"Yueliang, wait," he called out, "Shouldn't we collect some herbs since we are here?" He asked.
"Is there something you need from here?" She questioned doubtfully, as they had no plans of coming here in the first place. Besides, neither of them knew alchemy, nor did they need money. Collecting herbs at this point felt pointless, especially since they did not even know what plants could be considered precious. The only plants Xue Yueliang could identify were mortal, but they were barely worth anything.
A sheepish look appeared on Lei Jian's face as he said, "I feel like I should collect more of the beast flame, but I don't want to force you to stay here pointlessly." Xue Yueliang was stunned before laughing, "You overthink things. I'm also very interested in these Blazing Bears' fighting styles."
She had nothing against being here and felt that staying here would help improve her fighting style. Even though those bears followed the path of the fire, they had traces of other elements in their attacks - specifically their claws and swift movement. As Xue Yueliang had been solely using a wind technique while in the Qi Refinement Realm, she had some mastery over it. She found it difficult to incorporate both wind and fire into her attacks, and fighting these Blazing Bears could help point her in the right direction. A look of appreciation appeared in Lei Jian's eyes as he thanked her. They decided to separate to look for the Blazing Bears and find as many of them as possible, meeting here later this evening.
The first fighting technique Xue Yueliang studied was the Wind Blade technique. It had only been meant to be an attack spell, but she had used it in various methods. Although it was only a weaker technique, the wind was versatile and did not require too much control; all she needed to make sure of was to find a way that it did not impede her attacks. Though she could find a wind cultivation technique that suited her, she was already split between the Blood Moon Sword arts, the Invincible Dao Sword arts and the Berserk Dragon Flame Mantra. Adding more techniques to her study list would quickly overwhelm her.
After walking along for a long while, Xue Yueliang finally saw a Blazing Bear in front of her. The bear was feasting on a beehive, seemingly intoxicated by the crunchy bees and the sickly sweet honey that followed out. Looking at how much the bear seemed to enjoy its simple meal, anyone looking at it would feel that it was unfair to interrupt it from its bliss, but Xue Yueliang did not care. She grabbed a rock and threw it at the bear, hoping to attract its attention, angering it. In contrast to her expectations, the bear lazily continued to eat and did not bother looking in her direction. Soon the bear was attacked by a blazing flame, but it still continued to eat. From its unchanging expression, she would have assumed that the fire did not bother it, but the horrible burns that appeared on its side said otherwise. What bad luck. Feeling irritated that she had been ignored for so long, Xue Yueliang retrieved her sword and swung it, slowly whittling it down to death.
Xue Yueliang wished to know what had affected this bear so much that it did not even notice being killed; having an unmoving target was boring. She did not want to experience such a soulless battle again. She saw that the broken beehive released a sweet alluring smell, but it still contained a slightly dangerous aura. She was unsure of what this was and hoped it would make up for her lost battle opportunity and stored it in her storage ring. She then released her cleaner and allowed him to eat the bear's corpse after she had retrieved its beast core and heart blood.
As she aimlessly walked around, this time hoping to luck into an aware opponent, her gaze landed on a strange man fishing on a rock. This sight would not be odd if it was not for the fact that there was no water in sight. The bait - a large pink worm - hung a slight distance from the ground, wriggling as it tried to escape but to no avail.
The strange man wore a dirt brown robe made from animal hide and his long, unruly hair fell all over the place, hiding his facial features. Xue Yueliang felt no aura from him, which was more terrifying than otherwise, she slowly backed away from him as she hoped he would not notice her.
Against her wishes, the fisherman focused his gaze on her, he had soft, almost feminine features and his ruby red lips opened to an unnatural degree - releasing a terrifying grin. Xue Yueliang felt her stomach rolling, sickened by the stench he released, but she suppressed those feelings. "Greetings, senior." Since he had already noticed her, it was better for her to not try to run, perhaps he was just looking for some decency.
"Junior, why do you live?" His rasping voice asked, sounding like screeching nails. His gaze stared at her, looking at her, ready to swallow her in one bite if she did not give an appropriate answer.
Xue Yueliang thought carefully as cold sweat drenched her back. Her gaze landed on the fishing rod, and an idea formed in her head. "To make the world bend to my will." She finally stated.
"Oh, and why's that?" His unpleasant voice sounded again, but there was a playful intent in his words.
Feeling that the danger had passed, she cupped her arms and answered, "So that if one day I wish to fish, the very earth beneath will turn into a river."
"Good answer, young girl," he smiled, allowing Xue Yueliang to relax a bit more. "That is the meaning of life." He then returned back to fishing, and Xue Yueliang did not dare to leave without permission.
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The strange man cast his fishing rod again, and this time, a river formed where the rod landed, complete with fishes swimming on the surface. Xue Yueliang was stunned by this sight but did not dare speak, staying there differentially, waiting for the man to give her permission to leave. Soon after sunset, the man finally caught a fish and smiled, satisfied, he turned to Xue Yueliang and said, "You may leave now, and when you reach a level that you can make the world bend to your will, remember, my name Zhou Chang."
"Thank you, senior!" Xue Yueliang said as she walked away. After walking to what she felt was a safe distance away, Xue Yueliang could not help but collapse onto the ground, her chest heaving up and down as she took deep gasping breaths. Although he had not released his aura, nor did he try harming her directly, she felt much more fear than when she had actually died. It seems like luck really was not on her side today. She waited until she felt her emotions settled and then headed back to their meeting site; she wished to leave this forest as soon as possible.
"Yueliang, is everything okay? What took you so long?" A worried voice sounded, causing her to unconsciously calm down. Xue Yueliang told him of her strange encounter, and they both agreed that it was best to quickly leave this forest. Lei Jian stared at her worriedly but did not know how to comfort her. A level where one can change nature as they wish was a realm they did not have the qualifications to know about. Even the patriarchs of the various clans should not be capable of that. In this entire kingdom, only the king should have the qualifications to do as such. "Let's just head to Flower City," she said. She felt like she would pass out at any second and wanted to sleep it out, but to her disappointment, things would not go per her wishes this evening.
They rode their swords and rushed over to Flower City, and as Lei Jian could feel the rush Xue Yuelaing was in, he headed at breakneck speed, not slowing her down. As soon as they reached the city, they noticed that it deserved its name. Beautiful flowers of various sizes and colours grew onto the city wall. They released a fragrant, enchanting smell drawing many bees and butterflies toward them.
Xue Yueliang thought about how bothersome it must be to live within this city when a voice interrupted her thoughts, "There is a formation to prevent insects from entering the city." The voice came from a man who was about a head taller than her, he wore an attending servant's clothes, and there were streaks of grey mixing with his black tied up her.
"I'm Miss Jiu Li's servent, and you two must be the benefactors?" Xue Yueliang did not feel like conversing with anyone at the moment and allowed Lei Jian to deal with it, "Yes, we have the Blazing Bear's blood. Should we hand it to you?"
"Benefactors, don't tease me. We can't treat people who did us a favour so coldly." Although his words sounded nice, Xue Yueliang could not help but find something strange, but she was unable to put her finger on it. She was much too tired. She sluggishly followed behind the duo as she entered the city; she felt that all could be thought of the next day. When they entered the city, she promptly separated from them and booked herself an inn, and she fell asleep as soon as her head landed on the pillow.
She had a long, cumbersome dream with no clear beginning or end, a jumbled mess that exhausted her already tired mental state. "Being able to terrify people without even doing anything," she mumbled. Her earlier encounter during the day was still running back on forth in her mind. Her sleep felt restless, not giving her the rest she had hoped for, but she was suddenly awoken by the feeling of people staring at her. She got up, stretching and noticed three figures in front of her bed, but she only recognised one of them - Jiu Li. Xue Yueliang tried circulating her manner but felt something impede her Qi, not allowing her to do as she willed. Her face darkened at this, and she asked, "Jiu Li, what is the meaning of this." She had never seen restrictions such as this, and she felt that if she recklessly used her strength to break them, she would just end up harming herself. In this sort of situation, she should talk to the perpetrator and hopefully get an answer from her.
"Would you believe anyone if they say they are from a noble family?" She asked, fiddling with her dagger. "It does not matter where they are from," Xue Yueliang answered, "Enemies and friends don't always have to be decided by background." "So, would you befriend your father's killer?" She asked, throwing her dagger toward Xue Yueliang, leading her to dodge. "Happily." Xue Yueliang found it hard to understand where this girl was coming from until she recalled the servant she had met earlier in the city. He was very familiar.
But isn't it foolish to assume that everyone loves their father? Especially when they are pieces of trash.
"Is your mom still pregnant?" She asked, her eyes widening in shock from this news. This look irked Jiu Li, who corrected her, "No, she's dead. Thanks to you."
Seeing that one of her doubts was answered, she followed with another question, "And how is the daughter of a petty thief so influential?" Jiu Li herself was not powerful, meaning she hired someone to do this all for her, but that did not make sense. If they had money, they would not make such a terrible play to rob young, inexperienced cultivators and even kick and insult his wife. Though it had already been more than a few years, Xue Yueliang remembered them, that woman had been the only person who went against her that she had spared.
By these words, Jiu Li's eyes filled with sorrow as she glared at her hatefully, saying between clenched teeth, "I'm a training alchemist, and they were forced to such a state because of me. When I was finally beginning to return on their investment, I heard the news of my parents' death and that only my sister had survived. You ruined everything for me!" At this point, her eyes appeared like those of a vengeful spirit, ready to drag others to hell along with her.
"Of course, being a single mother at our age is hard, " Xue Yueliang nodded understandingly. She thought of ways to get out of her situation while simultaneously making small talk, but she had overestimated her ability to multitask and accidentally uttered the wrong words. Her words angered Jiu Li as she looked at the two men behind her, "End her."
"Okay." "Happily." They answered, looking at Xue Yueliang the same way a wolf would eye a sheep.
"What about my companion?" Xue Yueliang blurted out, hoping to return Jiu Li to her room, "He's well taken care of." She said indifferently, "Just worry about yourself." And with that, she exited, no amount of noise able to return her. Xue Yueliang eyed the duo in front of her nervously; she had no idea how she would get out of this. What an unlucky day. Her bad actions were beginning to catch up with her.