HSSB35: Flames of Fury
A shirtless figure stood at the foot of the mountain.
On his body were countless streaks of flame; they were shifting about, as if they were alive.
He had a head of black hair, streaming behind his back. While his hair was jet-black in colour, when viewed from far away, it gave off a feeling that resembled flames.
This person’s face also held the same streaks of flame, and within his eyes it seemed even more so that there was a fiery light flickering.
However, the Lan Wenyan who was nearby could still recognise that the youth with a rather unique appearance before him was exactly that Ye Jing who had gone missing that day in the Sealing Dragon Abyss.
While his face had been completely covered by the flamelike patterns, his facial features were still recognisable.
Still somewhat uncertain, Lan Wenyan asked probingly, “Is it junior apprentice-brother Ye Jing?”
The other party swiveled his head over, his gaze resembling fire, that might cause one’s soul to tremble.
However, he still nodded, “That’s right, its me.”
Lan Wenyan asked curiously, “In the Sealing Dragon Abyss previously, you…”
Hearing the name of the Sealing Dragon Abyss, an obvious anger surfaced within Ye Jing’s eyes, as his expression also turned cold, “My life is such; I couldn’t have died that easily.”
“Whatever you say; it’s just good that you’re alright,” Lan Wenyan gave a relaxed sigh, “Everyone is worried about you. Still, senior apprentice-brother Yan said that you look have the look of someone favoured by the gods, and should be able to turn danger into fortune. Looking at it now, he was right after all, as expected.”
Before he had finished speaking, his words were broken off by a forceful yell.
“Yan Zhaoge!” Ye Jing’s eyes looked as though they were about to shoot out fire, “If not for him, how could I have met with such a huge calamity!”
“From the start, he already had ill intentions towards me, wanting to see me dead!”
“Still, I managed to survive, my cultivation even improving in the process. I’m afraid he’ll have to be disappointed.”
Ye Jing ground his teeth in anger, “Not exacting vengeance is not the way of a man; this debt, I’ll collect from him sooner or later!”
Hearing his words, Lan Wenyan frowned, “Junior apprentice-brother Ye, please calm down. I heard about the events of that day afterwards; Senior apprentice-brother Yan’s Internal Crystal Furnace dropped into the deep abyss, thus exploding and injuring you. It was a purely accidental thing.”
Ye Jing gave a cold snort, “Are you the roundworm within his belly, therefore knowing how he thinks? What he says, you just believe?”
“That Martial Grandmaster, the Crimson Spirit Flag Master, had originally come to find trouble for him, yet got manipulated by him instead. Using the fire seed, I was conveniently made that man’s target in his place. All of these were well within his calculations!”
“A mere low-grade artifact covered your conscience, causing you to lean towards him so heavily?”
Hearing his words, Lan Wenyan got a little angry, “In the first place it was you who were greedy, going on your own accord to snatch senior apprentice-brother Yan’s seed of True Fire. Otherwise, why would that Martial Grandmaster even target you? Do you really think of yourself as a prominent figure?”
“Having managed to get through such a huge ordeal alive, I can understand that your feelings would naturally be a bit riled and antagonistic. I don’t blame you for that, but that doesn’t mean that you can shoot off your mouth with this kind of nonsense.”
He appraised Ye Jing, shaking his head, “What senior apprentice-brother Yan said, I believe! Why? At that time, having already plummeted? into the deep abyss, it was already highly likely that you were dead. Why would senior apprentice-brother Yan have to throw down his Internal Crystal Furnace then?”
“Moreover, how precious is an Internal Crystal Furnace? Just to kill you, senior apprentice-brother Yan destroyed his own Internal Crystal Furnace? Between the Internal Crystal Furnace from the legends, and you, a martial practitioner who’s not even a Martial Scholar yet, which is more precious?”
“Regardless of whether it were me, you, or any single one of the others who entered the Sealing Dragon Abyss along with him, if senior apprentice-brother Yan really wanted to kill someone of our level, let’s not talk about him striking us dead with a single palm strike, even a single breath of his would be something that we might not be able to withstand. And you say that he would have to intentionally destroy his own Internal Crystal Furnace?”
The other party’s words caused Ye Jing to instantly recall the previous indifference and disregard Yan Zhaoge had shown towards him.
The desolation, anger and hatred he had felt in the Sealing Dragon Abyss skyrocketed even more, almost consuming Ye Jing’s sanity.
Ye Jing’s twin pupils were as red as fire, “A low-grade artifact, could already turn you into Yan Zhaoge’s dog?”
“In that case, I’ll beat first the dog , then the master!” With an enraged roar, he soared into the air, lunging toward Lan Wenyan!
Caught off guard, Lan Wenyan could only feel a burning wave of heat headed in his direction, almost causing him to suffocate.
Having survived a huge ordeal, Ye Jing’s cultivation had really improved so greatly?
Without daring to hesitate, Lan Wenyan immediately put up a shield, precisely that low-grade artifact that Yan Zhaoge had gifted him with earlier on.
It was only that looking at this shield, Ye Jing was as if a hated enemy was right before his eyes, becoming even more enraged as his fists descended upon Lan Wenyan like a roaring tempest, a raging hurricane.
As if he did not know fatigue, his steel-like fists beat down unceasingly, like tireless waves causing the slow erosion and eventual collapse of a mountain ridge.
Finding it hard to properly utilise the first power of the low-grade artifact, Lan Wenyan actually couldn’t hold the bare-handed Ye Jing back.
Finally, the artifact was sent flying out of Lan Wenyan’s hand. Still, Ye Jing’s punching motion did not cease, as he directly sent Lan Wenyan flying as well.
Looking at his opponent who had landed on the ground, blood flowing unceasingly from the corners of his mouth, Ye Jing’s gaze was cold, killing intent constantly emanating from his eyes. Only after some time had passed did he finally shift away his gaze.
As his vision turned to fall on the shield which had fallen to the side, his eyes once again began burning strongly with the flames of fury and hatred. He rushed towards it, kicking out, directly sending that shield flying far off into the distance.
The shield turned into a little black dot, disappearing amongst the distant mountains far away.
Ye Jing glanced at the half-dead Lan Wenyan with hatred, then turned and left, headed for the depths of the mountain range.
“With the help of my ring, I reforged my fleshly body, but, because of the martial art that I train in, have become much more temperamental and quick to anger than before.”
After walking for some time, Ye Jing eventually calmed, as a faint regret also began surfacing within his heart, “While Lan Wenyan is indeed biased towards Yan Zhaoge, he never actually did help Yan Zhaoge to harm me, in truth. In nearly killing him, I was a little rash.”
But just as he thought about what he had experienced getting to this point, the rage within his heart surged once more, “Yan Zhaoge!”
“Hmph, having seen the behaviour of Lan Wenyan today, I can imagine that most others from the clan must be wearing the same pair of pants as that Yan Zhaoge.”
“His father is an Elder of the clan, and will definitely protect him. If I want justice to be served, it will be even more difficult to do so.”
“But so what? If I don’t expose Yan Zhaoge’s ugly side, and obtain the justice that I seek, doesn’t that mean that all the pain I’ve suffered has been for naught?”
“Power; if I want justice to be served, I must first possess sufficient power. If I were stronger than Yan Zhaoge, and stronger than his father, how would they dare to harm me, and distort the facts to be seen as faultless?”
Ye Jing raised his head, looking at the peaks of the mountains, his gaze cold and hard as steel, while hot like a burning fire, “I must definitely grasp the strongest power to be able to uphold justice for myself, and mine must definitely be a strength superior to that Yan Zhaoge father-and-son duo.”
“Yan Zhaoge, just wait; what you owe me, I’ll have you pay me back in full!”
…………
“Ye Jing heavily injured a fellow member of the clan?” Yan Zhaoge looked at Ah Hu standing in front of him, somewhat surprised.
That Ye Jing was still alive had come as no surprise to him.
The news of his reappearance had been passed down to the clan. To Yan Zhaoge, this could only be a good thing, as it had completely validated what he had told his inquisitors during his questioning.
Yan Zhaoge was not at all worried about facing the accusations of Ye Jing in person; when he used the Blood Soul Recollection ceremony to reproduce the scene of that time, all would naturally come to light.
But having just reappeared, Ye Jing nearly beat Lan Wenyan to death. This was something that Yan Zhaoge just couldn’t understand, however much he scratched his head.
“That fella; when falling into the abyss, did he by any chance suffer a serious concussion?” Yan Zhaoge was totally baffled, “Why did he turn into a violent maniac ah?”
Ah Hu chuckled, “That fella surnamed Ye seems to be extremely prejudiced against you, Young Master. When that disciple tried to defend you, and argued with him a little as a result, he seemed to have been angered.”