by Tinalynge
By now, Xue Wei’s entire body was drenched in blood; his white teeth were exposed in a gleeful smile; and it was clear that he had been enjoying the killing. The killing intent had also rolled off from him in waves, affecting both snakes and humans in the surroundings. Everyone had been able to feel the killing intent and it had caused them to feel fear to their cores.
The battle soon ended. Xue Wei had killed a large number of snakes, and the rest of the youngsters and guards had cleared up the remaining ones.
Xue Wei had been in a trance-like state. He had been entirely consumed by the feeling of slaughtering and found that he had enjoyed it, but the moment he laid eyes on the fight between the two strongest members of the group, the Sky Warrior captain and the Sand Snake with the same strength as a Sky Warrior, he awoke as if someone had dumped a bucket of water on top of his head.
His face grew pale, and he felt nauseous. He could not understand who he had been just moments before, and the Qi sword in his hand vanished. Fortunately, none of the snakes in the surrounding areas dared to get close to Xue Wei, and Xue Wei slowly regained some color in his face as he took a few deep breaths.
"What happened," he asked himself. "Why did I suddenly get so overwhelmed by the urge to kill?"
He frowned and turned around only to see that the surviving members of the younger generation were looking at him as if they had seen a ghost – even the guards were wary as they looked at him.
The strength Xue Wei had displayed was almost equal to an Earth Warrior. He had shown raw power output that had shocked them all, but what had scared them silly was not that he had killed so many snakes, but the expression on his face when he killed them. The fact that he had found the whole situation thrilling scared them.
Sighing, Xue Wei did not try to explain anything. His face returned to a casual and cold expression, and he returned to the group of youngsters, yet everyone moved out of the way for him and even Shen Mu and Li Jian looked frightened.
"I am used to being alone," Xue Wei sighed. "This is nothing new." Having convinced himself that their reactions did not hurt him, he sat down with his legs crossed, his hands on his lap, and started pondering on what had happened to him.
The moment the fight had begun and the scent of blood permeated the air, it was as if his soul had split into two. One was his usual personality. It was calm and collected, but it had left his body and kept an eye on everything that had happened.
At the same time, he also had experienced a strange baleful killing aura surging within his body, and when he started cutting up the snakes, this urge to kill had taken over. He had almost entirely lost control over himself as he enjoyed the feeling of killing those snakes, and he could not help but feel slightly scared and very uneasy.
Xue Wei did not like the idea of losing control over himself, and he knew that he had to be more careful in the future so that it would not happen again, but he also knew that this was his very first life-and-death struggle. He might have experienced some real difficulties had it not been for this strange baleful killing intent growing within him.
Xue Wei was not the only one who had sat down to cultivate, but where Xue Wei was looking back on the actions he had made, the others were trying to restore their Qi after having been forced to use all the energy that they had to kill the snakes.
Some were trying to heal their wounds, using herbal plants they had brought with them from home or trying to purchase herbs from those who had some by paying them.
Everyone knew that their fate now was in the hands of the captain. If he failed the battle against the Sand Snake, then the Sand Snake would kill everyone present. But if the captain won, then the Sand Snake would die, and they could resume their journey.
It took a full three hours from when the snakes appeared until the giant Sand Snake that had arrived died. The captain had killed it, but he too was looking ruffled, and his clothes were disheveled.
He quickly cracked open the skull of the beast and picked up something that looked like a faceted gem, the beast’s core.
"We need to keep moving right away," the captain yelled out, but his face turned ugly when he saw that at least a hundred to two hundred of the youngsters had died in the attack of the Sand Snakes.
"Do a death count; write the name of those who died and then we move. The likelihood of another Sand Snake coming is very low, but it is still possible."
The guards got to their feet and gathered all the dead youngsters. They laid them in a line, and the captain found a set of papers and took a count. After this, he humphed a few times before he packed the papers away again, not allowing anyone else to see the papers.
"Okay, we start moving now!" the captain called out, and everyone started to follow him once more, away from the sight of carnage.
Where no one had dared to talk before because of the warnings that the captain had given them, now none of them dared speak because they had realized that this warning was real.
They were bound to run into problems along their travel, which took months, and now they knew that it was indeed a deadly journey they had embarked upon.
While they dared not speak, many were looking at Xue Wei with horror in their eyes, but some also had curiosity while others had veneration.
Strength was what determined one's future accomplishments, and no one could question Xue Wei's strength anymore.
Many of these commoners had heard about Xue Wei’s meteoric rise, but they had had a hard time believing it. Now when they saw his raw power on display in a fighting environment, no one questioned his strength any longer.
Xue Wei was completely unaffected by the many gazes he got, and he was not even the slightest bit worried about the other experts. What he worried about was his killing intent. Why did he have such killing intent hidden within himself?
He could not understand it; was it because he had experienced something bloody in his past, or was he merely just inherently a lunatic?
Xue Wei wished that Xiao Lei was by his side so that he could discuss with his uncle about how he felt, but he also knew that this was not an option. He only had himself to rely on.
Not going to give up, Xue Wei spent all the time on the road searching his body, yet no matter how much he searched it, he found no hidden secrets other than the peculiar pearl-like dantian.
The following two days were completely normal. No one dared to speak with Xue Wei, not even Shen Mu or Luo Zhirou spoke with him, but they would often look at him with worried eyes, while Li Jian had started a rumor that had spread fast, saying that Xue Wei was a bloodthirsty killer that would kill all of them if given the chance.
Xue Wei did not care about it, but many of the commoners and noble-born were filled with worry and distrust towards Xue Wei. They feared that he would use the power he had displayed earlier to attack them.
Thinking about this, Xue Wei could not help but snort in contempt. He was only a ninth layered Ordinary Warrior, while there was a Sky Warrior as a captain. Even if he wanted to get rid of the others, he did not have the opportunity to do so.
All in all, the only one that Xue Wei wanted to kill was Li Jian, but he also knew that it was impossible as things were now.
No matter what he did, the Sky Warrior captain would notice it, and that would be the same as signing his death certificate.
Xue Wei was not that stupid. As a result, he kept his murderous thoughts to himself. He knew that he and Li Jian would one day face off against one another, and that when that time came, Xue Wei should be able to kill him as easily as killing chickens. Although he was only a ninth layered Ordinary Warrior, he almost had the same strength as an Earth Warrior. Although any average Earth Warrior could fight Xue Wei to a standstill, no one in the Ordinary Warrior rank was able to beat him.
Chapter 38 - Sacrificial Stab
The next couple of days went smoothly. They managed to leave the desert, and every youngster, Xue Wei included, was brimming with curiosity as they observed their surroundings.
&
nbsp; They had lived in Tiankong City their entire lives, and the desert was located next to it.
Although they had left the desert, the warm weather persisted, and all of them were sweating to keep up with the Captain.
"I don't feel good about this trip," The captain said to his next-in-command as they rushed forward as fast as the youngsters were capable of following.
"We’ve already encountered a giant Sand Snake in the middle of the desert, which is the safest of all the areas. We already lost one hundred and sixty-nine youngsters, and that is before we’ve even reached the bandit-infested areas or the forests filled with magical beasts that'll attack us at night."
"Us guards will be able to keep our little lives, but those youngsters will be in mortal danger time and time again."
"I know that it will help those who survive in becoming less of a weakling, but at the same time I cannot help but feel that something is aiming for us. My senses are tingling and have been since we began. There is a constant danger looming over our group."
Hearing the captain speak, the next-in-command was pale. He was after all an Earth Warrior. If something that threatened a Sky Warrior was present, it meant that they, the leaders of the group, would also be in significant danger.
"Do you have any idea as to why this is?" the next-in-command asked the captain, but the latter shook his head.
"I don't know," he said honestly. "I have had a bad feeling since we left Tiankong City so it might just be my bad nerves and the knowledge that we will experience some battles throughout our journey."
"Although humans, in general, are on the same side, there will always be bandits, and these bandit groups number up to a couple of thousands of bandits in each group."
"Such bandit groups will not be scared away by our numbers. Those little nobles will have quite a bit of treasure on them, and although we guards will be hard to deal with, they will have enough people to keep us occupied while they charge at the youngsters."
The next-in-command was quiet. He had also transported youngsters more than three times, but he had never experienced as bloody a start as now.
"Maybe we might get lucky," he sighed eventually. "We can do nothing but hope that our luck will return. If it doesn’t, then we will fight to the best of our ability."
"One of the recruits is quite strong, too. I saw him fight against the snakes; he killed hundreds of them, but the downside was that it looked as if he was enjoying himself."
"We need strong warriors, but those that lose themselves to the fight are not necessarily great warriors, as they rely too much on instincts and not enough on their senses and a calm mind."
The captain nodded his head, "I have heard about him. He is that piece of trash who turned genius overnight. I guess he is filled with pent-up frustrations from when he was treated like trash and as a result releases his feelings while fighting. After a bit of time, he should be able to keep himself under control again."
"But although he is strong, he is at most equal to a weak Earth Warrior. This in itself is already a great achievement for someone in the Ordinary Warrior rank, but at the same time, it might not be much help against the bandits. Still, his survivability compared to the others is much higher, since he even managed to escape from He Tong."
The two spoke with low voices, and no one else could hear what they said. It was no problem for them to talk and move at the same time as their strength was far above the typical youngsters that were running and thus they often discussed the situation.
The group marched past a barren land that bordered to the desert. Dry grass was on both sides of the road, and little vegetation could be seen on the flat ground, as everything had withered because of the high levels of sunshine and low level of humidity.
The gravel on the road crunched under their thousands of feet, dust was kicked up, and some coughed as they had no water with them.
From time to time, the entourage would make stops at small streams to fill their canteens. Those who did not have canteens would drink their fill and hope to last until the next time they had a water stop, which was roughly once a day.
They had no food with them either, but they had slain thousands of Sand Snakes, and many had brought some of the meat with them. Although it could not last long, it could last longer than mortal beast meat, and so far it was still fresh.
Making fires and roasting the snakes was the option of many of the youngsters in the group, while Xue Wei just stuck to his dried meat.
They were relatively safe in the open landscape of the barren land. It was flat and stretched out as far as the eye could see. No one was capable of making an ambush here, only some underground beasts could cause some problems. However, just as before, if beasts were on their way, then the ground would tremor to warn them.
The next couple of days, the group advanced slowly through the landscape. The barren land turned into a forest, and they slowed down. The captain walked with light steps, and his senses were on high alert.
This was a bandit-infested location where one knew that there were quite a lot of bandits, but there were also a lot of Fierce Beasts in these forests. Although most of them would stay away from such a large group of people, the strongest beasts might be alerted and attack them.
They were still walking on a road that cut straight through the forest, but no one spoke although the speed at which they traveled had been slowed down. Everyone looked around them, and Xue Wei had his senses heightened to their limits as he had a feeling that something was wrong.
The eerie silence in the forest did not last long. They continued walking for half a day when they suddenly came to a stop.
"We have been surrounded," The captain said with a loud voice, "It is bandits this time, and they will be even more ferocious than the Sand Snakes from last time. Take everything you have learned from your last fight and try to survive!"
The captain instantly drew his weapon, and everyone else followed suit, except Xue Wei who closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He could feel the urge to do battle rise in him again. But this time he had been prepared, and he used his calm and collected part of his soul to overwhelm the other part.
"I will not let you out unless I am on the verge of death!" Xue Wei said to himself. He did not like the part of him who found pleasure in killing others.
Just as they had drawn their weapons, Xue Wei sensed that the bandits were moving. Suddenly, the crowns of the trees next to them were black from bandits that were standing on the treetops. Some jumped down on the ground, some stayed in the tree crowns, but there were at least as many bandits as there were people in their group of new recruits.
These bandits also varied in strength from the third layer of the Ordinary Warrior rank to the first and second layer of the Earth Warrior rank.
On top of this was their leader who was at the ninth layer of the Earth Warrior rank. Although he was weaker than the captain of the group of youngsters, overall, the bandits held the advantage in strength.
"Brothers! We will interfere with their captain, the rest of you kill and pillage. If there are pretty girls, just wound them and let us take them back with us!" the bandit leader yelled out. Fifteen of his men, all at the ninth layer of the Earth Warrior rank, jumped down from high above in the trees and surrounded the captain.
"KILL!" someone yelled out, and all of them rushed towards the youngsters. Some of the youngsters were terrified, their faces pale and their hands that held their weapons trembling, while others looked excited.
After experiencing the first life-and-death battle against the sand snakes, the youngsters were split into two groups. One was terrified and had a hard time moving and defending themselves, while the other was excited and filled to the brim with confidence.
In the army, this was precisely the way these two groups were. One was cowardly and feared death and more likely to be killed, while the other consisted of energized and excited experts. They were dancing on the blade of a sword, ready to fall
into the abyss, but this was what made them feel alive.
Xue Wei was also one who was eager to do battle. He wanted to fight; he wanted to feel the blood boil in his body, feel his strength soar and the feeling of having someone else's life and death in his hands. He wanted to kill.
Xue Wei sat down on the ground and made a zither from Qi. After this, he started playing on it as note after note followed by shockwaves exploded out and pushed back a whole group of bandits, causing three of them to vomit blood on the spot.
Another note was released and with it a shockwave, yet this time it was not aiming for a full group of bandits but for two of the experts that had been pushed back.
The shockwave was sharp like a blade, and it headed straight for the heads of the two experts. One of them could feel the tremor of the air proving that it was on the way, and managed to lift his weapon just in time to block the attack, while the other never noticed what happened before his head was severed from his neck, blood spurting out as his head rolled away.
