If Bai Yun hadn''t gotten both the hundred beast flame as well as the alchemy legacy Bai Yun would never have even dreamed of making this. Even now, Bai Yun wasn''t sure of his success.


    But he had more than enough materials to fail a few times. So he sat down and started to work.


    Bai Yun slowly heated up the cauldron he had. Bai Yun had already asked his father for a very powerful but simple looking cauldron. Bai Yun figured that if he journeyed with a valuable looking cauldron, it would only be a matter of time before he was killed for it. Thus the cauldron looked very plain. Bai Yun had also used expertise in blacksmithing to further make it look weak and broken.


    Bai Yun then took out one portion of the ingredients for the little body tempering pill. Bai Yun waited until the cauldron was warm enough and then he put the first ingredient in the cauldron. Putting the ingredients one at a time would lower the efficiency of the pill, but if he put it all in at the same time, it would increase the difficulty of the pill and Bai Yun wasn''t certain if he could successfully make the pill that way.


    Once he did so, a small wisp of the hundred beast flame appeared in Bai Yun''s palm. It then slowly entered the cauldron. Slowly the medical ingredient was refined.


    Once this was done, Bai Yun carefully put in the second ingredient. Slowly he refined the medicinal ingredients one by one. Finally, with unprecedented concentration, Bai Yun combined the various ingredients.


    When Bai Yun opened the cauldron. A small red pill was sitting at the bottom of it. Bai Yun was surprised that he had succeeded in his first try. This meant that he would not have to waste a lot of time studying alchemy. Just mastering more of the legacy would be enough to improve his skill.


    Compare to the first pill he had formed months ago, it was a difference like heaven and earth. Bai Yun slowly took it out and studied it. Even though it had no circles showing that it was not a superior quality pill, it also did not have a lot of impurities. It was barely enough to form the tenth skin sewing pattern.


    Bai Yun then took a deep breath and put the pill back into the cauldron. He was completely tired. He did not even have the energy to swing a sword. It was better to wait until he had recovered.


    When Bai Yun woke up the next morning, Bai Yun quickly took a bath to wash off the sweat from yesterday. After this Bai Yun took a large tub of cold water and slowly submerged himself up to his neck. The little body tempering pill would create a lot of heat while under operation, thus the need for the tub of water.


    Bai Yun took a deep breath and then put the pill into his mouth and swallowed it. The moment it reached his stomach, the pill started to dissolve. A very pure life energy, necessary for the cultivation of the body path, started to seep out of the pill. Along with this, a heat started to spread all over Bai Yun''s body.


    Bai Yun slowly extracted a single thread of the life energy, making sure that any excess life energy would be trapped inside his body with his god devil sense.


    Slowly the thread of life energy got to work. Following the methods of the Undying body, Bai Yun slowly threaded the life energy all over his body. One by one the various skin sewing patterns started to link up. Along with that, a severe pain started to spread all over his body. But this level of pain was nothing to Ba Yun and he continued the process.


    Hours passed by quickly. The water in the tub started to boil from the heat of the pill. Bai Yun would use his soul tendrils to add more water when the level fell too low. Slowly the water took of a dark red hue due to the impurities discharged from the little body tempering pill.


    Finally, when the sun started to set, Bai Yun finished the last thread of the tenth skin sewing pattern. With this, he had reached the completion of skin sewing.


    The next Bai Yun''s skin started to glow golden for a moment. And then pieces of it started to fall down flake by flake. Bai Yun had never heard of skin being felled by reaching the completion of skin sewing. But the Undying Body was different from all other cultivation techniques.


    One by one seven full layers of skin fell off of Bia Yun''s body. Once this was done Bai Yun stepped off the tub. The tub was now deep red with impurities and some blood as well as skin. Bai Yun quickly emptied the tub and then stood in front of the mirror.


    Bai Yun slowly studied his new skin. The scars he had accumulated had all disappeared. Bai Yun''s new skin was softer and tougher than ever before. Bai Yun took a small dagger, and slowly cut his skin. But it not even leave a scratch.


    Bai Yun could feel the terrifying strength now hidden in his body. All along, Bai Yun''s body tempering had been much much weaker than his qi cultivation path. But in one fell swoop, it had far surpassed the later, to become Bai Yun''s greatest strength.


    Bai Yun quickly put on his clothes and headed out.


    It was time for a difficult talk.

 119 A tough talk

    "I haven''t seen you in a while." Xiao Mei-er said. "You have been quite busy lately. Why don''t you sit down and we can talk for a bit."


    Bai Yun smiled and sat down. Then the three of them sat down to talk. The talk was mostly on what Bai Yun had been up to in the past few weeks. After hearing about Bai Yun''s improvements in cultivation, his parents were quite pleased.


    The chat also included Bai Mu''s investigation into the devil rituals. Bai Mu had found more instances of devil rituals and had caught quite a few devil cultivators by following the clues they had left behind. But the news that they found from them was disheartening. The only thing that the devil cultivators could tell the investigators was that they had gained the devil rituals from an eerie masked man. After they got their hands on devil rituals, they all decided to practice them.


    The people who were captured were true scum. Most of them had committed great evils. Thus they no second thought about doing such evil acts.


    But they could find no information about the person who supplied them with the devil ritual. The person behind it just seemed to spread the devil rituals without asking anything in return. Even Bai Yun could not understand the reasoning behind it.


    After a while, the talk changed to more banal topics. Soon they started to talk about their friends and gossip about the happenings in the clan. Now that the important matters had been dealt with it was time for Bai Yun to talk about his matter.


    "Is there anything you want to tell us?" Bai Mu asked after seeing the way Bai Yun was behaving.


    Bai Yun then took a deep breath. It was time to tell them about his plan.


    "I have been here for a few months. My cultivation has improved rapidly in the past few months." Bai Yun said. "I have reached the four circle level in the soul path and the peak of both skin sewin and qi condensation."


    "But I have the feeling that my cultivation is stagnating a bit. And this is only my instinct, but I think that if I wish to reach the peak of cultivation, I need to experience more things in life. If I stay in the clan, then there is no danger to me. I can definitely increase my cultivation with the help of the clan, but I won''t be able to stimulate my potential under stress."


    "And it is not only a matter of stimulating my potential under danger. My status in the clan is quite high. And that restricts the way in which I can grow."


    "And I have a feeling that only by experiencing many things, love and friendship, pain and loss, can I grow as a person."


    When Bai Yun finally finished speaking, there was a silence. "What are you planning." Bai Mu asked. "You wouldn''t have brought it all up if you hadn''t thought of doing something."


    "I want to go on a journey alone for two years." Bai Yun finally said his plan.


    "Excuse me, did you say something. I couldn''t hear anything." Xiao Mei-er said with a smile.


    Bai Yun turned to look at Xiao Mei-er. He felt goosebumps looking at her cold smile.


    "I want to go on a journey alone for two years." Bai Yun once again said softly.


    "Sory. I still can''t hear you." Xiao Me-er once again.


    ''Bulls**t.'' Bai Yun thought. With your cultivation, you can hear a mosquito on the other side of the mansion.


    Bai Yun slowly sunk down in his chair. He truly felt fear at his mother currently.


    "Journey. Two years." BAi Yun said again.


    "Sorry. Can you say it once again?" Xiao Mei-er said again.


    "Mei, just a moment." Bai Mu suddenly said. "Let''s hear what he has to say."


    "What are you talking about Mu." Xiao Mei-er snapped.


    "I just want to know why he wants to go on a journey right now." Bai Mu said. "Why now. And why a journey. If he wanted to go outside the protection of the clan, he could hide his identity. Or join a school."


    "It''s true that I could hide my identity." Bai Yun said. "But it wouldn''t be very effective. And the things that I can experience inside the clan are very limited anyway."


    "And as for an academy, the academy I want to join is the number one academy in the city of scholars, the Shadow Stream academy. But the academy increases the difficulty of its test based on a person''s age. And I have wasted quite a few years in my muddlehead years. If I go now I may not be able to pass the entrance test. But I am confident that I can reach the required level in about two years. But I don''t want to waste the next two years in the clan."


    "So I came up with a plan. I will travel to the city of scholars. The journey I am thinking about should take two years to complete."


    "But I do not intend to take the main road. The main road has a lot of major forces and the cultivation of the people there are also very high. Thus though the path, there is more ordered, there is a higher chance of me running into danger."


    "The path I am trying to follow is a string of routes along the southern foothills of the evergreen hills. By studying the various maps I was able to come up with a path that I can take to help me get to one of the entrance points to the plains of enlightenment. From there I can take a teleportation formation to the City of Scholars. The entire journey should only take a little more than a year, giving me enough time to travel as well as stay for a little while in each place."


    There was once again a silence after Bai Yun''s talk. But a short while later, Xiao Mei-er''s voice broke the silence. "Impossible. There is no way I will agree to it."


    "Yun, give us a moment." Bai Mu suddenly said. "I need to talk to Mei about it."


    Bai Yun stared at his father for a moment. It seems as if his father was agreeing with him. He did not know why. But after a moment Bai Yun quickly left and went back to his room.


    "Mu, why are you going along with this farce of his." Xiao Me-er said.


    For a moment Bai Mu stayed silent. "I have been thinking about sending Yun away for a while."


    Xiao Mei-er was shocked. "What? Why?"


    Bai Mu sighed. "Have you seen how Yun behaves in the clan?" Bai Mu said. "There are only three people who he have a decent relationship with. They are Bai Shi, Bai Ling-er, and Zhang Zi. And two of them are in a subordinate relationship with him. And he only showed his real identity to Zhang Zi under extreme circumstances. It is obvious that he is not ready to form meaningful relationships. But I believe that moving him from the clan''s enclosure and allowing him to interact with other people will allow him to grow him as a person."


    "What makes you think that moving him from the safety of home will help him to change?" Xiao Mei-er said.


    "I know it will." Bai Mu said with a smile. "I know because I was like that too once. It was by meeting you and our friends from the shadow stream academy that I changed. I believe that it would help him too."


    "So you are going to send him straight into danger?" Xiao Mei-er said.


    "I wasn''t planning to do anything like that." Bai u said. "I thought that sending him to a school in the city of scholars was enough. With our power and influence, we can get him into a good enough school. But Yun wants to get into the Shadow Stream academy. He is not at a level where he can do so right now. But he should be able to do so in two years. You have seen how fast he grows too. So the question is what he can do in those two years. I think that the plan Yun has come up with is quite good."


    "But Yun is such a weak child." Xiao Me-er said. "How can you send him into danger."


    "Just think about this for a moment." Bai Mu said. "If Yun was not born with a damaged soul, and was a normal child, would you be against this? Just forget the past few years and think about what is best for him."


    For a moment Xiao Mei-er was silent. She was against Bai Yun leaving. But once she calmed down, she could understand what the two men were talking about. Then the two of them continued to discuss for a while longer about how this would work.


    "Yun." Suddenly Xiao Mei-er shouted.


    Bai Yun heard the sound, and almost immediately ran back to the garden. He was a little bit anxious about the talk, but seeing his mother''s fuming face, and his father''s smile, Bai Yun could guess the outcome.


    Xiao Mei-er took a deep breath before she started talking. "FIne. I agree with you going on a journey for a few years."


    "But I have some conditions." XIao Mei-er said


    Bai Yun nodded in understanding.


    "First of all, you must carry a tracking talisman. This tracking talisman will allow us to track you and find you soon enough." Xiao Mei-er said.


    "Secondly, you must send us messages at least once a month. If you miss even once, we will track you down and find you."


    "Third, you have to use a false identity when you travel. We have a lot of enemies, if they find out that you are traveling without our protection, things could get ugly. It shouldn''t be too difficult with your changing ability. If your true identity is ever leaked, you are to immediately contact us, and we will immediately come and take you home."


    "Fourth, you have to bring with you some simple weapons and clothes. You have to hide your storage rings and all other valuable items. If someone finds out about them, you must kill them. Or else we will immediately come and take you back. And we better not find out that any secret of yours was leaked and you didn''t inform us. If that happened, then I would lock you up, and you would never leave this house again.


    "And finally you can only leave after two weeks. That would give your great grandfather enough time to make a couple of teleportation talismans. Once you use them up, that means that you can no longer continue your journey."


    "Only if you can agree with all of these conditions will I agree for you to leave." Xiao Mei-er finished.


    Bai Yun thought over the various conditions. Bai Yun found them all acceptable. He was more worried that they would ask old Hai to accompany him.


    "Fine." Bai Yun finally said. "But you have agree that I am leaving by myself. You cannot ask anyone to follow me in secret."


    For a moment Xiao Mei-er looked a little uncomfortable, but then a determined appearance appeared on her face. She finally nodded in acceptance.


    "Okay then." Bai Mu said. "Now that we have agreed on some basic things, I want you to tell me more about the path you will be taking. I want to make sure that everything fine along that path. I have access to fresher and greater information than you have available. I want to make sure that there is nothing dangerous along your journey route."


    Bai Yun then sat down to explain to his parents his route. As he quickly explained the various paths he had considered, a smile quickly flashed through his eyes.


    He had succeeded in persuading his parents.


    It was time to start phase two of his cultivation plan.

 120 Preparing for the journey

    But this was not the only preparation Bai Yun had to make. Bai Yun also had to get used to the hundred beast flame. Bai Yun had already gotten a good control of them during alchemy thanks to the alchemy legacy, but using it to fight was a whole different thing. An earthly flame was a powerful force, but to use it proficiently was difficult. So Bai Yun practiced daily using some puppets for enemies.


    The third thing that Bai Yun doing in that period of time was to study the assassin''s legacy. Now that Bai Yun had broken through to the foundation established realm, more of the legacy and more tricks were available to him. So Bai Yun spent a lot of time studying them and perfecting his assassination techniques.


    The three things kept Bai Yun pretty busy. In the blink of an eye over thirteen days passed. Thankfully Bai Yun had already studied the path he would be taking and he had made other preparations for the travel a long time ago. Thus Bai Yun was freed up to improve his skills.


    But today was not a day of preparation. Bai Yun had asked Bai Shi, and Bai Ling-er to come to him. Bai Yun was about to leave and had to give them some things.


    Bai Yun gave them the later parts of the cultivation techniques he had given them. Bai Yun also gave them some battle techniques. He then told them how to train for the next two years so that they could also get into the Shadow Stream academy. After making sure that they had completely grasped the various training methods he had given them, Bai Yun sent them back, after telling them to stay low for the foreseeable future. For now, Bai Yun did not need them. But from what he knew of the structure of Shadow stream academy, Bai Yun knew that he would need them there. In fact from the very beginning, Bai Yun was grooming them for it.


    After this Bai Yun went to the Alchemy Association building. He was on his way to sell the last batch of pills and buy some more ingredients. He was leaving tomorrow, and so Bai Yun decided to rest for today.


    Just as Bai Yun was leaving he suddenly stopped. Through the crowd at the Alchemist Association, he saw Zhang Zi. Zhang Zi also leaving the Alchemist association. But unlike Bai Yun who was leaving from the medical ingredient section of the building, Zhang Zi was leaving from the place for purchasing pills.


    For a moment Bai Yun stood there staring at Zahnag Zi, who had not noticed him yet. Zhang Zi was the only person who had won Bai Yun''s approval. It was not only because of his talent but also because of his character.


    Bai Yun quickly walked through the crowd over to Zhang Zi. "Hello there." Bai Yun said after he approached Zhang Zi.


    Zhang Zi turned around to look at Bai Yun with surprise. "Long time no see." Zhang Zi said with a smile.


    "Are you free right now?" Bai Yun asked Zhang Zi. "I would like to talk."


    Zhang Zi raised his eyebrows in response. He then nodded. "Sure. But what brought about this sudden desire to talk." Zhang Zi asked.


    "I''ll tell you later." Bai Yun responded.


    The two of them quickly set off to an inn nearby. They got a private booth and quickly ordered some drinks.


    "So, what do you want to talk about?" Zhang Zi asked.


    For a moment Bai Yun thought about what he wanted to say. "What do you intend to do in the future?" Bai Yun finally asked.


    Zhang Zi was confused by the question. "I intend to stay at home for a while longer, before leaving for the City of Scholars. I hope to join the Shadow stream academy, but anything else would be fine too."


    Bai Yun nodded when he heard this. He paused for a moment and then continued. "I am intending to go on a journey for two years."


    Zhang Zi seemed to be a little surprised. "Why?"


    Bai Yun smiled. "Yellow city is too peaceful for me." Bai Yun said. "I have a feeling that I will not grow much if I stay here. So I decided to travel for a while. I will travel by myself to the city of scholars and then join the shadow stream academy. I think the journey will take about two years in total."


    Zhang Zi was silent for a while. "I don''t think it is necessary to go on a journey. There is plenty of excitement here."


    Bai Yun chucked when he heard this. "Everyone has their own paths." Bai Yun said. "It''s true that staying here is also fine. But it''s not for me. I am not chasing the peak of the spear, like you. I am chasing freedom. Just staying here will be quite boring for me. That is why I decided to go."


    Zhang Zi was silent for a short while. "Good luck on your journey." Zhang Zi said.


    "Thanks." Bai Yun said.


    "So, you called me here for a goodbye." Zhang Zi asked.


    "Nope, I called you here to give something." Bai Yun said.


    Zhang Zi looked at Bai Yun with a questing look. Bai Yun smiled when he saw this.


    "Have you heard of a man named Fang Jin?" Bai Yun asked.


    Zhang Zi shook his head.


    "I thought so." Bai Yun said. "He was a spearman who lived a long time ago. He pursued the pinnacle of the spear. He lived for the spear and died for the spear. But even though he chased after the peak of the spear, he was never able to step over that final hill."


    "It wasn''t only him. There were many others who chased after the peak of the dao of weapons. There were many swordmen, sabermen, and staff users, who chased after the peak of weapon dao. But they all failed."


    "It was at that time another man was born. Unlike the others, he did not have a teacher to teach him the dao of the sword. So he tried to walk a different path from all others before him. Everyone laughed at him, but he continued on, believing in himself. And he finally proved that he was right. He was the first person to step over that peak, and reached the pinnacle of the sword dao."


    "The people who laughed at him were stunned. But they only grumbled and tried harder. These people had an indomitable will and did not change their paths just because of something as simple as that."


    "But there were a few people who thought differently. They gave up on their dao, and started on the path the swordsman followed."


    "But before they could do it, something happened. A war unlike any before began. Every one of them had to fight. And then they all died."


    For a moment there was only silence in the room. Then Zhang Zi''s jaw dropped.


    "What kind of stupid story is that." Zhang Zi exploded. "A story is supposed to have a beginning, middle, and an end. What kind of stupid story has everyone dying in the middle."


    Bai Yun laughed when he heard about this. "This story isn''t something like that. This story about what path you will take in the future."


    "What do you mean?" Zhang Zi asked.


    "Are you going to take the mainstream path that no one has reached the peak of? Or will you take the path taken by the swordsman, who followed his own path? After all, no one knows which path is the correct path. Jut a single case cannot show which path is right. After all, it could be that the swordsman was a genius, who would have reached the peak regardless of the path he chose. Or it could be that his path was right." Bai Yun asked.


    For a moment Zhang Zi was silent. "Is what you said true?" He finally asked.


    "Every word. But the story is an old one. I don''t know if it has changed since then." Bai Yun replied. After all, a weapon based titled god could have been born since his death. But Bai Yun did not sense anything like that when he was in the dao repository. Thus he thought that such a person hasn''t been born yet.


    Zhang Zi sat there thinking for a while. Bai Yun let him think before he suddenly interrupted. "Well, it''s not something you need to think about right now. You still have a long time before you have to make that choice."


    Zhang Zi nodded.


    "Anyway, that brings me to why I wanted to talk to you." Bai Yun said. "I wanted to give this to you." After saying this he pulled out a small stone from his sleeve and handed it over to Zhang Zi.


    "A memory stone." Zhang Zi said, surprised at the sudden object.


    Memory stones were special stones carved by a special process. It could hold information, which could then be read by other people. The advantage of a memory stone was that it could both be created and read much faster than a book. But only people at the foundation establishment layer or higher could read or make them.


    Also, most memory stones were one time use objects. Once the contents in them were read, they would break. If one wanted to make a reusable memory stone, it was both expensive and complicated. Thus, many people still preferred books for long term storage.


    Zhang Zi played with the memory stone for a moment before he looked at Bai Yun. "What''s in it?" He asked.


    Bai Yun smiled when he heard this. "Do you remember me mentioning a spearman named Fang Jin earlier? He was one of those who changed his mind. In this is his understanding of the spear dao, along both paths he had traveled. It also contains a few good cultivation and battle techniques. You can study them and come to a decision yourself."


    Zhang Zi was stunned by this. He then took the memory stone into his hands and slowly started to read up on it. Seeing Zhang Zi so engrossed Bai Yun started to leave.


    "Wait." Zhang Zi called out just as Bai Yun reached the door. "Have you been walking around with this all this time?"


    "Nope." Bai Yun replied. "I just got the idea to give this to you when I saw you just now. I made it when I was talking to you."


    "Then I guess it was a lucky coincidence that I ran into you today." Zhang Zi said.


    For a moment Bai Yun was silent. "Coincidence is just a word we use when we don''t understand what fate has in store for us." Bai Yun said. "And I have heard from some very reliable sources, that fate is very powerful."


    Bai Yun then left behind a confused Zhang Zi, and went home. The moment he reached home, he fell into a deep sleep. He had been working hard for the past two weeks and needed a good rest.


    Tomorrow a hard journey begins.

 121 Hescha city

    It had been four days since Bai Yun had departed Yellow city. Bai Yun was determined to go at it alone. So he had said goodbye to his family at the mansion. There was no great fanfare. It was as if Bia Yun was going out for a stroll rather than a two year journey.


    Bai Yun had taken a carriage from Yellow city to the city he was currently in, Hescha city.


    Yellow city was in the middle of a large valley between the ever green hills and the blue moon mountains. There were multiple entrances to the valley at both sides. Bai Yun had decided to take the southern route to the plains of enlightenment.


    There were five points to enter the valley from the southern side. Bai Yun had taken a carriage to one of those entry points called the Heshca city.


    Due to the close proximity of the yellow city and other geographical advantages, there was no danger along the route. So Bai Yun was able to easily reach Heescha city.


    As one of the five major entrances to the yellow valley, Hescha city was a rather large city, though it was nowhere close to the top cities of the world. There were many people and traders who would travel through the city each day, making it a prosperous place.


    Bai Yun quietly traveled through the city. With his cultivation and age, and the plain clothes he was wearing, he did not stand out too much. Bai Yun drifted along with the crowd while looking at the stores on either side of the road. To Bai Yun who had gotten accustomed to the Yellow city, this was not much of a big deal.


    When Bai Yun was deciding on the path he would take, he had come up with three small cities he could head to after Hescha city. Bai Yun had decided that he would explore some options and take whichever one was better. He would late fate decide which city he would go to.


    Bai Yun asked a passerby for directions to the local transportation office. Here Bai Yun would be able to find a caravan or carriage that could take him to one of the next cities. Bai Yun initially considered taking a mission to one of the three cities. But considering the cultivation levels of the people in these cities, Bai Yun did not think that it would be too safe. Thus he decided to travel with a caravan that would offer their own protection for a fee.


    The transportation office was where these caravans would register if they wanted to find people to join them. The transportation office was located in the center of Hescha city, and it was not far from where Bai Yun got off the carriage from Yellow city. So it only took him less than an hour to reach there.


    When Bai Yun walked into the transportation office it was already the afternoon. So it was rather empty.


    Bai Yun walked up to a country. Behind the counter was a young lady who smiled politely when she saw Bai Yun approach her.


    "Hi, I would like to know if there are any caravans with a spot for rent heading towards clear moon city, sapphire lake, or terracotta hill." Bai Yun said.


    "And when would you want to leave." The young lady asked.


    "As early as possible." Bai Yun replied.


    "Definitely". The young lady said, before turning to look at the various screens and sheets in front of her. A moment later she turned to Bai Yun. "There are no longer any caravans leaving for those cities today. There is one leaving towards terracotta hill tomorrow morning. All the other caravans leaving tomorrow are fully booked. But there are many openings in various caravans leaving towards all three locations from day after tomorrow onwards."


    "Please book one seat to the one leaving tomorrow to terracotta hill then." Bai Yun said. He had said that he would let fate decide his path. And seeing that there was only a single caravan leaving tomorrow, it seemed like a pretty good sign.


    "definitely." The young lady said. "Please give me your identification card." Bai Yun quickly handed over the identification card he had gotten from the hunter union to the young lady as well as the cost of the seat and the registration fee. In a few moments he had booked a seat to terracotta hill. Then the lady handed Bai Yun both his ticket as well as the directions to the meeting place.


    "Would you be needing a room to stay for the night?" The young lady asked after Bai Yun had finished. Bai Yun thought for a moment before replying. "Just give me your cheapest room for the night." The transportation office often arranged for accomodation for people who were in transit. It was better to simply stay in the transportation office for a night rather than go around the city looking for a cheap inn.


    After Bai Yun booked both a room for the night and the seat for his journey, Bai Yun decided to travel about the city. He was seeing if would get lucky and could buy something he would need for cheap.


    Bai Yun spent the next few hours wandering about the city. He had gone into both large shops like the ones opened by the Alchemist Association as well as small roadside stalls. But Bai Yun had no great luck. He did find a few good medicinal ingredients, but he did not find anything even remotely valuable. Everything he found here could easily be found in yellow city.


    By now the sun had long since set, and Bai Yun had pretty much given up on finding any good item. Not that he had much hope anyway.


    It was with this attitude that Bai Yun walked into the final store. It was a medium sized store on the side of the main road.


    Bai Yun looked around the store. There was not much in it. It was a weapons store that displayed one weapon after another. There were also some raw materials displayed here and there.


    "Hello there young master, is there anything you would like." Suddenly an old store clerk appeared in front of Bai Yun.


    "No need I am just looking around." Bai Yun replied as he moved away. He looked through the items on the shelves but did not find anything interesting. But just as he was about to leave, a red rock at the corner of the store caught his eye.


    Bai Yun quickly walked over to the stone and quietly studied it. The more he studied it, the more he was sure of his guess.


    "You like this young master." The store clerk said. "This is a very valuable piece of red iron ore."


    Bai Yun smiled when he heard this. He was sure that the item in front of him was not red iron ore. It was a very valuable ore called volcanic iron ore. The two of them were very similar, but there wee some ways to tell them apart.


    Volcanic iron was far more pure than red iron. The iron that one could refine out of it was of a much better grade than normal red iron ore.


    But most blacksmiths would not work with volcanic iron. This is because during the refining process of volcanic iron, many impurities, and toxic substances would be released. refining it properly while not dying was such a difficult job that it was not worth the effort to refine it.


    Bai Yun probably would not have refined it too before he received the alchemist legacy. This was because he found a method n the legacy to refine poison pills from the toxic byproducts of the volcanic iron refining process. Bai Yun could completely utilise every art of the volcanic iron thanks to his expertise in formation, alchemy and blacksmithing.


    "Do you have any other ores." Bai Yun asked.


    "We dont have other ores." The salesman said. "We dont usually sell ores, but we were forced to buy this one due to some circumstances. The person who was selling this was also selling a piece of meteorite iron, and he would only sell them together, so we were forced to buy it."


    "You have meteorite iron?" Bai Yun asked excitedly.


    "Sorry." The salesman replied. "We bought it a long time ago. We have already sold all of it."


    Bai Yun nodded. "In that case, I will buy some of it. How much do you have.?"


    The old man was happy with this statement. He immediately took Bai Yun behind the counter to the warehouse to show him how much volcanic ore there was. There was over a ton of it, which was lying there like a small hill. But when refined, you would only get a tenth of it as iron in weight, if that.


    After Bai Yun bought the ore, he was about to leave, when he saw some wooden beams lying on the side.


    "What are those?" Bai Yun asked the clerk.


    "Oh, those. We bought some wood for some renovations to the store. Those are some leftover pieces, that were not good enough. They were far too flexible to be used in the construction." The clerk explained.


    Bai Yun studied the wooden beams for a while longer. The more he studied, the surer he became of his guess. This was a rare variant redwood. This could be treated and refined to make great arrow shafts. Even though he still did not have a good bow, getting some good arrows was useful. And the iron that he just got was perfect for an arrow head.


    "I want this wood." Bai Yun said. "How much will it cost."


    The salesman was surprised by the sudden request, but he decided to sell the wood to Bai Yun after consulting with his manager. The wood was simply sitting there taking up space anyway. If they can sell it, it would be a good profit.


    So Bai Yun quickly bought the wood and left the store in a good mood. While these materials were not rare enough that they could not be bought, due to the fact that the store didn''t realize their true value, he got them much cheaper.


    As the manager saw Bai Yun leave he finally gave a sigh of relief.


    "Finally, we got rid of that pile of volcanic ore." He said.


    "Will we get in any trouble." The salesman asked the manager. "After all, if that young man tries to refine the volcanic ore like regular ore, he will die."


    "It is not our problem." The manager exclaimed. "We can just claim that we didn''t know it was volcanic ore. It is difficult to tell those apart anyway. Whatever happens from now on is his fault. Though it will be a pity if something happened to him. I like him. Not only did he take away that pile of volcanic ore we couldn''t sell, he even took away that pile of useless wood."

 122 The travel begins

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 123 Arrival of bandits

    Bai Yun sat back in his spot and started to contemplate. But after a while, Bai Yun decided against leaving. First of all, it wasn''t his style. With his strength and experience, Bai Yun could definitely survive. And he had come out in order to experience many things. And this seemed like such an interesting event. How often do you get a chance to run across a caravan hiding something? Also if things got truly messy, Bai Yun had a teleportation talisman. Even if it would be a bit embarring to use it so soon, his life was more important.


    So there was no reason to run away.


    Bai Yun then sat down and leaned against the carriage. Slowly a smile crept up into his face. Bai Yun was getting excited about the possibility of a fight. He suddenly realized his soul might have been influenced a bit by both the devil emperor, as well as the bloodline of his current family. In his past life, Bai Yun thought nothing of a fight. He even often shied away from it. But now the prospect of a fight excited him a little.


    As Bai Yun contemplated, his cultivation base started to slowly rotate. He could feel the distance to foundation establishment shortening. Bai Yun had a feeling that if he wanted to, he could break through to foundation establishment at any time. Somehow the decision to fight was loosening his restrictions. But Bai Yun held himself back. His instincts were telling him that the time wasn''t right.


    Soon the rest of the caravan finished up and got back onto the carriages and they started to move. This time Bai Yun sat back and slowly started to cultivate. Bai Yun was cultivating infinitude heavenly thought. Bai Yun had already reached the four circle stage. So he could split his soul into four pieces. One of his soul tendrils was listening to the conversations around him, hoping to get more information. Another one was watching the area around him in case of something. The last two were cultivating.


    Until now Bai Yun had no reason to cultivate in the soul path. At first, he had already reached the peak of the first realm of the qi step. Then he couldn''t break through due to the clan tournament. After that, he easily broke through to the four circle stage, and now he finally has to start cultivating.


    The three systems of cultivating all had different restrictions on external resources and talent. The body cultivating system was completely dependent on external resources. The qi system required both talent and external resources. And as for the soul system, talent was the driving factor.


    And for Bai Yun, talent was not a problem. In his past life, Bai Yun''s talent in all three paths was impossible to match. But ever since his reincarnation, only his talent in the soul path remained. So he had no problem in cultivating in the soul path.


    As they saw that Bai Yun was cultivating, the rest of the group left Bai Yun alone. Many of them were regular travellers and were familiar with one another. So they all started to talk with each other, while some others were cultivating. So Bai Yun didn''t raise any eyebrows and he was left in peace.


    The caravan had traveled four another two hours when Bai Yun noticed a small commotion ahead. Bai Yun stopped his cultivation and looked outside the carriage.


    Bai Yun saw that the caravan had been surrounded by a large group of people. They were all armed and some were on various demonic beasts. Bai Yun saw that the cultivation of the leader seemed to be very high, at the soul step. He wasn''t hiding his cultivation at all, and was in fact pressing down on the caravan. This was a problem, as the strongest person in the caravan was only at the core formation realm.


    By now the chatter in the carriage had stopped. Everyone was silent and watching things happening carefully. But Bai Yun noticed that while most of them were very tense, some of the frequent travelers seem to be quite calm.


    It was obvious to everyone that they were surrounded by a bandit gang. If the bandits tried to kill them and took what they wanted, then this would be over for them in an instant.


    As Bai Yun watched, the leader of the caravan went out of the carriage he was in and walked over to the man who was exerting the pressure on them and respectfully handed him a package. The man counted the package and then waved his hand. The group of bandits then turned around and headed back into the hills. For a moment the leader of the caravan stood there and watched them leave, before returning to the caravan. Then the caravan slowly started to move.


    Bai Yun watched all this for a while before he turned to Ye Chen. "Uncle Ye Chen," he asked, "why didn''t those bandits attack us. They obviously had the strength to do so. I have heard that many caravans would pay a fee to the bandits to let them pass. But why would the bandits do so? Isn''t it easier for them to snatch?"


    Ye Chen smiled when he heard this. "Little Tian, do you think that Hescha city is a weak city."


    Bai Yun frowned when he heard this. "Of course not." He replied. "I have heard that the city lord of Hescha city is in the dao step. And that he has an elite squad of soul step cultivators. That is definitely a rather strong city."


    "And that is why the bandits don''t dare to go overboard." Ye Chen continued. "If the city lord of Hescha city wanted, he could easily crush these bandits. But they are like weeds, even if they are crushed, more would just spring up in their place. So it is too much of an effort for basically no return."


    "But that doesn''t mean that they can let these bandits run free too. If the bandits had free reign then they would attack all the caravan that pass through this road. If that happened, that would negatively impact the economy of Hescha city. And the city lord could never allow that."


    "So the two forces came to a mutual agreement. Hescha city would not attack the bandits, and the bandits would not harm the caravans. They would only take some money as payment. Only sometimes will they attack to show their prestige if the caravans don''t listen. And they would also maintain the peace around here. If a bandit group in the route starts acing up and attacks indiscriminately, then the other bandit groups would come together to kill them. That''s because if a bandit group starts to massacre, then Hescha city will have to move. And wehn they move, they will definitely kill all the bandits, not just the troublemakers."


    "Thus this system works for everyone. The bandits keep the peace and take a small toll, and Hescha city leaves them alone. This has been going on for a long time. For example, the bandit group we just encountered, is called the golden lion bandit group. They are one of the two strongest bandit groups on the road from Hescha city to Terracotta hill, and they have been around for over three centuries. That means that Hescha city hasn''t had to make a move for at least that long!" Ye Chen finally said.


    There was a long silence after Ye Chen finished his explanation. But after a while, everyone relaxed. Many first time travelers were rather wary of the bandits. But now they had relaxed after Ye Chen''s explanations. It seemed the journey would be more relaxed than they expected.


    But Bai Yun was thinking about something else. He was thinking of the fake injuries on the security forces. He wasn''t as sure as the rest that this journey would be very peaceful. But he wasn''t too worried either.


    The caravan continued to move along quickly. They did not have to stop anymore. Soon time passed and the sun set. When the sun set, the caravan stopped. It was far more dangerous to travel in the night than the day. Not only was there the chance of monsters attacking, some hot blooded bandits can also attack in the night.


    So the caravan moved into a small clearing on the side of the road. Such clearing were made for the purpose of caravans. There was already a caravan waiting there. But the clearing was large enough for both caravans to stay there for the night with plenty of space in between.


    The other caravan was coming from Terracotta hill, and was on the way to Hescha city. So the leader of the caravan went to talk to them to exchange information and know more about the path ahead.


    At the same time, the caravan quickly set up camp. The travelers would be sleeping on the carriages, but the staff had to set up tents for themselves to sleep in. The security forces, both the caravan''s security, as well as mercenaries also had to set up camp.


    As dinner proceeded Bai Yun sat in a corner and slowly ate his rations. Ye Chen gathered most of the others together and was having fun.


    Bai Yun sat there and watched the caravan. The staff of the caravan was happily eating. The security of the caravan was standing around watching things around them.


    But Bai Yun was a little surprised by the behavior of the mercenaries. Most of them were drinking and having fun. At some point, they had joined the travelers and were singing and dancing. They had even pulled in some of the staff into their proclivities. Bai Yun sat far from them in the shadows watching them be merry.


    Suddenly Bai Yun felt someone approaching him. He looked up to see a sharply dressed midlle aged woman holding a big gourd of alcohol approach him. From his observations in the day, he knew that this person was the leader of the mercenaries, a person at the core formation stage.


    "What are you doing all the way over here?" She asked as she came near Bai Yun.


    "Eating." Bai Yun replied.


    "I can see that. I am asking why you are sitting in the shadows?" She asked.


    "I like shadows." Bai Yun replied. And it was true to a certain extent. Ever since getting the Assassin God''s legacy, his attraction towards the shadows has increased by a lot.


    "You are a kid. You shouldn''t be sitting here being all gloomy. I mean how old are you?" The lady asked.


    "Fourteen." Bai Yun replied. He was traveling as Long Tian, and fourteen was the age he had registered as.


    "See that''s young." The lady said. "You are the youngest person here. You should be having fun and playing around instead of being so gloomy. Start acting your age, you brat. Leave the moping around to us old fellows. Your job is to have fun."


    Bai Yun looked at the bottle on the lady''s arm, before looking at her and asking. "In that case why are you drinking. Isn''t your job to protect the caravan? How can you do that when you are drunk?"


    "What do you mean drunk?" The lady replied angrily. "This bottle is nowhere near my capacity. Besides, we are professional mercenaries. We may drink, but none of us will get drunk. And the ones who are going to be on watch tonight are not drinking."


    Bai Yun looked around and nodded. Some of the mercenaries were indeed not drinking. The lady stared at him for a moment and then sat down next to him. "What''s your name?" She asked.


    "Long Tian." Bai Yun replied.


    "Little Tian do you want to see my family." The lady asked. Without waiting for Bai Yun to answer, she pulled out a small photograph. It was a photo of the middle aged woman along with a man holding a baby girl in her arms. "This right here is my husband. And this here my sweetie. She is two years old. Isn''t she precious? She is the reason I do this." The lady stared to go on about her family.


    From then on the lady went on about her family without giving Bai Yun a chance to interject. He learned quite a lot about her daughter and her habits and favorite color and so on. After a while, Bai Yun said that he was tired and finally escaped. The lady seemed to be a bit sad that Bai Yun left so quickly.


    Bai Yun quickly climbed into his mattress in the carriage and quickly fell asleep. After the eventful first day of the journey, he was already tired.

 124 The event during lunch

    Bai Yun walked out of the carriage and stood outside watching the busy morning. Ye Chen waved to him, and he waved back. After the preparations for breakfast was done, Bai Yun watched from the side as he ate breakfast. Once they were done with breakfast, the caravan quickly started to pack up.


    Bai Yun was on the way back to the carriage when he found his road blocked. He realized that the middle aged lady from yesterday was standing in front of him.


    "I saw that you were standing in a corner once again today." She said.


    "Yep." Bai Yun replied.


    "You shouldn''t do that. Only if you interact with others can you grow up to be a productive member of society." She said.


    Bai Yun''s face twitched as he heard her. Bai Yun nodded and said. "I will take it under advisement."


    The lady was happy to hear this. She smiled and then turned away. "Oh, by the way, my name is Huang Yao. Don''t forget it." She said as she left.


    Bai Yun shook his head and went back to the carriages. A short while later, the caravan started to move. Bai Yun sat back once again and started to cultivate. The situation was similar to yesterday. Soon the entire caravan settled into a simple rhythm.


    They ran into another small bandit group a short while after the set off, but it was also solved without any problem. The caravan then went on smoothly until they stopped for lunch.


    When they stopped for lunch, Bai Yun once again settled into a corner as usual. He then took out the food that they gave and took a bite.


    And he promptly spit it out.


    For a moment Bai Yun licked his lips. There was something in the food. Something that his body instinctively rejected. It wasn''t something he would have noticed before he had gotten the Alchemy legacy. But now, it stood out like a sore thumb.


    Bai Yun licked his lips, trying to identify the thing that irritated him, but he couldn''t isolate it. Seeing that no one was watching him, Bai Yun ripped a tiny piece of the food into his palm. Then a small gray flame appeared in his hands and started to slowly start to burn the piece of food.


    Slowly the piece of food disappeared. Bai Yun would smell the vapours coming off the pice of food as it burned. When it was finally gone, Bai Yun also rubbed his hands to check the residue on his palm. When he was done with this, a smile finally crept into his hands.


    Bai Yun was able to roughly identify what had caused the rejection. He was able to identify a chemical that was added to the food.


    Adding this to the strangeness of the caravan, Bai Yun suddenly realized that mostly this wasn''t aimed at him, but at the entire caravan. Bai Yun figured that the compound will take effect in an hour and would last for another hour after that. Thus the attack on the caravan should happen at that time.


    Bai Yun looked up at stared at the caravan. Since he was sitting in a corner everything here was reflected in his eyes. A beautiful glint came alive in his eyes as he stared at everyone in the caravan. But Bai Yun couldn''t see anyone acting suspiciously. Everyone seemed to be acting normal. But after all, the person who poisoned them would no longer have any need to act differently.


    There were many people who were involved in the making of lunch. The staff of the caravan, some of the mercenaries, and even some of the travelers had helped in making or at least came close to lunch. So it was difficult to see who was responsible for this.


    But now Bai Yun was stuck with another problem. He knew that an attack was imminent on the caravan, and if he did nothing, most likely everyone here would die. But what could he do?


    Given the hour before the effects of the compound would take hold, Bai Yun was completely sure that he could definitely make an antidote. But would anyone believe him and take the antidote. And he would be tipping off the culprit too. The more Bai Yun thought about it, the more annoyed he became. In fact, if he tried to save them, they might even attack him thinking that he was the one who poisoned them.


    So the only method left was to help them from behind the scenes. But this was too difficult. For one thing, he only had until the end of lunch. If he was to do anything in the carriage, he would be noticed, and the people would think that he was the culprit. And Bai Yun was not at a level where he could find an antidote to the compound by the end of lunch.


    Bai Yun was starting to get a headache. He only had a short while to solve this problem. In an hour the caravan would be attacked. He only had an hour to work. He had an hour to figure out how to make the compound ineffective.


    The moment his thoughts came to that point, Bai Yun froze. Then an immersible smile appeared on his lips.


    It was impossible for Bai Yun to delay the compound or even find an antidote by the end of lunch. But the other way was easy. If he wanted to speed up and amplify the effects of the compounds it was child''s play to Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun scratched his chest, and all of a sudden a ring appeared in his fingers. It was Bai Yun''s storage ring. He had hidden it in his robes, and had taken it out using sleight of hand. As an aspiring Assassin God, sleight of hand was an indispensable part of the curriculum. Bai Yun had practiced it quite a lot and was quite proficient in it by now.


    Bai Yun pretended to eat his lunch, but in truth, he was actually transplanting his food into his storage ring and not eating it. At the same time, Bai Yun was staring intently at the caravan to check if anyone would notice him. Seeing that no one was looking at him, he started to move,


    And then a few herbs appeared in his hand. A moment later a gray flame covered them. Usually, Bai Yun would use a cauldron to refine them, but ever since he got the hundred beast flame, his dependence on cauldrons had fallen. It didn''t mean that there was no need for a cauldron anymore. A cauldron would make this process easier. But there was no way Bai Yun could pull out a cauldron right now without drawing attention to himself.


    And as the herbs burned, a black smoke started to appear. Bai Yun used his soul tendrils to trap the smoke and also spread it around. With Bai Yun''s control, the smoke spread evenly and everyone here started to breathe it in.


    Suddenly both the lady who spoke to him, as well as the leader of the caravan security sat up and looked around. They were both at the core formation stage and they felt that something was wrong. But no matter how much they searched, they could not tell what was wrong. They looked at each other and then sat back down. But their vigilance had been raised and they were quietly looking around.


    Bai Yun only smiled when he saw this. By now he had finished sending the smoke to the mouth of everyone. From now on it was a race to see who would get sick first.


    After a while, the caravan finished lunch, and then they started to move. About five minutes later, Bai Yun noticed a frown appear on the forehead of some of the people on the carriage who were cultivating. A few moments later, Bai Yun could feel that some of the security also seemed to be a little disoriented.


    The caravan progressed for another minute before the security leader shouted for them to halt. "What''s going on?" The leader of the caravan asked.


    "Something is wrong." The security leader said. "My qi isn''t circulating properly."


    When the security leader said this, others in the caravans, also started to check on their own qi circulation. Everyone found that their qi circulation had slowed to a crawl.


    "Someone must have poisoned us." Huang Yao said.


    Everyone but Bai Yun was surprised and scared. If someone were to attack them right now things would not end well. But Bai Yun, while putting on an appearance of fear, was looking for anomalies. People who were behaving as they shouldn''t. After all the compound had started to take effect far earlier than it should.


    People started to question each other. They all realised only one of them could have poisoned them. Soon the entire group was looking at each together warily.


    But before they could come to blows, the two core formations cultivators intervened to calm everyone down. The important thing was to make sure that nothing happened right now. The caravan security leader asked the caravan to stop and come into a defensive formation. The carriages were arranged in a circle. Then the people of the caravan were placed in the center of the circle. The security forces and the mercenaries were surrounding the carriages protecting them and defending them from any attacks.


    Time passed by quickly. Less than a minute later everyone was feeling the effects of the compound. At that time Bai Yun finally saw an anomaly. In an instant, Bai Yun''s eyes focussed on a person in the group. A smile crept up on Bai Yun''s face. From that moment on Bai Yun''s attention was placed on that person.


    Time passed by quickly. As the effects of the compound were sped up and amplified, soon many people found themselves unable to use qi at all. This included everyone, from the staff to the security. They all were watching fearfully for an attack. At one point only the strongest two were able to use qi at all.


    But the time passed by without anything happening. In an instant, another five minutes passed. By now the effects of the compound were pretty much gone. Most of them had completely regained their qi. Only a few were still under the effects of the compound, and even for them the effects were all but gone.


    Seeing that there was no attack, everyone was confused. Nothing about what happened made any sense. The security and the mercenaries discussed the course of action and decided to wait for a few more minutes before making any move.


    But nothing seemed to be happening. Everyone was confused. And the person who Bai Yun noticed earlier was the most confused.


    And then just as the security team decided that what happened was maybe just an accident, a loud roar came from over a nearby hill.


    "It''s been a while you guys. I hope you have been well since the last time we met."

 125 The bandits arrive

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 126 Betrayal of Ye Chen

    One of the security forces of the caravan suddenly turned and pounced towards Ye Chen and the caravan owner. But suddenly a very powerful force originated from Ye Chen and he slightly moved his sword, and a small line was drawn on the caravan owner''s neck.


    "Who are you?" Security leader asked Ye Chen, feeling his cultivation at the peak of foundation establishment. "Someone like you shouldn''t be a nameless person."


    "I am Ye Chen." Ye Chen said. "The deputy leader of the rumbling bandits."


    "See how smart I am." The leader of the rumbling bandits said. "Knowing that you might have some tricks up your sleeve, I told Ye Chen to infiltrate your group. The original plan was to poison you all, but somehow it failed. But I think that taking hostages will work too."


    "How exactly is this worse for us?" Huang Yao suddenly asked. "You are going to kill us all anyway. If we surrender because of the hostages, you will kill us all including the hostage. If we don''t surrender, then you will kill the hostage. Either way, the hostage dies. Thus you taking the hostage has no meaning."


    For a moment the everyone went silent. No one could refute that reasonable argument. The leader of the rumbling pirates was confused, and everyone watched as he tried to come up with something to say. "Idiot." The leader of the sky pirates mumbled under his breath.


    "Forget about me." The caravan owner shouted. "Just fight with all you have. Or else you will all die."


    "Shut up." Ye Chen said as he kicked the caravan owner to the ground. The caravan owner was not someone with a high cultivation base, and could not resist Ye Chen. "Actually I have a better idea. The reason we wanted to kill them all is so that we could have time before the city lord finds out about what we did right. In that case, why don''t we just take them hostage for a couple of weeks while we flee the area? Once a couple of weeks pass, even if the city lord finds out the truth he won''t be able to find us."


    For a moment everyone was silent as they thought about Ye Chen''s plan. "It seems that your deputy has more brains than you." The leader of the sky bandits grumbled.


    "Don''t believe him." The caravan leader said. "Once you surrender they will only kill you. Even if I die, you must fight to the end."


    Once the caravan owner said this, the surroundings got even tenser. Everyone was then waiting for the decision of the two core formation cultivators of the security team.


    Suddenly the shadow behind Ye Chen rippled. Then, before anyone could warn him, a dagger was thrust into his back, right at the position of his heart!


    When the group had stopped because of the poison, Bai Yun quickly moved towards Ye Chen. Everyone only that Bai Yun was standing near someone he trusted due to his age and no one thought much of this. When the caravan was setting up the defensive perimeter, Ye Chen had taken it upon himself to stand near the caravan leader. Seeing this Bai Yun was even more sure of his guess. So Bai Yun went and stood right behind Ye Chen.


    Bai Yun had also used the Assassin gods teaching to full effect. Bai Yun made no movement and no sound. He was standing like a shadow. Bai Yun had noticed the eye line of everyone and hid in such a way that he would be easily missed. Since Bai Yun had not made any friends in the entire time he was here, no one missed him. So no one noticed him standing there. And even if they did, the expression on his face made it look like he was panicking.


    When Ye Chen took the caravan leader Bai Yun was the only person who saw it coming. So Bai Yun took his place behind Ye Chen and slowly took out his dagger. When Bai Yun took out his dagger from his storage ring, everyone''s attention was on Ye Chen, and thus no one noticed him.


    Bai Yun then waited till Ye Chen''s attention was elsewhere. As the tension grew, Ye Chen was more and more focused on a sneak attack by the security team. Soon Ye Chen was almost entirely focusing his attention on them. He had almost given up on the people of the caravan. Most of them did not have a high cultivation, and they did not walk the path of fighting. He overlooked Bai Yun even more due to his age.


    And thus his wariness towards the members of the caravan was decreasing second by second. And it was in the moment that he finally gave up on looking at the caravan members that Bai Yun finally struck.


    Bai Yun held the hilt of the dagger in his left hand, and his right hand covered the base of the hilt to give extra strength to his attack. Bai Yun used both the Assassin God''s technique, as well as what he had learned of windless motion to move as fast he could, as silently as possible. There was no sound at all in Bai Yun''s movement.


    But the reflexes of a peak foundation establishment realm cultivator was indeed too much. Ye Chen found out about Bai Yun the moment his dagger touched Ye Chen''s clothes. In an instant, he turned around to swing his sword at Bai Yun.


    But Bai Yun had already predicted this movement from Ye Chen. So when Bai Yun saw Ye Chen move, Bai Yun also moved accordingly. Bai Yun had spent enough time studying Ye Chen with his eyes, that he had unsealed. Every single curve and bulge in Ye Chen''s body was laid bare before Bai Yun. So when Bai Yun attacked him, Bai Yun''s dagger slipped in between Ye Chen''s ribs, slid along his muscles, and went straight at his heart.


    But Ye Chen was fast. A lifetime of battle had given him good instincts. He turned around fast and swung his sword at Bai Yun. But being a hastily made attack, it did not have his full force behind it.


    At that moment a blue aura started to cover Bai Yun''s right side. It almost looked as if a thin glowing blue cloth was draped over his right shoulder and upper right arm. It was false armor, the defensive technique Bai Yun had selected from his clan library. Bai Yun had been ready to deploy it long before he made a move.


    In an instant, Ye Chen''s sword collided with Bai Yun''s false armor, just as Bai Yun''s dagger thrust into Ye Chen''s back. Bai Yun heard a small crack coming from his arm. Then he felt a huge force passed onto his body. In an instant, Bai Yun was lifted and flung far away by the force of the attack. Bai Yun was flung away and crashed into one of the carriages. There was a huge dent in the side of the carriage and it was overturned by the force of Bai Yun''s collision. At the moment of collision, Bai Yun spit up a little bit of blood. And then he shakily stood up on top of the carriage.


    Bai Yun quickly analyzed his injuries. There was a gash on his arm and it was bleeding profusely. Thankfully no major artery or a muscle was torn, so he was fine. Bai Yun could also tell that his right arm bone had cracked a little. His organs had also shaken up a little, but he would be fine with a little rest.


    Bai Yun then ripped up his sleeve and started to bind up his arm. "I was really close." Bai Yun said. "Half a second, no a quarter, no a tenth. If you were just a tenth of a second late with your attack, my dagger would have pierced your heart."


    "Of course you can''t kill me with a surprise attack." Ye Chen said. "Who do you think-"


    "But that''s okay." Bai Yun interjected. "I could clearly feel my dagger pierce your pericardium. When the dagger came off with me as I flew away, it tore it up even more. Soon the area around your heart will start to fill up with blood. As it does do, it will become harder for your heart to beat. Slowly you will struggle to breathe. Even though your lungs are fine, you will start to suffocate. Then you will pass out with the lack of air. And then you will die as you lie there. I may not have stabbed your heart, but unless you have extremely precious healing pills, your death is only a matter of time. The only reason you haven''t passed out till now is due to your cultivation. I am essentially looking at a dead man walking."


    When Bai Yun finished, the entire crowd looked at him. Then they looked at Ye Chen. They could see that Ye Chen was bleeding quite strongly from his back. Bai Yun had finished bandaging his arms by then. He then leaped down off the carriage and picked up his dagger that he had dropped when he collided with the carriage. Then Bai Yun quickly drew his sword. This was not the sword his father had given him, but a cheaper one Bai Yun had bought just before he started his journey.


    "Well if I am dying, then you are coming down with me." Ye Chen shouted. Then he started to run straight towards Bai Yun, knocking away some of the members of the caravan, who were injured by Ye Chen''s charge.


    Ye Chen reached Bai Yun and swung his sword down. Bai Yun only took a single step to the side and dodged the attack. Then Ye Chen swung his sword again, which was easily dodged once again by Bai Yun. Bai Yun was trying to tire out Ye Chen and end the fight this easily.


    If Ye Chen was at his strongest, Bai Yun would not have been able to so easily dodge his attacks. The difference in cultivation was simply too much. But Ye Chen was weak with blood loss, so this was a much easier fight for Bai Yun.


    Soon Ye Chen started to slow down. Even though Bai Yun was dodging his attacks, it had caused Bai Yun to observe very close, and now his eyes were hurting a bit. It wasn''t as easy as he had made it look. So Bai Yun was also quite happy to see Ye Chen weakening.


    Suddenly Ye Chen collapsed. As he lay there bleeding into the dirt, Bai Yun smiled.


    "I can easily tell when someone is truly down or not. "Bai Yun said. "But I''ll play along with you anyway." Saying so, Bai Yun started to move toward Ye Chen.


    Just as Bai Yun reached Ye Chen''s attack range, Ye Chen jumped up and stabbed at Bai Yun. But his attack only hit the air. Bai Yun had jumped even before Ye Chen had attacked him.


    When Bai Yun was in the air, he kicked downward. Bai Yun''s leg collided with Ye Chen''s head. With a snap, Ye Chen finally fainted for real.


    Bai Yun landed on the ground and then drove his sword through Ye Chen''s heart to make sure that Ye Chen died for real. He then let out a long breath and sat down in the ground.


    Bai Yun looked up to see that everyone was staring at him. He smiled and then said, "Well, what are you all waiting for. The hostage crisis is over. You guys should fight now."

 127 The fight with bandits ends

    The two leaders of the caravan security were also stunned by Bai Yun''s actions. But they were awakened first by Bai Yun''s reminder. Without waiting, the two of them rushed at the two bandit leaders and attacked them.


    The two bandit leaders responded quickly, but they were still a beat too late. Their attacks were weak, and they found themselves injured. In an instant, the situation had turned unfavorable for them.


    The next moment fighting resumed between the bandits and the security forces also. Bai Yun sat down and watched it all with great interest,


    "Oy you brat, I know you are quite strong." Suddenly Hunag Yai shouted. "Join the fighting now."


    "I am injured", Bai Yun said pointing to his right hand.


    "Kid if you don''t join the fight right now, when I finish this fight, I will beat you up." Huang Yao shouted back.


    ''Unreasonable woman.'' Bai Yun grumbled as he got up. He then went through a gap in the carriages and joined the defense team.


    "Kill him, he killed the deputy leader." A random bandit shouted as he ran towards Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun only took a single step forward and then swung his sword. He both stopped the attack of the bandit as well as swiped his sword over the bandit''s neck in one movement. The next moment the bandit fell done on the ground, dead.


    Bai Yun then took one step after another through the crowd. To anyone who might be watching, it almost looked as if he was taking a stroll. But wherever Bai Yun passed through someone would die. The bandits at the foundation establishment levels were being stopped by the security and the mercenaries, so most of who were left behind were quite weak. Bai Yun only needed a single moment to kill them. In a few moments, Bai Yun had killed over a dozen bandits.


    Suddenly Bai Yun felt an attack coming at him from his side. Bai Yun quickly ducked and jabbed with his elbow at the same time. The bandit caught his elbow, but both of them were pushed back by the force.


    Bai Yun looked up to see an early foundation establishment realm cultivator standing there. He had escaped the fight with the security team to hunt Bai Yun.


    But Bai Yun was not at all concerned by this. Bai Yun was able to defeat early foundation establishment when he was blind. He was much stronger now. Of course, these guys had a lot more fighting experience. But to Bai Yun, it was all the same.


    And Bai Yun did not stop to explain how he was walking multiple cultivation paths. He blew away the sword of the bandit. Then Bai Yun stepped in, turned, and rammed into the bandit with his left shoulder.


    As the bandit was pushed back, Bai Yun turned around and kicked at him. The bandit tried to stab at Bai Yun with his sword as a defense. But Bai Yun kicked at the flat side of the sword with the bottom of his feet and pushed the sword away. Then he straightened his legs and kicked at the bandit. The bandit could not block the kick, and it landed straight on his face. The next moment he was sent flying by the kick.


    Bai Yun had barely steadied himself when he felt an attack coming from behind him. Bai Yun suddenly ducked by squatting and leaped backward. At the same time, he stabbed upwards with his sword. The next moment, his sword went through the bandit''s neck. Bai Yun was splashed with some blood as he stood up.


    At that time the bandit he had sent flying had gotten up. He ran at Bai Yun. While he ran, his sword started to light up. He was using a battle technique.


    Bai Yun smiled and ran at him too. At the same time, the tip of Bai Yun''s sword started to light up as Bai Yun used a ray of moonlight.


    The two of them neared each other soon. Then the bandit stopped and swung his sword, while Bai Yun stabbed forward. At that moment Bai Yun suddenly stopped his charge and jumped back while bending his body, dodging the bandit''s attack. Seeing this the bandit smiled. Since their swords were about the same length, and he was taller than Bai Yun, his reach was bigger. If Bai Yun jumped back to avoid his attack, then Bai Yun was too far away to attack him too.


    Thinking so he was about to continue his attack when he suddenly came to a stop. He found that Bai Yun''s sword had penetrated his throat.


    As he looked, he saw Bai Yun waving at him with his sword free hand. Bai Yun had thrown his sword at the bandit when he had jumped, killing him. Bai Yun then went up to the bandit and picked up his weapon.


    After this Bai Yun looked around him once again. Most of the bandits had now run away from him in fear. But seeing that more and more foundation establishment realm cultivators were noticing him, Bai Yn quickly retreated to the side of the security forces.


    "This is annoying." Bai Yun said. "Even if we keep on fighting for a long time, we won''t be able to able to end anything until the core formation fight is over."


    "But that is not a fight we can interfere in. We can only hope to kill as many bandits as possible before some of the strongest of us can enter that fight." One of the security guards said.


    Bai Yun thought about this for a long while. Then he turned to the mercenary near him and asked. "Do you have a good enough bow and arrow?"


    "Yes, why do you ask." The mercenary asked.


    "I just want to try something." Bai Yun replied.


    The mercenary was confused, but he handed Bai Yun a bow and arrow before he turned back to the fight with the bandits.


    Bai Yun took the bow and arrow and retreated back into the center of the caravan. He then drew the bow and pointed at the place where the four core formation cultivators were battling. His right hand was screaming in pain due to the broken bone, but Bai Yun persevered through it. The break wasn''t at a level where it would interfere with Bai Yun''s archery, only make it more painful.


    "Don''t bother." The caravan owner suddenly said. "At your current strength, you won''t be able to harm the core formation realm cultivators. Can you even see them?"


    "I am not trying to harm them, just to make an opening." Bai Yun replied. "And as for seeing them, just barely."


    WIth that Bai Yun turned his attention back to the core formation battles. Bai Yun was only looking at the leader of the rumbling bandits. The leader of the esky bandits was a bit too fast, and Bai Yun wasn''t sure if he could harm him.


    In Bai Yun''s eyes, he could only see people moving extremely fast. Even with his superior eyesight, it was a pain to jump two cultivation levels to watch a battle.


    Soon Bai Yun could no longer sense anything else. All of his focus was on the leader of the rumbling bandits. The leader of the rumbling bandits was moving all over the place looking for a place to land a hit. And Bai Yun kept on waiting.


    And then Bai Yun caught the leader of the rumbling bandits and Huang Yao swing their weapons wildly. In an instant, Bai Yun knew that his time had come. Their blow was filled with strength, and Bai Yun knew that they would be unable to control themselves for an instant afterward.


    In an instant, Bai Yun''s eyes lit up. His right eye lit up in a golden color, and his right pupil turned golden. His, left eye turned purple, and his left pupil turned purple. Bai Yun had activated his god and devil eyes. But Bai Yun had narrowed his eyes to a slit, so no one had it yet.


    In a moment the movements of the four core formation realm cultivators slowed down tremendously. It almost felt like they were moving just slightly faster than a normal person to Bai Yun. And he could clearly see every little bit of their movements and folds in their body.


    In an instant, Bai Yun''s hands moved dozens of times, readjusting his bow and arrow to the optimal point. Suddenly at a particular position, his right eye throbbed. Bai Yun knew that he had found the right position. He held the position for a fraction of a second before he released the arrow.


    The arrow flew at an impressive speed right at the leader of the rumbling bandits. It was not flying towards where he was, but where he would be when he came to a stop. In fact, it was almost as if the leader of the rumbling bandits was stepping into the line of the arrow, rather than the arrow flying towards him.


    At that time, Bai Yun suddenly closed his right eye, and his left eye lit up as he opened it wide. Everyone who was looking at him was now focussed on his arrow, so no one noticed this anomaly.


    The leader of the rumbling bandits felt the arrow coming at him. He only chuckled in response. "This is childish." He said. "If you think an arrow like this can even distract me, then you are seriously underestimating someone at the core formation realm." Saying so he swung his sword casually at the arrow, not even bothering to look at it. His focus was more on Huan Yao rather than the arrow.


    But the moment his sword crossed the arrow, the leader of the rumbling bandits felt that something was wrong. There was no arrow at the point the sword and arrow crossed paths. Instead, it felt like cutting air, or a mirage. As everyone watched the arrow slowly dissipated.


    At that moment Bai Yun fell to his knees and covered his eyes. The next moment the light in his eyes disappeared, and a weakness came across Bai Yun.


    At the same time, an arrow appeared right in front of the leader of the rumbling bandits. Just as his eyes widened in surprise, Bai Yun''s arrow pierced right into his right eye!


    The leader of the rumbling bandits fell to his knees and screamed around. But just as his scream reached the peak, it was cut off. Huang Yao had not wasted the chance the Bai Yun had given her, And had cut off the head of the leader of the rubbing bandits with a single swing of her saber.


    The sudden change in the situation caught everyone by surprise. But before anyone could react, Huang Yao had turned around and attacked the leader of the sky bandits alongside the security leader.


    The next second cheers sounded from the caravan''s security team. At the same time, they could see that the morale of the bandits were dropping fast.


    "Both the leader and the vice leader has died." Someone from the rumbling bandits shouted. "Let''s run away." But the next moment he was cut down by someone from the sky bandits.


    "Don''t run you bastards. Stay here and fight." The members of the sky bandits shouted.


    "Are you crazy?" A member of the rumbling bandits shouted. "The situation is one against two in the core formation fight. It will end badly for us."


    Soon there was a brawl among the bandits, as the members of the sky and rumbling bandits started to fight each other. The caravan''s security was more than happy to simply stand back and watch them fight it out amongst each other.


    Suddenly a change happened in the core formation battlefield. The leader of the sky bandits somehow threw off the other two and fled in an instant, without even giving a warning to his bandit group. After a moment both Huang Yao and the security leader chased after him.


    Seeing this everyone was stunned. "Retreat." Someone on the bandit''s side shouted. The next second they all turned and ran away. At the same time, they were chased by the security team.


    In an instant peace returned to the field. A moment later all the members of the caravan shouted in celebration.


    They had repelled the bandits.

 128 Breaking through to foundation establishmen

    A short while later Bai Yun heard the people of the caravan cheering loudly once again. The security forces had returned.


    Bai Yun stepped off the carriage to see that the security force of the caravan as well as the mercenaries had returned. But from their looks, things hadn''t gone too smoothly.


    "How was it?" The leader of the caravan asked. "Did you get them all?"


    "The leader of the sky bandits was too fast." The security leader replied. "He ran away. We couldn''t catch up to him at all."


    "And as for the rest of them, we were able to kill most of the bandits, but they ran in all directions." Huang Yao said. "I am sure that we missed a few."


    "That''s not good." The caravan leader said.


    "What''s the problem if a few bandits escaped." One of the staff of the caravan asked. "We were able to repel them when they had two core formation cultivators. We can defeat them again if they come back."


    "The problem is that the blabbermouth shouted that we have the purple spike fruit." The security leader explained. "The bandits who escaped all know about it. If they were to tell some other bandit forces about it, then those bandits might attack us for the purple spike fruit."


    When the security leader explained the problem, all the members of the caravan fell silent. They didn''t know what to do.


    "The good thing is that the purple spike fruit isn''t valuable enough for those bandit groups with soul step leaders to attack us and throw away all semblance of respect with the city lord." Huang Yao said.


    "But some of the weaker bandit groups, especially those with mid or late stage core formation cultivators may take the risk and attack us." The security leader said.


    "What can we do then?" The caravan leader asked. For a moment everyone was silent. No one knew how to answer his question.


    "We can only rush to Terracotta hill." Bai Yun finally said.


    For a moment everyone stared at Bai Yun. "What do you mean?" One of them asked.


    "Run as fast as we can without raising any suspicions. Run through the night. Run as fast as the demonic beast pulling the carts can. Run while taking as little rest as we can. And keep on running until we reach Terracotta Hill. And hope that the bandits don''t catch up to us before we reach Terracotta hill." Bai Yun explained.


    "If we are running, why can''t we run towards Hescha city. It''s closer" One of the travelers asked.


    "An if we run towards Hescha city, we don''t have that excuse. One of the bandit groups might grow suspicious of our reasons and attack us. It will be a lot more dangerous that way."


    "Also, soon everyone, including people at Hescha city will definitely learn that we have the purple spike fruit. If we go to Hescha city, since there are people there that even the city lord is wary of, it could be taken from us. And if the city lord''s son dies because the fruit is taken from us, then he would come after us in his rage. Do you think any of us can handle that? Frankly, I would rather face a few bandit groups than a pissed off soul step cultivator with nothing to lose."


    When Bai Yun finished everyone fell into thought. They know that Bai Yun was right.


    "But we are only travelers in the caravan." One of the travelers complained. "Our safety was guaranteed by the caravan. They need to take us back to Hescha city."


    "If we are forced to return to Hescha city because of your insistence, I can guarantee that the city lord will chase you down personally to kill you." Bai Yun replied. Hearing this they had no response, as they knew that Bai Yun was right.


    "In that case, we will be leaving soon." The caravan leader said. "If anyone wants to get off they are free to do so." He announced. But no one chose that option. No matter how dangerous the caravan would be, being alone here was far more dangerous.


    Quickly the staff of the caravan started to move as the order was given.


    At that time Huang Yao quickly came towards Bai Yun. "That was quite something brat. I didn''t think that you had it you to kill Ye Chen so easily."


    Bai Yun smiled in response. "I noticed him acting strange a long time ago. So I was ready to quickly take action and somehow things just worked out from then on. Not too well though, I did end up breaking my arm."


    "If you noticed him acting strangely, then why didn''t you say anything." Huang Yao asked.


    "If I had, would you have believed me?" Bai Yun replied.


    Huang Yao nodded. "Anyway that arrow was awesome, how did you hit it at his eye."


    Bai Yun laughed when he heard this. "That was pure luck. I wasn''t actually aiming at his eye."


    And it was true. Bai Yun was aiming at the leader of the rumbling bandit''s heart. But somehow by pure coincidence, the arrow had deviated from the path he intended due to various reasons and hit him in the eye. It came as a shock to everyone, Bai Yun included.


    "Anyway, you are still quite good." Huang Yao said. She didn''t say anything about the arrow disappearing when the leader of the rumbling pirates slashed at it with a sword. Everyone had their own secrets after all. "Why don''t you join our mercenary group." She asked


    "Aunty I-" Bai Yun started to reply, when he felt a sharp hit on the top of his head, and found himself face down on the ground.


    "Aunty your mother." Huang Yao shouted. "Call me big sis you hear."


    ''Just once, I would like to meet a normal woman in this life.'' Bai Yun thought as he stood up.


    "Big sis, I am just traveling without a fixed destination for now. I have no idea where I am going. There is no way I can join your mercenary team." Bai Yun said.


    "If you don''t know what to do, then follow us." Huang Yao said.


    "Sorry but I don''t want to." Bai Yun refused her offer once again.


    Huang Yao simply snorted in response. "I will definitely get you to join my group", she said before she turned away and left to join the mercenaries. All the mercenaries had been basically unhurt in the fight just now, just some minor injuries. But two of the security team had been badly hurt and had to rest in the carriage for real. Thankfully no one had died.


    Soon the caravan set off once again. This time they were faster than before. They ran through the night and quickly went on their way.


    The only rest time the demonic beasts that were pulling the carriages got was when the caravan stopped for meals. Soon the demonic beasts were quite tired. But they were of a rare and tough breed, who could hold on at this pace for a few days.


    And during the next couple of days whenever the caravan would meet up with bandits, they would tell them that they had some herbs that were needed for the antidote to cure the city lords poison. This made the bandit groups not want to deal with them too much, and quickly let them go after collecting their toll.


    And every day, Huang Yao would come to chat with Bai Yun. She would show Bai Yun her family and often talk about them. She would also try to recruit Bai Yun, but he would let her down quickly.


    And the caravan continued to move. It was in this way on the second day that Bai Yun finally found that he was unable to suppress his cultivation anymore. The battles that he had been part of had forced his growth and it was now time to break through to foundation establishment.


    Bai Yun sat down on the carriage and slowly felt his qi whirlpool. The process of breaking through from qi condensation to foundation establishment was to compress the qi in the qi whirlpool until it became a liquid. The clarity of the liquid would determine the strength of the qi while the quantity would determine how much qi one had. But the moment one reached the foundation establishment, the amount of qi would increase by a large amount, as the medium to hold qi would change.


    As the qi liquid was created, the qi whirlpools would start to disappear. If one to three qi spirals had been turned to liquid qi, then one was at the early foundation establishment. If four to six spirals had disappeared, it was mid foundation establishment. If seven to nine spirals had disappeared, then one was in late foundation establishment.


    Bai Yun''s qi whirlpool started to spin rapidly. As it spun, one of the nine qi spirals in the whirlpool started to move inward. It slowly reached the center of the qi spiral and started to compress.


    The long chain of the qi spiral reached the center of the qi whirlpool. As more and more of the qi spiral reached there, it started to press against each other. Soon a single drop of qi liquid appeared at the center of the qi spiral.


    As more and more of the qi spiral came inward, more and more of the qi liquid was made. Slowly the entire qi spiral merged into the small ball of qi liquid the size of a finger nail. The water in the qi ball was perfectly clear, and transparent. The qi liquid looked like a perfect little glass ball.


    And the moment Bai Yun reached foundation establishment a small wind rose around him. Then the qi in the area around him started to quickly converge upon Bai Yun. Quickly the newly formed qi liquid started to swell up. At the same time, the qi spirals in the qi whirlpool also started to become thicker and stronger. Earlier they were like wisps of smoke, but now they looked like milk. And as the qi passed through his body, it also nourished his body, making it slightly stronger.


    The people around him didn''t say anything, only staying away to not disturb Bai Yun during this critical time. They all knew this was caused by Bai Yun breaking through to foundation establishment.


    Soon the situation around Bai Yun came to an end. Bai Yun''s breakthrough to foundation establishment had finished. But Bai Yun did not stop. He could feel that he still had some more momentum left. So he quickly pushed the second qi spiral towards the small qi liquid blob at the center.


    And soon the second spiral also merged into the qi liquid. As it did, the size of the qi ball grew bigger and bigger. Soon the qi spiral had completely merged into the qi liquid, and the qi liquid had doubled in size.


    Bai Yun was finished with his breakthrough now. Bai Yun slowly studied the checked egg sized qi liquid that floated in the center of his dantian.


    He had finally reached foundation establishment. And that too as someone who had merged two qi spirals, and had thus traveled a bit in the foundation establishment.

 129 Terracotta Hill

No content

 130 Heading to poison valley

No content

 131 Carnivorous flower

    For a while, Bai Yun stood there and thought about what he should do. It was not practical to surround himself with the hundred beast flame. It would only cause his qi to be quickly depleted. There was no way Bai Yun could maintain it long enough to get inside, kill the plant, and collect the necessary items.


    After a moment, Bai Yun came up with an idea. He found a way to resist the effects of the pollen in the alchemy god''s memories. Bai Yun followed the steps in the memory and used some of the medicinal ingredients he had to create a thick paste. Then Bai Yun carefully walked a little into the wooded area. Bai Yun opened the god and devil eyes for an instant to make sure that the area he was in indeed had a little bit of the pollen, but not so much that he wouldn''t be able to resist the effects. Bai Yun stood there for a while, all the while using his soul tendrils to attract pollen to the taste. Bai Yun stood there until he started to feel the effects of the pollen. Bai Yun quickly retreated, and burned all the pollen inside him with the hundred beast flame.


    Once Bai Yun had recovered, he used the god and devil eyes to make sure that he had indeed gotten some pollen. Afterward, Bai Yun used the procedure in the alchemy god''s legacy to come up with an antidote. But Bai Yun only had a little of the pollen, thus the quantity of the antidote was also limited. According to Bai Yun''s estimation, it would only allow him to resist the effects of the pollen for an hour. If he could kill the demonic plant in that time, everything would be fine. Else he might have to retreat and start over.


    Bai Yun then swallowed the antidote and walked into the wooded area. The deeper he went in, the taller the trees became. The wooded area had some shrubs on the outside, but as he walked inside, it turned into tall trees only. The sunlight barely penetrated the thick canopy, and it quickly became darker.


    Soon Bai Yun walked into the place where he had reached earlier. Thanks to the antidote, Bai Yun had not fallen prey to the pollen this time. There a small backpack that Bai Yun had carried was lying. Bai Yun had brought this backpack to make people think that he did not have a storage ring. He had dropped it here when he ran out earlier as he knew that he would need to use the hundred beast flame to resist the pollen, and the backpack might get burned in the process. Also without the backpack, he was faster.


    Bai Yun walked forward into the wooded area. He did not know where the demic plant was, but he guessed that it must be at the center of the area. So he simply walked to where it was darker.


    And Bai Yun''s guess was correct. About ten minutes later, Bai Yun found himself face to face with a giant red flower in a clearing in the woods. The flower was over five meters in diameter. It had five large petals that spread out on the floor. The flower had a large hole in the center that was over three meters in diameter. The hole seemed to open and close slightly, making it look like it was breathing. As the flower breathed, it would sometimes release a yellow orange wisp that quickly diffused into the surroundings. These wisps were the pollen that the flower was releasing.


    Bai Yun watched the flower for a while before he walked forward to it. He could not see anything in the clearing other than the flower. But demonic plants such as these tended to have some sort of defense mechanism. It obviously wouldn''t put all of its defenses on the pollen.


    And as Bai Yun approached the flower, it seemed exited. It initially opened its mouth and eagerly waited for Bai Yun to get close. But Bai Yun simply pulled out his sword and waited for its response.


    The flower seemed to be angry at Bai Yun''s reaction. It puffed out a few wisps of pollen which directly flew towards Bai Yun. Bai Yun saw the pollen coming towards him and then he raised his hand. A plume of hundred beast flame covered his hand, and Bai Yun then waved it in front of him, burning away the pollen.


    The flower was angered even more. It breathed rapidly for a moment longer. Bai Yun simply watched it have a fit. He was waiting to see what the flower would do.


    And it did not disappoint. A few seconds later, the flower lifted its petals of the ground, and two shadows ran from beneath them at Bai Yun.


    Even though the two shadows were fast, Bai Yun was able to capture them perfectly. One of them was a skinny wolf, while the other was a scorpion, which was even larger than the wolf.


    In an instant, Bai Yun understood what was happening. This plant must be able to control beasts as well as eat them. These beasts must have wandered into the wooded area, and then must have fallen under the effects of the pollen. But the plant, instead of eating them must have chosen to keep them as guardians. But from the look of the two beasts, it was obvious that they were starving. They were weak and skinny. And even though both of them seemed to be fifth circle beasts, equal to mid foundation establishment realm, their strength was deeply reduced.


    Bai Yun watched as the two of them got close to him. The scorpion reached Bai Yun first. It attacked Bai Yun with its two pincers. Bai Yun jumped up into the air to dodge the attack. But at that second, its stinger flashed at a terrifying speed and headed straight for Bai Yun. Bai Yun put his sword in front of him quickly, and stopped the stinger from hitting him. But the speed and strength of the attack, send Bai Yun flying back.


    Bai Yun landed on his feet and stabilized himself quickly. But by then the wolf had also reached him. It jumped towards Bai Yun with its jaws outstretched. Bai Yun flashed to the side, while swinging his sword, leaving a deep cut on the side of the wolf.


    The scorpion then attacked Bai Yun with its pincers. Bai Yun lightly leaped onto the scorpion''s back, and swung his sword hard, colliding with its stinger which attacked him. The force of the collision was transmitted to the scorpion, pressing it to the ground.


    At that time the wolf once again leapt towards Bai Yun. Bai Yun knelt on the scorpion''s back and punched up. The wolf, severely weakened by hunger, was sent flying.


    In that position, a yellowish red glow appeared around Bai Yun''s fist. It looked like a preliminary, vague outline of a face. Bai Yun focused all of his strength on his left arm, activated Lion''s roar, and punched down at full strength. The moment the fist landed on the scorpion''s carapace, the force of the fist drove it to the ground, raising a lot of dust and cracking the earth. At the same time, a crack finally appeared on the scorpion''s carapace.


    It was at that point that Bai Yun suddenly felt dizzy. With a start, Bai Yun realized that he was fighting three enemies, not two. Bai Yun was also attacked by the flower with the pollen. Even though Bai Yun had taken an antidote, at the high concentrations the flower was attacking Bai Yun with, it was starting to lose effect. Bai Yun quickly used the hundred beast flame to cover his face and burn the pollen. Even though pollen could still enter his body through the pores on his body, the quantity would be low, and the antidote should be able to defend against that.


    Suddenly Bai Yun tilted his neck. A moment, the scorpion''s tail stabbed through exactly where his head was a moment ago. But before it could pull the tail back, Bai Yun grabbed it with both his arms.


    Bending his waist, Bai Yun strongly pulled the scorpion up. And then, with his full strength, Bai Yun threw the scorpion at the wolf.


    As the scorpion and wolf collided together, Bai Yun put his sword back into the scabbard and ran towards the beasts. Due to the shape of the two beasts, they were entangled and struggled to free themselves. But before they could do so, Bai Yun had reached their side.


    And the moment Bai Yun reached near them, Bai Yun executed the modified sword drawing. Sword drawing was the fasted technique among the six truths of the sword god. And Bai Yun''s modified version that was suitable for the qi step maintained this speed. Now that Bai Yun had reached the foundation establishment realm, he could finally execute the technique freely and easily.


    So before the two beasts could react, Bai Yun ran through them. In an instant, the two beasts were cut into two pieces. Thanks to their weakened state and the injuries they had already suffered, they offered little to no resistance. Else if they were at their peak, Bai Yun would have found it difficult to kill them both at the same time.


    Seeing that its two beasts were killed the flower started to panic. It started to pump out pollen in huge quantities. But Bai Yun used the hundred beast flame to burn all the pollen that came close to him. But Bai Yun knew that he was almost out of qi.


    So Bai Yun ran at the flower. At the same time, Bai Yun''s sword lit up with a grey flame. Them Bai Yun''s sword tip lit up in a soft glow.


    Bai Yun quickly reached the flower, and cast rain in the moonlight. In an instant, the flower was pierced hundreds of times. As the flower was pierced, the hundred beast flame set it on fire. Soon the flower was burned to a crisp.


    As the flower was burned, Bai Yun''s qi finally ran out. The hundred beast flame he was maintaining around his nose also died out. At the same time, the effects of the antidote started to weaken.


    As Bai Yun stood there panting, he found himself falling unconscious under the effects of the pollen.

 132 Collecting poisons

No content

 133 The miasma revolts

No content

 134 Blue lotus blooming

    Bai Yun started to move about the poison valley, hoping to run into someone to understand what was happening. As he walked, Bai Yun found that the concentration of miasma in the air was quickly dropping. It was already weaker than the normal levels, but it seemed to be falling fast to an almost imperceptible level.


    Bai Yun walked about poison valley for a while before he ran into someone else. The person Bai Yun saw was quickly running deeper into poison valley in a hurry. Bai Yun quickly went to him and stopped him.


    "Hey brother, could you answer a few questions for me?" Bai Yun asked while taking out a low grade spirit stone and handing it over to him.


    The man was irritated that someone stopped him, but quickly smiled when he saw the spirit stone in Bai Yun''s hand. He quickly took it from Bai You and turned to Bai Yun with a smile.


    "What do you want to know young master?" He asked.


    "Why did the poisonous miasma suddenly increase last night?" Bai Yun asked.


    "Young master, are you not from terracotta hill?" The man asked.


    "No." Bai Yun replied.


    "So you have no idea what is happening right now?" The man asked. Bai Yun shook his head in response.


    "Alright, I will explain what is happening." The man explained the events that were happening.


    The revolt of the miasma of poison valley is a rare event that appears around once a century or so. It is caused by a huge explosion of miasma that originated from the lake at the end of poison valley. No one knows why it occurs, or how to reliably predict it, except that it occurs about once a century. Once the explosion occurs for a while the amount of miasma in poison valley would drop precipitously and it would almost be as if there was no miasma at all.


    But what everyone does know is what happens immediately after. In the lake, special lotuses will appear. There were two types of lotuses, blue and purple ones.


    These blue and purple lotuses contain a huge amount of toxins. They were extremely toxic, that even ingesting a little bit would kill even ones with a good cultivation base.


    But a few centuries ago the alchemy assassination found a way to transform these orchids into powerful medicines that could help in cultivation. Each blue orchids could help someone in the foundation establishment, or sometimes, if they were large enough, those in the core formation realm. The purple lotuses on the other hand were for people in the core formation and nascent soul stages.


    So these lotuses were quite valuable. Many people were now heading towards the lake at the end of the poison valley to find them.


    When Bai Yun arrived near the lake, he found that there were many people there who were looking for lotuses. From the man he met, Bai Yun knew that the lotuses would appear randomly, and all over the lake, so finding one was mostly up to luck. So Bai Yun quickly left the crowd and started to walk around the lake hoping to get lucky.


    As he walked about, Bai Yun saw many others who were wandering around just like him. Some of them were making groups and trying to look for lotuses. This was because not only would other adventures attack you for the lotuses, but even some of the demonic beasts in poison valley would come here for them. Thus it was quite dangerous and was safer to go together.


    Bai Yun found many people preparing to strike out for lotuses. There were some people who were making a boat and some people even just jumped into the lake to swim. Usually the lake would be too poisonous to swim, but for a short while after the miasma explosion, the water would turn normal.


    Bai Yun knew nothing about making boats, and he did not want to join others either. So he simply wandered around by himself.


    Bai Yun had nearly circled half of the lake when he found himself alone. At that point, Bai Yun saw that the lake water was bubbling slightly. Bai Yun stood on the shore for a while before a small blue lotus popped out of the water. Bai Yun looked around, but not seeing anyone else, he plucked the flower and put it away in his storage ring. He waited a while to see if anyone would come to fight him for the lotus, but nobody did. So Bai Yun walked away feeling quite lucky.


    Bai Yun walked around the lake a couple more times. This time he did not get lucky and find any more lotuses.


    Bai Yun stood there on the shores of the lake for a while before he decided to venture into the lake itself. Even though he already had one lotus, there was no harm in getting more. And the chances of finding a lotus on the shores were low.


    Bai Yun did not know how to make a boat. So he took a very simple approach. Bai Yun cut down a large tree and dragged it to the water and simply sat on it. Then he used his soul tendrils like paddles to quickly move into the lake. As he moved on his makeshift boat, he got many weird looks, but Bai Yun simply ignored them and just went about his way.


    Bai Yun soon found himself isolated. The lake was very large and there were not many people nearby. Only a few people who were in the vicinity of the poison valley had entered here to check out the lake by now. It would be a while before the people from terracotta hill arrived.


    Bai Yun paddled randomly for a few minutes before he caught sight of another blue lotus in the distance. He rapidly paddled over to it before he saw that the lotus was surrounded by many fishes. They were fighting over the lotus while being careful not to damage it.


    These fishes weren''t very strong, they were all below the third circle level. Generally, such beasts would be of no problem to Bai Yun, even with their numbers, but the fact that they were fishes, while he was in the middle of a lake complicated things a bit. Bai Yun thought for a moment whether he should leave this lotus alone before deciding otherwise.


    Bai Yun stopped his tree a god distance from the lotus, far enough that the fishes won''t notice, but close enough to reach the lotus with his soul tendrils. After confirming that there was no one nearby, Bai Yun immediately picked the lotus with his soul tendrils and brought it over to himself, and put it away. Then he moved away as fast as he could before the fishes noticed.


    Bai Yun only stopped after ten minutes. After confirming that he had indeed lost the fishes, Bai Yun started to head over in a new direction.


    For the next hour, Bai Yun wandered around the lake. He saw a couple of lotuses in the distance. But before he could reach them, someone else had already taken them away. Since he already had two blue lotuses, Bai Yun did not feel like going and stealing lotuses from others.


    It was at this point that Bai Yun saw another blue lotus. It was in the middle of a few groups of adventures. They were all standing around wary of each other. Bai Yun saw them and rapidly moved towards them.


    When they saw Bai Yun approach, they turned to look at him. Seeing Bai Yun''s age as well as his boat, many of them chuckled. "Little boy, leave now before you get hurt." One of the adventurers warned him.


    Bai Yun looked around at them. The strongest of them was only at the mid foundation establishment realm. Bai Yun smiled when he realized this. He smiled, and his soul tendril went and wrapped around the lotus. With a wave of his hand, the lotus was plucked and it flew towards Bai Yun.


    When the lotus fell into Bai Yun''s hand, everyone around was stunned. Bai Yun put the lotus in his backpack, as he didn''t want to let people know about his storage ring. After this, he smiled and waved to the adventures. "See you later." Bai Yun said as he left.


    A moment later, the adventures woke from their stupor. They all turned around and charged towards Bai Yun. Seeing this Bai Yun frowned. Then he leaped off of his tree and landed on one of the boats.


    Seeing that Bai Yun had landed on their bat, the adventures were happy. They picked up their weapons and turned towards Bai Yun. But Bai Yun simply cast soundless motion and disappeared from right before their eyes.


    In an instant all but the mid foundation establishment leader found themselves disarmed. The leader roared and charged at Bai Yun. But due to the swaying of the bat, his steps were unsteady. But Bai Yun did not have such a problem. His soundless motion worked perfectly even on the boat. Otherwise, specter steps would not be a top class movement technique.


    In an instant, Bai Yun arrived behind the mid foundation establishment leader and put his sword on his neck. On land, he might have to fight a lot to win, but on water Bai Yun''s, victory was near instantaneous.


    "This time I''m letting you go." Bai Yun said. "don''t follow me anymore. Next time I won''t be so gentle. And this goes to all of you." Saying so Bai Yun put away his sword, and got back on his tree, and left.


    The adventures looked at each other for a moment, before turning away and leaving. After seeing Bai Yun''s strength, they had no desire to fight him.


    And Bai Yun put away the third lotus in his storage ring, and continued his search. But after a while, Bai Yun decided to head back. He had already found three lotuses. While it would be fine to find a few more lotuses, he could see that the number of people here was increasing. Obviously, the people from terracotta hill were starting to arrive. And Bai Yun did not want to get into any more fights. If he did not have any lotuses, he might have stayed, but with three lotuses, Bai Yun had enough for his own use.


    And so Bai Yun headed back to the shore. He had barely landed when Bai Yun saw another lotus swaying in the water just a short distance from him. After looking around and seeing no one, Bai Yun went to pick it up.


    Bai Yun had barely reached for the lotus when he saw a shadow beneath the water rapidly rising. Feeling a huge danger approaching, Bai Yun rapidly retreated. And then, right where he was standing, a huge three headed snake appeared.


    The moment he saw the beast, Bai Yun retreated even faster. He knew that all the snakes with multiple heads were descendants of the great ten headed snake, the hydra. All venomous snakes were descended from the hydra. It had ten heads and each head had mastered a different element which included earth, fire, water, wood, metal, air, lightning, poison, light, and darkness. And all multiple headed snakes were like the hydra. Each of their heads had mastered a different element. And the worst part was that until each head used an element, it was difficult to tell what element that head had mastered.


    And as the number of heads increased, so did the purity and power of the snake. A snake with three heads like the one in front of him was in the same league as the shadow leopard and lava spider that he had encountered. And the beast in front of him was at the fifth circle level. Its strength along with its bloodline made it an incredibly formidable opponent.


    Bai Yun smiled wryly when he saw the snake. "I did not know that you wanted this lotus brother snake." Bai Yun said with a smile. "You can have it you know. I won''t fight for it at all."


    Saying so, Bai Yun turned around and ran away.

 135 Fighting the three headed snake

    Seeing that the snake was chasing after him, Bai Yun cursed. "What the hell are you chasing after me for you stupid snake? I left the lotus for you. You can have it. I won''t fight over it." But the snake did not listen and continued chasing after Bai Yun.


    What Bai Yun did not know was that snakes had an excellent sense of smell. The three headed snake had smelled the three other lotuses on Bai Yn. That was why it was determined to catch him.


    Bai Yun realised that the snake was slowly but surely catching up to him. He could probably escape with soundless motion, but Bai Yun knew that with the snake''s sense of smell, it would soon track him down once his qi ran out. So with no other choice, Bai Yun decided to stay and fight.


    Seeing that Bai Yun had stopped, the snake quickly caught up with him. The snake was over ten meters long, and the way it stood, it was over a meter tall. Its eyes were level with Bai Yun''s. The two of them stood there staring at each other for a moment.


    The snake took a deep breath, then the mouth of the middle head opened up and a thick green smoke came at Bai Yun. Seeing this Bai Yun cast soundless motion and got out of the way of the smoke. When Bai Yun stopped and looked back at the place he was standing at, he realized that it had all turned into a wasteland. All the greenery at that place had quickly wilted and died. With this Bai Yun had understood the ability of the middle head, poison.


    The snake hissed and the next moment a snake tail the size of a tree trunk came at Bai Yun. Bai Yun barely had enough time to block it with his sword before he was hit. The force of the collision send Bai Yun skidding back a couple of meters.


    The snake turned around and lunged at Bai Yun with its three heads. Bai Yun cast soundless motion to dodge the attack.


    Bai Yun maneuvered around to the back of the snake. In a single motion, Bai Yun struck at the snake''s back. But the sword only left a shallow mark on the snake''s scales.


    Feeling angered, the snake turned around and coiled around Bai Yun. Seeing the danger, Bai Yun jumped up high. The snake followed suit and jumped up at Bai Yun. Bai Yun used the soul tendrils to change his direction and landed lightly on the snake''s middle head. The next moment Bai Yun cast soundless motion and appeared on a tree a little distance away.


    The three headed snake was pushed down by the force of Bai Yun''s movement. But it simply turned around and lunged right at Bai Yun once again.


    Bai Yun regretted that he hadn''t made a good bow until now. If he had a great bow, Bai Yun could shoot down the snake without getting too close to it. Bai Yun wasn''t too afraid of its strength. Bai Yun could definitely handle this beast. But it was its elemental attacks that made it a horror to be around.


    By now the snake had neared Bai Yun once again. Bai Yun jumped off the tree and landed on the ground. From there he stabbed up towards the snake''s middle head.


    But the snake twisted its body almost as if it knew that Bia Yun was coming for its middle head. Its right head turned around and appeared in front of Bai Yun. It opened up its mouth and took a deep breath. Sensing a great danger, Bai Yun wrapped himself in his four soul tendrils and swung himself to the side.


    But it was a little too late. Sharp wind blades shaped like little needles appeared from its moth and headed straight towards Bai Yun. Even though Bai Yun got out of the way, he was still hit by a few wind blades.


    With this Bai Yun found out the element of the right head, wind.


    Bai Yun had many small holes on his body. Even though each of the wind blades were quite weak, there were many of them. It caused Bai Yun to have many small cuts on his body, turning him bloody.


    The snake turned towards Bai Yun, hissing. Bai Yun cast soundless motion and moved away right before the place he was standing was slammed into by the snake''s tail.


    Bai Yun knew that he had to get the snake to reveal the element of its third head before he could formulate a plan to kill it. In an instant, Bai Yun came up with a plan.


    Bai Yun moved to the left side of the snake and attacked it from that side only. He was trying to make it so that the snake had to attack him with its left head. But the snake was dextrous and it kept on attacking Bai Yun with all three heads.


    But Bai Yun was able to keep the snake''s heads at bay with simple sword. Every time the snake would try to open its mouth to attack, Bai Yun would attack it too so that it would have to dodge.


    And then Bai Yun leaped up into the air a little bit. He sharply kicked the middle and right heads of the snake, causing them to turn away in pain. But the left head bit towards Bai Yun who was in the air.


    Bai Yun blocked the snake''s head with his sword, causing him to be pushed back. But he unfortunately landed on a root of a nearby tree, slipped, and fell to the ground. Seeing the opportunity, the left head of the snake rapidly approached Bai Yun and opened its mouth wide right above him.


    Realizing the danger, Bai Yun acted in an instant. All four of his soul tendrils joined together and slammed into the jaw of the snake. The collision caused the head of the snake to tilt, and thus change the direction of its attack.


    A moment later a huge plume of fire scorched the area right above Bai Yun''s head. A few sparks even fell onto Bai Yun''s hair, and caused it to singe. With this Bai Yun had learned of its third ability, fire.


    Bai Yun quickly got up from the ground before the heads of the snake could reorient to attack him. But at that moment, Bai Yun felt the snake''s tail coming at him. With no time to dodge, Bai Yun braced for impact.


    In an instant, Bai Yun collided with the tail. The force of the collision send Bai Yun flying through the air and he came to a stop as he collided with a tree. Bai Yun spit out a bit of blood as he shakily stood up.


    The three headed snake turned towards Bai Yun and started to slither towards him. A cold look appeared in Bai Yun''s eyes. He finally had a plan to kill the snake.


    Seeing the approaching snake, Bai Yun also ran towards it. He transferred his sword to his left arm, and approached the snake quickly.


    When the two of them neared each other, Bai Yun jumped up and stabbed his sword straight at the snake''s left head. At the same time, the snake opened its mouth and spewed out flames. Bai Yun bend his body in such a way that he managed to dodge most of the flames, but his hand was not so lucky. As the tip of the sword lit up when Bia Yun cast a ray of moonlight, it parted the flames that were coming out of the snaked mouth.


    But it wasn''t completely effective. Some of the flames did hit Bai Yun''s arm. Ignoring the pain, Bai Yun thrust his sword. It went through the flames and with a splat, entered the snake''s mouth, and came out of its head.


    Two of the three heads of the three headed snake screamed in pain, but one of its heads had already died. The other two heads turned around and bit at Bai Yun. Bai Yun kicked off the body of the snake and leaped back.


    Bai Yun landed on the ground a good distance from the snake. In order to quickly escape, Bai Yun had left the sword stuck in the snake''s head. But he had made a backup sword just in case, and he quickly pulled it out from his storage ring.


    Seeing the Bai Yun had killed one of its heads. The snake turned around and attacked Bai Yun fiercely. Bai Yun closed his eyes and waited for the snake to approach him. The moment the snake neared Bai Yun, its fangs dripping with venom, Bai Yun''s eyes opened.


    The next moment Bai Yun''s figure flashed faster than the snake could follow. Bai Yun used sword drawing, and the next moment, a deep gash appeared on the right head of the three headed snake as Bai Yun passed by the snake without harm. As the snake screamed in pain, Bai Yun threw his sword and it curved in the air under the control of his soul tendrils and stabbed into the wound Bai Yun just gave the snake.


    The sword that Bai Yun send was placed perfectly. It passed by the thick strong scales of the snake and stabbed into the wound. The sword then pierced through a major artery in the neck of the snake, creating a huge gush of blood. A moment later the second head of the snake also fell down dead.


    Seeing that two of its heads were killed, the there headed snake finally started to panic. It turned around and ran away. By now Bai Yun was panting with tiredness.. But he had no intention of letting it get away. Not to mention his two swords were stuck on the snake.


    Bai Yun cast soundless motion and appeared on top of the snake. He kicked down sharply driving its head into the ground. With two heads gone, and a huge amount of blood loss, the snake was much weaker now.


    Bai Yun raised his right fist and a yellow red glow appeared on it. It was weaker than usual as Bai Yun was running out of qi at this point. Bai Yun used Lions roar and slammed down on the middle head of the snake.


    The snake head collided with the ground, causing it to crack. At the same time, Bai Yun had pulled out his two swords using his soul tendril.s. He grabbed each sword with a hand. As he did so, a great pain shot through his left hand which had been burned by fire. Ignoring it, Bai Yun stabbed down with his two swords and drove them into the eyes of the middle head.


    The body of the snake struggle beneath Bai Yun for a few minutes, before it finally went silent.


    Bai Yun had killed the three headed snake.

 136 Meeting Huang Yao

    So Bai Yun quickly ate a qi replenishing pill, as well as a healing pill. The healing pill could only heal his minor injuries but not his burned hand. But Bai Yun realized that one of the advantages of Undying Body was its ability to heal. Since Bai Yun had only completed skin sewing, any skin level injury would heal in time, not even leaving any scars. It would take some time that''s all.


    So Bai Yun wrapped up his left arm with bandages. Then he went to the snake and collected all of its blood. The three headed snake was a very valuable animal and all of its parts could be sold for a great price, and that was not including the uses Bai Yun had for it.


    Bai Yun first pulled out the demonic cores of the three headed snake. The three headed snake was special in that it had three demonic cores, each for one of its heads. All of the multiheaded snakes were like that. After this Bai Yun tied it in bandages to stop the bleeding, and then wrapped it up and tied it up with nearby vines. All through this Bai Yun did not show any weakness, just in case, someone around him tried to attack.


    After this Bai Yun went back to the lake. He had left the fourth blue lotus there when the three headed snake attacked him. Even though the fight with the snake had been intense, it had actually only taken a short time. So Bai Yun did not think that it had been taken yet. After all, anyone nearby would have been attracted by the sound of fighting and not gone to check the lake.


    And just as Bai Yun thought, the lotus was still here. Bai Yun walked to the shore, and quickly plucked the lotus, and put it in his backpack.


    When Bai Yun turned around, he found that there were a couple of groups of people standing there looking at Bai Yun. Seeing them Bai Yun suddenly felt irritated. These guys had been watching when Bai Yun was fighting the three headed snake. But not a single one had come forward to help. And now that Bai Yun had killed the snake and found a blue lotus, they all appeared to steal from him.


    "I''m going to this say this once and just once," Bai Yun said, "get lost before I kill you all."


    Along with those words, a powerful killing intent and a coercion rose from Bai Yun. A terrifying killing intent permeated the surrounding. Bai Yun usually did not like using his killing intent to power through, but right now he didn''t care, and it flowed out like a river.


    And those adventurers were now regretting their choice. When they initially surrounded Bai Yun, they thought that he was weak after the fight with the three headed snake. They were staring at Bai Yun who was now nearing them with each step he took. Bai Yun''s coercion made it nearly impossible to breathe. They were sweating visibly. Some of them even gulped audibly.


    Bai Yun walked past them calmly without looking back. A few moments after Bai Yun disappeared into the trees, the adventurers all collapsed to the ground. Only they knew just how much pressure they were under just now. Some of them even decided to quit and change their lifestyle.


    Bai Yun walked forward for a good while longer before he stopped. He let out a deep long breath, and bend over, clutching his stomach.


    The truth was Bai Yun was quite tired and injured after the fight with the three headed snake. He was mostly just posturing. True, Bai Yun had enough strength to escape from the hands of the adventures, but he might have had to leave the snake behind, and he didn''t want to do so. Thankfully nobody picked up on his weakness.


    After checking that no one was around, Bai Yun put the snake corpse in his storage ring. Bai Yun then sat down and properly bandaged up his various injuries, and his arm once again. Then he started to walk out of the poison valley. He had had enough adventures here for now.


    It took Bai Yun nearly half a day to make it out to the entrance of the poison valley. On the way, he saw many people quickly passing by him. Seeing Bai Yun''s age as well as his severely injured look, they all assumed that Bai Yun had had all of his things stolen, so no one tried to steal from him.


    When Bai Yun reached the entrance, he found that there were a lot more people standing there than usual. Many of them had very high cultivation bases. Bai Yun even saw a few in the core formation realm.


    From the discussions around him, he understood that they were waiting for the purple lotuses to arrive. Purple lotuses only bloomed a day or two after the miasma explosion so these guys were not in any hurry. Bai Yun wondered whether he should go look for them too, before deciding against it. He had already gotten so injured just from the search for blue lotuses. Bai Yun had no idea what purple lotuses would do to him. So he decided to return to terracotta hill with his current haul.


    "Hey there brat." Suddenly Bai Yun heard a familiar voice.


    Bai Yun looked to the right to see Huang Yao approaching him. She was surrounded by her mercenary group. Bai Yun also saw two other people who were standing there. One of them was a young man who seemed to be in his twenties. The other was an older middle aged man, who was standing behind the young man, and appeared to be protecting him.


    Bai Yun rolled his eyes and turned to face them. Even though the mercenary team was a bit noisy for Bai Yun, he liked them.


    "Hey brat, you look like death." Huang Yao said. "Arre you okay? Did you just come out from poison valley? What happened in there?"


    Bai Yun chuckled in response and explained what he witnessed in there.


    Of course, Bai Yun didn''t tell them everything. He explained how he was adventuring in the poison valley when the miasma levels rose, and how he escaped into the cliffs. He then told them about how he came down and found out about things and went to the lake to collect blue lotuses. Of course Bai Yun didn''t tell them how many lotuses he found or about the three headed snake. Bai Yun only told them about a single lotus and that he got hurt while running away with the lotus. Considering Bai Yun''s strength that they witnessed, the group believed it. He did tell them about the many lotuses he saw, he just didn''t tell them he collected them,


    "Are you telling me that there were many lotuses?" The young man who was with the mercenary group asked.


    "Well, I did see quite a few." Bai Yun replied.


    "Can you show me on this map where all you saw blue lotuses?" The young man asked while taking out a map of the lake.


    For a moment Bai Yun was confused, but he showed them the location of the various lotuses he saw. When they saw the dense spot of lotuses on the map, the young man and the middle aged man with him grew excited. Then the two of them whispered to each other for a moment, before the middle aged man sped off in the direction of terracotta hill.


    "What''s going on? Who are these guys?" Bia Yun asked Huang Yao.


    "Oh I forgot to introduce you guys." Huang Yao said. "This is the young city lord of the terracotta hill, Qin Feng. Young city lord, this is the person we told you about, Long Tian."


    "You are the Long Tian who killed Ye Chen?" Qin Feng asked.


    "Yes, that''s me." Bai Yun replied.


    "In that case, I suppose I must thank you." Qin Feng said. "Without your help, I probably would have died by now."


    "There is no need for that." Bai Yun replied casually. "I was just doing it to survive myself."


    After this the group stood there chatting for a while. It was mostly Huang Yao over dramatizing their work and asking Bai Yun to join her mercenary group. Bai Yun had to turn her down many times before she finally stopped, but not before threatening that she will be back again. Bai Yun could only sigh after hearing that.


    "Can I ask something?" Bai Yun asked Qin Feng after a while.


    "Sure." Qin Feng replied.


    "Why were you so excited when you saw the density of lotuses in the lake?" Bai Yun asked.


    "That''s simple." QIn Feng explained with a smile. Even the mercenary group was listening in at this time. They were also confused by the excitement shown by Qin Feng. "My family has been in charge of terracotta hill for centuries. And we have seen many miasma revolts during that time. And what we have understood after studying them is that the greater the density of lotuses, the more powerful and valuable the lotuses that will appear. A greater density of blue lotuses means that there will be very large purple lotuses, even ones that could be of use to nascent soul cultivators. And we have never seen a density quite like this before. So we believe that there will be some very large purple lotuses this time around. That is why I asked my protector to return to the city and inform my father. Only with his strength can we make sure that we can get the greatest return."


    With this Bai Yu understood their excitement. Qin Feng and his guardian had come to poison valley to check out the density of the lotuses, to see if there was a need for the city lord, who was the strongest person in terracotta city to come personally. And they had hired Hunag Yao''s mercenary group as protection for Qin Feng, in case something happened in poison valley. After the events of caravan, their trustworthiness had increased.


    After explaining the events to BAi Yun, Qin Feng and the mercenary group quickly left towards the lake. They were hoping to get there early so as to make sure they got a good spot and that the large purple lotuses did not fall into anyone else''s hand. Having Qin Feng there would dissuade people with his father''s name. And they could also try and find some blue lotuses to increase their haul.


    After The group left , Bai Yun turned around and headed back straight to Terracotta hill.


    He had a lot of work to do.

 137 Muscle tempering

    Bai Yun now had to find a place to recover. Bai Yun went back to the inn he had stayed in earlier and booked a room for a couple of days. Bai Yun then spend the next few days resting.


    When Bai Yun finally left the inn a few days later, the situation in poison valley had died down. From the word on the streets, Bai Yun was able to gain a lot of news. He learned that the explosion this time was the largest in recorded history. Thus there were many many blue lotuses, and that even now new blue lotuses were coming up, though rarely.


    And the biggest news was purple lotuses. According to rumors, the city lord arrived on the lake long before anyone else and collected a few purple lotuses. Afterward, the heads of major factions of terracotta hill also arrived and fought each other for the purple lotuses.


    But the biggest purple lotus actually came yesterday. It was four times largest than the second largest purple lotus that was born and was so dark that it almost looked black. After a fierce struggle, it finally fell into the hands of the city lord.


    And during these battles Huang Yao''s mercenary group also became famous. They fought on the side of the city lord and repelled many other forces along with the city lord''s forces. A mercenary group led by a beautiful lady thus quickly became famous.


    After finding out about this, Bai Yun left the inn and went to the alchemist assassination. Just like the blacksmithing union, the alchemist assassination also rented out rooms for use.


    But Bai Yun was not going for a single room. From Qin Feng, Bai Yun learned that the alchemist association and blacksmith union also rented out stores. These stores were on the major commercial streets of terracotta hill and had basements where one could do alchemy or blacksmithing.


    So Bai Yun went directly to the alchemist association and asked to rent out a store. Bai Yun was planning to stay there for a few months before moving on. He had quite a few things to handle first, and terracotta hill was a good place to stay. Not only did it have many places nearby to collect rare medical ingredients, but it was also close enough to ever green hills so that Bai Yun could go there to sharpen himself.


    After spending the afternoon Bai Yun finally settled on a location for the shop. It wasn''t on the main street, but it was only a few blocks away. Bai Yun initially thought of renting a shop closer to the main street, but those were a lot costlier.


    Bai Yun quickly finished the procedures for renting and paid the deposit for the shop. Bai Yun initially decided to rent the shop for three months and then go from there.


    After this was done Bai Yun went straight to his shop to inspect it. It was a three story house in a little street near the main street. The ground floor was the shop while the first floor was living quarters and the second floor was a training room. And in the basement, there was an alchemy room, and a blacksmithing room, complete with many tools.


    After inspecting it, Bai Yun found that it was a bit too much just for him. But it was unavoidable since he wanted a shop that had both blacksmithing as well as alchemy rooms. Usually, these stores were for a group and not a single person.


    After arriving here, Bai Yun quickly cleaned up the shop. Bai Yun could have hired help for this, but since he wasn''t going to be focusing on alchemy and blacksmithing during this time, Bai Yun thought that hiring someone was a waste.


    Bai Yun then hung up a board outside the shop. The board simply said ''Open every day for one hour at noon. Can create any pill or weapon at the qi step. Also does consultations and examinations.''


    Bai Yun was only planning to open the shop for an hour every day. He hoped that he would get some work and then his reputation would spread by word of mouth. And if it didn''t, that was fine too.


    Since it was already afternoon, Bai Yun locked up the shop, leaving only the board hanging outside. Throughout the day, a few curious people stared at the board, but no one took it seriously. The shop wasn''t even open for it to be taken seriously anyway.


    After this Bai Yun went down to the alchemy room. He then removed the bandages that he had covered himself with. All the injuries he had suffered in the poison valley had healed by now. The only thing left was the burn on his hand. Bai Yun''s left arm was pretty much completely burned out. But it was only a surface burn and did not affect his mobility. And Bai Yun figured that it would heal in about two months.


    After this Bai Yun took out a few medicinal ingredients he had bought at the alchemist association. The first thing Bai Yun was going to do today was to break through to muscle tempering.


    In the muscle tempering realm, the muscles, the tendons, and the ligaments of the body would undergo a special process of refinement. The idea behind muscle tempering was similar to tempering minerals. The process was to crack the muscles under extreme pressure and then repair them rapidly. During this repair, the muscles would get stronger and stronger.


    Just like how skin sewing primarily raised one''s defense, muscle tempering primarily raised one''s strength and speed. It did not mean that it was the only improvement though, only that strength and speed were raised the highest.


    And during muscle tempering, each muscle could be tempered a maximum of one hundred times. Theoretically one could break through to flesh transformation, after completing a single tempering for every muscle. But the more the tempering process was done on a muscle, the stronger it would be, and the greater the foundation would be.


    And as for the hundred times limit, the greater the number number of temperings, the harder the next tempering would be. Theoretically, anybody cultivation technique created by a god or above can allow one to reach one hundred temperings. But due to the high requirements, no one had ever reached a hundred tempering for even a single muscle. For example in his previous life, Bai Yun had only reached ninety seven temperings. And this was considered extremely high. Even the God of War who created undying body only reached ninety four temperings. As far as Bai Yun knew the highest anyone had ever reached was ninety eight temperings.


    And there was another peculiar thing about muscle temperings. The only requirement to a breakthrough was that every single muscle had to be tempered at least once. There were no requirements that all the muscles had to be tempered the same number of times, or even that they had to be tempered simultaneously.


    Thus there arose two different ways of tempering. One was to distribute the energy of muscle tempering evenly across the body so that all the muscles were tempered evenly. This would allow the strength of the body to increase in a stable holistic fashion.


    Another method was to temper only a part of the muscles in the body. This would cause those muscles to be extremely strong, while the rest of the muscles, that had not been tempered would not increase in strength. This way the same medicine can be used to temper a smaller number of muscles for a larger number of temperings than it would be possible if all the muscles were tempered. For example, instead of choosing to temper all the muscles in the body, one could temper just the muscles in one arm twenty five or even thirty times. This would cause an explosive increase in strength of the arm, but not any other part of the body.


    After thinking about this for a while, Bai Yun decided to go a mixed route. He was going to temper his entire body partially, and then give some extra tempering to his legs. And Bai Yun decided to temper his legs first because whether it was for running away or for applying force, the most important part was the legs.


    Bai Yun first took out a blue lotus he had collected earlier. He had studied its properties and found that it was perfect for the first part of the muscle tempering process, breaking the muscles. He then took a few more ingredients that he bought from the alchemist association and started to prepare them.


    Bai Yun went down to the alchemy room and started to work on his medicine. Starting with the blue lotus Bai Yun started to add items into the cauldron in the alchemy room. Then he added the hundred beast flame to the cauldron. Slowly time passed and a pill finally formed inside the cauldron.


    Bai Yun took the pill out of the cauldron and slowly analyzed it. This was the first pill that Bai Yun had ever made by himself without a recipe. He had followed the knowledge he had gotten from the alchemy legacy to make it. And from the analysis, Bai Yun understood that while it still had room for improvement, he had done a good enough job.


    Bai Yun sat down on the floor and rested until he had completely recovered from the drain of making the pill. Bai Yun then threw the pill into his mouth and swallowed it in one gulp.


    A moment later a powerful pressure radiated out from the pill. Bai Yun could feel a powerful destructive force coming from it. Bai Yun used his god devil sense to trap it, and then slowly released it out into every muscle in his body.


    The destructive force rampaged through his body, tearing up every muscle, ligament, and tendon in Bai Yun''s body. This caused Bai Yun to nearly scream in pain. Bai Yun could have taken some medicine to dull the pain, but that would have caused him to not accurately judge the situation in his muscles. And Bai Yun did not want to do that. Even a small mistake during muscle tempering can cause problems later on, and cause Bai Yun to temper less than he could otherwise.


    And Bai Yun closely monitored each and every fiber in his body with his god devil sense. When he noticed that they had all reached the very limit of breaking, Bai Yun stopped letting out the destructive force in the pill. Then Bai Yun started to release the healing force that was stored in the pill, which he had also trapped with the god devil sense.


    Slowly, one by one, Bai Yun''s muscles started to heal. As they healed, they rapidly strengthened. A cooling sensation arose all over Bai Yun''s body as his muscles strengthened.


    Once his muscles had all healed, Bai Yun was done with the first round of tempering. But the first few rounds of tempering only used a little bit of energy, so Bai Yun had a lot more left.


    Slowly Bai Yun started the second round of muscle tempering. He had to go through the entire process of pain and healing once again. After this Bai Yun continued this process again and again.


    All in all, Bai Yun completed fifteen rounds of muscle tempering for his entire body. But even after that was done, he still had a lot of energy left.


    Bai Yun only directed this energy into his legs. Slowly, one after another, his leg muscles started the tempering process. Bai Yun did the tempering process for his legs ten more times for a total of twenty five temperings before he ran out of energy.


    And with this Bai Yun had taken the first steps into the second realm of body cultivation, muscle tempering.

 138 Hundred poison immunity

    Bai Yun thought for a while whether he should start on the next process of refining the various materials he had gotten, or hundred poison immunity. But Bai Yun realized that he did not have enough time left for it.


    So Bai Yun spend a little bit of time organizing his various gains. The first thing he took out was the three headed snake. Bai Yun skillfully disassembled it and separated its various parts. Bai Yun briefly considered using the bones of the snake for the bow but a closer look revealed that it would be too flexible.


    And as Bai Yun was studying the demonic cores of the three headed snake, Bai Yun got a surprise. He realized that one of the demonic cores, the one from the fire element head, contained a beast flame inside. While Bai Yun already had the hundred beast flame, and adding this would not increase its power by much, but every little bit would help.


    Bai Yun took the flame demonic core of the three headed snake and held it in his hand. He then slowly injected his qi into the demonic core.


    As Bai Yun injected his qi into the demonic core, it started to vibrate crazily. Usually injecting qi into a demonic core was useless. This was because the qi in the demonic core was the qi of a demonic beast. It was violent and unstable. If foreign qi was added to it, it would cause the demonic core to explode. Thus special processing was necessary in order to make it suitable for various uses.


    But there was a single exception to this rule. And that was when the demonic core held a transcendent element. If there was a transcendent element in the demonic core then the transcendent element would absorb the violent energy and simply cause the demonic core to crumble, leaving the transcendent element alone. And then the transcendent element could be collected or absorbed, or it would dissipate in time.


    And that was what happened when Bai Yun added qi to the demonic core. The demonic core quickly crumbled and in its place was a small orange flame that flared up and down rapidly.


    Bai Yun grabbed the beast flame and quickly swallowed it. After this, he directed the beast flame to his dantian.


    When the beast flame reached Bai Yun''s dantian, the hundred best flame that was in Bai Yun''s dantian started to shake wildly. Even without any prompting, the flame rose and quickly swallowed the beast flame that just entered Bai Yun''s dantian. In a short while, the hundred beast flame finished assimilating the beast flame. And it had grown imperceptibly larger after doing so.


    After waking up the next morning, Bai Yun went down to the store. He was wondering how exactly the store should be presented. Bai Yun stood there for a while before deciding on a simple design.


    Bai Yun just placed a small table and a chair at the front of the store. There was also a shelf at the back of the store, but it was quite empty right now.


    After all this was done, Bai Yun simply lazed around until it was noon. At noon Bai Yun opened the doors of the store, sat down on the chair, and simply waited. Bai Yun did not even bother to look outside or try to attract any customers. There were a few people who stopped by the store seeing its strange sign, but looking inside and not seeing any items on the shelves, they just ignored the store and moved on.


    And that was how the first day of the store went. Not a single customer came in for the whole hour. After an hour, Bai Yun closed the shop and went back downstairs.


    Bai Yun went down to the alchemy room and started to arrange the various poisons he had collected. Bai Yun had a couple of mineral poisons, the venoms he had collected from various beasts, the demonic cores of a few venomous and poisonous beasts, and other poisonous items. The final item Bai Yun placed down was the blue lotus. Bai Yun had collected four blue lotuses. He sold one of the lotuses in the alchemist association and kept two for use in the muscle tempering realm. The last one was used for the hundred poison immunity.


    After Bai Yun collected the various poisons, he started to take a small sample from the various poisons and started to do measurements on them. He had to understand each poison very exactly in order to make the potion that would give him hundred poison immunity. If he made even the slightest mistake, the final product would become a deadly poison and not an antidote.


    One after another Bai Yun tested his various products. Since he had to be extra sure, Bai Yun did multiple tests on them to get everything perfectly right. The whole process of simply cataloging and studying these poisons took three full days. During these three days other than sleeping, and spending one hour each day in the shop, Bai Yunspend all the time studying the poisons. And as for the store, not a single person had stepped into the store, though there were quite a few curious looks.


    And it was in such a state that on the fourth day, Bai Yun came done after his hour at the store. He had bought all the auxiliary materials needed for the process yesterday from the alchemist association. In order to buy all the necessary materials, Bai Yun had to sell all the items he collected from the poison valley, that he was not going to use, including everything except the muscles of the three headed snake.


    Bai Yun dragged a large tub that he had prepared into the alchemy room. Bai Yun then started to pour various poisons and the various side medicines into the tub after liquefying them. Each dose was calculated to the milligram in order to not be wrong.


    The whole process took practically the whole night. The basic idea behind this was to select opposing types of poisons and to use their potency to cancel each other out. For example, for every poison that would thin the blood there would be one that would clot the blood. This way the net effect of all the poisons would be that they do nothing.


    And Bai Yun carefully added one poison after another to the tub. By the time he was done, it was almost sunrise. Realizing that he was too tired, Bia Yun stopped for the night and went to sleep.


    The next day Bai Yun opened the store just like usual. And just like usual, no one came in.


    Bai Yun spend the whole hour mentally preparing him for the hundred poison immunity. And Bai Yun was very nervous. If he had made even the slightest mistake, he would be killed. But after he closed up the shop, Bai Yun went down to the alchemy room decisively. He also left a message on the door of the store saying that he would be away for a few days.


    Bai Yun stood before the tub, and took off all his clothes. Then he entered the tub and submerged his entire body in the thick black liquid. He stayed submerged for a moment before he lifted the protective qi covering and then took a deep breath, swallowing the liquid in the process.


    The next moment every single point in Bai Yun''s skin felt like it was being pierced by needles as the poison entered his body through the pores on his skin. At the same time, Bai Yun''s stomach started to burn with the poison that he drank.


    As the poison entered Bai Yun from various directions, the level of the liquid in the tub started to fall sharply. All of the liquid in the tub entered Bai Yun through his pores, his mouth, his lungs, his eyes and ears. It was all rushing into Bai Yun to suffocate and kill him.


    And Bai Yun suffered the greatest pain he had ever suffered in his life. The worst part of it was that it wasn''t just pain. Pain Bai Yun could handle. But this was so much worse than that.


    Every cell of Bai Yun''s body felt like it was being stabbed, beaten, ripped apart, and crushed all at the same time. Bai Yun''s blood would completely clot for a moment, and then it would all flow like water. His muscles were trembly sharply and going limp at the same time. And Bai Yun''s senses were on a roller coaster. He would feel all the effects of the poison magnified by ten times in a moment, and the next moment, he would fall into a darkness where all of his senses were completely cut off. And sometimes these contradictory feelings would appear at the same time.


    Bai Yun felt as if his body was being burned and frozen inside out at the same time. Bai Yun wanted to scream, but his vocal cords were being ripped and crushed. He wanted to claw at something, but his nerves would not send the message to his body. And even if they did, his muscles wouldn''t respond. For a moment Bai Yun wished that he would die, just so that the torment would end.


    Bai Yun felt as if each second was an eternity. The black liquid in the tub had long since disappeared into Bai Yun''s body, but he didn''t notice it. In fact, Bai Yun couldn''t feel anything. After what felt like an eternity, Bai Yun could feel the effects of the liquid start to lessen. The contradictory feelings that rose within his body were getting farther apart and when they did they were getting weaker and weaker.


    And then, without even realizing it, Bai Yun finally lost consciousness as the effects of the liquid weakened.


    As Bai Yun lay in the tub, a thick dark sludge slowly started to come out of Bai Yun''s body. These were the various pill impurities that he had collected in his body, being forced out by the liquid. There were also many poisons from the liquid that hadn''t completely taken effect.


    As Bai Yun lay there his body slowly started to transform. There were still many poisons inside his body, but they were being rejected by Bia Yun''s body. Each and every cell in Bai Yun''s body was fighting against the various poisons in his body. Soon the amount of black sludge in the tub increased to a few inches thick. The sludge had actually risen to just beneath Bai Yun''s nose, which was lucky for him, as otherwise, he would have suffocated.


    And three days and nights passed while Bai Yun was in this state. Each day tremendous transformations were happening in his body. And finally, after three days, Bai Yun weakly opened his eyes.

 139 The first customer

    Bai Yun quickly took out a lot of food from his storage ring and wolfed it down. As a cultivator, he could eat a huge amount of food in one sitting. After a while, Bai Yun finally finished eating, and some strength returned to his body.


    Bai Yun dragged himself up the stairs. He realized that it was dawn, so Bai Yun went to the living quarters and slept until noon. At noon Bai Yun went back down and opened his store. But as usual, no one came in. Though some of the nearby stores did look at Bai Yun mockingly.


    Bai Yun then went back down to the blacksmithing room. He pulled out the muscles of the three headed snake and started to refine them one by one. Bai Yun would heat them up to the perfect temperature before repeatedly using the nine nine hammering technique. As Bai Yun tempered the muscles, it became smaller and smaller as the impurities were pushed out, and it became sturdier and stronger. Finally, each muscle fiber became the size of a small thread. It took Bai Yun the entire day and night before he finished refining all the muscles.


    After this Bai Yun went back up to open the store. Once again no one came in.


    Bai Yun went back down after this and started to thread the muscles together. Each muscle was tied together to another by hand. Slowly the muscles came together to form a long string.


    By the time Bai Yun finished making the bow string, it was long after midnight. Bai Yun then went back up to his living quarters to sleep until noon. Then he went down to the store and opened it once again.


    As Bai Yun sat in his chair in the store, Bai Yun thought about what he should do in the future. Bai Yun had already used up all of the money he had. Bai Yun still had a lot of medicinal ingredients that he had bought in Yellow city. But Bai Yun was planning to use them for himself. He did not want to sell those medicines. Bai Yun now had to find a way to make money. This store was a way for Bai Yun to do so, but he hadn''t been successful until now.


    Bai Yun had rented a store with a training room to master various techniques now that he had reached foundation establishment. Bai Yun had a lot to do, and could probably make enough money to reach the city of scholars by hunting beast and selling them. But not only would it waste a lot of time, he would also be in unnecessary danger. Bai Yun needed a good source of income.


    As Bai Yun sat there thinking, he heard a commotion from his door. Bai Yun looked up to see a young man walking into the store. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. But then he stood up to meet him with a smile.


    "Hello welcome to my store." Bai Yun welcomed the young man.


    Bai Yun frowned when he heard this. Barrier breaking pills were a wide class of pills that were used to break barriers in the body. These barriers could be of different types. For example, it could be a barrier to a cultivation breakthrough, or a barrier in the body that stopped blood flow to a particular part, and so on. Depending on the need, the barrier breaking pill could be wildly different, and this had varying needs and difficulty in making.


    "I have a blocked meridian in my body. It is making me unable to breakthrough to the foundation establishment realm. I want to know if you can make a pill to fix it." The young man said.


    Bai Yun nodded his head. This kind of problem was quite common. Many people were born with blocked meridians that would make it difficult to cultivate. And if the cultivation technique that you practice needed that meridian, then you would be in a lot of trouble. Generally, it would be possible to slowly clear it in time. But some of the meridians would be too blocked and needed external force to clear them. Thankfully Bai Yun did not have such a problem in either of his lives.


    "Give me your hand." Bai Yun said, extending his arm.


    The young man frowned and hesitated for a moment before he extended his hand. His hesitation was because Bai Yun had asked for his hand to study his meridians. This would require him to allow Bai Yun to delve his qi and perception into his body. This was extremely dangerous to him. If Bai Yun wished, he could easily destroy his cultivation while doing this. Another reason was this would allow Bai Yun to understand which of his meridians were nourished by qi, which would lead him to understand which all meridians were used by him to cultivate. Even though Bai Yun would not be able to copy his cultivation technique, as Bai Yun would not know the order cultivation of meridians, it would give Bai Yun a lot of information, which could be used to harm him.


    But after a while, he decided to trust Bai Yun. Not only would he be able to yell out, and give Bai Yun a bad reputation if he did something, since this was a store under the alchemy association, if Bai Yun did something, then the association would not let him go. And Bai Yun needed to study him to find out what was wrong anyway.


    As Bai''s perception entered the young man''s body, he realized that the young man''s meridians were blocked quite badly. Even though the young man could probably clear it by himself, it would take a lot of time. It would hinder his progress to waste his time like this in this crucial period of growth.


    Bai Yun pulled his perception back, and let go of the young man''s hand. He then said while nodding, "I can fix this."


    "I have been to a few other stores that said the same thing as you. What I want to know is how much would it cost? I didn''t have a lot of money, so I can''t afford to waste any." The young man said


    Bai Yun thought about the problem for a moment. He quickly went through various pill formulas in his mind before he picked one that was suitably cheap as well as effective. Bai Yun then took out a piece of paper and quickly wrote down all the ingredients he needed. He then handed the paper to the young man while saying, "These are all the ingredients I need to make a barrier breaking pill that can help you. I need two sets of ingredients to ensure a batch and also thirty percent of the cost of ingredients as commission."


    The young man looked over the ingredient list. But the more he looked, the greater his frown became. "This list of items looks quite different from what I got from the other alchemists. Even though all of their lists were also different, they had a lot of similar ingredients. But I can''t find any of them here. And the total cost of ingredients are also a lot less here." The young man finally said.


    "That''s because they are idiots." Bai Yun simply replied.


    "And your cost is also a lot cheaper." The young man said. "The others asked for three sets of herbs and seventy five to a hundred percent of the cost of herbs as commission."


    "The reason I only ask for two sets is because I am confident and good enough to make the pill with just two sets. And the reason I asked for only thirty percent is because I am only starting out." Bai Yun said.


    "You are only starting out?" The young man asked with a frown.


    "Yes. You are my first customer actually." Bai Yun said with a chuckle.


    Bai Yun could see that the young man was a bit disturbed by the fact that he was Bai Yun''s first customer. He realized that the young man was about to leave. But Bai Yun didn''t want to lose his first customer so easily.


    "You know if you are afraid of me cheating you, we can make an agreement that if I cant produce the pill after taking your money, then I will pay you back in full. Also if you have some hidden danger from the pill, then I will pay to have it fixed. How about that?" Bai Yun proposed a deal.


    For a moment the young man was deep in thought. Then he finally nodded. Actually, he didn''t have a choice after that. eE had to go for the cheaper option. For poor people like him, money was sometimes more important than their life. And he didn''t think that he could find a cheaper alchemist than Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun quickly pulled out an agreement sheet and wrote down the agreement. This agreement sheet was from the alchemist association, and thus any agreement written on them was backed by them. If someone tried to break an agreement backed by them, they would find themselves blacklisted and on the run from the alchemist association. And the cost of the ingredients the young man wanted was far less than that of the rent of the store. The young man did not think that Bai Yun would cheat him for such little money.


    After Bai Yun wrote up the agreement, the young man looked at it and then both of them quickly signed it. "You should quickly go and buy the necessary herbs. As I say on the board, I am only open for an hour every noon. If you waste too much time, you can only come back tomorrow to give me the herbs." Bai Yun said.


    Hearing this, the young man quickly left. Bai Yun then sat back on his chair with a smile on his face. Time quickly passed. Just as Bai Yun was about to close the door, the young man ran back in, panting. "Here are the necessary ingredients." The young man said while handing over a bag to Bai Yun.


    "Alright." Bai Yun said while taking the bag. "You can come back tomorrow to take the pill. Make sure you prepare the thirty percent commission if you want to collect the pill."


    "Will a day be enough?" The young man asked nervously.


    "Relax. A day is more than enough." Bai Yun said.


    As the young man was about to leave he turned around and looked back at Bai Yun. "Please be careful with the medicines. It took most of my savings to buy them. If something happened, I don''t know what I would do."


    "don''t worry. Since you trusted me with them, I will make sure that they came out alright. You can come back here tomorrow at noon to collect your pill." Bai Yun reassured him with a smile.


    The young man nodded and nervously left. Bai Yun closed the store, and turned around with a smile.


    He finally had his first customer.

 140 Starting the second round of training

    Bai Yun actually only needed a single set of ingredients to make the pill. Bai Yun was confident enough in his alchemy ability that he didn''t think he would fail while making such a basic pill. But he still asked the young man for two sets for three reasons.


    The first was that Bai Yun was afraid the young man would not believe him if Bai Yun said that he could make the pill with only one set of ingredients. He knew what the success rate of other alchemists were, and if his success rate was too high, it would instead cause confusion and mistrust.


    The second reason was that in the future when some people who wanted more precious pills and had a lot of money came, Bai Yun could ask for more sets than he needed and thus rip them off. This was actually a common practice in the alchemy world, to ask for more sets than necessary. But most alchemists weren''t good enough to ask for too much, and they would often fail and thus wasn''t able to properly make use of it.


    The final reason, and the reason he didn''t ask for three sets, was that with this if the young man told someone, then the word would spread that he could make pills with one set less than other alchemists. Thus his reputation as a better and cheaper choice would definitely spread fast.


    Bai Yun then sat down and started to work on the pill. Since this was his first order, Bai Yun was extra careful. He didn''t want it to fail and thus have a bad reputation. He slowly made the pill, one step at a time. Since he was so careful, it actually ended up taking more time than Bai Yun initially thought to finish the pill.


    When Bai Yun finally opened up his cauldron, he realized that the pill came out even better than he imagined. On the pill was a single circle. The existence and number of circles on a pill showed just how good a pill was. A pill with a circle could only be made with superior ingredients, cauldrons, alchemy fires, and alchemy techniques. This was the first pill that Bai Yun had made that had a circle. After all, Bai Yun usually only used normal ingredients and normal cauldrons until now and thus did not have a chance to make such a pill. Though this pill was only a single circle pill, which didn''t have a lot of extra effects. But the fact that Bai Yun was able to make a pill with a circle showed that his attainment in alchemy was improving. Accepting the alchemy legacy did not mean that his skill had reached the level of the god of alchemy, only that he had that knowledge and some of the skills had been passed on. After all, if it was the god of alchemy here, with the same ingredients, he could have made a three or four circle pill.


    There were six things Bai Yun had to train in. One was to train and improve Lions roar, False armor, and soundless motion. The next was to master the third movement of the Moonlight sword, crescent moon slash. He also had to improve the coordination for the simple sword. And finally, Bai Yun also had to remake the second of the six truths of the sword god, sword slash, to the qi step.


    Bai Yun decides to first put off the training of the sword slash. Bai Yun remembered the pain he had to go through to remake the first move, sword drawing. Bai Yun figured that such a situation would occur once again. If he was going to train in a safe place then it would be okay, but now Bai Yun was working on both blacksmithing as well as alchemy. If he overdid it, he might not be able to work. Before the young man had come in, he might have decided differently, but Bai Yun was now full of hope for the future.


    Bai Yun then decided to break up his day to practice the five things evenly. Bai Yun decided that he would start the day at noon, and spend the hour in the shop, either working or thinking about his training. Then he would work until midnight on the orders he had taken. No matter what, he would only take orders such that his work would finish by midnight. If he hadn''t taken enough orders then he would finish early and start on training early like today. Then he would stop a little after dawn and go to sleep.


    Once Bai Yun decided on his schedule, he went to work. The first thing he did was to practice false armor. This was a powerful defensive technique that Bai Yun had taken from the Bai clan. It had a great potential, but Bai Yun just didn''t have enough qi to properly use it until he reached foundation establishment. Even now Bai Yun did not. He could deploy the technique in two ways right now. One was to cover his entire body in a weak cover or to cover only a part of his body in a much stronger cover. Bai Yun started to deploy both the styles of the technique repeatedly. As he did so, Bai Yun would study the technique and try to both decrease its qi usage as well as improve its defensive power. But Bai Yun found both of them quite difficult. He was a master of the sword, so he found it easy to upgrade the moonlight sword all the way to a rank nine technique. But he could only upgrade lions roar and false armor to rank eight. Bai Yun wanted to see if he could raise them to rank nine before he left terracotta hill.


    After Bai Yun used up all of his qi while training, Bai Yun started to train in the simple sword. Bai Yun did not need to have any qi to train in the simple sword, only a shadow opponent. At the same time, Bai Yun also started to recover his qi. Now that Bai Yun had reached the four circle realm, he could split his mind even better. Bai Yun could both recover qi as well as train in simple sword at the same time. If he wasn''t training the simple sword, then Bai Yun could probably recover his qi faster, but Bai Yun decided to do this to most effectively utilize his time.


    And soon Bai Yun finished the time he had allotted to false armor. After this Bai Yun started on lions roar. When Bai Yun released lions roar, a small yellowish red glow that looked like a squishy shape came up at Bai Yun''s fist. If it was properly used, the lion''s roar would like as if a red lion''s head was covering Bai Yun''s fist, and the strike would create a sound like a roar. This was how the technique got its name. But Bai Yun was quite a good distance from it. Forget the roar, currently, Bai Yun couldn''t even make the glow look anything near a head, let alone a lions head. Bai Yun figured that he couldn''t make the roar until he reached core formation, but he was determined to make the lion''s head by the end of the training.


    Unlike the false armor, when Bai Yun used lion''s roar he would punch at the air, and that punch would cause an explosion in the air. This would cause a loud sound. Thankfully Bai Yun had made sure that the training room was quite soundproof. Else the neighbors would have beaten him up due to the sound.


    When he was out of qi by using lions roar, Bai Yun once again started to recover and train the simple sword. He repeatedly hacked and slashed at the air to train. And with each slash, Bai Yun''s body was getting more and more familiar with the simple sword.


    Once he was done with lion''s roar, Bai Yun started on crescent moon slash. Crescent moon slash was a flying slash. Bai Yun would hold his sword near his waist and the sword edge would light up. Then, as he swung the sword, an arc shaped light would fly off the sword edge at the opponent.


    A flying flash was an important part of fighting, as it improved one''s range of attack. In fact, from the second truth of the sword god onward, the attacks came in two variants, a sword variant, and a flying variant. But the flying variant was much harder to use and was usually weaker. In fact, Bai Yun figured that he would not be able to use the flying variant of sword slash before core formation. So if he wanted to use a flying slash, Bai Yun was stuck with crescent moon slash for now.


    Bai Yun had bought a large piece of metal to use as a target practice in case his attacks hit the training room and destroyed it. But he need not have bothered with one right now. When Bai Yun held his sword, its edge did light up as he using crescent moon slash. But when Bai Yun swung his sword, nothing came off of it. He just swung his sword through the air, and it made a wooshing sound, and then the light disappeared.


    But Bai Yun wasn''t disappointed. Bai Yun had improved the basic structure of moonlight sword to improve it all the way to a rank nine technique. So it was quite difficult to practice. So Bai Yun had settled in for the long haul.


    After Bai Yun was done with crescent moon slash, Bai Yun started on soundless motion. Soundless motion was the second movement in the qi part of specter steps and thus was a tenth ranked technique. Thus it was far more difficult than any other technique that Bai Yun had. In fact, Bai Yun had started to train in soundless motion all the way back in his first retreat, but he still hadn''t mastered it perfectly.


    As Bai Yun used soundless motion and started to move around the room, Bai Yun regretted that the room did not have a gravity control formation. If it did, a heightened gravity would be of great help in both improving his foundation, as well as making it more difficult to move, so it would help in his training of movement techniques. Unfortunately, there were no gravity chambers that could be rented in terracotta hill. Maybe some of the more powerful forces had one on their premises, but Bai Yun couldn''t just walk in and use them.


    So Bai Yun resumed his training of soundless motion. And each moment, Bai Yun focused his attention on the wind produced and kept on thinking of how to reduce the wind resistance. Soon Bai Yun got into a strange rhythm and kept on making one move after another. Bai Yun felt that he was very close to a breakthrough when he finally ran out of qi.


    Bai Yun once again used simple sword and recovered his qi at the same time. He then started to train in soundless motion once again. He once again got the feeling that he was nearing a breakthrough, but it never happened.


    Soon time passed as Bai Yun continued his training. When dawn came, Bai Yun finished his training and went back down. He took a quick bath and went to sleep.

 141 The young man takes the barrier breaking pill

    "Were you successful?" The young man asked Bai Yun nervously.


    "Of course." Bai Yun said with a smile. He then picked up the pill he had kept in the store yesterday and handed it to the young man.


    The young man held the medicine in his hand nervously. To him, the value of this pill was indescribable. It was this pill that would decide whether all of his efforts for the past few years had been successful or not.


    The young man stood in the store and looked over the pill in the bottle. But the more he looked at it the weirder his eyes became.


    "This looks different than the barrier breaking pills I have seen before in the other shops?" The young man asked.


    "That is because this one is better." Bai Yun simply replied.


    The young man looked a bit confused at this. But then he took a close look at the pill, and his eyes bulged. That was because he just noticed the circle on the pill. No matter what the pill was, a pill with a circle was extremely valuable. While a single circle pill might not be too valuable in a place like yellow city, it was not the case in terracotta hill. Here the value of a circle pill, even if it was a defective one was incalculable.


    "So did you bring the payment?" Bai Yun asked.


    "Yes, yes." The young man nodded. He was still a bit distracted by the value of the pill.


    "Well then." Bai Yun asked. The young man looked up sharply and slowly pulled out a pouch from his chest. He held it in his hand and kept on looking back and forth between the pill and the pouch.


    "Are you worried if this pill will be as effective as I said it would be?" Bai Yun asked, noticing the young man''s nervousness.


    The young man nodded. He was indeed worried about this. He was worried that the pill might be fake. After all, he hadn''t seen a pill like this before.


    "In that case, why don''t you take the pill here." Bai Yun suggested. "You can pay me after the pill works. And if it fails, all the people here can act as your witnesses when you go to the alchemy association."


    The young man looked at Bai Yun for a moment, before he nodded. He then kept his pouch by his side, and opened the pill bottle. As he did so, a refreshing medicinal scent wafted out. The young man took a deep breath and unconsciously smiled. But Bai Yun frowned when he smelled the scent of the pill. From the god of alchemy, he had heard that a true pill would be completely a single product, and it should not have any scent. Bai Yun thought that he still had to go a long way in the alchemy path.


    Bai Yun sat back on his chair and calmly watched the young man use the barrier breaking pill. He was fully confident in his abilities and was sure that things would not go wrong.


    As time progressed the young man''s body started to fill up with impurities. These were the impurities that were pushed out of his body''s meridians by the pill.


    As the young mans digested the barrier breaking pill, many people from the nearby shops as well as some people walking on the road would occasionally look inside Bai Yun''s store. It was not every day that they got to see someone take a barrier breaking pill in an alchemy store in front of them.


    There were two reasons Bai Yun decided to let the young man try the barrier breaking pill in his store. One was that he could see that the young man was confused, and he wanted to calm him down.


    But there was another reason too. Bai Yun knew that the sight of the young man would inevitably draw in crowds. And seeing how successful the young man was, that would increase their confidence in Bai Yun. Free advertising never hurt anyone.


    And time passed by quickly. Nearly an hour later, there was a sudden explosion from where the young man sat. A spiraling wind rose up from where the young man was sitting. Bai Yun smiled when he saw this. Bai Yun knew that this phenomenon was caused due to the young man breaking through to foundation establishment.


    A few minutes later the young man opened his eyes wide open. Unmistakable joy could be seen in his eyes. Since he only condensed a single qi spiral instead of two like Bai Yun when he broke through to foundation establishment, it only him a short while to do so. He didn''t expect that the barrier breaking pill will not only help him break the barrier, but also break through to the foundation establishment realm in one scoop.


    It wasn''t just the young man who was surprised. There were many whispered coming from around Bai Yun''s store. No one could believe the efficacy of Bai Yun''s medicine. Bai Yun simply sat in the middle of all this smiling.


    The young man suddenly stood up rapidly and jumped towards Bai Yun with his arms outstretched to hug him. But Bai Yun quickly pulled out his sword and pointed it at the young man. A moment later the young man came to a stop with Bai Yun''s sword pointed at his throat.


    Seeing the confusion and fear in the young man''s eyes, Bai Yun smiled. "Before you go hug someone, why don''t you look at yourself first."


    Hearing this the young man looked down at himself. He then realized that he was covered in the impurities that the barrier breaking pill had pushed out of him. He gave a wry smile when he realized this.


    "There is a shower upstairs. You can go and take a quick shower." Bai Yun said. The young man nodded and walked upstairs. Bai Yun continued to sit in his chair with a smile.


    A few minutes later, the young man came down. He had showered off all the dirt. But since he did have a change of clothes, he wore his wet clothes on him.


    "I have no words to thank you. Your pill worked better than I could have ever expected." The young man said, nearly crying.


    "I don''t need thanks, just the payment." Bai Yun replied.


    "Yes yes." The young man nodded. He quickly picked up the pouch from inside his clothes and handed it over to Bai Yun. Bai Yun quickly swept the inside of the punch with his soul sense to confirm that the full payment was there, and put it away.


    "If I wasn''t wet I would hug you." The young man said once again.


    Bai Yun only chuckled in response. The young man thanked him for a while more before leaving. As he left, he loudly shouted the virtues of Bia Yun''s shop. He had clearly understood that Bai Yun had used him as a promotion. But he was grateful for Bai Yun''s pill''s efficiency and didn''t mind advertising Bai Yun''s shop a bit.


    Bai Yun chuckled and closed down his shop. It had already taken an hour for the young man to break through to foundation establishment.


    Bai Yun then went back up to the training room and continued his training regiment that he had come up with yesterday. He stated with false armor, then lions roar, followed by moonlight sword and finally soundless motion. Bai Yun once again felt the same feeling he felt yesterday, that he was close to a breakthrough, but it did not happen.


    The next day Bai Yun opened the shop on time, but nothing special happened. There were definitely more glances here due to the commotion yesterday, but no one came in.


    Bai Yun closed the shop and went back to training. His training went smoothly, and the feeling of a breakthrough in soundless motion arrived, but it did not lead to anything more.


    The next day Bai Yun was surprised when he opened the door of the shop. There was actually someone waiting in front of his door.


    After a moment Bai Yun realized that he recognized the man. It was the shopkeeper of the alchemy shop opposite to him. The alchemy shop opposite to him was run by a local family. It wasn''t a large shop but it did okay.


    Bai Yun quickly invited him in. The shopkeeper sat down opposite Bai Yun and quickly explained his problem.


    It seemed that yesterday one of the clerks in the shop took a large order for many pills from a customer. The shop does this kind of orders often. But what the clerk didn''t know was that many of the store''s alchemists were currently busy with other big orders and some were not here.


    But this was not an unprecedented problem for the store. Such incidents of taking more orders than they could handle had happened in the past. At those times they would call upon some freelance alchemists in the city, or go to some smaller stores and have them prepare the pills. This was usually costlier, but it was worth it for getting the trust of the customers.


    So this time also the shopkeeper went to his usual alchemists. But due to the explosion of raw ingredients from the poison valley, the alchemist association had rented out many of them. So there was a shortage of alchemists in terracotta hill.


    So the shopkeeper had been going about looking for alchemists to hire. It was at this point that he remembered Bai Yun and that he had made a pill that helped the young man breakthrough a few days ago. Without a lot of choice, he came to Bai Yun to ask him to make a few pills.


    Bai Yun thought about the shopkeeper''s offer for a while and finally agreed. Not only would this mean that he would be able to make some money, he could also have a good relationship with the store.


    The two of them then spent the next few minutes haggling over the price. The two of them finally settled on forty percent of a pill as the fee, and one and a half times the sets of raw materials as the number of pills. That is, if there were a hundred pills that Bai Yun had to give to the shopkeeper, then the shopkeeper would give Bai Yun one hundred and fifty sets of raw ingredients. Bai Yun also made the shopkeeper promise that if the shopkeeper ever came across a pill he couldn''t refine, then he would direct the client to Bai Yun.


    Bai Yun took a good number of pills to be made. When the storekeeper heard the number of pills that Bai Yun was ready to accept, he was surprised, as he didn''t think that Ba Yun could finish them all in time. But Bai Yun tried to calm him down by saying that he had some helpers. He also asked for a few extra cauldrons from the shopkeeper. Bai Yun was sure that once he was familiar with the pill, he would be able to make multiple pills at the same time.


    Finally, the shopkeeper and Bai Yun came to an agreement. The shopkeeper left the raw ingredients with Bai Yun, and quickly left.


    Bai Yun closed the door behind the shopkeeper and hung up the sign that said that he would be busy for a few days.


    As Bai Yun turned around, he had a faint smile on his face. This was a good haul for him.

 142 Finishing the contrac

    After Bai Yun studied it, he understood that it was a recipe for a pill that could help in cultivation at the qi condensation realm. Bai Yun had many recipes for many such pills in his memory. Most of them were far more effective than the one in his hand. There were some which even used the same ingredients.


    But after thinking about this for a while, Bai Yun decided to use the same ingredients as the ones given, and the same recipe too. If he had changed the recipe too much, then the shopkeeper would notice. But he did decide to improve it a little bit. It would not increase the efficiency by a lot, maybe ten percent, and reduce the pill toxins a little. It would be of some help, but people would just chalk it up to chance. The shopkeeper would not notice such a small change.


    Bai Yun put away the excess sets of raw materials quickly and got to work on the pill. Bai Yun was confident that he could definitely have a hundred percent success rate in making this pill. In fact, this pill was so simple that even regular alchemists would have more than a seventy five percent success rate.


    Bai Yun spent the entire day until midnight making pills. As time passed, he became more and more proficient in making the pill. So the time taken to make a pill decreased, and the quality of the pill also increased quickly. Toward the end of the night, Bai Yun could even make pills with circles, but he refrained from doing so. He didn''t want to make pills that were of too high a quality, and scare the shopkeeper. A pill with a circle was a big deal in terracotta hill after all.


    After this Bai Yun went upstairs to train and then went to sleep in the morning. The next day, Bai Yun didn''t open his shop, but continued to refine pills. This day he was a lot more confident of his success, and decided to make two cauldrons of pills at a time.


    Making two sets of pills at the same time was exponentially more complicated than making just one set. Not only did you have to split your focus and energy, Bai Yun also had to control the hundred beast flame. Thankfully Bai Yun had the infinitude heavenly thought to help him. At first, Bai Yun was not too familiar with the process and wasted a few sets of raw materials. But he quickly got used to the process, and once again started to succeed. After a few failures, Bai Yun had a hundred percent success rate once again.


    Bai Yun spend most of the day making two sets of pills in parallel. Towards the end of the day, he even tried to make three sets in parallel. When he tried that, sometimes one of the sets of raw materials would go to waste. But Bai Yun had more than enough to experiment and improve his alchemy skills.


    Finally, three days later Bai Yun finished with the quota he had taken from the shopkeeper. Bai Yun still had an entire day left to make the pill, but he had finished faster than he thought. As he grew more and more familiar with the pill, Bai Yun''s speed at producing the pill also increased.


    After finishing all the pills, Bai Yun took out another few sets of raw ingredients. These sets consisted of the best ingredients among the ones given to him by the shopkeeper.


    Bai Yun wanted to use these sets of ingredients to make pills. Except that Bai Yun was going to use a slightly different recipe than the one given by the shopkeeper. He was using a better recipe using the same ingredients so that the shopkeeper would not be able to say that Bai Yun copied their recipe. Bai Yun was planning on making a pill with multiple circles. Not only would this be a reaffirmation of his skills, he could also sell it for a lot of money.


    Bai Yun then spend an hour meditating carefully to recover himself to the optimum position. Bai Yun then very carefully started to prepare the pill.


    It took Bai Yun over an hour to make the pill. It was a long time considering that Bai Yun only took ten minutes to make a set of the same pill. Of course, Bai Yun was working with a much more complex recipe, but the fundamentals were the same.


    When Bai Yun opened up the cauldron, he saw a single pill lying at the bottom of the cauldron. Bai Yun quickly pulled it out of the cauldron and studied it carefully. He gave a small smile when he saw two circles on the pill.


    Bai Yun carefully put the pill away in a jade bottle. After this Bai Yun once again rested for a while before beginning on the next set of pills.


    All in all, Bai Yun made ten sets of pills. Of the ten, eight of them had two circles, and two of them even had three circles on them. Bai Yun very carefully put away each and every pill in a separate bottle. Bai Yun was planning on auctioning off these pills with the help of the Alchemist Association. After all, pills with circles were not that valuable to ordinary people unless they had four circles or above. But alchemists, especially alchemists of a backward place like terracotta hill, would definitely pay great prices to get pills with circles to study them.


    And it was also due to this that Bai Yun stopped with just ten pills. Having a lot of them would reduce their value and Bai Yun would not be able to sell them for a lot.


    After making these pills, Bai Yun directly went to sleep without training. Not only had he wasted a lot of time on making those pills, it was also necessary to take breaks in training every now and then. When you go back to a technique after taking a break, it could give you new inspiration.


    The next day Bai Yun finally opened his shop. When he did so the shopkeeper was a bit surprised. He quickly ran over to see if everything was alright. He was worried as Bai Yun was supposed to hand over the pills tomorrow, and he seemed to have finished working already, a day in advance. It was only after Bai Yun showed him all the pills that he finally calmed down.


    The shopkeeper quickly looked through all the pills that Bai Yun had made to make sure that there were no defective products. After this, he quickly paid Bai Yun and went back to his shop.


    Bai Yun sat in the shop for the entire day, but once again no one came in. After closing up his shop, Bai Yun went back up to train.


    The next day also Bai Yun opened the shop at noon. Bai Yun was almost about to close the shop when two people suddenly walked into the store. One of them was a burly middle aged man with a scar on his face The other was a thin young man. With one look Bai Yun could guess that they were mercenaries.


    "We would like a consultation." The middle aged man with a scar said.


    Bai Yun nodded and pointed to a few chairs opposite him. The two people quickly sat down opposite Bai Yun. Bai Yun closed the door of the shop to give them some privacy. Bai Yun then sat down and raised his eyebrow in question to ask them what they wanted to discuss.


    The middle aged man looked around for a while before taking out a jade box from inside his backpack. He then handed over the box to Bai Yun.


    "Consultations aren''t free." Bai Yun said without opening the box. "Of course this is only in the case that I can answer your questions. Otherwise, there is no charge."


    The two men looked over at each other, and then turned to Bai Yun and nodded. Bai Yun then opened the box.


    Inside the box was a colorful little flower. It looked like a violet rose in the middle. It was surrounded by red petals like a lotus. At the end of each of the petals was a small fruit like green bud.


    "We found this flower in the evergreen hills. We hadn''t seen anything like it before, but we figured that it must be quite valuable from its looks. So we took it around to various places to have it analyzed. But no one could tell us what it was. The last shop we went to said that there''s a shop here that claimed to be able to make any pill in the qi step and also does consultations, and told us to try our luck here." The middle aged man explained.


    Bai Yun took a close look at the flower. Then sniffed and licked the flower. After this Bai Yun took a needle and scraped it along the flower''s petals. Bai Yun then dipped the needle in a potion only to see the potion turn black. Bai Yun then studied the flower for a while longer before going silent.


    "There is a flower called morning glory sunflower." Bai Yun finally said after a while. "It is a common and powerful medicinal herb of the soul step. It is a key ingredient in many medicines. If there were any of it in Terracotta hill, the city lord will probably kill for it."


    "Are you telling me this is a morning glory sunflower?" The thin young man asked hopefully.


    "God no. If it were one, all those shopkeepers would recognize it." Bai Yun said. "And they would have never let you leave with a morning glory sunflower. They would have used all of their tricks to make you think that this was a simple flower and would have made you sell it to them for cheap."


    "So why did you mention the morning glory sunflower?" The middle aged man asked.


    "Because this is a mutated version of the morning glory sunflower." Bai Yun said. "Not just the appearance, but the medical properties of the herb had also changed drastically. It would be of no use even if someone was to add this to a recipe that called for a morning glory sunflower. That is why no one was able to recognize it."


    "We don''t care what it is. We just need to know if it is valuable?" The young man asked.


    "There is not a single person in terracotta hill, including me, who would buy this thing." Bai Yun said.


    Hearing this the duo looked sad. They had come here with great hope that they had found a windfall. Bai Yun smiled when he saw their reaction. And then Bai Yun said the finisher.


    "That is because no one would be able to afford it."