Chapter 57:

“For now, I’ll aim for the third position on the ranking.” Huang Xue thought as he looked at the Sea Disciple Ranking one more time before turning to leave.

He began to head towards the innermost area of the sect, where most core disciples resided. During his time in seclusion, Huang Xue had already gathered a information on several “powerful” disciples in the Six Ocean Sect. Some who were strong enough to have been ranked in the top ten Sea Disciple Ranking tablet, and others who would-be rankers. Naturally, their living quarters had been compromised to Huang Xue at some point as well.

Soon, Huang Xue arrived at a particular mountain peak, whose height overshadow the surrounding peaks around it. Mists interweaved between the mountain peaks, giving it a mystical atmosphere.

As Huang Xue entered the courtyard, he did not stop and directly headed straight towards the house that was situated atop of the mountain.

With Huang Xue’s current ability right now, he decided that he would challenge the third ranker of the Sea Disciple Ranking tablet: Du Minghan! If he wins, then this would give Huang Xue enough exposure to the upper echelon of the sect but would not make him out as too much of a monster. Otherwise, he may get entangled up with other “affairs” that he does not want to deal with.

To ensure that the other party would accept his challenge, Huang Xue decided to rudely invade their personal space. Youths are often times hot-headed, and even more so hot-blooded. They’re quite sensitive at this age.

Bam!

The door smashed open as Huang Xue stepped into the room. A powerful gust of wind invaded the room as tables and vases were sent flying.

“Du Minghan! Come out! I, Shen Huang Xue, wants to challenge you! If you’re not afraid, then…” Huang Xue shouted up to this point before his voice started to drift away like snow on a summer eve.

His eyes slightly widened as he stared at the doll-like young girl who was currently covering her front with a white towel in her right hand, while a tinted blue sword was held at her left side. She was standing inside a large wooden basin. Her black hair hung loosely behind her as droplets of water dripped down.

She did not scream. Her expression did not change as her black eyes calmly stared back at Huang Xue.

“...Huh?” Huang Xue frowned. Was Du Minghan a girl? No, no, no, it is confirmed that Du Minghan is definitely the blood-brother of Du Qianxi.

Then, who was this girl standing before him? And she was even previously taking a bath here? Was she Du Minghan’s martial partner? But there had been no reports of such a thing...then, just who the hell was this girl?!

Huang Xue straightened himself as he stared dead into the girl’s eyes.

“You know this is an accident, right?”

“Yes.” The black-haired girl replied.

“Good. I apologize for my offense, but rest assured that I did not see anything worthwhile. If you see Du Minghan, please tell him of my challenge to him. Now, I’ll take my leave.” Huang Xue calmly spoke as he turned to leave. He did not bother to ask for an explanation from the girl. The current situation was already quite unsightly and bizarre.

But before he even took three steps, a cold voice rang behind him.

“Though I admit this was an accident, but I have to apologize as well. I’m afraid, you’ll have to here on this mountain peak...forever.”

Right as the words were finished, an intense pressure bore down upon Huang Xue’s body.

“?!” Huang Xue clenched his teeth as he abruptly turned his body just as a sword beam slashed vertically downward.

*BOOM!*

Floor tiles flew up into the air and dust exploded everywhere.

Whoosh!

A white-robed Huang Xue instantly shot backward out of the dusty cloud as a serious gleamed appeared in his eyes.

“She’s actually...Tian realm expert!” Huang Xue thought as he stabilized himself in the courtyard. “And she’s actually at the 6th stage at that! But how shameless, to attack someone weaker from behind…she must be quite furious, huh.”

As the dust died down, a petite girl slowly emerged from within. It was unknown when, but the black-haired girl had already changed into a purple combat suit that fitted tightly around her body. Two proud, purple mountains protruded from her chest. The girl’s calm face spoke of no grievance, but her cold eyes told a different story.

Huang Xue could only gave an awkward smile as he dusted himself. In his entire life, he had never experienced something as shameful as intruding upon a girl’s bathing hour. He felt a vague sense of helplessness in this particular situation.

“I see you are pretty quick on your feet.” The purple suited girl faintly smiled.

“Look, child- no, I mean, lady. I admit it was my fault for entering without knocking, but this is supposed to be Du Minghan’s mountain peak. I wouldn’t have expected a girl to be here by herself. It would be quite unreasonable to attack me as such, correct?” Huang Xue reasoned.

The purple suited girl’s smile did not wane as she said: “I have already taken over this peak from Du Minghan yesterday. This matter should’ve been spread out long ago, right? But I have to commend you for your courage. To act as if this was still Du Minghan’s place and use that as an excuse to intrude upon me. You have guts.”

Yesterday...That was within the last two days that Huang Xue had been in true meditation, cutting off any sort of contact with the intel reporters because he had wanted to focus on his foundation.

“I see.” Huang Xue said as he came to realize the girl’s identity.

To be able to take over Du Minghan’s mountain peak, there was probably only two students who could do so. After all, “peak-conquering” is not a task anyone could dabble in, especially amongst the top-level students. And out of those two possible candidates who could take over Du Minghan’s personal peak, only one was a girl.

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And that person was...the first ranker, Zhu Meiying!

Rather than asking any more useless questions such as why she decided to take over Du Minghan’s residence or whatnot, Huang Xue was now currently thinking of how to get out of this unfavorable situation.

If a person is strong, they can do as they like. If they liked a particular peak, they can simply go take it over if they have enough power, even if it’s already occupied.

For example, Du Minghan himself already has seven mountain peaks under his name. And this Zhu Meiying, was rumored to have over twenty different peaks under her, which she occasionally distribute a few to her most trusted followers.

As for this hobby of taking over other people’s mountain peak, Huang Xue was not interested, so he never really thought much about it.

But this was not the main point. The issue at hand was that this Zhu Meiying was a Tian expert at the 6th stage, while Huang Xue himself was at best, at the peak staged of Jie Hai. Without first entering the Tian realm, it was very unfavorable for him to fight someone like this so early on.

“What type of bullsh*t scenario did I run into?” Huang Xue sighed in his heart he looked at Zhu Meiying.

“Is there any way to resolve this without fighting?”

“There is.” Zhu Meiying calmly replied.

“What is it?”

“Your death.”

“....Girl, has anyone ever told you that you’re quite blunt?”

“Thank you for your compliment.” She answered as her figure suddenly blurred.

In an instant, Zhu Meiying appeared in front of Huang Xue as her sword swiped horizontally.

With Huang Xue’s current cultivation, he was barely able to follow her movements. But relying on his advanced divine sense, he was able to dodge by the swift attack, albeit a bit narrowly. But that did not mean he could keep it up for long.

Huang Xue released his cultivation base as his aura rocketed up to the 9th stage of Jie Hai. A slightly surprised look flickered in Zhu Meiying’s eyes when she noticed the sudden increase in power in Huang Xue. However, her attacking speed did not increase as she lunged repeatedly at Huang Xue, forcing the latter back.

As a ‘battle’ ensued between Huang Xue and Zhu Meiying, somewhere far away an intense clash had just wrapped up.

Standing amongst a field of corpses, a bloody figure was panting as his eyes glowed with a cold light. In his right hand, was a pitch-black sword colored with splashes of blood here and there. A great aura was constantly emanating from the sword, which enhanced its master’s intimidating appearance.

And this bloodied person, was Luo Ke. Although there was blood everywhere on his clothes and face, much of it was from the blood of his enemies.

A bit farther from him, stood several other people. Many of them looked to be around the middle-age, with mixed gender of males and females in the group. However, when they looked at Luo Ke, who stood in the middle of corpses, there were no hostilities geared towards the latter. Only fear and respect.

These people belonged to the local clans and tribes that resided within the Duoluo Province. Seven days ago, they were coerced to by the bloodied youth standing a feet away from them, to join him in overthrowing the two largest powers in the Duoluo Province: the Fierce Dragon clan and the Winged Moon Faction.

Faced with the years of abuse by the two major powers and the overwhelming cultivation base that was exhibited by the young man, a few of them decided to take the chance. They were the Golden Eagle Faction, Faceless Mountain clan, and the Blue Grass clan.

These were also the same factions that were being eyed by the Winged Moon Faction and the Fierce Dragon clan for their resources. In other words, they had taken the chance with Luo Ke to attack the two major factions in an attempt to seek a living path. Otherwise, they would be picked off by the major factions later in the future; thus, it was better for them to take a risk.

As for the Winged Moon Faction and the Fierce Dragon clan, they had long since banned together in order to fully get rid of Luo Ke. This was because ten days before, news of their elites being slaughtered by Luo Ke had traveled to the upper echelon of the major factions. And those elites had at least a cultivation at the 3rd stage of Jie Hai realm, with the strongest being at the 7th stage of Jie Hai, comparable to some of the higher elders.

And yet, those elites from both major factions had been wiped out in a single day. From that report onwards, the Winged Moon Faction and the Fierce Dragon clan had immediately decided to seek one another out for a temporary alliance. They came together and created a special headquarter, where all of their core members were placed within.

It was located within a dense forest near the border of the Duoluo Province. It was also where the most important intelligences were received and where the two clan masters had made their battle forte.

The rapid increase in Luo Ke’s growth had placed a sheer terror inside their heart. If they do not take care of Luo Ke soon, given enough time, their clan and faction would definitely face annihilation.

However, it was still useless in the end.

One particular night, Luo Ke led a surprise raid on the Winged Moon Faction and the Fierce Dragon clan’s headquater.

From start to finish, when the Golden Eagle Faction, Faceless Mountain clan, and the Blue Grass clan attacked the base of the two major factions, they had only dealt with the small fries.

The higher members, like the elders and clan masters, and geniuses were all swept up by Luo Ke.

From afar, as the battle between the two sides raged on, the elders could see Luo Ke slaughtering the upper echelon as if they were tofu. His black sword flashed almost imperceptibly through the night air, cutting off life here and there. None of his enemies had been able to stop him.

Even the two clan masters, who boasted an astonishing cultivation base at 9th stage of Jie Hai, was powerless before Luo Ke. They later died a miserable death at Luo Ke’s black sword.

In the end, when the battle ended, almost all of the people from the Winged Moon Faction and the Fierce Dragon clan died. A tiny portion of the weakest members managed to escape earlier on, but given the downfall of their clan, they could only look forward to a future filled with hardship. As for revenge, that was thought none of them could ever entertain.

“Brother Luo Ke, we have cleaned up those enemies at our end.” An elderly man in a brown robe cautiously stepped forward and spoke.

In the martial world, age rarely mattered. It was strength that decided seniority. It was strength that governed everything, if not most matters.

Luo Ke sharp eyes turned to look at the brown-robed elder, causing the latter’s heart to tighten in fear. He had previously seen Luo Ke mercilessly slaughter through those powerful cultivators, a scene which he would never be able to forget in his life.

After a while, Luo Ke gave a faint smile as he said: “Clan master Dun Youjie, thank you for your hard work.”

Then, he turned to look at the other two elderly men standing a bit farther away from Dun Youjie. “Thank you as well, Clan master Jun Yun and Kai Yitao.”

The two elders quickly responded: “It was a small matter, Brother Luo Ke. It is what we should do for you, and our clan, in order to survive.”

These two clan masters were also feeling uneasy accepting Luo Ke’s thanks. In the end, they did not do much, and they were keenly afraid of Luo Ke’s ability at this point.

Luo Ke nodded. “Since the Winged Moon Faction and the Fierce Dragon clan is destroyed, their main residence are now left empty. And to show my gratitude to the three clans with me today, I will not quibble with you on those resource reserves of those two major factions. You seniors may divide it between yourselves.”

Luo Ke’s words struck a chord in the three elders’ heart, causing their heart to race with happiness while their face to distort in shock.

Before the elders could say something, Luo Ke continued: “And now, I’ll have to leave to attend to other matters, so I’ll be excusing myself.”

After a quick salute, Luo Ke turned and leaped off into the hazy forest of the night, leaving a large group of stunned people.

As Luo Ke streaked through the forest, his body was light like feather. In fact, his feet...was not even touching the ground!

To be more exact, Luo Ke was currently flying through the air as he dodged between large tree branches.

A unique, strong aura still emanated off from Luo Ke’s body as if the Heaven Qi of the earth was drawn towards him.

Throughout the two weeks, Luo Ke had been busy refining the golden pill that Huang Xue had given him. And with the complete refinement, it had also came with a large boost in his cultivation base!

On the first day, after refining half of the pill in his body, Luo Ke’s cultivation had jumped from the 2nd Jie Hai stage up to the 7th Jie Hai stage! This had allowed him to take on the several elites of the Winged Moon Faction and the Fierce Dragon clan.

And upon absorbing the entire golden pill into his body on the sixth day, Luo Ke’s body...directly broke through to the 1st stage of Tian realm!

As of then, Luo Ke no longer absorbed the Earth Qi in the world to temper himself, but rather another more potent form of energy: Heaven Qi!

Since he had entered the Tian realm, Luo Ke had reached a new understanding of the laws around him, as if information were mysteriously being pried open and poured into his mind at a rapid pace. He soon became acquainted with the method of flight through the manipulation of the Heaven Qi around him, and the use of mental transmission that only Tian realm experts could possess. Though, Luo Ke had yet to test out the second function itself.

Along with those new abilities, Luo Ke’s personal power had took an obvious change; his aura and Qi were much more thick than they were in the past. As of now, Luo Ke believed that even if he were to fight a normal 2nd stage Tian expert, he could win - and perhaps even be able to briefly hold off against those of the third stage!

This permanent burst in strength was what led Luo Ke to dare attack the headquarters of the two major factions in Duoluo Province. But since he was only a single person, he naturally had to borrow other forces’ men to ward off the disadvantage in numbers.

After that, he, himself, could take out the remaining stronger members. And with his newfound ability, it was, but a simple task.

Moreover, Luo Ke had not yet to even comprehending the special skills that Huang Xue had given him! Just the extremely potent energy within the golden pill had led to a great improvement in Luo Ke’s strength.

As Luo Ke flew through the forest, the sun steadily began to rise up into the sky. Before long, golden streams of sunlight were already illuminating the once shadowy forest.

After a while longer, Luo Ke finally slowed down as he landed down in an open grassy field.

Then, he turned and looked around him as he coldly asked:

“Who is it? You did not bother hiding your aura, yet you’ve been tailing me this entire time! Please show yourself!”