Tainted Blood

by Tinalynge

  His ability had not been able to see through neither Xue Wei, who was half human, nor Bai Tianyi, who was also not a beast.

  Lin Xiao was a curious person by nature. To see two humans together with a beast that had not been tamed was something that stirred his curiosity, and he quickly understood that this group had secrets he had never understood before. He also had understood that they were on the bad side of both humans and beasts alike. It was clear that their situation was terrible, but it brought some sense of excitement to Lin Xiao, who had never before felt the same thrill of being hunted as he did now.

  If Xue Wei knew what he was thinking, he would snort at him. The thrill of being hunted? He found it extremely annoying and uncomfortable to be constantly chased by everyone and their grandmother. All he wanted was a moment of peace.

  The night went by in this fashion with Xue Wei creating batch after batch of medicinal pills while the other three cultivated.

  The following morning when they left the room, they saw a whole group of people outside the door looking at them curiously.

  Xue Wei was stunned, but Bai Tianyi quickly guessed their purpose. The entire night, Xue Wei had been concocting medicinal pills. His actions had caused the release of one wave of herbal medicinal scent after another, and each wave had been rather strong.

  It was natural for others to have noticed it. When they sensed it and figured out its source, they had gathered in front of the room from which spewed the endless plumes of medicinal scents, curious as to who might be the one concocting pills.

  When it came to it, alchemists were also rare in this world. Although they were far from as rare as inscription masters, they were still very rare and no one would be averse to meeting one.

  When the four exited the room, the crowd started wondering who could be the alchemist. Instantly, Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi were disregarded.

  Bai Tianyi because he was a child, Xue Wei because he looked like a woman. Then they looked at Lin Xiao and Hei Gou. Lin Xiao was a burly man with a lot of muscles, so to them he did not seem to be the kind of person who cultivated spiritual energy.

  That left Hei Gou to be the one who had concocted medicine all night. They looked at him appraisingly. Although his real appearance was masked, his false appearance was still handsome and many started nodding their heads.

  “This is a true genius,” someone said with sagely pretense. “Not only is he young, but his talent for martial arts and the dao of medicine is high! He is truly a dragon amongst men!”

  The praising words were said smoothly, as if praising him was the most natural thing to do. The man even looked expectantly at Hei Gou as if he expected a reward for his flattery.

  Unfortunately, Hei Gou did not praise him. Instead, his face turned rather dark and he was about to say something when a glance from Xue Wei shut him up.

  “Please excuse us, we need to go,” Xue Wei said. His voice was feminine, melodious, and very pleasant to the ear.

  Everyone looked with shock at this woman. Who was she? How did she have the right to speak when the men were talking?

  Seeing their faces that told their inner thoughts directly, Xue Wei’s face turned dark. “I said move it,” ‘she’ said and her aura suddenly burst forth with the pressure of the seventh layer Ordinary Knight rank.

  The many experts in the inn instantly felt weak in their knees and quickly got out of the way, letting the four pass through casually.

  “No wonder that alchemist didn’t talk when that chick looked at him,” someone muttered, and the others nodded their heads. “He is definitely suffering from having such a fierce wife. I will never marry a woman with such a high cultivation base. I got to maintain my status at home!”

  Although they had already made some distance from the crowd, Xue Wei and the others heard the words clearly, so clearly that Xue Wei almost stumbled, his face turning red from shame.

  The other three did everything in their power to hold back their laughter. It was not as simple as they thought, so their shoulders were shaking, causing Xue Wei’s face to turn from red to green. It was truly too humiliating but at the same time, he started to understand women and how they lived through firsthand experience.

  After a while, the group made it to Heavenward City. Heavenward City was a border city. Once one walked through it, they would be at the center of the continent.

  Although it was called the center of the continent, it did not contain only one kingdom. Even in the center, there were multiple kingdoms and empires. In fact, there were a full seven kingdoms and empires, with one situated in the middle of everything.

  The kingdom in the middle of everything was called the Songtian Empire. This was the holy land for cultivators within this continent. It was also the place where most strived towards, whether it was livelihood or glory. It also happened to be the home of Prophet Lan.

  The kingdom that Xue Wei and his friends were about to enter was called Jingling Kingdom. This kingdom was rumored to be the birthplace for the most beautiful women of all, and this was also the place where the most talented disciples of the Argent Moon Sect were discovered.

  Heavenward City was the largest city Xue Wei had ever seen so far. Comparing the capital of Heping Kingdom to this was like comparing a lake to the sea.

  A stream of merchants both entered and exited the city, endlessly. This was the busiest transport hub that led into the center of the continent, and thus the road was perpetually filled with all sorts of travellers.

  The price to enter was a full twenty gold a person. This price was so outrageous that many could not help but grit their teeth in anger, but it was the entrance to the center of the continent. If they let everyone through, the center would be too crowded, so they could only make the poorest people stay away.

  Xue Wei noticed that the guards enforcing the gate fee were not the only ones present; there were also a group of experts he recognized right away.

  They were the flying experts that had chased them out of Cloudsoar City. They examined every single person trying to cross into the center. Their faces were grim and unpleasant, but they did not seem to find what they were looking for.

  Xue Wei queued up together with his friends. He was as calm as one could be. If they could see through this disguise, then it was simply fate, but he still had faith in Lin Xiao’s masks.

  When they reached the gate, Xue Wei paid eighty gold coins to the guard. The flying experts looked at them, but they did not move to impede them at all.

  In their eyes, those four were obviously a family on the road. This did not coincide with their target, which was a trio of male convicts.

  After they made it through, Hei Gou heaved a heavy sigh of relief. He had been the worst off out of all of them in terms of nerves because he was prone to excessive worrying.

  Chapter 29 - Tianxing City

  The family of four made it into the city with no problems at all. No one had expected that Xue Wei would disguise himself as a woman so they were treated like any other cultivating family that was migrating towards the center of the continent.

  The Diviners that were chasing Lin Xiao were heading further and further away from the center of the continent. Lin Xiao came from Tiansong Empire as well, and thus, the Diviners would never have imagined that he would be heading back the way from where he came.

  On the streets of Heavenward City were many experts. There were quite a few Ordinary Knights, and even Earth Knights could be seen from time to time. There was even one Sky Knight who passed by them.

  Many disciples from the various sects were also walking down the streets in groups. Some were from smaller sects and clans, while others were from the three great sects. There were also experts from the major families that could rival the sects.

  Xue Wei was in a terrible mood from pretending to be a woman, and it was made worse when they were suddenly stopped by a group of women.

  These women were clearly disciples from the Argent Moon Sect. Their clothes gave away their factio
n, and their behavior was lofty and arrogant. All of them were Ordinary Knights, and their leader was an Earth Knight.

  “What can we do for you?” Xue Wei asked with a frown on his face. He was not in a good mood, and being stopped like this made it worse. Had these women perhaps noticed something wrong with his group?

  “We saw that you are a fellow woman,” one of the women said, her words causing everyone in Xue Wei’s group to have peculiar expressions on their faces. “We are currently recruiting experts to join our sect, and your strength is rather outstanding. We would like to invite you to join our sect.”

  Xue Wei was stumped and his mood sunk. He was a man! He was really a man! He just glanced at them and shook his head. “Thank you for the offer, but I wish to travel with my family,” he said casually and tried to walk past them, but one of the women stopped him in his tracks.

  “Do not be so fast to decline,” the woman who stopped them said with a smile on her face. “With your strength, you can be a very outstanding person in our sect later on. One of the elders might even want to take you as a direct disciple.”

  “I am really not interested,” Xue Wei said through gritted teeth, his azure eyes turning slightly red from suppressed anger.

  “Mother, don’t leave me,” Bai Tianyi said with a sad expression on his face, and even Hei Gou and Lin Xiao stepped forward, each placing a hand on Xue Wei’s shoulder. “Our Meilin is not interested in going with you,” Lin Xiao said, coming up with a name for Xue Wei on the spot, a name that made Xue Wei feel like kicking him right away. Who was Meilin?

  “You will regret this. This is the chance that every woman dreams about, to get stronger and to kill Primordial Beasts. Just because of your family, you are going to let go of this great opportunity?” the leader of the women asked. Xue Wei looked at them with great hostility.

  “It might be simple for you, but as a member of this family, I am incapable of leaving them.” Although Xue Wei was pretending to be a woman, the feelings he had for Bai Tianyi and Hei Gou were indeed the kind one would have for their family so he said something serious for once.

  “I will never leave them and go somewhere on my own unless it is for their sake,” Xue Wei continued and shook his head. “Now, please, leave us be,” he said. He then took Bai Tianyi’s hand in his own and pushed his way past the women and walked down the street, followed by Hei Gou and Lin Xiao.

  When they were out of reach, Xue Wei let go of Bai Tianyi’s hand. He was in the foulest mood imaginable, while the other three were laughing so much that their shoulders were trembling.

  “Meilin, dear, you should not be mad. Your acting skill is seriously amongst the best I have ever seen!” Lin Xiao said, but when he saw the other’s azure eyes stare unblinkingly at him he quickly shut up.

  “Let us just get to Tiansong Empire as soon as possible!” Xue Wei said through gritted teeth. “The sooner I can get rid of this terrible mask, the happier I will be.”

  At the same time, they noticed that the group from the Argent Moon Sect was following them, causing them all to be rather annoyed.

  “We are cultivators,” Xue Wei finally said. “We do not need to sleep, so let us just continue forward. Sleep and food is no longer something we need as we have broken through the shackles of mortal life and are now Knights. Let us just go forward and continue moving until we reach the Tiansong Empire!”

  Although this was a rather drastic decision, the other three had nothing to say against it. Although they had quite some fun when it came to teasing Xue Wei, they also understood that he was not pleased with the current situation.

  As a result, the group immediately left the Heavenward City and entered into the next kingdom, the Jingling Kingdom, which was said to be the place from where all beautiful women came.

  Jingling Kingdom was a rather large kingdom, but it was not at the same size as the empires, and thus they managed to travel through it after only spending one and a half months.

  These one and a half months had consisted of nonstop travel. Nothing had happened to them, nothing had caused them problems, and they did not care for enjoying the sight as they went.

  Although they were so focused on traveling, they did not forget their training. Their cultivation bases were constantly increasing, and Xue Wei was now at the peak of the seventh layer of the Ordinary Knight rank, his body showing signs of a breakthrough, while Hei Gou was on the cusp of breaking through to the second layer of the Ordinary Knight rank for his Qi levels.

  Lin Xiao was not seemingly getting closer to a breakthrough, and the same could be said for Bai Tianyi, but that was because both of them had rather peculiar cultivation bases. Lin Xiao was highly ranked and thus needed much more heaven-and-earth essence to break through, and Bai Tianyi operated fully on spiritual energy.

  They traveled through one kingdom after another, an empire after another, before they finally reached the edge of the Tiansong Empire.

  Here, the heaven-and-earth essence was many times denser than it had been outside of the center of the continent. In fact, it was more than three times denser than it was in the Jingling Kingdom. It was clear to see that the closer to the center one came, the denser it would become.

  Although they arrived at the Tiansong Empire, they still had a long road ahead of them before they reached the capital, the place where Lan was living.

  Here in the Tiansong Empire, although they met many experts at the Heavenly Warrior rank, the majority were Knights. There were even quite a few Heavenly Knights that appeared here and there, but so far they had not seen any Saints. Even if they were to encounter a Saint, it was likely that they would be unable to actually sense them.

  They were very low profile as they traveled. They did not display their wealth, nor did they act overly humble. In fact, they just seemed like the most average family. The human race was outwardly united and thus the amount of bandits that lived in the center of the continent was also very low, which made the roads here relatively safe to travel.

  All these factors coupled together made it so that Xue Wei and company managed to get through the Tiansong Empire and all the way towards the capital after another month.

  “Is this a city, or is it a small kingdom?” Xue Wei muttered when he saw the city that rose into the air in the distance from the summit of the mountain they stood on. This was the Tianxian City, the most affluent place in the entire continent. It was named after the immortals that the human race tried to become so that they could triumph over the beasts.

  This place could actually be described as two cities in one. There was the outer city and the inner city. Although it was the outer city, it was much more luxurious than the rest of the continent, and the inner city was so immaculate that not even dust could be found on the roads that were made from the finest marble.

  Entering into the inner city cost each person a staggering five low-grade essence stones. Only one who had a certain rank was allowed to buy a home within the inner city—even in the outer city, one needed great wealth to be able to purchase a home.

  It was precisely within this inner city that Lan had his mansion. The city was bordering a massive lake, a lake so great that one could not see the end of it. It spread vastly into the distance, and the city was enveloping the entire eastern, southern and northern end of the lake.

  This lake was called Baixing Lake. It had been there since the beginning of time. No one knew how the lake had appeared, but from the time when only one small hut existed next to the lake to when the continent’s largest city had been built around it, it had never changed.

  After paying two hundred gold coins per person for the entrance fee into the outer city, the four expert could see that Xue Wei’s heart was aching slightly. The entrance fees to enter the various places was constantly growing and growing and growing. He had to fork out some of his wealth every time, but the exuberant price was reasonable in the end.

  If it was easy to enter the capital, every single person from all over the continent wou
ld migrate to the city and settle down. This way, they managed to deal with overpopulation quite easily.

  When they got into the outer city, they did not instantly barge towards the inner city to find Lan. They understood that, if they wanted to meet him, they had to have ample preparation beforehand.

  The inner city allowed people to leave at any time throughout the day, but entry was limited to two-hour windows after sunset and after sunrise. If one failed to get in, the gate would shut in their faces even if they had queued up prior to the closing time.

  Faced with this imposing behavior Xue Wei could do nothing. He shook his head. “We better get ready then,” he said as he prepared to head towards the gates to start queuing up already.

  Xue Wei wanted to get this over with as soon as possible so that he could leave the continent. He had enough of being chased everywhere he went. He had enough of constantly being vigilant and alert no matter where he was, and he detested not being able to show his own face or his abilities to others.