Chapter 217: Xiao Bing, Master of Early Stage Elixir-Strength
“I didn’t love him… I only loved myself…myself…”
This poisonous woman wailed while scratching her head. “That’s impossible. You’re lying. You must be lying. I shall kill you…”
“Kill me?” Xiao Bing sneered, “What else are you capable of except for killing? How many have you killed all these years? I’m sure you’ve already lost count. You killed the ones who loved you and even the ones who had nothing to do with you. When you felt betrayed, not only did you kill Liu Sheng and that woman’s whole family, you also brutally slaughtered everyone in the village where you once lived!”
“You know that your mother and father were in that village!”
The woman shouted insanely, “They both saw me as a monster and cast me aside. I was their daughter yet they chose to abandon me! I’m not the one who abandoned them first!”
Xiao Bing sighed and found this woman miserable and pathetic. “I sent someone to investigate your village. It was a remote and backward village where law often was not applied. Do you still believe that these villagers would let you go that easily if you poisoned someone to death? You could have been dead if your parents hadn’t exiled you.”
The woman gasped and seemed contrite, “Why… Why haven’t I thought any of these all these years…”
“Because you are just too stubborn, especially after you felt betrayed by your boyfriend. You think that the whole world failed you and is against you. You look at everything from a selfish perspective…”
“Maybe the poison inside your body is a curse. But the gods blessed you with parents and a boyfriend, who loved you very much. But you rejected them and ruined everything. You killed them all and thousands of innocent peoples. Countless families were torn apart by you all these years. And I can’t even imagine how many little girls have already lived a more miserable life because of you!”
Xiao Bing’s eyes seemed to penetrate this poisonous woman’s body and soul.
“Now, do you think that you’re still qualified to argue about hatred and injustice with me? What reason do you have to hate this world?”
Ten years ago, love was her life-support in this world, but in the last ten years, she lived with hatred. All of a sudden she found that the hatred she harbored was so ridiculous and absurd. What had held her together these years completely collapsed at this moment?
She slumped on the chair looking like she’s had a mental breakdown.
Xiao Bing felt pity for this woman. No matter what horrible things she had done, though she blamed it all on unfair fate, she was just another pathetic woman who lost her way while fighting destiny.
Xiao Bing sighed and asked, “Do you still want to kill us now?”
But the Femme Fatale was just sitting there staring at nothing. Zhan Hong Yan now felt it would be very easy for her and Dumbass to kill her. To say nothing of Xiao Bing, who was no less powerful than this woman? She took a step forward. As a killer, there was not much burden of morality.
But Xiao Bing grabbed her by the arm and shook his head. “She won’t be a threat anymore. Let her choose her way.”
Xiao Bing stood up and sighed. She may not be the first tragic yet hateful woman in the world, but she would not be the last either.
When Xiao Bing and his mates reached the door and were about to leave, they suddenly heard a tumbling sound. They all stopped and whirled around. The knife she was holding was now deep in her chest. She was lying on the ground with her face upturned, blood gushed out from the wound. But there was a happy smile on her face. “I owe it to them and I can only repay them on the other side. My parents and Liu Sheng… There were people who loved me in this world…”
The poisonous woman’s death weighed heavily on Xiao Bing heart, but somehow he felt relieved. He stared at her body and said, “She could have killed herself with her poison, but she chose a dagger. Maybe she thought that her poison had brought too many sins to this world and it was unforgivable. Anyway, we should be happy for her. Though she is dead now, but she was happy when she died. Her hatred disappeared and was replaced by love.”
Zhan Hongyan looked desolate. She sighed and said, “Brother Bing, though what was said is about her, I thought of myself…”
“Is that so?”
Zhan Hongyan smiled bitterly, “I also destroyed thousands of families when I was a killer.”
Looking at this girl, Xiao Bing shook his head and smiled, “It’s not the same. At least you know what love is and you won’t be manipulated by hatred. Anyone is capable of forsaking their darkness and coming back to the path of righteousness, which is something you have already achieved.”
“But what about her?”
“Her?” Xiao Bing shook his head, “Death is the happiest relief for her.”
Zhang Hongyan stared at Xiao Bing, awed. Then she spoke sincerely, “Brother Bing, I suddenly feel that you are so scary, much scarier than my half-master.”
Gao Fei had been teaching Zhan Hongyan and Dumbass, but he didn’t say that he was their teacher, which meant that he was their teacher in truth but not in name.
Xiao Bing smiled, “You mean that I’m Gao Fei’s equal?”
“No, you are much scarier than he is.” Zhang Hongyan was dead serious as she said that. “I once heard that the most exquisite art of killing is to kill one from within, instead of using any blade. That was what you did to that woman, Brother Bing. You killed her from within.”
“Kill from within…” Xiao Bing shook his head and managed a wry smile. “Come, let’s go. Her death will remain undiscovered for some time. We should deal with the others meanwhile.”
Zhan Hongyan asked, “Who?”
“Lord Long’s two other sworn brothers.”
Zhan Hongyan gasped, “They are from the Innate Realm!”
Though Zhan Hongyan had never fought an innate master, she knew that innate masters were way much stronger than the acquired masters.
Though she had always been confident about Xiao Bing, who had already reached the peak of the Transforming Strength and was one step away from the level of the innate, she knew the enormous difference between these two levels.
Xiao Bing pondered for a moment and suddenly had a very odd feeling. He halted and said to Zhan Hongyan, “Stand watch out here. Dumbass, take care of that woman’s body. I need to cultivate in quietness.”
Zhan Hongyan’s eyes brightened because she hadn’t expected Xiao Bing to have a breakthrough at this moment. She nodded hastily. Xiao Bing went into the bungalow, found a room and sat down. Zhan Hongyan then guarded the door for him while Dumbass dug a pit to bury the Femme Fatale’s body.
This unexpected comprehension occurred to Xiao Bing in an blink of the eye. Maybe it had something to with the poisonous woman’s death, especially the happiness in her eyes when she was dying, which had a great impact on Xiao Bing’s heart.
Xiao Bing’s breakthrough brought him in to the early stage of Elixir-strength, which meant that now he could be regarded as an innate master. The difference between an innate master and an acquire master was huge. If the ascension from Clear-strength Stage to Concealing-strength Stage and then to Transforming Strength was the breakthrough of physical strength, then reaching the Elixir-strength was not merely a breakthrough, it was an evolution or reform.
The strength in the body of an innate master was mostly scattered through his body. Only a small part of it was focused on his elixir. When he was attacking or parrying, the strength he exerted was only about 10 percent to 20 percent of the total strength in his body.
But it was not the same with the Elixir-strength. The power inside the body of an Elixir-strength master was purer and greater. About 80 percent of his power was concentrated in his elixir. The strength he could exert was several times stronger when he performed any movement. And this purer power enabled him to last a long time even when being attacked by three or four masters of Elixir-strength.
Entering the room, Xiao Bing sat down on the floor with his legs crossed. He concentrated his attention highly in his inner body. The power in it began burning and soon it burned outwards. It was a feeling much more painful than a heart being boiled in a pan. But Xiao Bing did not even moan or frown. The only thing that could prove that he was in infinite pain was the drops of sweat studding his body.
Boom! Finally, Xiao Bing felt a warm stream spreading out from his elixir. The power was purer than that of the innate masters’ and it was not aggressive. It was strong but cozily warm.
Eventually, after the warm stream reached every corner of his body, the excessive energy stopped spreading. It congealed in his elixir and as it was being continuously pressed, Xiao Bing could feel the mounting might inside his body. He deemed his strength ten times greater than before.
When everything was over, Xiao Bing perspired from head to heel. He took a look at his hands and found a heated steam swirling with an unfathomable force inside his palm.
“I didn’t expect to already be this powerful when I’m merely in the early stage of the Elixir-strength. But there’s a reason behind it. I have been through this before and the strength inside my body was refined countless times. But I’m afraid even the power of the pinnacle of Elixir-strength is inferior to the power I possess now… I can have a fair battle with an enemy of the middle-stage of Elixir-strength.”
Xiao Bing’s eyes were afire with excitement. It seemed that if he successfully arrived at the end of the cultivation path he had been through before, he would only be stronger!
Though it was still impossible for him to defeat Lord Long, he was more confident if he was to beat Lord Long’s two other sworn brothers!
