HUNT

The sun was high up the sky, Liu Feng was making his way through the middle area of the wildlands. “It is already 1pm dammit where the hell is Bai Si I have been searching for four days now and I still don’t see any sign of him.” Liu Feng complained.

Liu Feng had been spending the last four days tracking Bai Si down based on the information he bought. He did not neglect any training in the previous 4 days and has already broken through to Qi condensation 6 today, his plan was to breakthrough to Qi Refinement 1 and spend the remaining time training on the cloak of the night before the scholarship competition.

As Liu Feng was searching through the middle area of the wildlands he killed any wild beast he could kill and hid from any wild beast he could not. He was doing a clockwise sweep in a semi-circle heading inwards towards the core area of the wildlands. “I estimate I will reach the core area in the next one week doing my sweep, with Bai Si’s cultivation level I don’t he is in the core area.” Liu Feng mumbled.

“Is that a campfire?” Liu Feng thought as he erased his presence and suppressed his Qi and headed towards the campfire.

“This campfire is already smothered down but it is still hot it should be from yesterday night. But who would there light a campfire out in the open in the middle area of the wild zone? There is someone else here other than Bai Li.” Liu Feng analyzed the situation and decided to search in caution as someone who could set up a campfire out in the open in the middle area has to have a very high cultivation level.

He decided to continue with his sweep pattern until night and he would find a cave to rest nearby. Night approached and Liu Feng still could not find Bai Si, “this cave should be just nice,” Liu Feng said as he headed towards a cave.

Checking the cave cautiously he noticed there was nobody inside deciding to rest here for the night and carry on with his search tomorrow. Taking out some food from his ring he ate enough as he still had 4 more months here and had to ration his food he could eat beast meat but cooking them would definitely attract other beasts.

Liu Feng then started cultivating the cloak of the night, as he needed to get this to peak stage before the scholarship competition as it would allow him to suppress his cultivation anywhere below 2 realms.

In the middle of the night, Liu Feng woke up from his sleep hearing footsteps outside his cave. Immediately he suppressed his cultivation to Qi gathering 6, and go up facing the cave entrance which was blocked by a boulder.

“Are you sure there is nobody inside?”

“Yes, I am sure I already check we can rest here for the night.”

Liu Feng was very cautious as he heard the voices outside his cave, the boulder started moving and he saw two people entering the cave.

A tall man in his forties who was wearing survival gear along with a girl in her twenties entered Liu Feng’s cave. He immediately started acting “who are you guys and why are you entering my cave?” he asked stammering.

“I thought you said nobody was inside?” The girl asked the man who appears to be her guard.

“I thought nobody was inside I scanned the surroundings but could not detect anything.” The man replied confused.

“Ahhh I know why this kid only has a cultivation of Qi gathering 6 obviously I could not detect him as he was weak,” said the man.

“Boy with such a low cultivation what are you doing here?” The man asked Liu Feng.

“Ummm I got lost and I didn’t know how to go back" Liu Feng replied appearing scared.

While they were having a conversation Liu Feng checked and found out that the girl had a cultivation of Qi condensation 5 and the man had a cultivation of Qi refinement 6.

“You got lost damn aren’t you lucky you did not get killed in the middle area.” The girl said with a sneer.

The man cut off the girl and said “young boy can we share the cave with you this here is the young miss of the Yin clan her name is Yin Yi and I am Yin Ming her guard, we will head out tomorrow and for the trouble this here is a map of the wildland with this you can find your way out.”

“Ahh thank you so much you all can stay here,” Liu Feng said as he took the map.

“Why do we even have to ask him for permission we can just throw him out and take the cave,” Yin Yi said

“I apologize for our young miss” Yin Ming said with an apologetic look on his face.

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Liu Feng ignored the girl and went to the back of the cave to continue sleeping.

Seeing this Yin Ming was shocked at the boy’s patience but instead, this infuriated Yin Yi.

“Who the hell does he think he his acting all high and mighty just a country bumpkin.” Yin Yi said as she went to sleep near the entrance of her cave. While Yin Ming kept watch.

   The next day Liu Feng woke up early in the morning and exited the cave to find another place to cultivate, On his way out he bowed to Yin Ming to thank him for that map.

“Are you leaving now boy? Take care of yourself.” Yin Ming said.

“I will thank you.” He said as he went to search for another cave to cultivate.

“The girl Yin Yi was arrogant and snobbish but the man Yin Ming was genuinely caring.” Liu Feng thought to himself.

In a cave, Liu Feng found he was sitting in a lotus position cultivating. “My dantian is now 40% filled I can’t wait to get to Qi refinement 1, I already have the asura cultivation art for the Qi refinement stage so I can just break through without any issues cultivating late on.” Liu Feng thought to himself.

Exiting the cave he continued with his search. It was around 4pm in the evening when Liu Feng came across a blood trail. “This is not beast blood but it is human blood instead, this might be Bai Si’s blood or it might be someone else, let's just follow it for now,” he thought to himself as he followed the blood trail.

Liu Feng slowed down and spotted a man staggering and walking in the forest his arm had been ripped off by a beast. As Liu Feng could only see the man’s back he went around to get a look at the man’s face. If it was Bai Si, Liu Feng would go and kill him immediately and if it was someone else Liu Feng would just ignore him and walk away.

Taking a look at the man’s face Liu Feng realized it was not Bai Si. “Haizz it is not Bai Si, will just have to carry on my search then.” He said as he went in another direction following his sweep pattern.

After walking awhile Liu Feng came to a stop. “What the hell did I just do? Did I really leave an injured man and walk away without helping him?” He was stunned he realized he was slowly losing empathy and compassion things which made him human.

“Since the fight at the Bai clan, I slaughtered everyone thinking it was for a just cause but deep down I was actually enjoying myself,” Liu Feng thought with a worried look on his face.

“I think the further I cultivate I start to get traits of both the Asura and the Devas. I was never human, to begin with, and this humane side of me was just taught to me and was never apart of my nature. But it feels wrong to stray further away from humanity.” Liu Feng was conflicted with himself.

“Let me just find and kill Bai Si first then I can break through into Qi refinement 1 and hopefully I will see a memory which will give me some answers to the change in my nature.” He said as he started climbing the trees to search from higher ground.

Another week passed and Liu Feng still has not found Bai Si. “This is getting frustrating where the hell is he. Don’t tell me he got himself killed by running into the core area.”

Liu Feng now had a cultivation of Qi condensation 8 and his dantian is 80% filled. “I will be able to break into the 9th stage of Qi condensation tomorrow, but I don’t feel happy at all with Bai Si still out there.”

Walking along with the pattern of the sweep he finally reached the border of the middle area and the core area. “I have searched the entire middle area where the hell is Bai Si!!!!” Liu Feng screamed in frustration. Just then he heard a rustle about 3km from him, followed by sounds of running.

“Ahhh there he is,” Liu Feng said softly with an eerie smile on his face as he gave chase in the direction of the sounds.

Finally, Liu Feng could see Bai Si torn clothes with gashes and bruises everywhere he was in a sorry state.

“Bai Si why are you running, just wait right there and wash your neck for me”

“Are you insane you want me to wait for you to kill me” Bai Si screamed in defiance without even looking back.

*Thud*

Liu Feng kicked Bai Si in his back who was sent tumbling into the ground.

Finally seeing the face of his attacker Bai Si was shocked.

“Aren’t you that kid my son used to bully? And your friend is Lei Jun, right? We took his sister. Is that why you killed my clan? But that does not make sense how is your cultivation so high?” Bai Si was stammering and sweating profusely his confusion was apparent on his face.

“I honestly would like to explain everything to you and give along with speech and then kill you but I could not care less and have more important things to figure out.” Liu Feng said as he took out Kumo and flung it at Bai Si’s forehead.

Before Bai Si could even react Kumo pierced his forehead.

“Ah finally he is dead, and I can finally focus on my volatile character and also the scholarship competition”. Liu Feng said as he picked up Kumo and the interspatial ring on Bai Si’s finger.

Liu Feng went in search of a cave that he will hole up in for the remaining 3 months and 1 week. Finding the perfect cave almost took up the whole day, once inside the cave Liu Feng took out Bai Si’s ring to check what was inside.

Inside the ring was 7 blue dram with miscellaneous furs and pelt from wild beasts. “Tch what a poor bast**d” Liu Feng murmured. Just as he was about to put the ring into his pocket he noticed a jade slip in the ring. Taking it out expecting a martial skill, Liu Feng was shocked at what was inside the Jade Slip.

-Central Pillar Order-

These words were in red in Liu Feng’s mind. As he read the order he was even more shocked.

-Capture the Asura dead or alive, last seen in the labyrinths in the Central District-

“There is an Asura who is alive in the central district? Even the central pillar gave out an order for him. Maybe if I find him I can get some answers” Liu Feng thought to himself.

There are 5 Pillars in total in the Stronghold of China split according to the north, south, east, west, and central. The Pillar is the government itself they consist of 10 people who are called commandments in each pillar, these 10 people have a certain role and they are also the strongest in their district. So in the entire stronghold of China, there are a total of 50 people who will determine the fate of everyone else in the stronghold. And this order is a law of sorts and everyone has to follow them.

“But why does Bai Si have an order with him? Dammit if I had not killed him hastily I would have been able to ask him.”

“I shall just focus on breaking into the Qi refinement realm and see what memory I get. Get first place in the scholarship competition and then during the school break I will be able to go to the central district and search for this Asura.”

With a new plan in mind, Liu Feng started training both his body and his mind to stabilize his foundation.