Xu Yang frowned. He thought that Song Ren wanted to ask him to report the Fire-Cloud Dojo for their crime and ask the Vast-Gate’s Chief to hold the Fire-Cloud Dojo accountable for their actions. Yet, at the brink of death, all he could think of was his daughter.

 1Raising a daughter was too troublesome so Xu Yang hesitated upon hearing his request. He saw Song Ren’s face turn red as he coughed violently. “Xu, Xu Yang… I beg of you, there is a reward… on the beam of my house… please, please…”

 Before he could finish his sentence, violent coughs shook his whole body. Song Ren spat out dark red blood foam along with small pieces of his internal organs.

 “Okay, I promise you.” Xu Yang frowned, stood up and walked out of the valley without looking back.

 Song Ren’s eyes were fading, it was extremely difficult for him to persist until that moment. If he did not have any reason to stay alive, he would have already succumbed to his injuries. However, he had a serene look on his face when he finally passed on.

 Xu Yang left the valley along with the map. He hurried forward after identifying the direction.

 After about an hour, the three figures were back to the valley from different directions.

 “I didn’t find him,” Lu Zhuo said with a rough voice.

 “Me too,” Wei Haoshan said with an ear-piercing sound. “Was the kid lying to us? Think about it, how can members of Lin Yuan’s Xu family join the ascetic team?”

 “Well, he doesn’t seem to be lying to us…” Hong Xi was the think tank among the three. He observed the scene on the ground and whispered softly, “Look, Song Ren’s leather pouch was moved… and the map inside is gone.”

 The other two were shocked and rushed to Hong Xi’s side. After seeing it for themselves, their faces turned gloomy.

 “It really looks like the kid was not lying,” Wei Haoshan hummed. “What should we do now?”

 Hong Xi said calmly, “What can you do to avoid being punished by the chief? Follow the tracks of the boy named Xu Yang and hunt him down!”

 “Hunt? We don’t even know where he has gone to. The Python Mountains are so spread out. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack.” Wei Haoshan retorted.

 Hong Xi shook his head, “We can get the group of outer disciples to look around… Didn’t the dead boy say that Xu Yang only has the cultivation of an Early Mystical Learner? Any disciple of ours would be able to kill him.”

 Wei Haoshan and Lu Zhuo’s faces suddenly brightened up with the suggestion.

 It was noontime. Hong Xi, Wei Haoshan and Lu Zhuo had gathered fifteen ascetic disciples. Hong Xi said slowly and deliberately, “A young thief from the Vast-Gate Dojo has stolen a Flame Flower from us and shown much disrespect to the Fire-Cloud Dojo! I am now giving you a task to split up and look for the kid. He is only an Early Mystical Learner. Any one of you can kill him! The Flame Flower belongs to the one who finds him!”

 The ascetic teenagers looked at each other for a long while. One of them stood up and asked, “Master Hong, there are beasts in the Python Mountains. It is very dangerous. We are worried that we will be eaten by a beast before we even find the thief.”

 Hong Xi smiled broadly and said, “Simple. I will give you each a Fire-Cloud Dojo flare rocket. If you are in danger, light up the rocket immediately and we will go to where you are.”

 1The disciples accepted the task under the temptation of the Flame Flower. Low-grade elixirs such as the Flame Flower could be sold for at least ten Wolf Coins at the market in Lin Yuan City, which was the monthly income of an instructor.

 The fifteen ascetic disciples and three Mystical Warrior instructors spread out sparsely, like a large net casted onto a pond, to the nearby mountains and forests.

 The sun was setting soon. Xu Yang who was walking in the dense forest suddenly felt a sense of incoming danger.

 Was it his imagination? Did that bush just move? Was it a beast or a human?

 Xu Yang secretly took note of what had happened and he continued to move forward calmly.

 “Here he is!” The voice of a young boy sounded gleefully. Xu Yang turned around immediately and saw two boys rushing toward him one after the other.

 1“Take out the Flame Flower!” A hint of greed flashed in the eyes of the boy in front of him.

 Xu Yang’s eyebrows furrowed, he immediately figured out what was happening. The three Mystical Warriors had gathered all the ascetic disciples and had them come after him!

 “Do we need to light up the flares?” The disciple at the back asked.

 “We don’t need to. He is only an Early Mystical Learner but the two of us are at the Intermediate and Advanced stage respectively! Let’s get the Flame Flower first!” The first ascetic disciple pounced on Xu Yang, “Little thief, don’t run!”

 A hint of cruelty flashed in Xu Yang’s eyes and he sneered. “Very well, since the Fire-Cloud Dojo is chasing after me… don’t blame me for not holding back!”

 Tibetan Snake Stance!

 Xu Yang did not dodge at all. When his opponent’s punch was about to exert force on his body, his chest suddenly sank inward greatly, causing the punch to miss its target! Immediately after that, with the cracking of Xu Yang’s right arm came a punch that was launched on the opponent’s waist. The Mystical Learner wrapped his arms around his stomach and rolled up like a prawn. Xu Yang’s eyes glinted fiercely as he slashed his opponent’s neck with his palm.

 Crack! His neck was broken.

 Xu Yang kicked the Mystical Learner away and ran to the other one.

 The other Mystical Learner’s cultivation was at Intermediate tier. He was horrified when he saw his partner heavily injured in a round of battle with Xu Yang. He jumped up and decided to escape!

 Xu Yang used the Running Horse Stance. His feet were surrounded by a mist of Mystical Energy and his body was as light as wind. He caught up to the Mystical Learner in several breaths.

 “D*mn, I’ll fight with you!” The Mystical Learner yelled, and he raised his leg for an attack.

 “Six juns of strength, how weak.” Xu Yang evaluated coldly and met the opponent’s foot with his fist. The Mystical Learner was knocked down to the ground like he was knocked by a heavy hammer.

 “You… how are you so strong!” The Mystical Learner took something out of his sleeves and infused Mystical Energy into it. Trembling visibly, he flung the item into the air.

 For a moment, Xu Yang did not realize what he had done. He looked up at the sky and saw a big cloud of fire exploding in the air.

 “It’s a flare signal…” Xu Yang knew that he was in trouble. He hummed angrily and kicked the Mystical Learner, who was still on the ground, on his forehead. His skull cracked and three lines of blood flowed from his forehead.

 “I have to leave!” Xu Yang had killed two of them successively. He knew that he could not stay there any longer. He quickly used the Running Horse Stance and disappeared into the forest in several vertical jumps.

 1Just one moment later, two people arrived at the scene. It was Hong Xi and Wei Haoshan.

 When they saw the two bodies on the ground, Hong Xi and Wei Haoshan’s faces darkened. They did not expect a rookie of an Early-tier Mystical Learner to be able to kill two Mystical Learners of Intermediate and Advanced tiers.

 “What should we do now?” Wei Haoshan looked at Hong Xi.

 Hong Xi groaned and dabbed on a trace of blood from one of the corpses on the ground, “The blood is still fresh. I can use the Blood-Binding Technique, and I will definitely find the little thief!

 The Blood-Binding Technique was an assistive Mystical Technique which could use the blood of the victim as a guide to find the trace of the killer within a certain range.

 2Hong Xi flipped both his palms, formed an imprint and converted the blood on the ground into a mist of blood.

 Wei Haoshan thought that he was seeing the soul of the dead boy, guiding the blood mist straight into a direction. It then turned into a faint bloodline that led into the forest.

 “It’s done. Let’s go!” Wei Haoshan was getting impatient. He rushed forward hurriedly as his Mystical Energy flashed. Hong Xi followed after him.

 “Hurry up, these blood mist guides have a limited distance. We must catch up to him before the blood mist dries up!” Hong Xi said hastily. His calmness from before had disappeared.

 The blood mist which seemed to have a spirit, faded away gradually after crossing the distance of a hundred feet.

 “Sh*t. That kid is fast.” Wei Haoshan said in exasperation.

 “It doesn’t matter. The blood mist has shown us the direction. We are in the southern area of the Python Mountains. If you go southeast for ten days, you will reach Lin Yuan City!” Hong Xi frowned and analyzed the direction in which it was leading to. “The kid must be in a hurry to return to Lin Yuan City. We can send disciples and form investigating teams of four to five people each. Once they have found him, they have to alert us immediately!”

 Xu Yang did not realize that he had managed to avoid the confrontation. He was cautious and he knew that he was not far from the road marked on the map.

 He might walk into some unknown dangerous area if he were to stray too far from the path of the Ascetic Road. It would be extremely unfortunate if he were to meet any beasts.

 Night had fallen. Xu Yang found a concealed valley to cultivate the Dynamic-Static Combined Qi-Introducing Technique.

 He practiced Zhenwu’s Eight Sceneries Scripture, which could take in any kind of Mystical Qi. Various Mystical Qis were drawn into Xu Yang’s body similar to how the rivers converged at sea. After extracting Mystical Energy, the Mystical Qi was turned into turbid gas and released.

 Xu Yang’s strength was rapidly improving. He was becoming stronger, not only his cultivation, but also his physical strength.

 With enough Mystic Energy, Xu Yang strived to temper his body to the extreme. Hence, every inch of muscle and each piece of bone were repeatedly tempered by Mystical energy to achieve the strongest stage possible within his current realm.

 The body was a container that carried water if one were to compare Mystical Qi to water. The stronger the body, the greater the ability to store cultivation.

 This tempering process was accompanied by intense pain. As Xu Yang cultivated, cold sweat was dripping from his forehead. His face was pale, but his eyes showed glints of persistence.

 “Since I am now in this era filled with Mystical Energy, I must set foot on the pinnacle!” This was Xu Yang’s dream from thousands of years in the future. It was finally possible to achieve his dream. No matter how difficult it was, he would keep going on valiantly.

 Time passed day by day with Xu Yang’s stealth and practice. Seven days had passed in an instant.

 In the early morning of the eighth day, Xu Yang ended his Qi-Introducing Technique and body refining practice as per usual. He exhaled lightly and punched a big tree with a trunk as big as an adult’s hug.

 With a cracking sound coming from the inside of the trunk, its branches and leaves shook tremendously, as if a gigantic bear was shaking the tree.

“My cultivation is still at the Early Mystical Learner stage but it is infinitely close to that of Intermediate tier. The Mystical Energy in my Star Ocean is full and I can advance at any time.” Xu Yang inspected his own state. “My physical strength has reached seventeen juns, it is even stronger than the future era’s Mystical Cultivators in the same realm!”

 The most important thing was that Xu Yang had diligently cultivated the eight stances of the Dynamic-Static Combined Qi-Introducing Technique. Notably, the Running Horse Stance which represented speed. His speed was now fifty percent faster than it was before. He was almost on par with a normal Mystical Warrior’s speed.

 “Lin Yuan City is right in front of me,” Xu Yang thought to himself. “But the group of fools from the Fire-Cloud Dojo is really annoying… One of their instructor teachers, Hong Xi, even knows the Blood-BindingTechnique. He is truly not an easy opponent to deal with.”

 In the past seven days, Xu Yang had seen the investigating teams of the Fire-Cloud Dojo twice. Xu Yang did not take any action because he was afraid of the three Mystical Warriors behind them.

 The days spent in hiding would not be able to last long. Xu Yang was determined to fight his way through although he knew that there were strong Mystical Warriors in the front blocking his way. However, as bloody as the path might be, he would still have to return to Lin Yuan City.