At this moment, a clamor came from outside the great hall. It turned out to be Fan Tianlong’s three sons and one daughter, and Fan Tianfeng’s youngest daughter also came.

“The rest of you stay first outside the great hall.” Fan Xun said: “Let Fan Zhibin first come in!”

Fan Zhibin is Fan Tianlong’s eldest son, as well as Fan Yanxing’s father. He is 58 this year with a tall but not robust figure. His hair is an azure-grey color and his appearance is healthy. He is also another Great Martial Master in the clan’s third generation, whose cultivation reached the peak of Great Martial Master realm and is considered to be one step into Battle King realm. His cultivation was higher than Fan Tianhu and was basically on par with Fan Tianlong.

He strode in.

“Zhibin! Yin Tianxiong is handed over to you!” Fan Xun stated: “Within 5 days, I want to see his head!”

……

The next day and day after passed by tranquilly. On the fourth day, Song Clan’s Clan Head Song Qi left for Tian Clan to be a guest and prepared to receive his son Song Di, who unexpectedly lost his life on his way. No one caught sight of the murderer; the only thing that could be seen from the wound was that it was likely from the Soul-chasing Blade.

Both Tian Clan and Song Clan were greatly shaken. Although Song Clan was merely a very small clan, they were still in-laws with Tian Clan in any case, so Tian Clan’s Clan Head ordered for Yin Tianxiong to come to Tian Clan and explain himself.

Yin Clan felt that this matter was fishy so they played some tricks. They let Yin Tianxiong’s double off on the journey from the main road while the genuine Yin Tianxiong was secretly journeying in alleyways.

But the genuine Yin Tianxiong still met an interception on his way in the alleyways. Both sides struggled for 40-50 rounds, then Yin Tianxiong ultimately ran away with the shield of a war beasts’ suicidal attack, yet still died midway due to excessive blood loss.

Two deaths without witnesses, Tian Clan and Yin Clan could only guess and aim their spearpoint at Fan Clan.

For a period of time, turbulent times were to come.

……

……

The news of Fan Zhiyi’s death passed through Fan Tianfeng’s ear on the fifth day at Jadeite Mountain Range. But at this time, the selection still hadn’t finished, so even if she knew this piece of news, she still couldn’t leave.

One-third of the selection has passed by, who knows what kind of achievements that the children have accrued and how many of them are safe? Fan Tianfeng was faintly anxious in her heart.

At this time, Fan Yanxing and the others already reached halfway up the mountain, a place about 10,000 meters above ground. They were already treading on the cloud layer; this place’s air was thin and the temperature was unusually low. Fortunately, the six of them were cultivators, so travelling in this kind of environment was entirely not a problem.

In the first five days, every person participating in the selection was exceptionally cautious; when they fought, the main purpose was to probe out the opposing sides’ strength. Adding onto the fact that Fan Yanxing’s party was quite big and strength was pretty good, their journey was more of fear of injury than being injured. Fan Yanxing even obtained a total of 9 tokens from 4 small clans and a loose cultivator. The only one that suffered injury was the Thousands Li Shadowless Eagle and it was currently resting inside the seal crystal, thus unable to conduct any scouting out anymore.

The six people continued climbing upwards. After they crossed over a gigantic rock, their field of view instantly expanded; behind that gigantic rock was a more-than-200-meters square field of open space.

At this instant, there was already many people gathered here. Seeing Fan Yanxing’s group of six appear, the rest of them looked over in succession.

“People have come, hehe.” A young man sitting in the middle of the field gently chuckled. A group of 30 people crowded his surroundings, obviously one group. In their surroundings were still many people, with several groups of 7-8 individuals each with their own circle.

“Friend,” That young man in the middle, who was wearing gorgeous clothing and looking like a young master, looked at the leader Fan Yanxing and said: “I am Western Yu Clan’s eldest young master Yu Wenshun. I wonder how many tokens are in this friend’s hands? Would it be possible to give up these tokens to me? Yu Clan will be very grateful.”

Fan Yanxing and his group of six all stared blankly. They clearly didn’t expect that there would actually be someone blatantly setting up a token transaction. They hadn’t heard of Western Yu Clan before, at least not within the first 100 clans because the first 100 clans were large aristocratic clans and everyone had an impression of each.

Towards this kind of transaction, Fan Yanxing wasn’t even a bit interested. He directly brought the other five to pass through from the side.

“Friend, how come you aren’t speaking? Could it be possible that you’re worried that my Yu Clan won’t be able to pay the initial price? Don’t hesitate to speak whatever you want!” Yu Wenshun kept bothering.

“Exchange is also fine.” Lu Jing stopped for a moment and smiled: “We don’t want much, it’s possible as long as eldest young master Yu can bring an official disciple quota for exchange.”

Yu Wenshun complexion instantly became gloomy and he coldly said: “Friend, do you think your joke is very funny?”

“Because eldest young master Yu started joking first, I thought that you were fond of hearing jokes.” Lu Jing spoke back with neither respect nor disrespect.

The crowds of other groups all used a mocking expression as they looked over and calmly watched the situation developing.

“Younger cousin Jing, don’t be so long-winded with them.” Fan Yanxing spoke as he continued striding forward, soon about to pass through the center site.

Yu Wenshun’s eyes became cold and he gave the sturdy man next to him a signal with his eyes.

The sturdy man returned a slight nod.

Two assisting groups criss-crossed and closed in until there was 10 meters between them. Fan Yanxing didn’t even glance sideways, but Fan Ping and Lu Jing cautiously turned to look at the opposite party.

But the opposite party’s group of 30 didn’t make any detectable movements.

Just as Fan Yanxing stepped past and started to walk further away, that sturdy man suddenly got rid without any warning signs. But his target wasn’t Fan Yanxing, but rather the rearguard Lu Feng!

It seemed that he could see that Fan Yanxing wasn’t a pushover, but Lu Feng gave the impression that he was quite young, so he shouldn’t have any problems taking the initiative to handle him.

However, his plan to mount a sneak attack failed. In the instant that he began, Lu Feng seemed to grow an eye behind his back. Lu Feng quickly turned around and gave him a punch.

Bang! A tremendous noise sounded out and both sides retreated 5-6 steps.

Both sides were Martial Masters and evenly matched!

The sturdy man looked at Lu Feng in shock. He could roughly estimate that Lu Feng was very young and supposed that he was at most 20 years-old, but he didn’t expect that Lu Feng would be able to go fist to fist with him!

The surrounding onlookers cried out in alarm, then burst out in whispers immediately after.

“How fierce, this young, yet already a Martial Master?”

“These passer-byers cannot be despised……”

“It seems like they should be of some large aristocratic clan, I just don’t know which one……”

“The girl in the middle is quite beautiful!”

Xiao Xun, who was in the middle of the team, was even paid attention to and it momentarily caused her face to redden. Previously, she was surrounded by her elder brothers, but now, because of the sudden punch, her figure couldn’t help but appear.

“Although you’re young, you’ve already entered the threshold of Martial Master, not bad, not bad.” Yu Wenshun meticulously sized up the six individuals across from him once more. Finally, his gaze stopped over at Xiao Xun and he spoke: “I wonder which aristocratic clan juniors these friends are from?”

“Southwest Fan Clan!” Fan Zhong replied with a low muffled voice.

The surrounding people burst into lapses of whispers.

“Fan Clan? Which Fan Clan?”

“I haven’t heard of it……”

“I’ve actually heard of it, it should be one of the first 500 large aristocratic clans.”

“There are too many large aristocratic clans, who knows whether this Fan Clan is placed within the first 200 or last 400-500?”

……

“Friend!” Yu Wenshun stood up and spoke towards the leader Fan Yanxing: “From what can be seen, you are the strongest of your group. Let’s have a competition, shall we? The winner will take away all the tokens in the losers’ hands.”

“And if I don’t agree?” Fan Yanxing narrowed his eyes and counter-questioned.

“That’s beyond your control.” Yu Wenshun smiled: “Our group is 5-6 times larger than yours, you think you guys will be able to easily leave?”

Fan Yanxing’s eyes stared, human wave tactic? The opposite party actually wanted to bully the few with many?

“How do you want to compete?” Fan Yanxing asked after hesitating for a moment.

“Currently, we haven’t reached the final juncture and many large aristocratic clan experts are conserving their energy. I can see that we don’t want to pit our lives against each other.” Yu Wenshun said: “Both sides need not use their summon beasts, what do you think?”

“No need to use summon beast? The winner will take away all the tokens?”

“Yes,” Yu Wenshun nodded, then glanced at Xiao Xun: “But if this friend is willing to introduce your younger sister to me, I may only take half your tokens away.”

“Okay! I request all participants in the audience to arrive to the blockade line at the foot of the mountain.” Huo Tongzi said: “Over there, disciples of the Five Large Sects will be providing participants with tokens. From the blockade line to 1 kilometer up the mountain is the safety zone, where battles and killing is prohibited. Bear in mind that if you lose the token, you aren’t eliminated, you just need to snatch a new token before the cut off time arrives. But if you’re dead or retreat back into the safety zone, then you will be disqualified!”

Fan Yanxing, Xiao Xun, and the rest all stood up and the atmosphere stiffened for a moment.

“Remember, a family mutually supports each other!” Fan Tianfeng urged for the final time.

“Yes!” The six people saluted to Fan Tianfeng and Lu Yuan, then resolutely walked towards the blockade line at the foot of the mountain.

An unending stream of people from all directions gathered to the foot of the mountain. They got a token from the sect disciples stationed at the blockade line, then entered the jungle in groups of 2-3 people. They all had to disseminate to various places as soon as possible while preserving themselves and ambushing other people.

Although there was a large number of people, Jadeite Mountain Range’s main peak was larger; just the blockade line was close to ten thousand meters long. Adding in the priority was on when the crowd arrived, after they entered the jungle, it was basically hard to run into each other.

Fan Yanxing’s group of six ran for almost twenty minutes before arriving at the blockade line, then receiving their tokens.

“Our group of six should first move together.” Fan Yanxing said: “Let’s first find a path to the summit of the mountain.”

“Okay!” The other five people nodded in favor. Over here, Fan Yanxing was the boss, so naturally everything was decided by him.

“Fan Zhong, Lu Feng, you two will be rear-guard. Xiao Xun, you will be in the middle.” Fan Yanxing arranged the lineup of their group. He was in the front, Lu Jing and Fan Ping were the wings, Xiao Xun would be protected in the middle, and Fan Zhong and Lu Feng were rear-guard.

“Cousin, do you think we should release our summon beasts ahead of time?” Lu Jing inquired.

“Hm……” Fan Yanxing hesitated for a moment before saying: “Let’s not use our summon beasts first in order to avoid exposing our strength. Little Feng, release your Thousands Li Shadowless Eagle first and make it scout out the area in front.”

Lu Feng compiled with the command. He took out a sealing crystal, recited the incantation and a light ray flew out of the crystal, which changed into an small ash-grey eagle. The eagle’s figure was slender and its wings exquisite. It lightly flapped and was already beyond 100 meters without the least bit of fluctuation in the atmosphere.

Thousands Li Shadowless Eagle is a unique bird from the southern part of Qifeng Continent. There was a very small amount of them, and they were also extremely difficult to capture. Fan Clan had attempted to catch one many times since their ancestors and it didn’t bear any fruit until Lu Yuan coincidentally chanced upon a wounded baby fledgling on an outing and saved it. Afterwards, the fledgling grew up and followed Lu Yuan. Later on, Lu Yuan passed it onto his youngest son Lu Feng.

Clan Head had once said that within the entirety of Qifeng Continent, the number of clans possessing a Thousands Li Shadowless Eagle shouldn’t surpass 100. Through this, it could be seen how rare this war beast was. This time, Lu Feng brought along this little eagle to scout out the enemy to occupy the upper hand.

……

Approximately two hours later, those participating all received their tokens and entered the mountain woods.

After that, the Clean Buddhist Temple disciple in charge of providing tokens returned to give Huo Tongzi the report that this time’s selection had a total of 10,448 people participating.

“10,448. En, the quantity isn’t small. Recording name disciples will be chosen one every 10 li, and official disciples are chosen one every 100 li¹.” Huo Tongzi nodded and exchanged gazes with the other four sect officials: “After 15 days, let’s see how many people are alive……”

……

……

At this moment, in the southwest of the continent.

In Fan Clan’s Clan Head’s study room, Fan Xun held a teacup with fragrant tea in both hands.

“Calculating the time, the Five Large Sect’s selection should have begun.” Fan Xun said.

On the other chair in the study sat Fan Tianhu; he had come today to report some matters to the clan head.

Fan Tianhu nodded: “Yes, father. But we don’t know the rules of this time’s selection. We can only hope that Yanxing and the others will be able to get through it safely!”

“If we talk about the most promising, of course it would be Xing’er.” Fan Xun lightly tapped the table with his finger and said with hesitation: “But everything isn’t set in stone, maybe the others will also be selected.”

At this time, the sound of panic-stricken shouting came from outside the door.

“Clan Head! Clan Head! Things aren’t good!!!”

Fan Xun wrinkled his brows.

“What’s there to be alarmed about? Come in and say it!” Fan Tianhu said towards the door.

A servant pushed opened the door and knelt down after several steps. As he kowtowed, he cried out: “Clan Head! Eldest master Tianhu! Lord Fan Zhiyi, he……he was killed by someone!……”

“What?!!!” Fan Xun and Fan Tianhu simultaneously stood up pale with fright.

Fan Zhiyi is Fan Tianhu’s eldest son, as well as Fan Zhishen’s elder brother and Xiao Xun’s uncle. Although Fan Zhiyi’s moral quality was ordinary, cultivation was ordinary, and didn’t treat Xiao Xun too well, but in any case, he was a person of Fan Clan, a third generation master at Fan Clan! Yet suddenly dying like this, this could only be regarded as a thunderbolt coming down from a clear sky.

Fan Zhiyi’s corpse had already been moved and was currently at Fan Clan’s great hall.

Fan Tianhu stumbled into the great hall with two lines of tears streaming down his old eyes. He looked at his son’s corpse and choked on his sobs, unable to speak a word. From time immemorial, seeing your child die before you was this kind of sorrow!

In the great hall, Fan Zhiyi’s wife, second son Fan Tong, and third son Fan Ziyi knelt by the corpse, their tears long since created a river. Fan Zhiyi’s eldest son had saved Xiao Xun when he was younger, thereby receiving a serious injury that turned into an old ailment which prevented him from cultivating DouQi. He left to do external business at a young age, so he wasn’t able to come back in time——this was weight in Fan Zhiyi’s heart, as well as the reason why he wasn’t good to Xiao Xun. In addition, Fan Zhishen and his wife, as well as Minyue and Xiao Xun’s mother was present. Minyue held a four year-old child in her arms. Fan Zhishen managed to make Minyue’s little brother at his old age.

Fan Xun entered the great hall after Fan Tianhu. His expression was relatively calmer, but his tigerish eyes were tearful.

After a moment, Fan Tianlong also arrived. Then, Fan Tianhu’s fourth son Fan Zhikun, who was Xiao Xun’s father’s younger brother, brought his three daughters over with him——Fan Zhikun had a total of four children, which demonstrated how scattered Fan Tianhu’s line was, but the eldest son Fan Ping was participating in the sect selection.

“How did this come about?!” Fan Xun suppressed his sorrow and rage before asking this through clenched teeth.

“Clan Head!” Fan Zhishen raised his head to look at his grandfather: “It’s Yin Clan! I recognize elder brother’s wound, it’s Yin Clan’s Soul-chasing Blade!”

“Soul-chasing Blade? Are you certain?” Fan Xun’s eyes stared.

Fan Tianlong stooped over and attentively examined the wound, then stood up and said to Fan Xun: “Lord father, Zhishen’s judgement isn’t wrong, it indeed is the Soul-chasing Blade.”

“Soul-chasing Blade! Yin Tianxiong’s……Soul-chasing Blade?” Fan Tianhu bit his lip broken and a sliver of blood streamed down. Minyue’s mother and Xiao Xun’s mother hurriedly stepped over and supported their father-in-law.

Yin Tianxiong is a prominent character in Yin Clan’s third generation. His cultivation is the same as Fan Zhishen’s, both were Great Martial Masters but it was said that his cultivation base was more profound and already approached perfection. The weapon he used was precisely this Soul-chasing Blade. The Soul-chasing Blade’s blade point was extremely strong; when wounded by it, the wound would be badly mangled.

“Is this Yin Clan’s public declaration of war to us?” Fan Zhikun looked at Clan Head and his father.

“It is a declaration of war. But it really isn’t publically.” Fan Tianlong gave a deep sigh: “From the blade wound, we can be sure that it is from the Soul-chasing Blade. But we don’t have any decisive evidence because we can’t eliminate the possibility of other weapons that can create a similar wound! Therefore……”

“Therefore if we go take revenge, then it will become us publicly declaring war first!” Fan Zhishen supplemented his uncle’s words.

Fan Xun nodded. Yin Clan was really sinister, to viciously kill someone but not leave anything about the person behind. Moreover, Yin Clan and Tian Clan were currently connected through marriage, so declaring war to Yin Clan would be the same as declaring war to both Yin and Tian clans.

The kneeling down and sobbing Fan Tong suddenly stood up and turned to walk out.

“Where do you want to go?!” Fan Tianhu shouted.

“To go avenge father!” Fan Tong answered without turning around.

“Stay where you are!” Fan Xun glared and yelled in a fierce voice.

Fan Xun was the current generation Clan Head and his prestige amassed through the passing of time, so Fan Tong had no choice but to stop at his steps when these words were spoken.

With his gaze sweeping over everyone, Fan Xun continued speaking: “At present, it is our Fan Clan’s most critical time. But everyone cannot forget their places. Without my order, no one can act blindly!

Very quickly, every plaza’s observation platform filled up with various aristocratic clan’s members. At this time, it was already noon.

Bzz——

In the wake of the ‘bzz’ sound, a ball of radiance appeared on the peak of every plaza’s center obelisk.

Besides the five big plaza’s, the other small aristocratic clans and loose cultivators gathering places also had a similar pillar, and it was also emitting the same radiance.

“What is this?” Xiao Xun looked at the ball of radiance and curiously asked.

“Young lady Xiao Xun, that is a type of DouQi technique integrated with ancient formations to create a broadcast image. Rumors say that only people in extremely high realms can employ this method.” Steward Qi preached his erudition.

Xiao Xun nodded. She knew what a technique was; Fan Clan possessed five rare DouQi technique books. They were Light Body Secrets, Explosion Art, Execution Secrets, Ruinous Murder Scripture, and Worldly Battle Emperor Fist. Among these, Light Body Secrets required one to be at least an Intermediate Warrior, so practically every junior in Fan Clan studied it, but everyone’s understanding was different. Explosion Art and Execution Secrets required one to be Great Martial Master. Fan Zhishen was only able to perfect his supreme “Sleeve Chain” skill after reaching the pinnacle in Execution Secrets. Currently, in the entire Fan Clan, only Clan Head Fan Xun trained in the Ruinous Murder Scripture because this technique’s requirement needed one to attain Battle King realm in order to practice it! As for the final Worldly Battle Emperor Fist, one just needed to listen to the name to know; the rank achieved had to be Battle Emperor. This is Fan Clan’s inherited clan secret, but many years had already passed with nobody training in it.

DouQi techniques also had grades. In Qifeng Continent, people generally divided it into these five levels: Low Grade, Intermediate Grade, Top Grade, Best Grade, God Grade. Fan Clan’s Light Body Secrets was a Low Grade technique while Worldly Battle Emperor Fist was a Top Grade technique and the other three were Intermediate Grade techniques.

The ball of radiance on top of the pillars slowly expanding, becoming more and more bright. Within the radiance, five silhouettes slowly appeared.

“This should be the people in charge for the Five Large Sect’s selection this time.” Fan Tianfeng informed the six juniors.

Fan Yanxing and the others lifted their heads made great efforts to look at those five people’s shadows.

The shadows of those people gradually became clearer. What they were met with was five people sitting upright on chairs in a row, looking down upon everyone underneath. At the leftmost was a person dressed in all black. The only thing that could be made out was that the person was a male because of how tight it wrapped around him. The only thing that was exposed was his nose and mouth, so how old he was couldn’t be made out. By his side was a beefy burly fellow. The edges on his face were distinct, his manner was calm, and with his grizzled beard, he looked about 50 years-old. His immense upper body had muscles bulging out, displaying his extremely rich explosive force.

At the rightmost was a ***** plentiful figure wearing a white-colored dragon palace clothing¹. With bright eyes and a smile on her face, she unconsciously displayed a multitude of bearings. By this beautiful woman’s side sat a thin old man in a commoner’s clothing² along with a straw hat. He had grizzled hair, a grizzled beard, a pair of lazy narrowed eyes as he drank wine out of a pot, seeming to completely not care about the selection.

And sitting upright between these individuals was a seemingly only 13 or 14 year-old youth. He donned a fire-red muslin clothing, had a short crew cut, and had a cinnabar embedded into his eyebrows. His eyes were clear and each hand had 8 golden finger rings.

“Huo Tongzi³, that’s Huo Tongzi!” Fan Tianfeng’s eyes suddenly contracted as she cried this out involuntarily.

The surrounding observation platforms also burst out in hubbub.

“Grandmother, who is Huo Tongzi?” Lu Feng opened his mouth to ask.

“In the Fire Large Sects, the strongest is Clean Buddhist Temple!” Fan Tianfeng explained: “Clean Buddhist Temple has experts in every generation. In these recent years, the most famous is this Huo Tongzi! Rumors say that he cultivates the Best Grade technique ‘Unaging Art’. He recovers his youthful vigor every 40 years; don’t just look at his youthful look, in reality he is already an old monster over 100 years-old.”

“How fierce!” The six juniors were endlessly astonished.

At this time, Huo Tongzi opened his mouth and a melodious resounding voice sounded out: “Everyone, welcome to Jadite Mountain Range. We five people will be hosting this time’s selection. I believe everyone recognizes this boy, so I will introduce the other four.”

He pointed at the burly fellow by his left and introduced: “This is Myriad Fist Sect’s Moyu Kui as well as one of the ten large aristocratic clans——Moyu Clan’s Clan Head’s younger brother.”

Afterwards, he pointed at the black-clothed man: “By Moyu Kui’s side is Amethyst Fiend Hall’s thirteenth protector, also known as “Ghost Frightening” Yin Yuliang.”

Immediately following that, Fan Zhong muttered: “His name is actually a good name⁴, but his entire person is somber.”

Lu Jing continued on: “Amethyst Fiend Hall is a seemingly quite demonic in itself……”

At this moment, Huo Tongzi pointed at the peasant-clothed old man: “This sir is probably known by many people; he is Heaven’s Will Valley’s old drunkard, Han Fengzi.”

“And the final person,” Huo Tongzi stopped for a moment and looked at that ******: “is region lord Situ Fang of Crystal Palace!”

At this time, all the plazas’ hubbub became louder and louder, nearly combining into 1 sound. This wasn’t surprising as these five people were extremely famous in their respective Five Large Sects. Each time Huo Tongzi had introduced a person, practically everyone cried out in surprise.

“These are truly characters that stand at the peak of Qifeng Continent……” Lu Yuan said with emotion.

Fan Yanxing and the other juniors’ visions all went towards that Han Fengzi because they now knew that one of their ancestors was once in Heaven’s Will Valley, but was later banished.

“Okay, please quiet down everyone.” Huo Tongzi said: “Next, I will announce the rules for this time’s selection!”

Huo Tongzi’s words immediately caused the audience to calm down; it could even be said to be complete silence.

“For the participation quota, each large aristocratic clans can have a maximum of eight people while small aristocratic clans can only have a maximum of two people. As for loose cultivators, those with invitations beforehand will be given priority.” Huo Tongzi said: “If my statistics aren’t unmistaken, there should be 493 large aristocratic clans, 3504 small aristocratic clans, and 827 loose cultivators here today. All the people participating in this selection will be bestowed a token. If you want to pass the selection, there are two ways to do it. One is to climb to the greatest point of Jadeite Mountain Range’s main peak, the other is to seize tokens from the hands of others. The limit is 15 days. When it becomes to the 15th day, everyone that was able to climb to the greatest elevation of the main peak will be received as official disciples! If the number of people on the summit exceeds 100, then the extra people will take slots away from those seizing tokens, and the remaining slots will be chosen as recording name disciples which there will only be a maximum of 1000. If the number of people on the summit is less than 100, the number of people with the most tokens will fill up the 100 official disciple slots, then the top 1000 will be chosen as recording name disciples. If there are those with the same amount of tokens, then the one that is closer to the summit will be chosen.”

The moment Huo Tongzi finished speaking, the audience made a commotion, moreover this time’s noise was obviously bigger.

There was only 100 official disciple slots and 1000 recording name disciple slots! This was truly going to be an intense competition; thinking about it, more than 400 large aristocratic clans, more than 3000 small aristocratic clans, in addition to loose cultivators, that meant the number of people participating was over 10,000, but there was ultimately only 1100 slots. This meant that there was a 90% elimination rate!

However, these rules were also very simple; either climb to the summit of the main peak or snatch enough tokens. But it was unknown what mysterious principles there were to climb to the summit of the main peak; it sounded extremely difficult to accomplish.

“There are only these many rules.” Huo Tongzi continued: “Oh right, there’s one more thing; it is forbidden to use flight war beasts and flying summon beasts to directly reach the summit of the main speak. Other than that, there is nothing else. The method doesn’t matter and life or death also doesn’t matter!”

“Let me add another point.” Crystal Palace’s Situ Fang spoke with a smile: “Those climbing to the summit of the main peak will be ranked in terms of advancement. The remaining people selected people will be chosen on the basis of token number. Within these 1100 disciples, each sect will be selecting 20 official disciples and 200 recording name disciples. Those that are ranked higher will have the power to choose their sects.”

Situ Fang’s supplement made the competitive atmosphere instantly soar. If there were previously thinking that it would be fine just to become one of the first 1100, then now it changed into doing their utmost to attain the position so that there would be more room for them to select.

The plaza’s atmosphere became unprecedentedly active!

Time seemed to slip away, and in a wink, half a year went by.

The focus of the public’s attention, the Five Large Sect’s disciple selection was about to begin!

Within Fan Clan’s Clan Head’s study room, five youths stood in a line before Clan Head Fan Xun. They were the first five in the great competition held half a year back, Fan Yanxing, Fan Zhong, Liu Jing, Fan Ping, and Liu Feng.

Fan Xun’s gaze scanned each of them before nodding in satisfaction and opened his mouth to say: “Not bad, not bad. In half a year, everybody’s progress has been quite bountiful. At the beginning of next month is the Five Large Sect’s disciple selection day. Your grandmother Tianfeng will be leading you to go participate! You must remember that Qifeng Continent has innumerable small and large clans, as well as many talented loose cultivators. You guys cannot lower your guards. Fan Clan’s glory is depending on your six people!”

“Six?” All of them were startled. Although Fan Yanxing’s expression didn’t change, a flash of astonishment went past his eyes. How could there be six people? Wasn’t it obviously just five people?

Fan Xun clapped his hands. Then everyone watched Fan Tianhu bringing in Xiao Xun.

After disappearing for half a year, Xiao Xun’s temperament had a very big change. The first and most obvious point was that there used to be a trace of suffering in her eyes, but now it had disappeared. This was because she and Fan Minyue had reconciled, and after half a year of contact, the gap between the two people slowly mended itself. Second uncle was also much better to her. The second change was her becoming more mature and experienced. The half year of training made her shed the aura of a young girl and become more feminine. And the third change, which was also the most obscure point, was a slight hint of sadness in her features.

Lin Wei’s black curse!

In this past half year, she saw many, many black curse break outs. When she watched Lin Wei’s painful appearance, she cried in her heart and simultaneously felt powerless.

Afterwards, Lin Wei finally started to gradually adapt to this sort of pain. He found a kind of self-hypnotism that diminished the greater part of the pain. By depending on this method, he persevered and the curse break out frequency also gradually slowed down. Nowadays, it would suddenly break out every half a month.

Roughly a month ago, Lin Wei finally succeeded in advancing to Low Level Beastly Guard! With regards to him, this was a milestone-type breakthrough.

The clan inspected Xiao Xun’s training once every month for the past six months, and Lin Wei would also pass through the inspection every time.

As a result, Fan Xun decided to allow Xiao Xun participate in the Sect disciple selection with Fan Yanxing and the others!

Looking at Fan Yanxing and the others’ doubtful expression, Fan Xun said: “Xing’er, in last time’s great competition, you should have also felt the uncommonness of Xiao Xun’s summon beast, right?”

Fan Yanxing nodded and firmly said: “Yes, that summon beast made me feel that it was truly too excessive. It wasn’t like a summon beast, but rather like a human soldier!”

“That’s right. Therefore, I secretly arranged for Xiao Xun to also take part in the special training. However, she only enjoyed a half-person’s clan resources.” Fan Xun continued: “Her summon beast’s intelligence is extremely high. Not only can it advance through striking a war beast to death, it could also promote by striking a summon beast to death. All of this is unprecedented. Tian Clan even arranged for Tian Zhu and Tian Lang to come exterminate Xiao Xun, but luckily they didn’t succeed. This time, she will be going together with you guys. You six have to mutually support each other and share joys and sorrows, understood?”

“Yes, Clan Head.” Fan Yanxing and the others respectfully replied.

……

The place where the Five Large Sects were recruiting people was situated at the center of Qifeng Continent, a place known as ‘Jadeite Mountain Range’.

Fan Clan’s distance from Jadeite Mountain Range is approximately 30,000 kilometers. Using a flight war beast as a mount and travelling day and night, it would take roughly 5 days to reach there. The one bringing this group this time is Fan Tianfeng. Apart from Fan Yanxing’s group of six, there was also Liu Yuan and a steward accompanying them. Liu Yuan was currently a Martial Master. That steward’s surname was Qi and his true strength was on par with Venerable Xie, a Great Martial Master! Previously, steward Qi was also a part of Fan Clan’s secret strength.

The fifth day.

“Look! Jadeite Mountain Range is before us.” Fan Tianfeng stood on the flight mount and pointed at the front while speaking to the six juniors.

Xiao Xun immediately raised her head to look in the distance with her elder brothers. All she saw ahead of her was a continuous undulating mountain range, and the main peak in the middle was a tall mountain that pierced through the clouds. Giving a rough estimate, the mountain range was over 1,000 kilometers, and the height of the main peak was probably not less than 20,000 to 30,000 meters. And at this moment, on that mountain range was a dense and numerous crowd in many places.

“Halt!”

Just as Fan Tianfeng was about to continue to fly forward with her juniors, a voice rang out. Then, a person mounted on a great blue bird appeared before everyone’s eyes. He was a little more than 30 and had thick eyebrows and big eyes with a tiny chin. He wore yellowish-white clothes, and on the clothing was an embroidery of a dragon.

“He is from the Five Large Sects, a disciple of Crystal Palace.” Liu Yuan, who was at the back, informed the juniors in a low voice: “This dragon clothing is the symbol of Crystal Palace.”

“En? That great blue bird?” Fan Yanxing’s eyes slightly shrunk.

At this time, Fan Zhong, Xiao Xun and the other several people also paid attention to that blue bird. They previously thought that it was an ordinary mount, but now that they closely looked at it, they discovered that it was unexpectedly a summon beast!

Blue Luan Bird, Attribute: Water, Rank: Blue-silver!, Status: Intermediate Beastly General!

Each of them sucked in a breath one after another. This was their first time seeing a blue-silver ranked summon beast. The amount of blue-silver summon beasts was very small. Generally, the higher the rank was, the slower and difficult its growth would be! For example, Fan Zhishen’s summon beast was a bronze ranked Low Level Beastly Commander, but Clan Head Fan Xun’s summon beast which hadn’t gone to battle for many years was reportedly said that its status attained Beastly King or stronger. However, its rank was merely common!

But this blue-silver ranked Luan Bird, once it ** advances to Beastly Commander, it would be able to sweep away all common ranked Beastly Kings! It would even be able to be evenly matched with a bronze ranked Beastly King!

Fan Tianfeng cupped her hands towards the arriving person and said: “We come from the Fan Clan in the southwest direction and have come to participate in the Five Large Sects selection.”

“So it was the southwest Fan Clan.” That person nodded and humbly returned the courtesy: “Follow me.”

His manner was ordinary and even brought a trace of arrogance with it. But there was nothing they could do, who allowed him to be a person from Crystal Palace? Crystal Palace stood at the apex of giant influences in the entire Qifeng Continent while Fan Clan was merely one of the innumerable aristocratic clans. In nicer terms, they entered the ranks of the first 500 large aristocratic clans in the mainland, but was still unable to compete with the Five Large Sects.

Fan Tianfeng and her party followed this person and flew to a gigantic plaza on the Jadeite Mountain Range’s main peak. This plaza was extremely vast and looked like a 5 to 6 kilometers square at a glance. In the middle of the plaza was an obelisk more than 1,000 meters tall and the plaza was divided into 100 regions, with each region being a 500 to 600 meters square. Each region had an observation platform and each rose up in succession from the plaza middle. Inside each observation platform were several dozen neat and tidy tables and chairs. And there were 5 of this kind of incomparably vast plaza in total! These were used to receive the first 500 ranked great aristocratic clans on the mainland. As for those outside of the first 500, then sorry, they wouldn’t be receiving you.

“You can rest here.” The person speaking to Fan Tianfeng and the others brought them to an observation platform: “The recruitment ceremony will begin at noon today. I will be taking my leave.”

After he finished speaking, that person didn’t wait for Fan Tianfeng’s reply and directly flew away.

“Truly impressive!” Fan Zhong’s eyes showed an envious look: “The Five Large Sects disciples are really different!”

“That is but of course!” Fan Tianfeng commented: “The five large sects are our mainland’s five major authorities! Each sect has extremely deep inside stories and their strengths are incomprehensible. Qifeng Continent’s ten major super-clans are formidable because there are many people in their clans that joined the five large sects. Our Fan Clan’s hidden resources are lacking in comparison. In the days of my grandfather, he became a disciple of the large sect Heaven’s Will Valley. Unfortunately, because he offended a disciple from those super-clans, he was driven out. From then on, there wasn’t anyone else capable of joining the five large sects.”

“Heaven’s Will Valley?” Fan Zhong was startled and asked: “Our clan once had this kind of past event?”

“It’s not something to be proud of……” Fan Tianfeng sighed: “Therefore, Clan Head didn’t speak a word of it to the younger generations in fear of you guys gossiping everywhere.”

After settling down the flight mount, Fan Clan’s participants sat down in succession. Xiao Xun sat at the outermost side, right beside steward Qi.

Xiao Xun curiously looked around everywhere and discovered that most of the 100 observation platforms were already filled up. In the sky, there were still various kinds of flight mounts continuously rushing around in every direction. This truly was Qifeng Continent’s most spectacular grand occasion!

Suddenly, a loathsome voice sounded out from the side.

“Oh! Isn’t this Fan Clan’s old lady Tianfeng?”

All of Fan Clan’s members’ expressions instantly changed as they turned their heads in the direction of where the sound originated from. What they saw was a powdered white-faced pot-bellied middle-aged man strolling over.

“Yin Chunfeng!” Fan Tianfeng glowered: “What have you come for?”

“Oh! Old lady Fan, what kind of tone is this?” Yin Chunfeng patted his belly and chuckled before he said: “I saw you arrive, so naturally I came to say hello.”

“Is that so?” Fan Tianfeng smiled angrily: “If I remember correctly, according to rank, it would only be right for you to call me auntie!”

“How can that be fine? Isn’t calling you auntie calling you old?” Yin Chunfeng shook his head.

The nearby Fan Zhong’s character was one quickly agitated. He suddenly stood up and angrily shouted: “Then what is the meaning of you calling her old lady? Aren’t you here to find fault with Fan Clan?!”

“Oh~!” Yin Chunfeng’s concentrated his gaze and spoke with an insincere smile: “Who is this? Making a big fuss towards me. Is this how you educate your Fan Clan?”

“Ah? You……” Fan Zhong was about to angrily rush over, but his shoulder was held down by a big hand. The person who restrained him was Liu Yuan.

“Sit down.” Liu Yuan pushed Fan Zhong onto the seat, then he looked towards Yin Chunfeng. In this place, he and Yin Chunfeng were considered the be of the same seniority, so he was the most suitable to speak.

“Hmm? Isn’t this kid Liu Yuan?” Yin Chunfeng was still speaking in a manner that seemed like he needed to be slapped. They were obviously peer of the same generation, so calling Liu Yuan ‘kid’ meant ‘you are still mooching off of Fan Clan?’

“Fan Clan is a large aristocratic clan, with 1 main family, 3 subordinate families, and many branches.” Liu Yuan gazed at Yin Chunfeng and slowly said: “Not only that, but Fan Clan also has numerous good talents. Old pal Chunfeng, are you interested in coming to our place to be a guest official?”

Yin Chunfeng’s cheek twitched. Making him, a person from Yin Clan, go be a guest official at Fan Clan, it was truly amazing that he was able to say this. It could be seen that this Liu Yuan was also an awesome articulation master!

Xiao Xun covered her mouth and secretly smiled.

Liu Yuan continued to “passionately” invite him: “Come come come! Old pal Chunfeng, sit by my side, let us have a good chat.”

Sitting with them? Only if his brain turned to s̲h̲i̲t̲! Yin Chunfeng instantly waved his hand and said: “No need, I still have some words to tell Fei’er. Our clan’s Fei’er will be getting married to Tian Clan’s son, so our strength will be rising, in this time’s selection, we will certainly be able to reveal our talents. When that time comes, there will be two simultaneous happy events in our clan! Old lady Fan should be able to do me the honor of drinking a cup of celebration wine, hahahaha……”

Yin Chunfeng spoke as he swaggered off.

Fan Tianfeng’s face darkened and she said: “Yin Clan is our enemy, and adding that Tian Clan is also standing on their side, this time’s selection is bound to be severely laced with danger. You few must properly show yourselves off and cannot lose Fan Clan’s face by all means!”

“Yes!” Fan Yanxing and the five others responded in chorus.

“Fled?” Fan Zhishen wrinkled his brows. He just so happened not to be in the clan, but rather handling some matters 7 to 8 kilometers away from this place. After seeing the signal flare, he immediately hurried over and even summoned his Blaze Bull. However, he didn’t expect that he still allowed the enemy to escape.

“Father! They are people from Tian Clan, Tian Zhu and Tian Lang!” Fan Minyue said: “They came to kill younger sister Xiao Xun!”

Hmm? Fan Zhishen was startled in his heart, people from Tian Clan? Following which, he saw the appearance of Fan Minyue and Xiao Xun standing together side to side. My daughter called Xiao Xun “younger sister”? This is a matter that has never happened before! What is going on? Have the two of them reconciled???

“Xiao Xun,” Fan Minyue looked towards Xiao Xun: “Older sister was no good previously. A moment ago……thank you for before.”

Xiao Xun was slightly distracted, then she lightly shook her head: “No, previously……Xiao Xun also had incorrect places. We……are a family in any case……”

The two sisters both made self-criticisms. Although they were unable to completely unmask everything that happened in the past, since mental scars required time to heal, this was a good start in any case. The two of them had begun to attempt to accept each other.

“That’s right, how is Lin Wei?” Xiao Xun raised her head and looked at the place with strong sinister energy.

Most of the black gas had diverged, but there was still some residue. At this time, a golden ray suddenly appeared, a dazzling golden light! Xiao Xun, Fan Minyue, and Fan Zhishen were all familiar with this light ray——when Lin Wei had advanced last time, there was this kind of golden light.

“Heavens!” Fan Minyue covered her mouth in extreme amazement: “It can advance by killing a common war beast?”

Within the golden light, the antiquity rule descended and Lin Wei slowly floated up.

His aura began rising once more and broke through to High Level Beastly Soldier with irresistible force, then continued progressing until it stopped at great perfection High Level Beastly Soldier.

However, no one took note of the black stripe that appeared on Lin Wei’s right hand in the golden light.

When Xiao Xun noticed Lin Wei was advancing in the ray of light, she hurriedly de-summoned Lin Wei back to the other world.

After about 7 to 8 minutes, Fan Tianhu finally arrived.

“En?” What Fan Tianhu saw was a messy place. Venerable Xie sustained heavy injuries, so he was sitting on the ground healing himself with luck energy. Fan Zhishen and Fan Minyue stood secretly depressed by the side of the grey-eyed white tiger’s corpse. The little tiger was raised by Fan Zhishen since childhood and it was almost always together playing with Fan Minyue, so there was no need to state how deep the sentiment was. Xiao Xun chatted with Aunt Liu on the side. The Blaze Bull had already been de-summoned. But on the ground, there were two extra corpses. One was naturally Little Shao’s while the other was that Devil Wolf’s.

After taking a glance, Fan Tianhu understood of most it: “Relied on the wrong person, relied on the wrong person……” Fan Tianhu sighed.

“Devil Wolf……” Fan Tianhu shifted his gaze to the corpse of the Devil Wolf.

“Father sir.” Fan Zhishen walked over with Fan Minyue. Xiao Xun also walked over to pay respects to her grandfather.

Aunt Liu knelt down in place. Venerable Xie opened his eyes and wanted to get up to salute, but was stopped by Fan Tianhu.

“Old Xie, keep healing yourself with luck energy, there’s no need to be over courteous.” Fan Tianhu said as he turned to look towards Fan Zhishen’s group of three: “There is a Devil Wolf’s corpse here! Is it Tian Clan’s Tian Lang?”

“Yes, father.” Fan Zhishen replied: “Tian Zhu was also here.”

“Tian Clan……” Fan Zhishen hesitated for a moment: “Sigh, I understand. That’s right, before this Devil Wolf died, did sinister energy burst out of it?”

“Yes!” Xiao Xun hurriedly answered: “An extraordinarily strong ball of sinister energy hit Lin Wei.”

“Is that so? Where is Lin Wei right now?” Fan Tianhu closely questioned.

“After the fight, he advanced to High Level Beastly Soldier. Then I sent him back.” Xiao Xun replied: “Grandfather, does this sinister energy have any effects?”

“This sinister energy is unusually evil.” Fan Tianhu’s expression was extremely grave: “A Devil Wolf can only burst out this sinister energy once in its lifetime. Once it does so, there is bound to be a strong curse power.”

“Curse power?” Xiao Xun and Fan Minyue simultaneously cried out in fear.

Fan Zhishen stayed on the side without speaking a word; it could be assumed that he also wanted to know about this matter.

“One that receives the curse of the sinister energy will experience endless suffering through one’s lifetime. Once it flares up, one will lose to will to survive, but also be unable to die.” Fan Tianhu heavily said.

Losing the will to survive, unable to die!

These 8 words seemed as heavy as a thousand catties pressing down on Xiao Xun’s heart. Her body swayed and tears welled up: “Lin Wei……”

Fan Minyue hastily supported her younger sister: “Xiao Xun, don’t be anxious. Didn’t Lin Wei advance in that final moment? You saw it bathed in the golden light, maybe that sinister energy has already been dispelled.”

Fan Tianhu was somewhat surprised upon seeing Fan Minyue, seemingly unable to understand when the two sisters had reconciled. Following which, he recalled another issue.

“Minyue, how are you also here?” Fan Tianhu asked with wrinkled brows. Fan Zhishen had been nearby handling affairs, this bit he knew, so it made sense that Fan Zhishen would be here earlier than him after seeing the signal flare. But why was Fan Minyue also here? This place was obviously a secret training base, so except for the Clan Head and his three siblings, absolutely no other person should know about this place.

Fan Minyue gazed at Xiao Xun with complex emotions in her eyes, then turned towards Fan Tianhu and prostrated herself.

“Grandfather, Minyue is guilty. Minyue had previous bore a grudge against younger sister Xiao Xun, so she has been discreetly inquiring for her whereabouts these past few days until now, wanting to……wanting to discard her DouQi……but younger sister Xiao Xun’s heart was wide and disregarded the past enmity to help save Minyue. Minyue……Minyue really is ashamed. Please punish me grandfather!”

“Father!” Fan Zhishen hastened to kneel down. He knew that Minyue’s punishment this time would be very big: “Father sir! I have also made a mistake! Blame me, blame me, I haven’t taught her well during peacetime. I……I will substitute in for her punishment!”

“Get the hell up!” Fan Tianhu unhappily glared at him: “We’ll be putting the matter of punishment off for later, go deliver Old Xie back to heal.”

Fan Zhishen replied positively and set towards the direction Venerable Xie was in, then supported him and left in advance.

“You two……” Fan Tianhu’s gaze went back in forth between Fan Minyue and Xiao Xun. His expression went through many changes before he earnestly said: “Being able to set aside the past, this is a good point. We are all one whole family, so mutually competing against each other is very normal. However, one cannot walk the wrong road by all means, otherwise it will be too late for regrets afterwards. Xiao Xun’s summon beast is extremely special, so Clan Head specially approved to conduct a special training for it. This matter must be kept strictly confidential and cannot be told to anybody, Minyue, do you understand?”

“Minyue understands.” Fan Minyue nodded over and over.

“En.” Fan Tianhu nodded in satisfaction: “This place has already been destroyed, so Xiao Xun’s special training can only be changed to another place. But being the case that Zhishen also already knows about this matter, we’ll just simply arrange it to be in his training ground.”

“No no no.” Xiao Xun hastily said: “If we do it like this, it will influence second uncle’s cultivation.”

“Aiya, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Fan Minyue pulled on Xiao Xun’s hand: “Younger sister can just live at my place. This can also be counted as older sister making up for this past. Also, your mother has been thinking about you a lot.”

“Then we’ll arrange it like this.” Fan Tianhu waved his big hand: “Zhishen’s cultivation has already hit a bottleneck, so he won’t be using the training ground. Besides, in this past half year, everything has been done for your several people.”

“Grandfather, you said Xiao Xun’s summon beast is very special. Is this related to the reason why Tian Clan attacked this time?” Fan Minyue inquired.

“It’s possible.” Fan Tianhu stroked his beard: “What I don’t know is how this information leaked out. You two don’t need to manage this issue, we’ll deal with it. Come, first follow grandfather back home.”

……

Fan Tianhu’s words were actually not one bit wrong; a Devil Wolf’s sinister energy was truly evil. Lin Wei was currently losing his will to survive, but unable to seek death from the excruciating pain.

After falling out of the space vortex, the golden light surrounding his body quickly dissipated. At this time, an unbearable piercing ache began transmitting upwards from his arm. In Lin Wei’s entire life, even counting these years after transmigrating here, he had never felt such a terrible pain. It was like the skin on his entire body was being peeled off, then he was thrown to an anthill for millions of ants to bite him. This pain drilled into your muscles, went through your channels, permeated your internal organs, and pierced into your bone marrow!

Lin Wei wanted to cry out in pain but was unable to do so. He was covered with beads of blood from head to toe and the several times he was about to go into shock, he woke up due to the pain.

He rolled in pain, into the river from the meadow.

In the instant that his right hand touched the river water, the surrounding river water unexpectedly boiled and turned into a black vapor.

Plump Red was probably taking a stroll, so he hadn’t seen Lin Wei’s miserable condition.

After roughly a dozen minutes, Lin Wei’s mind cleared up a bit. This was also due to hurting for so long that he eventually adapted a little. He exerted all his strength to shake his head, then an insanely painful ache pierced his head and he nearly went into shock.

Why won’t I die? I would be better off dying!!!

The tremendous pain made Lin Wei want to seek death in order to extricate himself from the pain.

And at this moment, the river water at a place not far away rippled, then crashing noise resounded and a head popped out of the water, raising itself high.

Lin Wei’s shenanigans had finally alarmed a huge monster that was originally hiding underwater!

Single-headed Water Python! Attribute: Water, Rank: Bronze, Status: Intermediate Beastly Guard!

Although it was merely an Intermediate Beastly Guard and was a great distance away from becoming a Beastly General, it’s rank was bronze! Moreover, this kind of terrifying creature was enormous, so it couldn’t be weighed by its rank and status. It could be said that it could defeat 3 to 5 Vigorous Vajra Apes at the same rank and status!

Ssss——the water python closely observed Lin Wei and spat out its tongue.

Rank: Common, Status: High Level Beastly Soldier. And his size is even so small! But, how can he be a summon beast??? Fine, even if it is a summon beast, it’s just a High Level Beastly Soldier summon beast! The water python immediately evaluated in its heart. Since you’ve disturbed my rest, then I’ll take you to fill my stomach!

Lin Wei was still lying in the water with his left hand firmly clutching his right arm.

The water python attacked. It opened its bloody mouth wide and bit at Lin Wei.

Bzz! Lin Wei’s right arm suddenly trembled. There seemed to be something squirming beneath that black stripe. He cried out and his entire body went upright, then his right hand uncontrollably went towards the water python’s head.

Boom!————

Black gas, a strong black gas! It brought cruelty, pain, and inexhaustible hatred with it! This black gas disappeared in a flash, just as how an hour of fun goes by in an instant, and not a trace of it could be seen in the next moment. But it was in this instant that it seemed like the entire atmosphere of the space seemed to be holding a bomb, then it fiercely detonated!!!

After that, the water pythons movement stilled. It wasn’t that it didn’t want to continue attacking, but that it couldn’t. Because, it’s entire head was already gone.

The water python’s remaining body smashed into the water, causing a big spray, then the water became a blood-like color.

Along with this discharge, Lin Wei seemed to have felt his body become light. Then both of his eyes went back and he fainted in the water.

As for that black stripe, it was still on his hand, and still hadn’t faded away……

Clang! In another direction, Little Shao and Fan Minyue clashed with their swords once more.

The strength behind was fairly huge, causing Fan Minyue to nearly be unable to hold her sword.

They were both High Level Warriors, yet Little Shao’s DouQi cultivation and body strength surpassed Fan Minyue’s.

“Young lady Minyue, you should obediently stay and prepare to be captured.” Little Shao closed in step by step.

Strictly speaking, Fan Minyue and Xiao Xun were both young ladies of Fan Clan, so they received better DouQi training than other people. Because they possessed a better cultivation art, they had a more systematic training plan. But on Qifeng Continent, large aristocratic clans attached importance on summon beast training, therefore with regards to the two young ladies who originally contracted bronze rank summon beasts, the core of their training revolved around the summon beast and not their DouQi. Of course, the optimal situation would be having an equilibrium in cultivating DouQi and summon beast, but the number of people who could achieve this was truly too little. Generally speaking, only large sects had more profound DouQi methods and more exquisite sword arts and blade arts, as well as other ancient books on martial arts.

A summon beast in its initial stage had a quick growth; for example, Heavenly Wolf Guard became Heavenly Wolf General in just a several years time. In this time, the subject of training was naturally the summon beast. Only when the summon beast reached late stage would its growth start to slow down and the cultivator be able to spend more time on their own training. For instance, Fan Zhishen had become a Great Martial Master and perfected his sleeve-chain skill, but only after his summon beast’s cultivation hit a bottleneck. Clearly, Fan Minyue and Xiao Xun still hadn’t arrived at this phase, so they were a lot weaker compared to their summon beast-less contemporaries who just practiced martial arts.

Little Shao was obviously this type of pure martial arts. Of course, Venerable Xie was as well.

A silver sword light streaked through the air; Little Shao thrust his sword once more.

Fan Minyue blocked this stab very reluctantly, but didn’t dare to drop the sword in her hand. Clang! The longsword was cast flying, falling at a place more than 10 meters away.

“Ha!” Little Shao loudly laughed. He grabbed the opportunity to tread forward and jabbed his sword towards Fan Minyue’s throat.

No! Am I going to die? Fan Minyue unwillingly shouted in her heart.

Seeing that the sword point was already less than half a meter away from her neck, Fan Minyue despairingly closed her eyes.

Clang!——

In the instant that she closed her eyes, a crisp sound abruptly rang out.

What’s going on? The anticipated stabbing pain isn’t appearing. Who helped me block this strike?

Swiftly opening her eyes, Fan Minyue witnessed a scene that she would have never expected——it was actually Xiao Xun! In that extremely critical moment just now, in that moment of life or death, it was Xiao Xun who rushed over and saved her life! And at this moment, Xiao Xun and Little Shao were fighting each other.

Why? Why did Xiao Xun come to save me?

Fan Minyue stared distractedly at the scene, her mind blank.

Although the two of them were clan sisters, their situation was like water and fire. Fan Minyue’s previous Open-arm Devil Ape was seriously injured by Heavenly Wolf General, then Lin Wei killed the Open-arm Devil Ape afterwards. Ultimately, Fan Minyue brought the grey-eyed white tiger with the intent to discard Xiao Xun’s DouQi cultivation. Properly speaking, Xiao Xun should loathe her, so why did come to save her?

Fan Minyue foolishly stood in place watching Xiao Xun and Little Shao sparing no effort in combat. Then her gaze moved away and she saw Tian Zhu locked in battle with Venerable Xie. Moving her gaze once more, she saw Tian Lang firmly suppressing the completely disadvantaged grey-eyed white tiger.

All of the sudden, she comprehended something in her heart.

Yes, no matter how things are between Xiao Xun and I, it’s only an internal matter within the clan. In any event, we are still a whole family! Right now, when facing the colossus called Tian Clan, it’s natural that the our whole family shouldn’t show any problems externally. It seems like I’ve truly been blinded by my hatred. Something Xiao Xun was able to think and accomplish, I actually wasn’t able to realize until now.

From childhood to adolescence, Xiao Xun has truly been more beautiful than me. Her figure is also better, so I’ve always been jealous of her and wanted to surpass her by any means possible. But now that we’ve both been wounded in this meaningless internal discord, what have I obtained?

I just wanted to prove that I’m not worse than Xiao Xun. Thus I used all kinds of means……

Using these plans, have I truly become better than her?

No! Never. I’ve made a mistake……

I’ve erred……

I’ve been wrong……

A series of regrets floated through Fan Minyue’s mind. She discovered that her original intentions were just to prove herself, but after a string of strategies, she severely deviated from her original intentions.

Fan Minyue lifted her head, her gaze becoming firm. She quickly walked to the place where the sword fell and took up her own longsword.

“Younger cousin, what you can achieve, I can also achieve!” Fan Minyue loudly yelled as she ran over and thrust her sword at Little Shao.

Yes, Xiao Xun, you are able to disregard our former hatred and come save me. I, Fan Minyue, am not any worse than you, I’ll be better than you!

……

Lin Wei’s dagger pierced the devil wolf’s abdomen.

Sssik! A half-meter long gash appeared.

The devil wolf struggled in pain and actually freed itself from the restraint rope. The instant that it broke free, its forepaws struck Lin Wei’s face and slapped his entire body flying.

Bang! Lin Wei flew out for quite a distance before smashing into the ground. When he crawled up, blood was already across his entire face and he was seeing stars. Damn, I’ve underestimated this devil wolf’s strength! Lin Wei opened his eyes with great effort and witnessed the devil wolf standing up, but the gash on its abdomen was very wide. Blood flowed out and even its intestines fell out.

The devil wolf panted for breath. It could feel its life flowing out but it still had the strength to fight.

Unparalleled hatred and rage flooded its heart. Even if it had to die, it would kill the abominable summon beast before it!

“Devil wolf!” In the distance, Tian Lang discovered the devil wolf’s miserable condition and couldn’t help but ache in his heart. He heavily bombarded the grey-eyed white tiger with powerful blows, then wanted to leave to help the devil wolf.

Who would have expected the grey-eyed white tiger to tightly bite his leg, causing him unable to get away.

Lin Wei used one hand to wipe away the blood on his face while slowly retreating. He could feel the devil wolf about to start a life or death struggle and this fight would inevitably be earth-shattering.

The devil wolf bared its teeth and the sinister energy intensified by a bit. It closely observed Lin Wei with eyes filled with inexhaustible hatred.

Suddenly, without any indication——just as Lin Wei was wiping his eyes——the devil wolf used all its power to leap forward.

Lin Wei was frightened at first but calmed down shortly after. As he sped up retreating, he rapidly shot out arrows. However, the devil wolf didn’t have the slightest intention to dodge. It allowed the arrow to pierce into its left shoulder and kept rushing over, disregarding it. Its speed hadn’t lowered at all!

Whoosh, whoosh!

Lin Wei shot out two arrows simultaneously.

The devil wolf still took it head on!

One arrow hit its nose while the arrow blinded its right eye!

“Awoo!” This time, the devil wolf howled out painfully and its speed slowed down subsequently.

But it was already less than three meters away from Lin Wei at this time!

Lin Wei switched his bow for his dagger and prepared for close quarters combat.

Seize the opportunity, I must seize this opportunity! As long as I stab into its vital point, it should immediately drop dead! Lin Wei thought to himself.

Two meters!

One meter!

When the devil wolf’s massive head was almost within reach, Lin Wei lifted up his dagger.

But the following action was completely out of line with his anticipation.

In an instant, the strong sound of an apex sinister energy explosion echoed out. The sinister energy, which brought turbulent waves of hatred, an unceasing torrent of resentment, and a haunting curse along with it, suddenly engulfed and swallowed up Lin Wei! The enormous might that the sinister energy had continued to spread out until it finally covered a little less than half of the training grounds, not stopping for a long time!

“Lin Wei!” In another place, Xiao Xun was shocked and heartbroken upon witnessing the scene.

“Devil wolf!” In a more distant place, Tian Lang was also pale with fright.

Although a common war beast didn’t have any abilities, it had the possibility to possess a unique skill. For example, a black spider’s spider silk or a devil wolf’s sinister energy. While spider silk can be used regularly, a devil wolf’s sinister energy can only explode once in its lifetime!

Indeed, this was something nobody had expected.

Of course, this was also something that nobody knew would become an important turning point in Lin Wei’s destiny!

……

Bang!

An incensed Tian Lang finally smashed the grey-eyed white tiger’s head into pieces. However, he also paid a heavy price——right before it died, the grey-eyed white tiger broke his shoulder into pieces with a swat and even tore open his chest, exposing the ghastly sight of his bones coming out.

He originally wanted to subdue this grey-eyed white tiger, but as things usually turn out to be contrary to what one wants, he finally had to strike it dead.

“Guys, retreat!” Tian Lang swiftly roared. Although he bore an injury, he could still display 50 to 60 percent of his fighting power. He turned around and dashed in Xiao Xun and Fan Minyue’s direction. At this time, Little Shao was being attacked by the two women on both sides and was almost unable to persevere.

Suddenly, a ball of white silk sprayed out from behind Tian Lang and stuck onto him, then pulled backwards fiercely, causing him to fly away.

“Big brother! What are you doing?” Tian Lang discovered this ball of silk was sprayed out by the black spider, so he couldn’t help but be startled when asking.

“Leave! An expert has arrived!” Tian Zhu furiously threw several poisonous darts at Venerable Xie, then began retreating rapidly on the black spider. In his fight with Venerable Xie just now, he was struck several times and his five viscera and six bowels were either ruptured or shifted.

“How could it be so quick?” Tian Lang was greatly surprised. From the time when the signal flare was shot until now, not even 10 minutes had passed.

“Little Blacky’s judgement is never wrong! If we don’t go now, then it’ll be too late!” Tian Zhu didn’t explain any further and brought Tian Lang onto his black spider mount before fleeing into the distance.

“Save me……” Seeing Tian Zhu and Tian Lang leaving, Little Shao was instantly worried and instantly shouted for help.

And it was this instant that caused him to expose a fatal gap. Xiao Xun and Fan Minyue simultaneously seized this opportunity; their swords flew over and pierced Little Shao’s DouQi defense and stabbed into his chest!

At the same time——

Whoosh!

A slender chain dropped from the skies, making a ‘clang!’ sound as it nailed itself onto the ground. Shortly after, accompanying an intense shout, an enormous figure also dropped from the skies, causing a loud ‘bang!’ as it smashed into the training grounds and created a large hole!

A pair of robust and powerful horns, lava-like colored skin, four sturdy limbs, a pair of glaring eyes, and a mouth spitting out white air. In an instant, the temperature of the entire training grounds suddenly rose and seemed to have become a giant oven!

Blaze Bull! Attribute: Fire, Rank: Bronze, Status: Low Level Beastly Commander!!!

Immediately after the Blaze Bull appeared, a person dropped down from the long chains.

“Father!” Fan Minyue cried tears of joy.

The person who arrived was Fan Minyue’s father, Xiao Xun’s second uncle, Fan Zhishen! And that Blaze Bull shockingly was his contracted summon beast!

Little Shao!!!

The one that stabbed towards Fan Minyue just now was actually silent and invisible Little Shao!

Immediately, Fan Minyue understood everything——Little Shao was a secret spy that Tian Clan dispatched to hide within their clan; he was an internal traitor. No wonder Tian Zhu and Tian Lang could so accurately find this place. One has to know that in order for her to scout out this place, she had to look all over for a little over ten days. And since she was someone from Fan Clan, she had an easier time obtaining the information. However, Tian Zhu and Tian Lang, if they didn’t have Little Shao as a planted agent, even if they had the time period of 3 to 4 months, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to find out where Xiao Xun was.

“Little Shao! You!” Venerable Xie and Xiao Xun were alarmed and angry.

Although they were separately entangled with Tian Zhu and the devil wolf, what happened to Fan Minyue was still seen by them.

Among them, Venerable Xie was furious. Little Shao had already done odd jobs under him for a full three years, yet he unexpectedly hadn’t discovered any hint of Little Shao being an internal traitor.

Little Shao held a sword in his hand and spoke with a hint of madness: “Young lady Minyue, don’t think of leaving today.”

While he was speaking, Little Shao once again pushed his body forward.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

He pierced forth thrice, each aiming for Fan Minyue’s throat, heart, and kidney, and each being fatal moves.

Fan Minyue, who had barely blocked the sword strike, immediately fell into a disadvantageous situation.

Quite powerful! Little Shao was also a High Level Warrior with swordsmanship higher than Fan Minyue.

……

As time passed by, the battlefield situation became increasingly worrisome.

Besides Venerable Xie and Tian Zhu still being on equal grounds, Xiao Xun and Fan Minyue were gradually becoming tired. Even the grey-eyed white tiger was starting to be completely suppressed by Tian Lang!

But at this moment, a red signal flare suddenly soared into the air several hundred meters away. The speed of the signal flare was insanely rapid, whizzing several kilometers into the sky, then fiercely exploding.

“What?!” Tian Zhu and Tian Lang’s expressions changed.

Venerable Xie and Xiao Xun were delighted in their hearts. Clearly, this meant that Aunt Liu discovered the situation over here, then ran several hundred meters away to ignite this signal flare.

The signal flare would quickly be discovered by the next sentry, prompting it to immediately shoot a signal flare as well, passing on the message to the next sentry……through this transmission, it would take only seven times before the clan headquarters, which was about 15 kilometers away, would receive the message. However, if the clan experts wanted to rush over, they would take at least 20 minutes!

“Quickly conclude the fighting!” Tian Zhu said to Tian Lang: “As long as all of these people are killed before their clan experts catch up, they won’t know that it was done under our hand.”

Tian Lang was currently keeping the grey-eyed white tiger under control, using both hands to hold the white tiger’s humongous mouth. After hearing what was said, he nodded and turned his head to yell at the devil wolf: “Little Blacky, dispose of Fan Xiaoxun as soon as possible.”

The devil wolf let out a long howl, then raised its front claw and swatted towards Xiao Xun. Its speed was extremely quick, as if it were lightning!

Xiao Xun reluctantly kept off the attack with her sword, but was unable to fully negate the humongous strength behind it. She was swatted flying, her back was ruthlessly smashed onto the wall.

Craaaaack!

Tian Zhu’s concealed weapon finally broke through Venerable Xie’s defence, cutting Venerable Xie’s left sleeve, as well as leaving behind a gash on his left arm.

Venerable Xie’s complexion distorted. He swiftly used his right hand to cover up his left arm and sealed his left arm’s DouQi and essence blood’s operation. After sealing his left arm, although it prevented the poison from spreading, he caused his fighting strength to drop by a level.

Their situation became exceptionally bleak!

“Lin Wei!!!” At this critical moment, Xiao Xun finally yelled Lin Wei’s name. Despite the current Lin Wei still being very weak, the current situation was very hopeless. An extra helper would be an extra force! Even if she could escape by herself, it would be better than them entirely dying.

Lin Wei——

Lin Wei————

Lin Wei——————

Xiao Xun’s scream seemed to penetrate time and space, directly arriving into the other world.

As she was shouting, both her hands were quickly making hand signs.

“Xiao Xun!” Lin Wei had been passing his time in anxiety, until he at last saw the familiar vortex appear above the top of his head. At the same time, he sensed Xiao Xun’s impatient summon. Xiao Xun, she’s in danger!

Lin Wei didn’t dare to have the least bit of hesitation. He immediately jumped, rushing into the vortex.

When he could once again see light, Lin Wei saw a scene that scared him witless——Xiao Xun was once more swatted flying by the devil wolf. On her arm was a wound and specks of blood sprinkled into the air.

“B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲!” Just as Lin Wei was about to hit the ground, he seized the opportunity to shoot out an arrow. At this moment, he was less than 40 meters away from the devil wolf.

From this distance, it was a 100% hit chance!

The arrow’s velocity was extremely quick; just as the devil wolf perceived that something was off, its head was hit by an arrow. Lin Wei intended for the arrow to strike its eye, but since the devil wolf wasn’t a completely stationary, the arrow slightly deviated and didn’t hit the targeted eye, but rather its ear.

A pang of unbearable pain came from the devil wolf’s ear, causing it to cry out in pain and suddenly turn its head. It ferociously whipped its gaze towards Lin Wei, this sudden enemy.

There were all kinds of beasts on Qifeng Continent; monster beasts, devil beasts, and summon beasts from the other world. Each possessed a certain similar characteristic. In the split-second that the devil wolf saw Lin Wei, it determined that Lin Wei’s strength was inferior to itself. Being injured by this puny opponent, to this arrogant devil wolf, was simply an extraordinary shame.

The devil wolf violently roared, abandoned Xiao Xun, and immediately rushed over towards Lin Wei.

What a quick speed. Lin Wei rapidly judged that this devil wolf’s linear speed was much faster than his own. If he wanted to beat it, he had to fight while moving and display the superiority of his flexibility.

Aim the bow, fire the arrow! Two arrows were shot out.

Perhaps because of the previous arrow creating an extremely painful wound to the devil wolf, when seeing those two arrows shooting over, the devil wolf shivered in its heart and promptly dodged sideways. It was also at this instant that its speed decreased, and Lin Wei took this opportunity to increase the distance between them.

Just like this, one was pursuing and one was running.

Several minutes later, Lin Wei was making use of all kinds of topography covers and archery to disturb the devil wolf, causing it to be unable to get close. However, besides the first arrow piercing the devil wolf’s shoulder, he wasn’t able to create any further injury.

Suddenly, Lin Wei saw an equipment stand at the side of the training ground, and a light went off in his mind. He retreated by tumbling, withdrawing to the side of the equipment stand, then took down some things from the top at lightning speed.

When the devil wolf saw Lin Wei stop for a moment, it sped up once more. It was just one movement, but it finally pulled the distance between it and Lin Wei to roughly 10 meters.

At this time, Lin Wei turned around and slid to the side, simultaneously throwing out something slender from his right hand.

Whoosh! That slender object precisely struck the devil wolf’s running forelimbs. In that instant of collision, this thing flexibly wound all of the devil wolf’s four limbs together.

Restraint rope! What Lin Wei tossed out was a restraint rope! Moreover, in the instant that he tossed it out, he made an evasive movement in advance——he slid to the side, then rolled while he was at it.

Though the devil wolf’s four limbs were suddenly tied up, the immense forward force was simply unable to be stopped. While it was falling down, it forcefully crashed into the equipment stand. The entire stand was smashed into pieces and all sorts of weapons sprinkled the ground.

After Lin Wei rolled out of the devil wolf’s dive, he didn’t flee any further. Instead, he took out the dagger that he carried and took big strides towards the devil wolf, then ferociously stabbed towards its abdomen. Quick, accurate, and ruthless!

The current Lin Wei wasn’t that previous useless Beastly Servant for a long time now. If his own strength was insufficient, then he would use tools and tactics to make up for it! This was the place where he differed from other summon beasts, war beasts, and even many people¹. For example, for people like Xiao Xun who practice DouQi cultivation, they were inclined to carry out fighting using DouQi and believe that high DouQi talent was the root of a person’s growth.

But Lin Wei was obviously different. In his seven years at the other world, he had to make use of all kinds of weather conditions, favorable locations, items, traps, and the like in order to fight against higher leveled life forms! Drawing support from external factors was already ingrained in him and became one of his survival skills!

Sssik! The sound of the dagger entering echoed out.