The arrow was headed toward Lei Jian with earth-shattering speed, barely an instant between the time it was released and when it appeared in front of Lei Jian. Due to his deep meditation state, he had not yet noticed anything, so if the attack landed, he could die. Xue Yueliang rushed back toward his direction but was much too far to block this attack for him. Hei Yu increased his size, biting toward the arrow and crushing it with its ivory teeth. Xue Yueliang then released her Berserk Dragon Flame, forming a shield around him, hoping to protect him from any further attacks. Li Hua stood still in her high vantage point, warily pointing her bow toward where the arrow had come from, looking for the attacker.

Xue Yueliang was now by his side, unsheathing her sword as she swept the surrounding area with her powerful divine sense. She noticed a small figure of a man hiding in an ancient tree toward the east, his petite figure almost covered by the tree leaves. He was one of the cultivators of the Fu Clan, a scouter at the fourth level of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

If he's here, then his party would also come here soon, Xue Yueliang thought somberly.

She sent Li Hua his locations through their divine sense and hoped she could get rid of him quickly. Li Hua carefully controlled her bow, locking onto her enemy as she released it. To their surprise, Li Hua's arrow was met in midair. The powers cancelled out as the ruined bows weakly fell onto the ground.

Li Hua grit her teeth, "Someone from a backward clan cannot beat me," she yelled, her bow releasing rhythmic sounds as three arrows were shot out in succession.

This time, she managed to overpower the other archer, not allowing any of his attacks to reach her. However, a few of them landed by his side, only causing him to roll to the side and avoid injury. If this battle continued like this, Li Hua would win, but his backup would arrive before she killed him. They would be dead then. She looked toward Lei Jian and gritted her teeth, deciding to join the fray, if Hei Yu could protect him, he will, but endangering all their lives waiting was not worth it. Besides, although her flames weren't in full power, it would take some time to extinguish them.

She ran around their battlefield, climbing up the trees as she neared him. Noticing her presence, he tried to launch a few attacks on her. However, Li Hua kept him busy, making him unable to divert his attention toward her. Closing in on him, she swung her sword, "Blood Moon Waves," she yelled.

An arc of bright red Qi formed in front of her, heading toward the scout with scary precision. But a formation protected him, blocking what would have caused a serious injury.

"How long do you think you can defend?" She asked cheekily, landing more attacks on the scout.

Thanks to Li Hua's arrows, he was unable to focus on her, and so, after a few attacks, she broke through his defence, causing him to be injured and fall to the ground. In his descent, five arrows landed on his body, turning him into a skewered porcupine.

"What an overkill," Xue Yueliang commented, jumping to the same level as his still-breathing man. She placed her hand on his forehead, forcefully barging her divine sense into his soul, searching for where his companions could be.

However, her expression soon changed, "They'll be here in ten minutes," She warned.

The scout was already dead at this moment, so she grabbed his spiritual ring and called Hei Yu over, so he could eat the scout's flesh.

"You shouldn't eat human meat," Li Hua said urgently, unable to believe Xue Yueliang would allow this.

"Why not?" Xue Yueliang asked, but Hei Yu continued to eat, beginning with the scout's feet. They did not have time to waste.

"He's a person. Even if we don't bury him, we should not desecrate his corpse."

"He's my enemy, and he's dead. He has no use for his body, and it could help me increase my own strength. It would be a waste to let it rot away. Besides, if we leave it here, it would be eaten by random beasts anyway."

"Would you eat a person to increase your own strength?" Li Hua asked, but Xue Yueliand did not think she wanted the actual answer.

"I think it's unappetizing, but if I can get stronger faster, I don't mind." It was honestly not much different from how she had passed through the Qi Refinement Realm. Except rather than eating the flesh, she absorbed the essence of the body. Sadly, she could not do this any further, making her cultivation speed the same as most others.

A nauseous look appeared on Li Hua, "We should at least leave something for the family to bury," she conceded.

"Sure." Xue Yueliang replied, unwilling to argue any further.

She slashed her sword, and the cultivator's body from the neck down was cut off, landing on the ground and upsetting Hei Yu, who was still gnawing on the corpse.

An insidious smile appeared on her face while looking at the body-less head on the tree. She used one of the broken arrows to carve onto the tree, writing, Was my life worth only Fu Qian's pride?

Examining her work, she liked how his blood flowed into the words she carved down, overfilling then slowly dripping out. It was a work of art, many times better than the one in Blackwater Town. Speaking of which, it was disappointing that she did not get to see her cousins' reactions. She turned around, only to see Li Hua's disgusted and horrified look.

Perhaps it was something like that, she thought, then snapped out of her thoughts.

It seemed that they were not fated to become friends.

"Let's wake him," Li Hua said, pointing at Lei Jian. It was dangerous to disturb a cultivator while trying to refine a flame, especially a beast flame that was inherently more violent. Of course, between waking him up and leaving him here, she knew that the latter had worse consequences. Extinguishing the flames around him, she tapped onto his shoulder, "Lei Jian, it's time to get up."

Seeing no response, she shook him, but he had not responded, causing her to slightly panic. If he did not wake up in a few breaths of time, she would have no choice but to leave him behind. She was sure he would not die, but it would be much harder to get what she wanted from him in the future. Just as she was weighing her options and readying herself to leave, his body began to violently shake, releasing a terrifying pressure. Though it was not something she could not handle, it was surprising.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

A burst of green flames exploded from within his body, spreading to a distance of two arms' length and then began retreating onto his body. The flame energy purified his spiritual Qi and caused his aura to rise to the next level, breaking through to the fourth level of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Before Lei Jian could even celebrate his breakthrough, his wrist was grasped by Li Hua, "Quickly, we have to leave."

The stunned Lei Jian followed behind as the trio rushed through the densely populated forest. Their fast beams climbed up the mountains, relying on jumping through the trees rather than walking around until they felt themselves to be a fair enough distance from their previous campsite. It was noon, with the hot morning sun in the bright sky, reminding them they could still travel around.

"Did they find us?" Lei Jian questioned, "Find us? They almost killed you." Li Hua answered. "Did you really not feel anything?"

"Of course not. Otherwise, I would have helped."

He felt slightly embarrassed as he had recently promised himself to fight by her side, but it was her who protected him again. Feeling the increase in his strength, he thought at least this would not help again, and he would make sure not to enter a deep meditative state until he was somewhere that was completely safe.

"Well, I thought you wanted to be relying on women for the rest of your life." She said, clearly trying to anger him.

"What does it matter? He's welcome to rely on me if he wishes." Xue Yueliang added, finally joining in.

She has been thinking of how to get rid of the Fu Clan members, but even with Lei Jian's breakthrough, it wasn't possible. If Lei Jian and Li Hua teamed up, they could defend against their leader, and although she could fight evenly against someone one level higher than her, she could not disregard the two others that had the same cultivation base as her. It would be best if she could kill them before facing Fu Mei head-on. Li Hua stayed silent and did not retort like she usually did, leading to an awkward atmosphere.

"Well, do you guys want to separate, or do you prefer if we move together?" She asked, pretending not to notice the stiffness.

Even though she was safer with them, both options were okay in her eyes.

"I think we should stay together. At least until we defeat the Fu Clan," Lei Jian answered.

"I agree," Li Hua added, still revolted by what she had seen.

Hei Yu, who was already cleaned up, walked up to Li Hua, hoping to snuggle with her, but she quickly moved away, upsetting him. Xue Yueliang picked up the whimpering Hei Yu and held him in her arms, comforting him.

"What happened?" Lei Jian asked, unable to understand why Li Hua's attitude had changed.

"Hei Yu ate someone," Xe Yueliang answered indifferently.

"Oh," Lei Jian said,

"He's a beast. It's not like it was Xue Yueliang who had done that." He was hoping to comfort her because if they were going to trust each other with their lives, it was best if there were no misunderstandings between them. Li Hua's expression changed uglier at his words, but she still didn't say anything, not even arguing back.

"If we're done with this, let's go back to the real issue here. The Fu Clan's people had most likely found the scouter's corpse, and they will be angrier. I think it's better if we move up higher. That way, even if we can't defeat them, we can lead them to danger." Xue Yueliang said.

She did not care about what was going through their heads and only wanted this to be over. The other two agreed with her idea, and they began climbing upward. Xue Yueliang felt this atmosphere exhilarating. She had never been chased through a forest before, and new experiences were not things she would say no to.

They spent the next two months taking detours around the more powerful beasts as they slowly but carefully worked their way upward. During the following three months, they had come across the Fu Clan's members a few times. Other than taunting them, they had not come into direct conflict with them, escaping before they got close. It can be said, during this time, Xue Yueliang's art of carving went from a complete novice to an intermediate level, delighting her. Variety was important in life, and because she already had Hei Yu from her time sewing, it was about time she started a new hobby.

As they were speeding forth, taking detours around the more powerful beasts, they were stopped by a giant beast, making them unable to move forward.

The beast's body was black with a faint metallic sheen that faded into grey on its blade-like legs. Considering its shape and the hundreds of legs that it used to crawl around, it was not hard to see that it was some sort of centipede beast that was much too big. Its outer skin had strong defensive capabilities that blocked Li Hua's arrows, causing her to be unable to damage it. Seeing that it was a metal element beast, it should have strong protection against physical attacks and fire, which countered them almost perfectly.

"Screech." It released an ear-splitting noise as it twisted its massive body, lunging itself to the trio.

Lei Jian and Xue Yueliang quickly jumped to either side of his body. However, Li Hua retreated backwards, holding her bow, waiting for a chance to strike. Their teamwork had improved immensely during the past few months, and they were now capable of fighting together tacitly.

"Greatsword, Asura!" Lei Jian yelled, rushing toward the beast with the will to crush everything in sight.

His grey sword landed heavily on the beast's side, denting its metallic-like skin. This only served to anger the beast but did not affect it much. This was expected as the centipede was one level higher than him.

As although beasts were not intelligent, they still were more physically powerful. Their only concern now was to weaken it to the point they could escape.

Over the past three months, they had crossed many beast territories. However, none of them was as defensive as this one. They usually let people pass if they left their region quickly enough.

"Invincible Sword Cuts All," Xue Yueliang said, releasing waves of sword Qi. The sword Qi waves attacked the same area multiple times, breaking through the centipede's defence and causing a small amount of blood to trickle down.

Great, she smiled. I'm still more powerful than him.

However, she quickly got rid of these self-satisfied thoughts because if this continued, it would only be a matter of time before they died. Who was more powerful did not matter.

She took in all the information she had, and from how strong its defensive capabilities are and its sharp attacks, she could not find much of a weakness to capitalise on. All they were doing now was stalling for time, but comparing endurance with a beast, especially one with a metal element, was too foolish.

Maybe the answer is in why it's so defensive? She thought, hoping to find clues as to what caused it to be that way.

"Not good!" Li Hua suddenly alerted, "The Fu Clan cultivators are nearby. They must have been alarmed by the fight."

Considering they had been fighting for nearly an hour, it was not surprising that they felt the battle fluctuation. Although this day was getting worse for them with every passing second, Xue Yueliang did not despair. She did not see the point in that. Looking around at the ground that had been ruined by the centipede's attacks, she noticed only one place was left untouched. To the left of where she was, there was a rock that had not been damaged or destroyed, leaving it the only thing intact in the surrounding hundred li.

"Watch out," Li Hua warned, but before Xue Yueliang could react, a leg attacked her, and even after blocking, she was still flung away. She tried to control her body to land near the rock, but she had instead fallen directly onto it, destroying it into smithereens.

"Screech!" The beast yelled angrily, but there was a wisp of worry in his screech.

It tried to rush toward her but was blocked by a greatsword that smashed into its head. Xue Yueliang looked down to see dozens of marble-looking eggs on the ground. This centipede was trying to protect its unborn children.

"Too bad, due to your overprotectiveness, they will die." Xue Yueliang smiled, finally knowing how to get out of her current predicament.