by Fat Bread
Regardless of his obnoxious character, not too many people could become a 2nd-ranked Daoist Priest at the age of 19.
The 3rd-ranked hippo did have terrible combat power. Yun Xi had learned this from his 120 deaths.
"Kill him, hippo!" Ashen said as he had lost his mind.
He just came back and hadn't yet told everyone in the village that he was already a 2nd-ranked Daoist Priest. He wanted to enjoy the jealous eyes of the villagers, but instead witnessed Yun Xi and Hua Huo practicing the sword together.
He thought he could bear it if they just practiced the sword, but what was that? They were making eyes at each other! Hua Huo was suppressing her strength, playing with Yun Xi!
Everything was Yun Xi's fault. He was just a bread shop assistant! How dare he think that he was worthy of practicing together with the real sword genius, Hua Huo?
In the whole village, he was the only one who could match up with Hua Huo! Because he was the disciple of the Celestial Palace, who tamed a 3rd-ranked hippo as a talented 2nd-ranked Daoist Priest!
Who could understand what he paid in order to dominate the cruel hippo?!
He rolled in the mud with the hippo all day. He even slept together with it.
He held a brush and helped the hippo brush its body every day. Ate meat together with the hippo, even...
It took a year before he got into close contact with the terrifying homicide hippo and tamed the ferocious monster, which made other disciples so jealous.
The only reason that helped him do such a ridiculous thing, which he didn't even think of in the past, was that he wanted to come back to marry Hua Huo.
"Hua Huo is mine! You can never have her!" He said with jealousy and madness. A voice whispered in his heart that if he didn't kill Yun Xi here, he would live in regret all his life, not to mention marry Hua Huo.
So, Yun Xi must die!
"Ashen, you have changed." Yun Xi adjusted his breathing. If it was some other 3rd-ranked monster, maybe it would be a big trouble.
However, that wasn't including this green hippo. He had fought against it in the trial one hundred and twenty-one times!
"I have not changed. Hua Huo is the only girl in my heart! But you beast! From childhood, you were always popular among girls! Ahhhhhh! You piss me off! Which part of me is no match for you? I'm stronger than you, more talented, have more money, and am more handsome than you. Why are you her only childhood sweetheart?! I... I want to be her childhood sweetheart too!" Bloody tears were almost welling up from Ashen's eyes.
He was the son of the mayor! He was the first to meet with Hua Huo! Everything was first! First!
At first, when Hua Huo moved to the village - the mayor, in other words, his father, purposely brought him to see Hua Huo. He repeatedly urged him a thousand times to get along well with the little girl, Hua Huo.
At that time, he had vaguely realized that Hua Huo's family was unusual because he had never seen such a flattering look on his vulgar father's face.
However, the first moment he saw Hua Huo, it wasn't important anymore.
He didn't need his father to urge him. He had been attracted by the impassive girl's face and unapproachable temperament.
At that time, Hua Huo was wearing exotic clothes which was obviously not from the Sky Sword God's Domain. She was so unattainable like a flower on the precipice.
He didn't know why Hua Huo had such a temperament and why she hid her identity on purpose. Living and growing up like an ordinary girl in the village.
He only knew that at the first moment he saw the waist-high exalted girl, she caught his heart.
In his eyes, she was absolutely the "couldn't be offended" type of girl. An exalted, not just a village girl, but also a mysteriously beautiful girl.
Compared to Hua Huo, all the girls in the village were nothing. She was the only one who he swore to have; at all costs!
After that, he repeatedly tried to approach her, trying his best. But he only got Hua Huo's contemptuous disregard.
Yes, that was her look, the look as if she was looking at something dirty.
Hua Huo, you are my queen, my life, and my hope!
No matter what the price is, I will marry you!
"Hong! Hong!" After getting Ashen's kill order, the green hippo began to run. It rushed through the shallows with a mighty speed and ran straight toward Yun Xi.
Its speed was much faster than what others might have guessed from its huge body.
Its power was almost the number one among all 3rd-ranked monsters and it also had a super defence. In addition, it didn't even lack speed, anyone whose rank wasn't above the 3rd Rank wouldn't survive if it was their first time against it.
The hippo was very strong! This was what Yun Xi experienced a hundred and twenty-one times!
"Here it comes!" Yun Xi lowered his body, then immediately turned and ran.
This was a strategic retreat because he did not have any weapons to break the green hippo's defence.
Using his fist to fight against this iron skinned monster? He did once beat it down, but he was holding an iron sword at that time, and he still had to chop it twenty-one times. Yun Xi wasn't insane.
Weapon! He needed a weapon! An idea immediately emerged in Yun Xi's mind, as he quickly rushed into the woods without hesitation.
"Run! Cry! Die in despair!" Ashen showed no emotion in seeing Yun Xi escape.
As a human, you wanted to flee from a green Hippo? Oh great! This guy would soon know what was the absolute gap between humans and creatures was.
As a creature, the hippo was a monster whose endurance and explosive force was far beyond the limit of humans, not to mention it was a mutant green hippo.
It once continuously fought on the battlefield for over three days and nights and had a record of killing thousands of people.
Run! Run! I want to see how long you can run! When you are exhausted, it will be the time of your death.
This green hippo had the brutal habit of eating corpses after killing them.
"Bang!" The green hippo crashed into the woods. The bucket-thick trees fell down due to its light push
The hippo's hunt had began!
Chapter 23: Wood Chopper
Bang! Bang! On the other side of the woods, one after another, the big trees fell down like they were being cut down by an axe.
"Well, Ashen that guy... is really unscrupulous." Running in the woods, Yun Xi didn't need to turn back as he had already figured out the distance between the green hippo and himself.
That's right. For humans, it was absolutely impossible to compare their physical strength and endurance to a monster like the green hippo. And as a person who has seen the properties of the green hippo's seed, Yun Xi was aware of its talent.
Super Strength, Body Bulk-Up, and Overwhelming Force. It was suitable for people who had talents for using a giant sword. Among all the 3rd-ranked creatures, the hippo's strength was almost invincible.
Even if it was Hua Huo, just considering her strength alone, she wasn't better than the green hippo. This was a racial disparity. Just looking at its height, which was taller than two men; its massive body was a natural violent killing machine.
The woods were small and Yun Xi also didn't think it could block the green hippo's way.
He was looking for a place in his memory.
Soon after, he found it!
It was a cave located in the eastern foothills of the woods. The local townspeople often came here to take shelter from the rain or just to camp, and it was also their childhood secret base. Yun Xi, Hua Huo, and even Ashen were familiar with it.
Without any hesitation, Yun Xi directly rushed into the cave.
After a while, the green hippo reached there, then Ashen.
"Ha ha, I was wondering where were you going, but you came here. Isn't this a dead end?" Looking at Yun Xi, who was quickly looking for something in the cave, Ashen laughed with a crooked mouth.
This cave wasn't deep at all. Because the people in village of
ten came here to camp and the children also came to get shelter from the rain, everything inside was not a secret.
He could still remember that in the past, himself, Hua Huo, and the other little friends played hide-and-seek here.
As he remembered it now, it was a rare chance in his life to have been able to get close to Hua Huo in a natural way. But it was simply because this bread shop boy was here too.
"Yun Xi, I'd like to show you some last bits of mercy. Kill yourself. If you willingly do this, I will not let the hippo eat you, but bury you in the woods. At least, you will die with a complete body." As victory was in his view, Ashen's face became more twisted.
No game would be funnier than to have his rival kill himself. As for letting him die with a complete body? That was just mockery!
Of course, he would chop up Yun Xi's body and obliterate all traces!
A buried body may be found and dug out by dogs. If he threw the corpse into the river, it may also be accidentally salvaged.
Once and for all, the only way that wouldn't leave any trace was to eat him!
His hippo was a man-eating pet.
"Here it is!" After searching for a while in the upper part of the cave, where it was absolutely impossible to be found by kids, Yun Xi smiled.
As he expected, it was still here.
Because the townspeople often came here to camp, pitch tents, and build a fire, the people of the village purposely left some convenient props in this place.
A nail hammer, ignition torch, and the thing Yun Xi most needed, a wood chopper. Which was originally used to clean up weeds and cut branches.
This was the weapon Yun Xi needed to kill the green Hippo, the key to his counterattack.
"What, a chopper?" Seeing Yun Xi take out a wooden chopper from the cave, Ashen was stunned for a while. Then, he remembered there were these kinds of temporary tools inside.
However, even if you had a wood chopper, so what?
A wood chopper was nothing for the green hippo's thick and rough skin!
Yes, his green hippo didn't wear its special leather which the Palace of Heaven's Road specially made for it, so it was impossible to kill thousands of people on the battlefield. But just to kill Yun Xi? Even if Yun Xi has a wood chopper, it wouldn't be more difficult than blowing off dust.
"Yun Xi, please me because this is probably the last show of your life." With a joyous smile at the corner of his mouth, Ashen made a snap.
"Sniff, sniff!" The green hippo shook his tail and strode toward Yun Xi.
It was coming! At this moment, Yun Xi's mind was highly concentrated.
He did not look down on this green hippo. This wasn't the trial of stars and there wasn't a bonfire where he could revive from.
In the real world, people would die after being killed, die.
From its stride and body position, its next action was slapping!
"Hoo!" A big green palm was waving above Yun Xi's head, blowing up Yun Xi's black hair. It was the green hippo's favorite attack method.
"The first!" After rolling to the side, Yun Xi cut the green hippo's lower limb and left a one-inch bloodstain on its body.
The 3rd-ranked hippo had strength far beyond a human's, and its leathery skin was able to resist any body attacks.
In order to cut off its thick skin, he had to gather his strength and cut with an extremely sharp weapon!
Both the iron sword in the trial and the wood chopper he had now were fit for this condition.
Boom! The green hippo fell into a rage after Yun Xi's chopper cut its body. It shook its shoulder and laid down on the ground.
Here it was! The rolling!
Yun Xi stepped back with all his strength, then jumped up.
Boom! Boom!
The hippo's enormous body rolled under Yun Xi's feet like a one-thousand-pound bowling ball. It even left a line of roller marks on the ground.
"How could this be possible, he's just a kid of a bread shop!" Looking at Yun Xi's skilled movements, Ashen's eyes almost popped out.
"It's Hua Huo! Hua Huo taught you! Right?!"
"What happened during the time I was not in village?"
"Aaaargh! I won't forgive you! I'll never forgive you!"
"Hua Huo is mine! Mine! Nobody can steal her from me!"
Sniff! Sniff! After rolling, the green hippo made an unbelievable somersault, standing on the ground. It showed its four sharp teeth and looked at Yun Xi with an angry look.
Ashen and the hippo had an intelligence resonance between them! Almost the same as the tacit understanding between Hua Huo and himself. Obviously, there were many unknown stories between Ashen and the green hippo.
Otherwise, as a 2nd-ranked Daoist Priest, it was absolutely impossible for him to control the green hippo as if he was controlling his own arms and legs. Though the hippo was ten times stronger than himself, their emotions were highly overlapped.
Revising the data... After fighting with the green hippo, Yun Xi found that the green hippo was stronger than the one he met in the trial.
The reason was very simple. Because in the trial, the green hippo was fighting and maltreating its enemy simply according to its instinct.
However, this green hippo followed Ashen's command. It wasn't alone.
The experience he got in the trial through dying a hundred times couldn't apply indiscriminately to what the green hippo would be like out here.
Yun Xi held the wood chopper in his hands, regardless of the blood that was slowly flowing on the blade of the chopper.
"It's not just you that got stronger, hippo."
"Let me show you the true power of Hua Huo's seed."
Chapter 24: Different Worlds
As Yun Xi expected, with Ashen's command, the green hippo's attack methods had become more flexible.
If the green hippo he met in the trial was controlled by Ashen, it would've been impossible to kill it via his unformed breathing method.
"Hippo, hold your head and rush!"
The green hippo shaded its eyes with its hands as it followed Ashen's command. Rushing at Yun Xi, it didn't even look ahead.
It wasn't the hippo's max speed.
Maybe other people would be cheated, but Yun Xi obviously knew the green hippo's explosive force.
Ashen would never know how to kill the green hippo, the hell of a hundred plus deaths Yun Xi had to face.
The green hippo preserved its speed, which also meant that it had found how Yun Xi dodged its attack through rolling. If Yun Xi rolled without thinking again, the green hippo's thunderclap would be waiting for him.
So, he decided to not run away!
Yun Xi wasn't that young boy who first met the green hippo; who didn't know how to brandish his sword anymore.
The seed from his childhood sweetheart had completely changed his destiny.
"I got you!" Yun Xi actively darted toward the green hippo. Under Ashen's surprised eyes, he straightly passed by the hippo.
Just at that moment, he passed by the green hippo, and by leveraging the hippo's strength and impact as he used the wood chopper, he dragged out a terrible blood line along the green hippo's lateral thigh.
"Howwwl!" For the first time ever, the green hippo howled violently. This time, the wood chopper caused a deep wound on the hippo's body; which was three times deeper than that one it caused the first time. A lot of blood flew out as it was sprayed on the road.
"Why?! How are you able to do this?!" Ashen yelled with frustration. He didn't believe the sight he witnessed.
His green hippo was a terrible monster who once battled on a battlefield for three days and nights, killing thousands of people. But now, it wasn't even able to catch the edges of Yun Xi's clothes.
The most irritating point was that Yun Xi's speed wasn't fast; he was even a little slower than the hippo. No matter how Ashen looked at Yun Xi, Yun Xi was just a 1st Ranked Swordsman.
If a 1st-ranked Swordsman fought against a 3rd-ranked Green Hippo - the Killing Monster - should he not be kil
led at the first moment?
How could he dodge the green hippo's attack at the crucial moments and also deal a deadly blow to his green hippo in the most appropriate time, from the most unlikely angle?
If the green hippo didn't have its famous iron-like skin, perhaps his attack would have cut off the green hippo's leg.
