"It can't be, Liang Xiaole, what you're saying is ridiculous. Those two aren't even Saints yet; to think they could kill over 70 Magical Beasts in a day? That's impossible." A youth with a pike said incredulously.
"That's right, it's too ridiculous. Even a Saint wouldn't cut it; I think even a Great Saint wouldn't be able to kill that many Class 1 Magical Beasts in a single day, let alone half. I doubt their Saint Force is that unlimited." A bow wielding girl said with doubt.
At that moment, the youth that had invited Jian Chen and Tie Ta into the group said, "Liang Xiaole, do you know who they are? When did our Kargath Academy have such amazing people in it? They aren't Saints, but to easily defeat Class 1 Magical Beasts? Just who are they?" Saying this, he seemed to have immediately realized something, as his face rapidly changed colors.
Liang Xiaole's face looked proud as if she had done something honorable. With a laidback tone, she said, "I can tell you this: the one that just traded you a monster core for your battleaxe was the one that set the academy abuzz–Tie Ta: the headmaster's apprentice. The other person is the Freshmen Ruler of the annual Freshmen Competition–Changyang Xiang Tian."
Everyone cried out in alarm before talking amongst themselves in excitement.
"So it was those two abnormal people; no wonder their strength was that strong."
"It can't be, it's said that Tie Ta fought Lord Cheng to a standstill at the library…"
"That Changyang Xiang Tian was the one who beat the Saint Ka Di Yun in an intense duel. I was there watching the fight; Changyang Xiang Tian's strength was really amazing."
"I heard that outside the library, the middle ranked Saint Luo Jian wasn't able to deal with Changyang Xiang Tian, and was even forced to use his Saint Weapon in the end."
Without the burden of having Liang Xiaole anymore, Tie Ta and Jian Chen's speed had risen exponentially, and so the two soon reached the third region.
When they first entered the 3rd region, they initially saw no difference in the two regions. But the further they advanced, the more hellish it became. Compared to the 3rd region, the 2nd region could be called a paradise.
There were all sorts of magical beasts in the forest, and the land was full of swamps, so if one wasn't careful, they would find themselves stuck deep inside the waters. However, most of the swamps were man-made, so they weren't too deep. Otherwise, if no one came to rescue them, they wouldn't be able to escape with their lives.
Perhaps it was because of the ground, but there wasn't much grass in the 3rd region, so line of sight was much better than the 2nd region.
Jian Chen and Tie Ta cautiously trekked through the swamplands with a small amount of powder on them. This type of powder was a type of repellant that would prevent insects from biting them.
"Changyang Xiang Tian, it seems like you're familiar with the forest. Could it be you've been here before? How could you be this amazing?" Tie Ta said, while looking at the layer of green dust on his body.
Jian Chen chuckled and said, "I read up a lot of books in the library about various places, so my understanding of the forests is relatively high."
"Ah, no wonder." Tie Ta realized.
Right after Tie Ta spoke, Jian Chen's face stilled before becoming serious. At the same time, the ground began to shake, as if an earthquake was occurring.
But before Jian Chen could say anything, Tie Ta had already sprung into action, his new battleaxe coming to rest in both his hands.
Jian Chen glanced towards his left and spoke cautiously, "Tie Ta, be careful. This time it looks like we've come across a large magical beast."
"Yea!" Tie Ta nodded his head as the expression on his face grew solemn. Because they were in the 3rd region, this wasn't a Class 1 magical beast, but a Class 2 Magical Beast that was stronger than a Class 1 Magical Beast by many times over. It could fight against a Great Saint on even footing.
Although its attack power wasn't all that strong yet, its strength still couldn't be underestimated.
As the two of them nervously looked around, the magical beast finally came into view. Its entire body had red fur, and it spanned 3 meters tall and 5 meters wide. Protruding from its mouth, it had two long tusks, that looked as if they could penetrate through muscle with ease. If it weren't for the fact that the magical beast had a short nose, then Jian Chen would had thought that this was an animal that he had met in his previous world–the elephant. But this magical beast was a lot bigger than the elephant.
"Tie Ta, be careful, this is the Class 2 Magical Beast–the Flaming Cloud Beast. It can spit out fire from its mouth and is quite hard to deal with." Jian Chen uttered the magical beast's name. Because he had read so many books in the library, he could recognize most magical beasts, and even knew of some of their special abilities.
Tie Ta only nodded, as he wordlessly focused all of his attention on the Flaming Cloud Beast, ready to strike at any moment.
"Hou!" The gigantic Flaming Cloud Beast roared as it started to move each of its four hooves towards Jian Chen and Tie Ta. With each stamp on the ground, the earth would to shake.
Jian Chen's eyes flashed in concentration, "I'll attack it from the front; Tie Ta, you go around and attack it from behind." Charging forward, he jumped into the air straight towards the Flaming Cloud Beast's head.
The moment Jian Chen had moved, Tie Ta started to move as well, and circled around the beast to come towards its behind.
Standing on top of its head, Jian Chen let out a yell as his Saint Force gathered within his iron rod, before fiercely stabbing it into the head of the beast.
"Ding!" As if made of steel, the head of the Flaming Cloud Beast deflected Jian Chen's iron rod. It had only left a shallow line on its head, unable to penetrate through its defense.
Jian Chen's face changed into a grimace; although he knew the Flaming Cloud Beast had a strong defense, he hadn't thought that it would be so strong that his iron rod could do no damage to it. He had used all of his strength in that attack, and it had unexpectedly done virtually nothing.
"Ahe!" With a roar, Tie Ta jumped forward and used his enormous strength to slash at the butt of the Flaming Cloud Beast with his battleaxe. However he didn't do any better than Jian Chen. Although his battleaxe had cut through the skin of the magical beast, it had done no damage at all.
Their attacks had evidently angered the Flaming Cloud Beast, because it roared in response. Whipping its head back and forth, it threw off Jian Chen, who had been standing on its head.
As Jian Chen flew through the air, he quickly readjusted himself. Using both of his feet to jump off a tree trunk, he flipped himself upright onto a nearby tree branch.
After throwing off Jian Chen, the Flaming Cloud Beast turned around and tried to bite into Tie Ta.
Tie Ta immediately leapt aside to avoid its mouth, and simultaneously swung his battleaxe into one of the giant tusks.
"Ding!" The battleaxe smashed against the tusk, breaking it off near the root. However, after the tusk was broken off, Tie Ta's battleaxe chipped off in several places as well.
"Hou!" The Flaming Cloud Beast roared in anger as it stampeded towards Tie Ta once more.
Tie Ta's eyes flashed dangerously as it watched the Flaming Cloud Beast charge towards him. Without bothering to dodge, Tie Ta dropped his battleaxe onto the ground and used both of his hands to grab onto the remaining tusk and the root of the broken one, before pushing back at the monster, resulting in a deadlock.
At that moment, it was as if Tie Ta had turned into a fierce beast. Grunting out loud, his hands pushed against the Flaming Cloud Beast's tusks, as if trying to compare his strength to it.
Despite Tie Ta's heavenly strength, he was still a delicate tiny figure compared to the heavy and gigantic Flaming Cloud Beast. So even though his own strength wasn't lacking, he found himself being pushed backwards a large distance, his feet leaving behind two deep marks in the ground .
"Ah!" Tie Ta's eyes revealed a crazy look within them as he roared. The veins within his arms bulged as both of his arms swelled up in an instant, as he began to exert more force.
"Pa!" Another crisp sound was heard as the remaining tusk was snapped off by Tie Ta, causing the Flaming Cloud Beast to release a blood curling roar of pain.
Despite having used a good amount of his strength, Tie Ta was not yet satisfied, as he grabbed onto the freshly broken off tusk and used it to pierce it into the head of the Flaming Cloud Beast.
The tooth of the Flaming Cloud Beast was extraordinarily sharp, and was far stronger than Jian Chen's weapon. But despite its sharpness, it had only penetrated into the head by a tiny amount, causing a small amount of blood to spurt outwards.
Seeing Tie Ta use its own tusk to stab it, the Flaming Cloud Beast's eyes grew extremely red as it opened its mouth wide. With a loud roar, it unleashed a trail of fire that moved around, almost like a serpent emerging from its gaping jaws, with the intention of roasting Tie Ta alive. Instantly, the surrounding temperature had started to increase exponentially.
Sensing the astonishing heat radiate from the stream of fire, Tie Ta's expression immediately changed, as he desperately threw himself away from the attack. But despite his efforts he had not been able to dodge the attack of the fire serpent, and so his entire body caught on fire.
Seeing Tie Ta's body catch on fire, Jian Chen turned pale with fright. Immediately snapping off a thick tree branch, he jumped off against a tree trunk and sped towards the Tie Ta like a speeding bullet.
"Hou!" The Flaming Cloud Beast roared once more as it stamped towards the still burning Tie Ta. Opening its jaws wide, it tried to swallow him, not caring if he was on fire or not.
Just as the Flaming Cloud Beast was about to consume Tie Ta, Jian Chen had finally reached Tie Ta. Using both of his arms, Jian Chen waved the tree branch in his hand to drag Tie Ta a good 10 meters away from the jaws of the magical beast.
Jian Chen quickly dislodged Tie Ta from the branch and without caring for the fire's heat, he quickly extended his arms and tore away at the wolf leather Tie Ta was wearing.
Because the fire had caught onto the fur of the wolf leather, the moment it was removed from him, Tie Ta was no longer on fire. Tie Ta's tattered academy uniform was exposed underneath.
Tie Ta didn't bother to get up from the floor, but instead started to roll on the ground while complaining, "Hot, hot! I'm dying from the heat, it burns…" Seeing him complain like that, Jian Chen deduced that Tie Ta had not suffered any major harm. However, all of his hair had been burnt off, leaving him bald. Not a single hair remained; even his eyebrows and eyelashes had been burnt away!
"Tie Ta, are you alright?" Jian Chen asked in concern.
Tie Ta shook his head. He let out a long breath, and spoke in a muffled voice, "I'm fine, but the heat really got me; it was difficult to endure."
"As long as you're fine." Jian Chen sighed in relief. When he saw that Tie Ta was engulfed in flames, Jian Chen had honestly felt quite concerned for Tie Ta's well-being.
Suddenly, Jian Chen's eyes hardened as he turned back to look at the lush tree. His eyes gleamed as his mouth also rose up to show a hint of a smile.
"Hong! Hong! Hong!"
The ground began to shake again as the Flaming Cloud Beast stamped towards Jian Chen. With each step it took, the earth trembled. The Flaming Cloud Beast kept breathing fire out of its mouth, almost as if it was excited.
Tie Ta's face hardened as he stared at the approaching Flaming Cloud Beast, "Changyang Xiang Tian, this guy's skin is fairly tough. How do we go about killing him?"
Jian Chen also looked at the beast with a grave face, "The Flaming Cloud Beast's body is entirely covered by a strong layer of skin. Unless we reach the level of Saints, our weapons will barely be able to slice apart its pelt. At the moment, our only chance is to attack through the Flaming Cloud Beast's eyes to stab its brain."
As Jian Chen trailed off, the Flaming Cloud Beast roared, and opened up its jaws to release another serpent fire.
Jian Chen and Tie Ta both dove towards the side to dodge it. Jian Chen tightly clenched the iron rod, as he cried out, "Tie Ta, distract it for me!"
"Don't worry, leave it to me!" Tie Ta picked up a nearby rock and threw it at the Flaming Cloud Beast, and ran towards the opposite direction.
The rock twirled in midair before hitting the Flaming Cloud Beast precisely on the spot where Tie Ta had broke off the tusk.
Since the spot was still tender for the Flaming Cloud Beast, its eyes turned red with bloodlust as it began to breath fire at Tie Ta once more.
Jian Chen watched as Tie Ta distracted the Flaming Cloud Beast. He gripped the iron rod so hard that it had began to deform. Quickly running forward, he dashed towards the head of the Flaming Cloud Beast.
Jian Chen's speed was fairly fast. As he dashed across the ground, the grass around him swayed from the rapid air currents, which made him seem like he was flying.
In a short moment, Jian Chen had reached the head of the Flaming Cloud Beast. Not even caring for the intense heat from the streams of fire the beast was spitting out, he jumped into the air once more to land on the head of the beast. With the iron rod in his right hand, he quickly stabbed it into the eyes of the Flaming Cloud Beast.
Although Jian Chen had moved quickly, the Flaming Cloud Beast wasn't slow to react either. Before the iron rod could pierce the eye, the beast suddenly shut its eyes.
Jian Chen's eyes flashed for just a brief second as he saw the Flaming Cloud Beast close its eyes. Focusing, Jian Chen condensed his soul and willed it to enter his iron rod. As it covered the sharp point of the iron rod, he tried to ram it into the eyelid of the Flaming Cloud Beast.
The iron rod then pierced through the eyelid with no difficulty or resistance. Immediately, blood came pouring out of the eye of the Flaming Cloud Beast.
"Hou!" The Flaming Cloud Beast suddenly let loose a desolate cry that shook the heavens themselves, as it whirled and struck out randomly in all directions.
Jian Chen exerted more pressure on his right arm, pushing the iron rod in even deeper in attempt to strike at the brain from the eyes.
The Flaming Cloud Beast's screams became more desolate as it started to sway back and forth. It attempted to remove the iron rod from its eye, but the rod had already sunk in far too deep, making it difficult to remove. As it shook its head to remove Jian Chen, the pain grew more intense. After two attempts at shaking its head, the pain was so fierce for the Flaming Cloud Beast that it didn't dare to move at all anymore.
Endlessly wailing in pain, the Flaming Cloud Beast dropped to the ground, where it began its final struggle to fight. Although the wound wasn't fatal, the damage done to its cranial nerves was excruciatingly hard to bear.
Seeing the Flaming Cloud Beast fall to the ground, Jian Chen flashed in glee as he yelled "Tie Ta, quickly drive the iron rod deeper in." Given Tie Ta's heavenly strength, this task couldn't be more appropriate for anyone else.
"Alright, I'm on my way." Tie Ta cried out happily as he ran over, having now realized that victory was on hand.
Tie Ta approached the Flaming Cloud Beast quickly and grabbed the iron rod before pushing it one meter deeper into the eye of the Flaming Cloud Beast with his right hand. Only a small portion of the rod was left sticking out.
"Hou!" The loudest cry yet came out of the beast, causing Tie Ta and Jian Chen's ears to momentarily go deaf. With that, the Flaming Cloud Beast expended the last of its energy and slumped onto the ground. It stopped twitching, and its other eye gradually closed.
Seeing that the beast had finally died, Jian Chen and Tie Ta could not help but exhale in relief. The Class 2 Magical Beast Flaming Cloud Beast wasn't that amazing, but its defenses were extraordinarily high. Thus, killing it was an extremely difficult task.
"It finally died; this magical beast was too troublesome. It even breathed out fire and burnt away all my hair." Tie Ta touched his bald head with a depressed expression.
Jian Chen could only laugh as he watched Tie Ta gloom over his hair and clothes. "You should at the very least put something on!" He said as he took out another wolf pelt from his Space Belt. The wolf pelts were something he and Tie Ta had prepared; there were many sets stored within their belts just in case they needed a new change of clothes. Because they were in a forest where battle was a common occurrence; a change of clothes could not be in high enough demand.
Tie Ta took it without another word, and in a flash, he had transformed the pelt into wearable clothing.
Afterwards, Jian Chen and Tie Ta extracted the Monster Core and continued on their way.
After Jian Chen and Tie Ta disappeared from view, a red clad figure dropped down from the trees. The figure was a tall woman, around 30 years old, clad in fiery red clothing. Her appearance was not extremely beautiful, yet she gave off a gentle, calm air.
The woman stared at the carcass of the Flaming Cloud Beast with astonishment written clearly on her face. Letting out a deep breath, the woman muttered to herself, "Tie Ta and Changyang Xiang Tian, you two truly have well deserved reputations. To think your strengths are this amazing; you two aren't even Saints yet and you managed to use regular iron weapons to kill a Class 2 Magical Beast known for its defenses. I am truly awestruck; I must report this to the headmaster." After saying that, the woman immediately vanished into thin air.
As soon as the woman disappeared, another 5 youths came into the clearing. Each of the 5's faces were covered by darkness, so their appearances couldn't be easily seen. However, their shabby academy uniforms could be seen as they held their weapons up. Two held greatswords while another held up a large axe. The last youth with a tall and sturdy body held his sledgehammer up as he followed the group.
"Judging from the sound, the cry came from this area." One of the greatsword wielding youths said to the rest.
The axe carrying student nodded his head, "Not bad, if the magical beast didn't run too far away, then it should still be in the vicinity…:"He trailed off as his eyes widened at the sight in front of him, "You guys, look! What is that…" He pointed.
Hearing their friend, everyone's eyes drifted forward as they saw a mountain-like fiery red body lying on the ground that seemed to resemble a magical beast.
"Let's go look."
In a flash, all five of them approached the body of the magical beast. However, after they recognized the magical beast, their faces all grew serious.
The most experienced one amongst them got close to the body and touched the bloody fur with one hand before saying, "This is a Flaming Cloud Beast. Its defenses are very high, but its attacks aren't all that strong. The blood hasn't dried yet and is still warm, so it must have just died. It would appear that the howl we heard earlier was from this."
The sword youth looked around himself before looking at the direction of Jian Chen's footprints. "Come, let's go follow those footsteps and see who exactly killed this Flaming Cloud Beast. If their strength is good enough, we can add them to our group so we can easily hunt more beasts. But if they're weaker than us…"A small smile started to creep up on his face.
Hearing this, the other 4 youths all thought of the same thing, their faces revealing evil smiles. Soon after, the 5 of them immediately chased after Tie Ta and Jian Chen.
At the moment, Jian Chen and Tie Ta were cautiously walking within the forest. In order to protect themselves from magical beasts as well as a few of the swamps on the ground, the two of them were not advancing very quickly.
At that moment, Jian Chen's ears detected something. Holding his hand up to stop Tie Ta, he said, "Be careful, there's some people coming from behind us."
Tie Ta immediately stopped moving and turned around in curiosity.
In the blink of an eye, the people who had been following Jian Chen came into view. There was a total of 5 people, but Jian Chen couldn't see their faces since it was covered by the shade, but he could tell that they were strong from the amount of Saint Force they were emitting from their weapons.
When the 5 saw Jian Chen and Tie Ta, they let loose happy smiles to each other, as if they had mutually agreed on something. Increasing their speeds, the 5 of them quickly reached and surrounded Jian Chen and Tie Ta.
Seeing this development, both Tie Ta and Jian Chen felt a bad premonition within themselves.
"Dear students, might I ask what you're doing?" Jian Chen asked.
One of the youths brandished his sword with an evil smile, "You're asking us what we are doing?"
"Hand over your space belts obediently. We definitely don't want to embarrass you, but if you don't comply…hahaha…" The sledgehammer wielding student sneered at them.
Tie Ta's face grew angry as he heard the demand, "You want us to hand over the space belts? Hmph, don't even think about it." Tie Ta understood what was going on now; this was a roadside robbery.
Jian Chen patted the space belt on him gently with a smile, "The space belts with all our monster cores are inside, if you have the skill, come and get it then."
Although they knew that all 5 of them were Saints, neither Jian Chen nor Tie Ta felt a hint of fear.
"Hmph, since it came down to this, then don't blame us for this. Everyone, attack together." Immediately the 5 of them rushed forward to attack the two, but their attacks were not aimed at fatal areas. The 5 clearly understood that they were still all students stealing was one thing, and so was fighting, but they were not allowed to fatally threaten the opposing party's lives.
Jian Chen and Tie Ta immediately dove to the side. After two days of relentlessly fighting magical beasts, even the thick skulled Tie Ta had started to pick up battle experience. This paid off; as Tie Ta dodged the incoming attack, he instinctively swung his battleaxe at the leg of the assailant in a swift counterattack.
However, the group in front of them was proving hard to deal with. Just as the battleaxe was about to hit one of them in the thigh, a sword flew out and hit the battleaxe with a colliding sound.
"Deng!"
Metal met metal, as Tie Ta's battleaxe was obstructed. Due to Tie Ta's terrifying strength, the battleaxe continued to slide down the blade of the sword before stopping at the hilt. Immediately, the youth holding the sword suddenly felt his entire arm go numb, as the battleaxe smashed itself against his arm, causing his whole hand to shake.
The youth was astonished and cried out to his friends, "Everyone be careful, this guy's strength is abnormally strong. It's best if you don't get into arm's reach of him!"
Hearing the warning, the other two students fighting Tie Ta immediately became more cautious, and tried to avoid his giant battleaxe.
On the side, Jian Chen was fighting intensely with the other youth holding a sword. Although Jian Chen's weapon was only a corroded iron rod, his fighting capabilities weren't any lower than Tie Ta's. He wasn't any weaker either since he could easily use his agility to move around his opponent's moves. Seeing an opening, Jian Chen quickly stabbed his iron rod into the opponent's thigh with a lightning fast speed. Since this was another student at the academy, he didn't dare to aim to kill, but instead aimed to injure.
Jian Chen's speed was so fast that the student didn't have time to react, and could only watch in shock as the iron rod stabbed into his thigh.
"Ah!" The youth cried out in pain as his face drained of color, and sweat dripped down his forehead.
Hearing his companion cry out, the other sword wielder's face changed. Unable to fight Jian Chen personally, he cried out to his friend, "Harry, are you okay?"
Although that youth wasn't attacking Jian Chen anymore, Jian Chen wasn't going to let him off that easily. As Jian Chen moved towards him, the Saint Force condensed into Jian Chen's fist as he suddenly punched the youth in the chest.
Still moving at fast speeds, he refused to listen to the youth's complaints, or even wait for the youth to react. Jian Chen's palm struck out silently like a viper, and hit the other squarely on the chest.
"Peng!" The youth was sent flying through the air from Jian Chen's fist, as blood came spurting out of his mouth.
After dispatching the two, he immediately went to go assist Tie Ta. At the moment, Tie Ta was embroiled in a tough battle, and had already taken damage from the 3 people. The wolf pelt he was wearing had already been slashed apart and ruined by the blood that was leaking from his wounds. If it weren't for his extremely durable body and godly strength, the others would not have been afraid to fight against him and knock him to the ground.
With the appearance of Jian Chen, Tie Ta's pressure was alleviated by quite a bit. Jian Chen's strength in battle was extremely strong, and even normal Saints wouldn't be able to fight him on equal footing. After a few seconds of close combat fighting against Jian Chen, the three that had surrounded Tie Ta had already started to lose. Each of them were sporting new injuries, and soon after, all 5 of them were writhing on the floor in pain, no longer having the energy to move.
Jian Chen looked at the many wounds on Tie Ta, and asked with some concern, "Tie Ta, are you okay?"
Tie Ta nodded his head and said, "I'm fine, my body's pretty tough." He pointed to the group of 5 people writhing on the ground, "What should we do with them?"
Thinking about it, Jian Chen suddenly grew a strange smile on his face, "Tie Ta, go gather their Space Belts and take all of their monster cores before giving the belts back."
Hearing Jian Chen, the 5 people on the ground went rigid as their faces paled; a few of them were growing red with indignation. The cores in their Space Belts were earned over the span of 2 days of constant struggles for their lives; right now there was only half a day left until the 3rd day passed. If they were to lose all of their monster cores now, then they would definitely fail the mission.
Tie Ta laughed. Without hesitation, he immediately followed Jian Chen's orders, and grabbed all 5 of the space belts from them. Jian Chen stared them down with the bloody iron rod in his hand, like a tiger watching his prey to prevent them from making any sudden movements.
The five students originally had planned to fight back, but when they saw Jian Chen grip the bloody iron rod, they immediately gave up all thoughts about resisting, and obediently let Tie Ta take their space belts.
After gathering all of the space belts, Tie Ta brought them back to Jian Chen and began to count the monster cores one by one. In total, they had only 12 monster cores, all of which were Class 2 Monster Cores.
Jian Chen laughed as he grabbed 6 of the monster cores and put them in their own space belts before saying, "Tie Ta, let's split these in half, you get 6, I get 6."
"Alright!" Tie Ta said as he placed his share into his own space belt.
But when the 5 heard Tie Ta's name, all 5 of them went still, as their faces became unsightly to look at. When it came to his name, everyone in Kargath Academy had heard of him since he was the headmaster's apprentice. Although he wasn't a Saint, when it came to the entire school, no one dared to mess with him.
By this point, the 5 students started to regret their actions so much that their intestines became green. If they had known earlier that one of them was Tie Ta, then they wouldn't have tried to steal from the headmaster's apprentice no matter what. But now, not only were they robbed of what they were trying to steal, but they couldn't even get revenge now that they knew who he was; their sufferings couldn't be summed up in words.
TL Note: Intestines go green after the body dies. Basically they regret their actions so much they want to die.
After storing all of the Class 2 Monster Cores, Tie Ta was smiling even brighter. "Changyang Xiang Tian, it's because you're so amazing and beat all 5 of them so quickly. I, Tie Ta, just can't compare to you at all."
Jian Chen laughed and said, "Alright, let's get back on the road now and hope we can kill a few more magical beasts for the sake of our cultivation,"
Soon after, Jian Chen and Tie Ta didn't see the paralyzed looks of the 5 students on the floor as they walked away.
When the two disappeared into the forest, one of the youths started to curse out loud, "F*cking hell, what bad luck we have! To think we came across the apprentice of the headmaster and then failed the assignment. Not only that, but we had our monster cores stolen away from us without us being able to get revenge. Such wretched luck!"
The youth who had carried the sledge hammer earlier said in a hoarse voice, "That's not all of it, don't forget that it wasn't just Tie Ta who attacked us; there was another."
Everyone's eyes lit up, "You're talking about Changyang Xiang Tian."
The sledgehammer student nodded his head, "That's right, Tie Ta has the support of the headmaster, so we can't get revenge on him. But Changyang Xiang Tian doesn't have that same support."
"But Changyang Xiang Tian's strength is so strong though. The 5 of us couldn't beat him while he was alone, how would we ever beat him?" Another person asked.
"That's right, and the most important fact was that Changyang Xiang Tian was far too fast, we couldn't even dodge any of his attacks." One of the sword wielders said; it was the very same person who had his thigh pierced by Jian Chen.
Then, the person with the axe opened his mouth suddenly, "You guys forget that Changyang Xiang Tian already offended a lot of people at the academy like Lord Cheng and Master Luo, whose strength is higher than ours. If we can find an opportunity to join them, sooner or later we'll find a chance to strike at him."
In the blink of an eye, the colors of the sky began to dim. The magical beasts in the 3rd region were far less abundant than the ones in the 2nd a day had passed, but Jian Chen and Tie Ta had only found a few magical beasts. Everytime they encountered one, they experienced an arduous battle to kill it. Within that afternoon, the two of them had only gained another 7 Class 2 Monster Cores. Compared to their bounty in the 2nd region, this number was clearly insignificant. But when they thought about how the 5 students who attacked them earlier had only gained 12 Class 2 Monster Cores in 2 days despite being Saints, their hearts felt a bit more relieved.
It was a lot more restless in the 3rd region than the 2nd, since the monsters were a lot harder to kill. Also, since the number of monsters were less, more people were willing to rob others for their cores. After Jian Chen and Tie Ta had fought against the 5 students from before, they had another 3 encounters with robbers. At the very least each group had 4 people in it and at the most a group had 7 of them. But in the end, they had overcome each challenge victorious, and took all of the monster cores from the other groups. But what had made Jian Chen depressed was that the group of 4 that attacked them earlier didn't have a single monster core, but the other 2 groups had a total of 33 Class 2 Monster Cores in the end.
When night came, Jian Chen and Tie Ta sat down next to the fire as they roasted the meat of a magical beast. The two looked exhausted; compared to the 2nd region, the 3rd region was far more tiring.
At this point, Tie Ta's academy uniform was essentially gone. On his chest, his gains were showing. Only the most important part of his body was covered up by one of the extra wolf pelts, making him look like a savage. He was already covered with scars all over, and although they looked painful, they were only superficial wounds that didn't affect Tie Ta at all. This was a strong body that even Jian Chen looked at with jealousy.
Jian Chen, on the other hand, was not faring much better. Although he still stuck with wearing his academy uniform, it had already been dyed red from blood, staining the clothes black after oxidizing.
Suddenly, Jian Chen could hear the sounds of a distant battle. With his acute ears, he could heard the faintest of sounds.
Jian Chen stood up from where he was sitting, and looked off to where he heard the sounds, "Tie Ta, there's a fight going on over there."
Tie Ta didn't seem to care at all, "I bet it's someone fighting against another magical beast."
At first, Jian Chen thought so too, but the knowledge from his previous life had told him that these were the sounds of battle between people. In this environment, no matter what sound it was, Jian Chen was always on alert, especially since he had already been attacked by his fellow students multiple times earlier that day. Jian Chen had seen those older and more experienced students fall due to not always being on guard, Jian Chen didn't plan to end up like them.
Straining his ears to hear the most minute of sounds, Jian Chen tried to catch the sounds he heard earlier. But as soon as he furrowed his eyebrows in thought, he heard the sound again. It wasn't the sound of a person fighting a magical beast, but of two people fighting each other. In addition, the sounds were getting closer.
Jian Chen looked at Tie Ta and said, "Tie Ta, that's not the sound of a person fighting against a magical beast, but of two people fighting each other. The sounds are getting louder and louder, so you should prepare yourself; we might end up fighting." Jian Chen didn't choose to change locations. With their current strength, they could easily protect themselves. In addition, he wasn't afraid of anything.
Tie Ta immediately became interested as he grabbed his battleaxe and asked, "How many people do you think are fighting? Changyang Xiang Tian, do you think we should take a look?"
Jian Chen held the iron rod over the fire, "No need, even without our interference, they'll be approaching us soon enough."
"Ah!" Tie Ta sat back down after that with a look of serenity.
Soon enough, the sounds of battle became louder and louder, to the point where even Tie Ta could hear it. A group of figures quickly came scurrying out from the bushes, and ran to where the bonfire was.
Right behind them, a person wearing black flashed in, clearly chasing the other group.
"My two friends, the group behind wants to steal our monster core. Not only are they strong, but their numbers are greater than ours, I hope that we can combine forces and fight them off; otherwise, the hard work we had painstakingly earned over the last 2 days will be taken by them." One person shouted from a distance. Although Jian Chen and Tie Ta were only 2 people, if they joined them then they would be able to fairly go against the opposite party.
Hearing that voice, Jian Chen's eyebrows knitted together. He felt that this voice was very familiar to him, as if he had heard it before. However, he couldn't place a name on the voice; clearly it hadn't left much of an impression.
The four people that were running away were getting closer and closer to Jian Chen now. The person chasing them from behind suddenly sped forward and blocked off the four from moving forward anymore. Holding his giant sword up, he swung his sword at the ones who were still running.
The one leading the team fought back with his own Saint Weapon to block against the sword.
"Deng!"
The two people had a huge difference in strength that could easily be seen, as the one who had blocked the attack was thrown backwards violently.
With this distraction, the people chasing from behind had finally caught up and once more started to attack those who were trying to run away. There were 8 people that had come in pursuit, and all of them quite strong. The difference between their numbers only added to the pressure; without reinforcements, the ones who were trying to run away would ultimately lose.
"Luo Jian, just wait there, I won't let you get away." One of the ones who were running away snarled.
Hearing this, Jian Chen who was standing not too far away went rigid. The voice who spoke out was one he was familiar with; it was his older brother Changyang Hu.
"Big brother!" Jian Chen cried out in astonishment. Immediately his face became one of shock, and without hesitation, he rushed on over with his iron rod in hand.
Seeing Jian Chen move, Tie Ta began follow Jian Chen with his battleaxe in hand. For the past 3 days, Tie Ta had started to follow all of Jian Chen's commands without even realizing it.
Over the course of the 3 days, Jian Chen's strength had been fully revealed. With his experience of surviving in the forest and his strategy, Tie Ta had been humbled by Jian Chen's talents.
Flying across the ground, Jian Chen ran across the grass towards where the fight was taking place. His hands blurred as the iron rod flew through the air and pierced into one of the people his brother was fighting. He was relieved to hear that one of the people coming towards him was his older brother, Changyang Hu.
Although everyone had noticed Jian Chen and Tie Ta, and were all cautiously guarded against the two, Jian Chen had moved far too fast and without warning. In their limited lines of sight due to the darkness, no one had noticed to the iron rod in Jian Chen's hand.
The pointed end of the iron rod stabbed into the Changyang Hu's attacker, causing him to scream out in pain into the night sky as he whirled around. Without waiting for the guy to react further, Jian Chen immediately brought his leg to his chest and kicked him away into the air.
"Agh!" At this moment, Tie Ta also charged over. He swung his axe around, hacking away at the enemies, causing them to be batted away.
But the person Tie Ta was swinging at wasn't slow to react either. Watching the axe come down on them, his face didn't reveal the smallest amount of fear, and instead, he brought his sword up to block the axe.
"Deng!"
Once the sword met the battleaxe, Tie Ta and the other were brought to a deadlock with a loud clang. Their weapons shook; Tie Ta remained where he stood, while the other person was forcibly sent flying backwards.
With Tie Ta's godly strength, unless one was a giant, then he/she would stand no chance against Tie Ta. But the person who was fighting against him was no giant, and so he had taken a huge loss.
However, even with that development, Tie Ta's battleaxe chipped once more. Although the difference in strength was huge, if Tie Ta had not enveloped his battleaxe with his own Saint Force, then the battleaxe would have long since been destroyed.
"Ah!' Tie Ta let loose a snarl as he brandished his battleaxe. The group of robbers then dispatched another 2 people to face off against Tie Ta.
"Dang!" After his clear clang, another person who didn't understand how strong Tie Ta was collided against him one more time. Immediately, he was launched into the air by Tie Ta's battleaxe, which caused his battleaxe to chip even more.
Although Tie Ta's battleaxe was strong, it was far from being on the same level as a Saint Weapon, because every Saint Weapon had a great amount of energy within it. With a Saint Weapon, one could release an attack far stronger than normal blows. However, these people Jian Chen were fighting against were far too weak, and some of them were still at the primary levels of a Saint. While Tie Ta could go toe to toe with those primary leveled Saints, his battleaxe had been through far too many collisions.
"Be careful, his strength is extraordinarily high, and watch out for his battleaxe." The one who was blown away from him yelled as a warning.
Hearing his companion's warning, the remaining youth became extremely cautious. He dodged the battleaxe, and grabbed onto Tie Ta's Space Belt…
Jian Chen was moving around with the speed of lightning. as his iron rod flashed this way and that. With his body moving like a spirit's, he fought alongside with Changyang Hu. Already dyed red with blood, the iron rod was concealed under the shade of the night, as if it was a viper. As he wandered about the area in the darkness, his iron rod shot out silently, in a silent manner that was difficult for his enemies to detect.
Jian Chen was striking out with his iron rod so fast that even the person fighting Changyang Hu were not able to react in time, as his thighs were speared through with the iron rod.
The person's face grimaced in pain as he let out a painful scream, and clenched his hands in reflex. Changyang Hu was not courteous enough to wait for him to simmer down, and immediately sliced at his opponent's left shoulder.
Immediately, he cried out in pain again as his left arm was cut, the sword cutting the bone clean off, leaving his arm to be connected to his arm by a small amount of flesh. A torrent of blood came spurting out as he grabbed at it.
A cyan colored light illuminated the night as they all saw a giant sword appear and slash down towards Jian Chen.
"Wind attributed Saint Force!" Seeing the cyan light envelop the sword, Jian Chen's own face hardened. He immediately used the Profound Steps and melted away into the air like a mirage. As soon as he had faded away, the cyan sword immediately slashed through at the spot where Jian Chen had just been standing.
Jian Chen reappeared 3 meters away, not too far away. The person who had slashed at him stood arrogantly at the spot; wearing a raggedy academy uniform dyed red with blood, his face was covered by the night, so Jian Chen couldn't recognize him.
Jian Chen's eyes focused on the group. He snorted and said in a low voice, "Luo Jian, I didn't think I would meet you here."
The youth Jian Chen addressed was startled. He thought the voice was far too familiar, so he carefully stared at Jian Chen. Although it was nighttime, there was still a gleaming light in the sky that allowed him to see Jian Chen's face clearly.
However, after 3 days of constant fighting in the forest, without any clear water, everyone's faces was jetblack. It was impossible for people to see each other's appearances with ease.
However, the nearby Changyang Hu heard the voice of Jian Chen, and his face became one of shock; he couldn't believe his eyes or ears, "You're…you're fourth brother!" Changyang Hu was astonished; when it came to Jian Chen's voice, he was all too familiar with it.
Luo Jian suddenly came to a realization as he laughed, "No wonder I thought your voice was familiar. So it was Changyang Xiang Tian after all. I didn't think you would breakthrough to becoming a Saint; I really am amazed at that." After saying that, his eyes flashed dangerously.
Jian Chen turned around and face Changyang Hu, "Big brother, we'll talk later. Right now, I'll remove the crisis in front of us. You go help the others, and leave Luo Jian to me."
"Alright then, you take care of yourself fourth brother. Luo Jian's strength has already reached the middle ranked Saint level." Changyang Hu immediately went off to help his friends. Although seeing Jian Chen in the 3rd region was unexpected, he knew that now wasn't the time to try to figure out how or why.
Because Jian Chen and Tie Ta's sudden appearance, the originally disadvantaged Changyang Hu and his group were now on an even playing field. Moreover, because of Tie Ta's existence, the winds of battle were blowing in their favor. The playing field was now sloped towards them in a short amount of time.
Looking at the Luo Jian's dark and swarthy face, Jian Chen laughed, "Luo Jian, it looks like your plan to steal our monster cores will end in failure, your monster cores will be given to us instead."
Luo Jian's face grew angry as his eyes flashed dangerously, "Changyang Xiang Tian, you don't have the power to take away my monster cores."
Jian Chen looked at Luo Jian with some disdain before saying, "Then let's test it out; let's see if I have the power to snatch away your monster cores or not." Jian Chen said nothing more after that, as his body started to sway before charging quickly at Luo Jian. His hand held the iron rod and struck like a viper towards Luo Jian's chest, using the darkness of the night as its cover.
A flash of killing intent went through Luo Jian's eyes as he held his cyan colored sword up. He brandished it in an imposing manner before slashing at Jian Chen. Since Luo Jian was not only a middle ranked Saint, but also had wind attributed Saint Force, his attacks were even faster than before. So much that whenever he swung his blade an after image would appear.
Seeing the sword come down towards his head, Jian Chen dodged to the side, and continued to thrust the iron rod towards Luo Jian's chest.
Luo Jian's face changed as he realized the speed the iron rod was traveling at was extremely high. At that critical moment, his sword was too far out to bring it back to protect himself, but his reaction speed wasn't too slow either. Reabsorbing the wind Saint Force into his body, he forced his body to move backwards and bring back his sword.
Luo Jian's speed became faster; the moment Jian Chen's iron touched Luo Jian's clothes, he had already escaped from Jian Chen's range of attack. As soon as he had escaped Jian Chen's range, he immediately started to gather the Saint Force into his hands again to slash at Jian Chen again with the sword.
Luo Jian's attack was fairly simple, but to Jian Chen's eyes, it was a mess of an attack; not a single amount of technique or finesse was shown. However, Jian Chen still didn't dare to belittle it too much.
Jian Chen leapt into the air to dodge Luo Jian's sword. Immediately springing off from a tree trunk, he flew towards Luo Jian, his arms shaking, causing a faint mirror image to appear behind him. Jian Chen's arm was already traveling at high speeds, and the iron rod was traveling at the speed of lightning towards Luo Jian, so even the naked eye wouldn't be able to see it.
Luo Jian's eyes widened in realization as the iron rod had already reached him. This time Luo Jian was unable to defend himself from Jian Chen's attack nor was he able to dodge in time, resulting in the iron rod piercing deeply into his chest.
Luo Jian's face hardened as he stared at the impaled iron rod within him, a dumbfounded expression appearing on his face. Not only was there a tinge of disbelief on his face, but despair and fear as well. When the iron rod had pierced into him, he had been unable to mount any type of resistance against it. He had no defense, due to the iron rod being a lot faster in speed than he had been able to react to. Even if he was a wind attribute Saint, the iron rod had still skewered straight through him, causing a fatal injury.
What followed afterwards was beyond everyone's expectations. The moment Jian Chen's iron rod had pierced into Luo Jian's chest, everyone had stopped moving, Then, a pure amount of Saint Force transferred from the iron rod into Luo Jian's body. With the removal of the rod, the support disappeared, and Luo Jian dropped onto the ground.
When Jian Chen had sent his Saint Force infused soul into Luo Jian's body, it was as if his body had exploded. The energy rippled through Luo Jian's body like an energy wave, wreaking havoc within his organs.
"Pff!" Luo Jian immediately spit out a mouthful of blood. The fierce pain he was feeling inside his body was strange and unknown to him; he let loose a blood curling scream as he rolled on the ground.
Luo Jian's scream was abnormally desolate and immediately caught the attention of all those still fighting. However, as their eyes looked at the rolling Luo Jian, everyone except Tie Ta was stunned into silence. What they were watching caused them no small amount of shock, and many of them still couldn't believe their eyes.
Even after finishing off Luo Jian, Jian Chen didn't consider letting the group of robbers go. Holding his iron rod as he stood in the middle, he thought that it was lucky that he had met his older brother Changyang Hu now. If he had met Changyang Hu later, then Jian Chen was afraid that his brother would have lost all of his monster cores to Luo Jian's group and been left with a heavy injury.
With Jian Chen entering the battle, the opposition no longer had the upper hand. Although Jian Chen wasn't a Saint like everyone else, he undoubtedly was the most powerful amongst everyone present.
In his past life, Jian Chen was a traveling wanderer who had practiced the way of the sword, to the point where he had reached perfection with it. His moves were hard to detect since he moved so fast that it was inconceivable at some points. People who were relying on only their eyes wouldn't be able to see him. Since Jian Chen was only using an iron rod, his true strength could not be brought out. The opponents in front of him were mere students with little battle experience. With his extraordinary sword knowledge, he could quickly end the battle.
Until the end of the fight, no one had realized that the weapon Jian Chen was using wasn't actually a Saint Weapon, but actually just a common iron rod.
After the fight, all of the injured students that took part in the robbery sat down on the ground. Each one of them had a different type of wound on different spots, and they all looked at Jian Chen with terror.
Looking at the 8 youths on the floor, although Changyang Hu and his team of 4 were heavily injured, they couldn't help but reveal the joy of victory while looking at Jian Chen with stares of respectful admiration.
"Changyang Hu, I didn't think you'd unexpectedly have such an amazingly strong fourth brother. His strength really leaves me astonished!"
"That's right, Changyang Hu. Although we heard about your fourth brother's strength a long time ago, I didn't think that he was this amazing until now. Even the middle level Saint Luo Jian was defeated by him; if it weren't for your fourth brother's help, I'm afraid that our group wouldn't have been able to protect the monster cores we worked so hard to get."
….
The three youths and Changyang Hu had a decent relationship with each other. Each one of them sighed in joy as they excitedly discussed the recent events.
At this moment, Jian Chen arrived by Changyang Hu's side and looked at his wounds. With some concern he asked, "Big brother, do you have any serious injuries?"
Hearing this, Changyang Hu shook his head absentmindedly. Looking at Jian Chen with joy and surprise, he replied, "I'm fine, just fine. It's only a small wound. Don't forget, your older brother has the earth attributed Saint Force, which improves my defenses by a lot." Changyang Hu paused for a bit and then asked, "That's right, fourth brother, how did you come across the 3rd region; I remember that before we entered the forest, your strength was still before the Saint level? Also, how did you become so amazing, for you to even defeat Luo Jian?" Changyang Hu asked curiously.
Jian Chen laughed and said, "Big brother, this type of situation should be explained later over a nice and slow talk. Right now, we still have to take care of the problem in front of us." Jian Chen's swept his gaze over at the several students who were on the ground, "Big brother, how do you think we should punish these guys?"
Giving the question some thought, he said, "Fourth brother, this should be resolved by you. If it weren't for you, I'm afraid our group of four would have had all of our monster cores stolen."
Jian Chen's face had a deep smile on it as he said, "In that case, there's no need to be merciful to them. At the very least, we should collect all of their monster cores from their Space Belts."
Jian Chen's suggestion was quickly approved by everyone, and so under the poisonous and hateful glares of Luo Jian's group, they quickly grabbed all of the Space Belts and collected the monster cores inside. After checking their inventories, the 8 of them had a total of 130 monster cores.
Seeing such a number, even Jian Chen was astonished by the amount. Changyang Hu exclaimed in admiration, "I didn't think that they would have this many monster cores; it looks like they robbed many people before us. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to kill so many monsters in a span of 3 days with their strength."
Jian Chen nodded his head in approval before saying, "Big brother, let's split the cores into 6 parts so that we each get an equal share."
"That's no good." Jian Chen turned towards the new speaker; a youth from Changyang Hu's team, "Changyang Xiang Tian, the only reason we were able to obtain these monster cores was because of you and your fellow comrade here. We didn't do anything at all, so you shouldn't split the cores with us and keep it among the two of you."
The student's suggestion was quickly approved by the other two students. One of them immediately said, "Oz is right. Changyang Xiang Tian, if it weren't for you and your friend, the strength of us 4 wouldn't have been enough to win. I'm afraid we wouldn't have even been able to protect our own monster cores. But now that our monster cores are safe from their grasp, we are satisfied. The monster cores you got from Luo Jian and his friends are something we don't want."
"Right, Changyang Xiang Tian, you were able to get these monster cores with the combined strength of you and your friend. How could we be shameless enough to divide this up?"
Jian Chen's eyes flickered with a bright glow as he looked at their faces, searching for any signs of falsity. However, he could only see sincere honesty, with absolutely no traces of dishonesty. His respect for the 3 grew tremendously, but he truly did admire his older brother the most. He didn't think his older brother would be able to find 3 friends with such good personalities like this. Although Changyang Hu had the body and brain of a tiger, Jian Chen understood that his brother was not at all stupid.
Jian Chen laughed and said, "Everyone had contributed to this situation. If it weren't for you guys stalling them, if they had somehow joined forces with Luo Jian to attack me, I'm afraid that I would have lost then. Let's go with this, Tie Ta and I will take half of the monster cores, and you guys will take the rest and divide it amongst yourselves. That should be fine, right?"