"Pass. Hard pass." Leroy stood up. "Right now, physical work should be kept to a minimum. Never know when an attack will come. Besides, he is a Life Martial Artist that started dabbling in the Antilife style already, both recovery and offensive are strong. His progress will start to come from what' Insight he might pick up during a time like this. After all Teacher Jin has given him a lot of resources as well as yourself I suppose."

Victoria didn't understand by Insight as she gave him an odd look of trouble. Insight was not something that came easy and her junior brother may be gifted and had a fast cultivation so far but that did not mean much for his IQ.

"Let's just say his progress is not entirely from what he does himself. One of the reasons his kind was hunted down so much. Life Qi Martial Artists are troublesome and awaken all sorts of abilities. That and the benefits they give to others cultivation I suppose." Leroy walked up to her stopping at her side. His eyes looked out at the students gathered around. It was odd how most of them were no longer worried about the situation. 'Is it because they are caught in the Destined Character Halo or they were just this careless?'

"You have a big understanding of his character, are you like that with all those who are in the Clear Tang Family and the Town you come from?"

"Pft, only those who are a problem." Leroy scoffed. "You will see changes in his personality soon. Try to keep track of what he says at times. Will give a lot of thought into his character. No matter how... frail it happens to be. You could blame it on his cultivation if it makes you feel better when it happens."

"You know quite a lot about Life Martial Artist, why is that?" Victoria was generally interested personally in what he knew besides latching on to Chu Xue for help.

"One must know their enemy." Leroy gave her a sidelong glance. "How about this, you tell me everything about that Pin Feng boy and his family the Light Lion-Ice, and I will help Chu Xue a little."

"Pin Feng?" Victoria looked away pretty quickly. Fingers fidgeting just a little at anything dealing with him.

"He is after all from a vassal family of yours." Leroy didn't like that look away she did. The girl knew something. Or just wanted to protect her family in some way maybe. "Do speak. Before you are implicated later anyway."

"I will find someone else to help him then." She said after thinking things over. Moving away she only spares a reluctant look at him for not getting what she wanted. 'He is interested in Pin Feng and the Light Lion-ice Family as Jasmine suggested. But what else is it that he knows? How else is suspect?' As she ran away she thought about what other things Leroy had spoken about with her friend.

'I wonder if Jasmine planted the right seeds in her mind or not?' The Champion spared a glance that way before moving to sit back down and cultivate. It was not a good time to shoot off as he needed to make a few more plans and heal more. 'The Flame Vortex Core Qi is doing fine in healing my Dantian but it is going to take more than this.'

.

Later that evening-

.

As Chu Xue and Jasmine duel like idiots, a few students cultivated diligently. Murders are happening and the two decide to spar with very little restraint. The other students who were too scared to cultivate looked on in anticipation to see who would win.

'What in the fuckery were the idiots thinking.' Leroy hadn't the foggiest why they thought this was a good use of their time. But then again it gave him the perfect opportunity to get away. No.. it was the perfect time to get some stuff for himself. So he didn't try to intervene. Jasmine had her own reasons anyway for conducting the spar he supposed.

Finding the cave from the description of the journal was the hard part of the scattered descriptions. The easy part came next once he was inside. Feeling powerful Qi strands in one direction, he went directly to that path.

Slowly he pulled at the boulder blocking the way to the secret passage. Sending concentrated Qi into several points to lodge it free and weaken it overall. No way would he pour a bunch of qi and attack it making noise.

That is how the enemy finds yah easily from the loud sound released.

Then again a whole duel was taking place outside. So there was that to attract anyone.

As time passed, enough of the boulder was dislodged that he could slip into an opening. Once on the other side Leroy circulates his Qi and shot into a sprint to cover the distance fast. Time was of the essence. Fire-lighting Body was circulated to prepare for the next bit of trouble.

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"Damn it, that cold air is deadly!" The Champion was hit by a cold draft pretty quickly that blasted against his Qi shield. But he held fast as he spotted the first bit of the Cold Qi Stone around the place."Man.. even my breath is freezing.."

Giving a slight huff he watched the water droplets hit the cave floor. A pool of water was in the immediate vicinity that drew his attention.

They looked no different than crystals really with how clear they were. The Cold Qi in the pool of water could wait for later as the stones needed to be picked up quickly.

"There is more of the stones than that stuff anyway that I can see!"

Releasing Tang Bo from his Internal Space, he told him what to do with the material. It took a minute before the chill went away for the latter. He wouldn't last long at this rate. But two hands were better than one to gather the resources.

Leroy was ignoring the weapon that floated above the pool of water in the room since it was trouble that he currently couldn't handle. It was a weapon Artifact that would definitely fit the criteria the lying Afterlife Backdoor Terminal was looking for.

"What's that?" Tang Bo asked as he broke some of the Qi Stone up with a concentrated fist strike. His qi slowed down from just touching the stone with a little concentration lost from the cold. He was speaking about the Trident that was visible after the mist cleared a little around it. "Are we taking that too?"

"Nah, leave it for now. Besides, it is most likely is booby-trapped." Leroy struck with precision knocking some of the pieces up top down. "No way does one leave a weapon like that behind."

The journal about the place stated it was dangerous and if a Student at the Nascent Realm couldn't get the thing he definitely couldn't get it while injured. The good news is the ceiling didn't give way any as he chipped it down. It would suck to get buried in the place after all.

They fell down quickly but were swept into his Internal Space before hitting the ground.

"We get this stuff first, then come back later. Right now I need more strength. You do as well, in case you haven't noticed still."

"No, I am very much aware!" Tang Bo felt afraid thinking back to how he was brutally beaten. The craving for power pushed that fear away quickly enough though. His qi pushed harder as he gathered more of the Cold Qi stone. "Later, is better!"

As the two gather all the Cold Qi Stones available, Leroy could feel the Flame Vortex Core spinning on its own. The bodies of the dead students and teachers were getting refined even faster now. In a few moments, it would be finished. The bodies burned away leaving just the residual souls behind.

'Gonna have to do what I did to the original Leroy it seems to acquire whatever I can from that.' After waking up knowing a few Demon Beast movement patterns he definitely was tempted to refine himself in the flames. 'The Flame Vortex might not break through while my Dantian is injured so definitely need to speed this up.'

The Vortex Core Qi left overflowing down into his Dantian cracks. With only a bit heading to his Internal Space to cause it to expand as well as increase the atmosphere.

"Whew!" Tang Bo was out of qi and was starting to freeze up, literally had ice patches all over. His face was covered in frost from the close contact. Didn't help he was close to the water and the pulsing trident. "I am all tapped out my friend!" Leroy moved over and prepared to place him back into his Internal Space. "I think I will enter deep meditation to help keep the air inside more from burning out."

"Alright, just make sure you cultivate a few of the stones diligently. Do not bite off more than you can chew."

*Woosh!* Tang Bo vanished instantly into qi before he turned into a popsicle. He immediately followed the advice and started to cultivate diligently inside.

"The cave is completely empty now besides the Trident and what's down below in the water." Leroy moved over to the lake and touched the water out of curiosity. "Tch!" His finger immediately turned numb freezing the fire around his hand. "Let's try this then!"

*Chish!* The water surface evaporated on touch once he put his qi into it. The forces repelled each the more he moved his hand into the water. It would take too much effort to get down there and grab the Cold Qi Liquid down below that he could see.

A small evil plan formed on how to get it later for himself. Even trying to pull it into his Internal Space as is caused him to freeze up some.

'Later then.' Leroy turned from the trident as his Flame Vortex Core Qi was the only thing keeping him safe at this time. 'Well guess we can't have everything easy. But have enough to push us up higher I hope.'

Sitting down to cultivate, he sent his Qi out with the Spatial Sense technique to carve sections out of the walls. It was a slow process but it push his Spatial sense technique and understanding of Qi Control much higher.

Practicing Inscription patterns and Formation patterns was going pretty well. To the side of him both of his Alchemist Flmaes were out circling around producing heat.

Little drills burrowed the wall apart and cause pieces to drop all over. He was diligent and very mindful of the levels of frostbite that could cause permanent damage.

.

Nightfall-

.

The spar ended with Chu Xue having been knocked out by a Bestial Shout at close range. However, Jasmine had a cut on her brow that left a pretty noticeable mark. It seems the boy was able to land a solid strike on her despite the difference in their cultivations.

Instead of being completely dominated as Jasmine thought he would be, she was left with this disgraceful mark. As they brought him in to recover, Victoria looked at Leroy who was deep in cultivation once again after he returned from what they thought was a brisk walk.

"He seems to not care about what happened the last few hours."

"Maybe... we should get some rest as well. There is still a killer out there. Or killers for that matter." Jasmine answered no longer entertaining the idea that it was a Demon Beast. She was still thinking over the spar with Chu Xue. 'His fighting style was vastly different than when he fought against Leroy and the fight against the demonic beast previously. Someone gave him pointers it seems during the brief interim period.'

Her eyes looked on, analyzing every trace of Leroy as he had told her the boy took lessons from a shady person like an assassin or thief. But a talk with Victoria earlier let her know it was somewhat different than what he told her entirely. Different responses to questions asked by them and the information he told them in different ways caused conflict.

The only other person that could teach the move Chu Xue knew was from the Assassination Guild. Victoria said the only friend she knew he had was Pin Feng.