Xiang Shaoyun kept his released Nether Soul Domain active, maintaining the independent space around him. Those with strength weaker than his soul power would find it extremely hard to detect his actual location.
In any case, the strength of his physical body had been greatly weakened at the moment. On top of that, he had been further injured by Su Jun. Although he had healed somewhat using a drop of lightning liquid, he no longer dared to easily reveal himself in his current condition.
He suspected that Di Tong would also turn around to kill him. But when he saw clearly who the person sneaking around was, he blanked out.
It’s him! Xiang Shaoyun exclaimed inwardly.
The newcomer was none other than Huo Xudong. He should have left like the others long ago. Why had he returned? Xiang Shaoyun believed that he had a decent relationship with Huo Xudong. However, he found it hard to believe Huo Xudong would return for no reason. It was also unlikely that Huo Xudong had returned to take care of him. After all, he could have just stayed behind instead.
Whatever the reason, Xiang Shaoyun did not intend to reveal himself. Inwardly, he thought, I hope you don’t disappoint me.
When Huo Xudong arrived at the area, he started looking everywhere. When he found the corpse of Su Jun’s mount, shock covered his face as he cried out in alarm, “Brother Xiang, Brother Xiang, where are you? I am here to help you!”
Xiang Shaoyun was going to withdraw his Nether Soul Domain upon hearing that. However, after a slight hesitation, he still decided to remain patient and kept waiting. In his current condition, he shouldn’t be meeting Huo Xudong as he did not wish to be a burden. Thus, he decided to wait for Huo Xudong to leave by himself.
By this point, he already believed that Huo Xudong had returned to help him. He even decided that Huo Xudong was really a good friend. That thought had barely formed in his mind when he heard Huo Xudong’s next words. His entire body went cold, as if he had dropped from a hot spring into an ice pool.
That was because after crying out a few times without getting any reply, Huo Xudong muttered to himself, “Su Jun’s dead mount is here. I reckon Xiang Shaoyun and Su Jun must have fought each other. Regardless of whether Su Jun is dead or alive, I’m afraid Xiang Shaoyun must have left far away. What a pity. I had hoped to snatch the forbidden technique from him.”
He was practically whispering in a very soft voice. Even if someone was standing right beside him, that person might not hear anything. But with the Nether Soul Domain, each of Xiang Shaoyun’s senses was extremely sharp. He heard every single word clearly and was completely stunned.
Huo Xudong then went back into the devil wind beast territory. Xiang Shaoyun’s eyes were raging with fury, and he was finding it hard to hold his anger. He gripped his fists tightly as he roared inwardly, Yet another damnable traitor! He deserves death!
A fierce murderous intent surged out of him. He was once betrayed by those closest to him back at the Ziling Sect, which was why he hadn’t been able to easily trust others since then. That was also why he considered very few people his friend nowadays.
Recently, he had been getting along well with Huo Xudong. He had thought that Huo Xudong had befriended him because both of them were similarly a victim of the Seven Villains. That assumption caused Xiang Shaoyun to feel somewhat at ease around Huo Xudong, and was how he came to see Huo Xudong as a friend.
However, Huo Xudong was actually a treacherous person who wanted to snatch his battle technique. That realization placed Xiang Shaoyun in deep sorrow. What he hated most were traitors, and Huo Xudong was now someone he had to kill.
After a long while, Xiang Shaoyun finally calmed down as he thought to himself, To have a heart as clear as untarnished ice, to face the world with indifference. There is no need to get angry for somebody irrelevant.
He then withdrew his Nether Soul Domain and started moving toward a certain direction.
Instead of penetrating deeper into the devil wind beast territory, he found a spot at the outer fringe of the territory to rest up and heal. After about half a day, his external injuries were mostly healed. But his acupoints and meridians were still aching.
The moment he tried using his astral energy, an intense pain extremely hard to endure would assault him. This was the side effect of having harmed his foundation. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had a body that was much tougher than an average person’s, he currently wouldn’t be able to unleash the combat prowess of a fourth-stage Skysoar Realm cultivator.
Xiang Shaoyun reached a decision. “Since I can’t use my astral energy, I might as well focus on deepening my understanding on footwork intent.”
He was currently located at a place filled with the power of wind. This was an ideal place for wind cultivators and was an excellent place for one to cultivate footwork intent. He had already grasped the first stage of footwork intent, moving like the wind. If he could progress further, he might be able to survive in the devil wind beast territory after all.
Only then would he stand a chance at getting the yin devil wind. That was his only option right now. After all, it was impossible for him to repair his foundation in a short time frame unless he could get his hands on an entire pool of millennium spirit spring water to cleanse his acupoints and meridians. Some specific emperor medicines of top quality would also be helpful for him. Otherwise, the only thing he could do was to slowly heal with time.
Xiang Shaoyun sat silently in meditation as he started absorbing the power of wind bit by bit. Any footwork would increase in speed when used together with the power of wind. That was how Ruo Suifeng had earned his moniker of Little Wind God, through footwork intent and the power of wind.
Xiang Shaoyun cultivated nine different powers, but in his wind star, there was only a tiny bit of wind power, and the star was completely incomparable to his first three stars. He endured the pain he was suffering and slowly absorbed the wind energy into his body to fill his wind star. The best way of getting acclimatized to this new environment was by absorbing the power here.
A regular person would not be able to absorb any energy from the Devil Domain. Xiang Shaoyun was an exception as the devilish energy would not harm him. When the wind energy laced with devilish energy entered his body, his blood would cleanse the devilish energy and send only pure wind energy to his star.
Before this, Xiang Shaoyun had never dared to openly absorb the energy here. Now that he was all alone, he no longer had any reservations. His blood seemed to have come alive as the amount of energy converging on him started growing. A large amount of devilish energy entered his body unendingly, giving him a sensation that his blood was boiling.
He also felt the pain of his acupoints and meridians receding. The pain had only decreased slightly, but he could clearly feel it.
“Can it be that my bloodline is capable of repairing my foundation?” Xiang Shaoyun muttered in excitement.
