The more Qianye acted this way, the more Xue Ding couldn’t see through him. The man walked around him several times and sized him up from head to toe, yet he couldn’t see through Qianye’s true strength. Xue Ding immediately became apprehensive and cautious.
The mysterious entity didn’t really slow down the speed of its void origin power all this while, only choosing to avoid contact. It would even use the new guest as a cover from time to time, jumping out from behind him to resonate with East Peak.
Qianye faced myriad variations with steadiness and kept on carving as usual. That mysterious existence was already nearing its limits. It could see Qianye’s sculpture nearing completion yet could no longer summon any more void origin power to stop him.
Both parties were going all out, wrestling like wild beasts. How could they pay any attention to the fly buzzing about nearby?
But this hateful fly simply refused to leave and looked fairly eager to try his hand. It almost seemed like he would attack at any moment.
By the time Xue Ding had circled around him for the seventh time, Qianye could no longer endure. He stopped what he was doing, glanced at the man, and released a wisp of his aura. Then, he went back to his carving, the first slash shaving off a piece of wood as thin as a cicada’s wings.
In Qianye’s mind, this was like swatting down with his hand. Although it wouldn’t kill the fly immediately, it should be enough to drive it away. A clever insect would leave as far away as it could.
Yet unexpectedly, Xue Ding suddenly broke into a laugh after sensing Qianye’s aura. Toward the end, he was laughing so hard that he couldn’t stand straight. He held his stomach with one hand and said intermittently while pointing at Qianye, “T-Two origin vortices? Were you trying to scare me? Haha, haha!”
Qianye was also startled. Only then did he remember that he was in the neutral lands and not at the Bloody Battle or Floating Continent where he had risen to fame. Back in the empire, even the Evernight soldiers knew of his strength—those below the virtuous count rank would slip away quietly after catching sight of him on the battlefield.
As Qianye saw it, a rank-thirteen human was a target he could almost kill with one slap. He had already displayed his strength to the opponent, so the latter should make himself scram and save his own skin.
Having nothing better to do at the moment, one of the Black Wolf Guards tried to kick down the courtyard door. It could be said that the attack contained just the right amount of power and not too violent. The gates flew open with his kick, but the wooden materials remained intact. The large hole he had been expecting did not appear.
The puzzled Black Wolf Guard looked at his foot and then knocked on the door. He had never seen such sturdy material in his entire life. He lifted his foot, took aim at the door, and tried kicking once more.
“Bang!” His foot connected with the other door, and this time, there were some results, albeit barely. The wooden gate became somewhat crooked, yet there wasn’t even a single crack upon it.
Just as the Black Wolf Guard was starting to doubt his very existence, one of his peers patted his shoulder and whispered, “Hey look, there's a beautiful lady over there!”
That Black Wolf Guard looked up and saw Nighteye and Zhuji in the courtyard. The former was holding a large fish and scaling it in a leisurely manner. Little Zhuji was clinging to the tableside and watching the large creature, swallowing from time to time.
Nighteye only looked up once when the doors were kicked open. Thereafter, she paid no more attention to the group and continued fixing her fish. The little girl, however, seemed to have lost her fish-gazing mood and charged toward the gates, frowning.
The lightning-fast dash actually kicked up a whirlwind in the courtyard! The group of Black Wolf Guards felt their vision turn blurry as Zhuji vanished from sight. Then, a gust of wind blew them into an unstable mess, sending a couple of the weaker ones rolling on the ground.
The group lost their colors, but little did they know that their greatest setback had yet to arrive. By the time Zhuji reappeared, she had returned to her original position. However, it was Nighteye who had dragged back the unwilling little girl by the collar.
“Be good and keep on watching the fish.” Nighteye knocked Zhuji on the head.
The lass nodded resentfully. She then turned to the Black Wolf Guards with a fierce glare, thinking about how she would teach this group a lesson.
Meanwhile, the guards had just recovered with great difficulty. They couldn’t help but glance at one another, puzzled as to what had just happened. Did Zhuji move or did she not move?
They had their own methods of dealing with this. One of the Black Wolf Guards cried loudly, “Young Master, there’s a great beauty over here!”
Xue Ding hadn’t finished laughing at this moment. He replied impatiently, “How can there be a beauty in such a place? Have you never seen women before?”
“I’ve really never seen one like this!” the Black Wolf Guard cried out.
Xue Ding shouted back while waving his hand. “Whatever, just let it be! This young master will come and evaluate her after dealing with this dumb brat.”
Two of the Black Wolf Guards stayed behind to prevent Nighteye from escaping, while the rest hurried over to cheer for Xue Ding.
“Brat, I’ll ask you one more time, do you despise me so much?” Xue Ding reached out to pat Qianye’s shoulder but his hand froze midair. His heart began beating wildly, and his petrified expression soon turned into awkwardness.
East Peak emitted a crisp sound at this moment. Itss sharp point trembled slightly, turning the nearly formed sculpture into sawdust.
Qianye had lost this round. Including the current bout, it was four losses against one win for today. A good situation had been ruined just like that.
This time around, Qianye’s expression toward this fly was no longer so kind.
Astonished, Xue Ding took a step backward but soon realized that he had lost his momentum by doing so. Embarrassed and angry, he roared, “Try my Windsplitter Strike!”
An azure whirlwind appeared around the young man, sweeping in everything within several dozen meters as he hurled a punch at Qianye. There were several faint wisps of azure origin power whirling around his fist—apparently, its might was extraordinary.
Qianye opened his left palm and grabbed at Xue Ding’s incoming fist. When the two came into contact, strands of origin power flew out from the man’s fist and began spinning rapidly around Qianye’s palm. The energy was like a chainsaw, attempting to cut into the body.
This astonishing origin power was so sharp that it could crush steel. Countless people had been injured by this fist, crippled before they could even react. Some even had their entire arms crushed.
Seeing that Qianye hadn’t activated his origin defenses, a smile appeared on Xue Ding’s face. However, that grin froze soon after it was formed.
Qianye grabbed the incoming fist with relative ease. That azure origin power did its utmost to cut through his skin, even producing screeching metallic sounds in the process. Yet, Qianye’s arm remained intact except perhaps for some barely discernible red marks.
Xue Ding’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. For a moment, he couldn’t help but doubt whether this Qianye was still human or not.
But Xue Ding was still a skilled warrior who could react swiftly. Following a loud roar, he blasted Qianye with every ounce of origin power he had in store, hoping to overwhelm the opponent with his two-level advantage in cultivation.
Azure origin power gushed out from his four origin vortices and transformed into a blue-green tempest. Qianye was calm and fearless in the face of this incoming attack as faint sounds of roaring waves echoed around him. He was going to clash against the enemy with the might of his Oceanic Vortex.
As the azure storm dispersed, Xue Ding’s vision went dark and it felt as though he had been struck in the chest by a sledgehammer. He staggered several steps backward before barely finding his footing, letting out a muffled groan as fresh blood streamed down his nostrils.
“Y-You, how come…” He only managed to utter half a sentence before going mute.
Qianye also took two steps back, but he quickly stabilized himself by thrusting East Peak into the ground. He seemed perfectly normal except for a bit of pallor.
Xue Ding stared intently at Qianye, waiting for something to happen. However, Qianye’s complexion recovered swiftly thereafter and his aura picked up once more.
“Impossible!” Xue Ding cried out.
The clash just now was a direct confrontation between origin powers—there was simply no room for any tricks. The young man had thought that he could heavily injure Qianye in one blow, but unexpectedly, his azure tempest was scattered instead. Qianye didn’t seem to be feeling all that well, either, but it was a fact that Xue Ding had been completely suppressed.
At this moment, Qianye felt somewhat helpless at heart. After five consecutive rounds against the mysterious existence, his origin power and blood energy had been mostly depleted. What little remained of his origin power was barely enough to activate his Oceanic Vortex and scatter the opponent’s azure tempest. If he were in his peak state, a single blow was enough to heavily injure Xue Ding and a follow-up slash would take his life.
Even now, it was only a matter of increased effort. Despite being drained of origin power, he could still kill this fly all the same by relying on his powerful constitution and exquisite sword arts.
At the thought of this, Qianye exerted force through his right hand and picked up East Peak.
Xue Ding broke into a shiver and immediately fell back to hide amongst his Black Wolf Guards.
Qianye was somewhat astonished—this fellow’s perception toward danger was truly shocking and might very well be a type of innate talent.
Xue Ding had retreated, but someone else was rearing to go.
Sensing the killing intent, Qianye shot a glance at Iron Bear. “You brought him here?”
“So what if I did? You’re out of origin power, aren’t you?” he said coldly while drawing a scimitar from his waist.
Little Knife pulled the man back and begged, “Won’t you reconsider?”
Iron Bear swept his subordinate away and said with a sinister smile, “What is there to think about? If I don’t finish him off now, how can there be such a good opportunity in the future?”
Xue Ding saw the advantage in this situation. Waving his hand at the Black Wolf Guards, he said, “Go, all of you!”
The guards looked rather imposing as they lined up behind Iron Bear. The latter felt even bolder now and began moving toward Qianye in large strides.
Qianye smiled coldly. “It seems you’ve forgotten the lesson from before.”
“No, I remember it very well. That’s why I’m unwilling to let go of this opportunity. There should only be one person in this town who can speak loudly, and that’s me, Iron Bear!”
