'Why did you cut off my Fate Qi?!' Xuefeng scolded Ming in his mind only to get scolded back. 'I'm not wasting so much Qi for our chat! Now run!'
But before he could, they were already on him.
"Get him!"
More than twenty cultivators unleashed their arts at him all at once.
By himself, Xuefeng would probably have been overwhelmed, but the moment someone aimed a weapon at one of his wives, he turned merciless. He wrapped his arms around Tianshi protectively.
Swoosh!
Air Qi blasted from his legs, and they flew up in the air, dodging the cultivators' arts.
"Tianshi!" Xuefeng yelled as he pushed her behind him with the fragment already kept safely in her Storage Ring.
They didn't need any commands. The continuous training through the past three years had taught them enough to know how to communicate without even saying a word.
Tianshi stabilized herself in the air with the pair of white wings on her back and extended her arm forward, casting all her Support Skills on him.
Speed buff!
Strength buff!
Defensive buff!
Spirit Qi Shield!
Xuefeng shone like a star with all the buffs applied on him, but that was just the start!
Fire Qi!
Water Qi!
Air Qi!
Earth Qi!
Spirit Qi!
Lightning Qi!
Blood Qi!
Metal Qi!
Ether Qi!
All nine Elemental Qi spun around his body as he glared at the cultivators with golden eyes.
"YOU FOOLS!" Xuefeng bellowed. "YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME?!"
He couldn't think of any powerful line, so he just went with the classic one.
So what if he just Ascended? In the category of skills and abilities, he hadn't met anyone who could challenge him.
The group of cultivators halted, but instead of showing fear as Xuefeng expected, he saw them snicker and sneer.
"Pfft! He thinks mastering all elements makes him powerful!"
"Haha! Look! All his elements are still on the base level! No wonder he was so desperate to get that fragment!"
Everyone burst out laughing. Xuefeng frowned, his face hot.
'I didn't even have the time to explain it to you. Everything happened so fast,' Ming interrupted his thoughts of murder. 'Your elements are still on the base level as you didn't go through any refining. Cultivators in the Heaven Realm value the quality over quantity. They use the Elemental Fragments born from nature to improve the quality of their Qi.'
Before Xuefeng could reply, one cultivator held up a hand and the jeering subsided.
"I'm in a good mood today. How about we let the white-haired guy have it?"
"Fine, let him have the first fragment of his life. "We were just like him once, weren't we? Trying hard to get our first fragment..." another one said with a patronizing smile.
"Yeah. Besides, he outsmarted us all and caught the fragment first. That's something, right?"
Everyone nodded and 'generously' agreed to let him have the fragment, as though they were doing him a favor.
Xuefeng's eyebrow twitched.
'Xuefeng, I don't like their attitude.' Tianshi's voice suddenly resounded through his mind.
Aside from being the primary support of their group, Tianshi was also responsible for communication. Anyone she touched could join their private channel, connecting all of their thoughts. Their enemy could never guess their plans if they were never spoken out loud.
'Neither do I,' Xuefeng replied and glanced at his wrist.
Underneath his sleeve was one of the Godly Treasures, which he didn't really want to expose too soon, but he thought the situation called for a display of power.
He never enjoyed staying low key anyway.
"Everyone, let's go. We wasted too much time already," one cultivator proposed to which everyone nodded, and they all turned to leave.
"Did I allow you to leave?" Xuefeng called out coldly while massive amounts of Air Qi gushed out from his body.
Instantly, the air within the hundred meters of space around him got locked down, entirely under his control. Below his sleeve was a Golden Bracelet with a single white stone, representing Air Element. It shone brightly when in use, giving him absolute mastery over the element.
This time the group visibly tensed.
"Hey! What are you doing? We have settled this peacefully yet you are stirring up trouble!"
"We already gave you the fragment! What else do you want?"
Xuefeng smirked.
"Do you think I need your permission to get anything I want?"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Multiple explosions blasted those who spoke up.
"Don't mess with us! We are from—"
Bang!
Xuefeng cut them off with a flick of his fingers.
"I don't care."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
More explosions resounded, Air Bombs exploding right in the cultivators' faces. They were not strong enough to kill them but painful enough to teach them a lesson.
The entire place was in lockdown, controlled by the power of his Air Domain.
"That's enough!" a youngster suddenly bellowed angrily, his face already bloodied after three explosions. "Shadow Assassin, go!"
At his command, Dark Blue Qi oozed from his body, materializing into a shadow holding a giant black sword right above his head.
'Qi Materialization! Fourth Refining! Not bad!' Ming praised but Xuefeng didn't care even if they had ninth or hundredth refining. It didn't matter to him.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Xuefeng clicked his fingers and Air Qi exploded once again, hitting the youngster's stomach, the back of his head, and his crotch.
"Ughh!" The youngster groaned in pain, and his face paled. His Water Qi crumbled, dissipating into the air. His friends ran to catch him else he would have fallen from the sky.
"What's the point of having a better quality Qi when you can't even use it! Useless!" Xuefeng spat out.
With the most powerful member of the group down, fear engulfed the rest.
"We surrender! Please have mercy!"
They were so fast to throw the white flag. Xuefeng could only shake his head.
He didn't plan on killing anyone from the beginning. Unless it was necessary or if someone tried to kill him, he wouldn't spill blood.
Just as he thought of leaving, Ling called out in alarm, 'We have a company! A powerful company! We need to go! Now'
"Next time don't be cocky when you can't back it up with skill!" Xuefeng shouted in the group's direction and didn't hesitate to move, knowing Ling scanned their surroundings.
'Tianshi, we are dipping!' Xuefeng announced as he appeared in front of her.
Poof!
They were instantly gone.
As soon as Xeufeng disappeared, the Air Domain began dispersing, the Qi returning to nature.
"What the hell happened here?!" A raspy voice snapped like thunder, making all cultivators shudder.
But when they saw who arrived, they immediately brightened.
"Elders!"
"They attacked us!"
"Get revenge for us!"
The Leading Elder frowned when he saw the scene in front of him, everyone either bruised or with a bloody nose. He searched the crowd, yet he couldn't seem to find what he was looking for.
"Where is my son?!"
Two cultivators raised a beat-up youngster who was still clutching his groin. "He is here!"
When the Elder saw his son's state, he immediately demanded, "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOU?!"
"Elder, they attacked us! They stole the Fragment too!"
"We couldn't even fight back! There were too many of them!"
The cultivators were speaking up for him, one on top of the other, until the Elder's son finally raised his head, glaring at other Sect Disciples, "Stop fucking lying! We were all beat up fair and square! He was alone and still in the Pseudo God Stage, probably just Ascended not too long ago. He didn't even go through any Qi Refinements. He won using his skills alone!"
Hearing his explanation, the Elders' faces darkened. One person who just Ascended and didn't go through any Qi Refinements just beat up a hundred of their disciples. They would become the laughingstock in the Heaven Realm if anyone heard of it.
The Leading Elder glared at the lying disciples and declared, "Ten Days of cleaning duty for lying! The rest gets five days for losing to a nobody! If anyone says anything about what just happened, they will be kicked out from the Sect!"
Everyone shuddered at that punishment but accepted it with lowered heads.
"We are going back!"
Approaching the two Elders behind him, he whispered something different.
"Go find that person and recruit him. Give him whatever benefits he desires. We need to have such experts in our Sect!"
———
While Xuefeng and Tianshi were rushing to leave the scene, another two familiar souls walked cautiously through a silent forest. It would be considered normal if not for the bloody mist hovering inches above the ground and trees dripping with blood.
"I hate it… I hate it… I hate it…"
One of the two blond beauties repeated under her nose, her body shaking as she followed the other. Her sandals and feet were already soaked with the blood-like substance covering the ground.
The young lady with green eyes and a slim yet sexy figure was usually a cheerful girl, but now she was pale, with her eyes always open to scan her surroundings for danger. With one hand she squeezed an explosive pill while the other held the second girl's arm.
"Yiren, when will this forest end? I'm scared…" The girl whispered, looking fed up with the neverending scenery.
If not for the flying beasts above the bloody forest, they would have flown away a long time ago.
Yiren wasn't affected much, looking around cheerfully with a few Air Qi birds on her shoulder, chirping into her pointy, elvish ear.
"Don't worry, Lisa, it's not that bad," Yiren assured her with a smile and took a deep breath. "Ah, It's the smell of adventure!"
"Yiren, you are mad," Lisa said with frustration, unable to comprehend the other girl's courage.
"Calm down. If your heart beats too fast, it will only make Xuefeng worry. We don't want him to panic over us. I'm sure he is already depressed about our separation," Yiren suggested, hugging Lisa to cheer her up. "Big sister will take care of you."
Roar!
A black cat jumped out from the bushes, bloody claws spread wide, aiming at their heads.
Ah!
Lisa screamed, swinging to throw the explosive pill at the beast but Yiren stopped her, standing in front of her and the beast. Her eyes shone with gold as she cried out sternly.
"No! Bad Kitty!"
