Without any remorse whatsoever, Xia Fei lit a cigarette and stared coldly at the corpse in front of him as well as the warm blood that was slowly flowing out. He remained completely composed inside.
He had been killing others since he was sixteen…
Xia Fei had spent all these years growing up with murder and death by his side, from Earth to the Alliance, from the Alliance to the insectoid territory, and from the insectoid territory to the Law Realm.
After seeing so many deaths and corpses, he had still been able to maintain his peace of mind, and that itself proved that Xia Fei was even more suited to exist in this cutthroat realm, and it was essentially the given mentality that a natural born warrior possessed.
A series of footfalls could be heard from the stairs, and then a youth of approximately seventeen or eighteen years of age came running into the great hall. He took a quick glance at the corpse lying reposed on the ground, breathed deeply, and inhaled the scent of spilled blood, exposing himself to the smell of death.
Licking his lips, a hint of greed lingered at the corner of his mouth.
Xia Fei curiously gazed at him. It was as if this young man liked spilling blood more than he did, enjoying the taste of death, and from the way he walked and his mannerism, this person was definitely an expert!
“Xia Fei?” the youth asked in a low voice.
Xia Fei nodded.
“Oh, don’t try to hold me back when we head off to the Dragon Ascension Conclave. I won’t be dragged down by anyone.”
Xia Fei smiled. Without a doubt, this young man was Yu Xiaobei, the most outstanding member among the younger generation in the Yu family. Xia Fei had heard his name mentioned so many times his ears were nearly ground into nubs.
“I’m not going to the Dragon Ascension Conclave just to rely on anyone.” Xia Fei puffed out a smoke ring, dragging a chair from the great hall to seat as he stated.
“I don’t care why you’re going. In any case, anyone who impedes me will be taught a lesson, you included. Don’t assume just because we are both from the Yu family that I will help you,” Yu Xiaobei said severely.
Xia Fei frowned. “I don’t like being taught a lesson by others, nor do I enjoy teaching other people a lesson.”
After a pause, Xia Fei continued. “I just kill.”
Yu Xiaobei was slightly taken aback but soon laughed, muttering to himself under his breath, “Interesting. Quite interesting.”
With that said, Yu Xiaobei raised his head and left for the outside, and he happened to run into the flustered Yu Peng.
The front gates to Crow City were wide, and it just so happened that the two walked on the same path. Yu Xiaobei came to a halt without seemingly having any intention of letting the other pass, and it was instead Yu Peng who took a sidestep with knitted brows, letting Yu Xiaobei pass.
In terms of their age seniority, Yu Peng was Yu Xiaobei’s elder, and in terms of the position either held, Yu Peng was the head supervisor of Crow City, so Yu Xiaobei should be the one making way for the other in any sense. However, reality proved that it was the senior who did not put on any airs in front of Yu Xiaobei. What made it worse was that Yu Xiaobei believed that it was only natural for the esteemed head supervisor of Crow City to give way to him, showing not even the slightest hint of guilt. This incident demonstrated just how proud Yu Xiaobei was, so much so that perhaps there was no one in the entire clan whom he would see as an equal aside from the patriarch.
“Have you two met?” Yu Peng asked.
Xia Fei watched Yu Xiaobei leave as he nodded, asking, “His cultivation level is probably higher than yours, huh?”
Yu Peng showed a look of annoyance. Though this was indeed true, was there a need for Xia Fei to ask this, given the current circumstances? Any bit of pride he had was pretty much thrown out the window at this point!
Chuckling bitterly, Yu Peng replied, “Xiaobei has already reached peak Law Sovereign, and aside from our family patriarch, only my brother’s, Yu Jin’s cultivation, can be considered the highest. Of course, Yu Hua can also count himself as one of the strongest, but he has long since sworn himself off family matters.”
Xia Fei did not make any comment toward this. It was no wonder Yu Xiaobei was so arrogant, since he was already a peak Law Sovereign at the young age of seventeen or eighteen, ready to make an attempt to become a Law Emperor. The young man had clearly earned the right to be haughty.
Yu Peng squatted as he placed his finger softly on the ground, causing Han Yuudong’s corpse to disappear without a trace, as if he had just done a magic trick.
“Best if you never mention a word about what happened today. Though it isn’t against the rules to kill, it’s actually taboo to do so here in Crow City. I’ll allow an exemption for you today, but I won’t be letting you off if it happens again,” Yu Peng said as he exerted his authority once more.
Xia Fei smiled and extended his right hand. “The key, please. If there’s nothing else, I’d like to begin my cultivation now.”
Yu Peng handed the dungeon key to Xia Fei even as he nagged about the rules here in Crow City. He then gave the latter over ten grade 4 Origin Crystals.
Xia Fei took the items and went down the stairs once more, disappearing into the darkness after a short while.
Yu Peng mumbled in exasperation as he stood there in the empty great hall, “Freaks. Both of them!”
…
Locking up the dungeon door behind him, Xia Fei sat down cross-legged on the ground.
There was an intricate trigger in his spatial ring which allowed the space within the ring to connect to the world outside upon activation, and this let Xia Fei retrieve items within. This was how the little robot Pod and the ice coffin of the Lionheart Emperor Oro could contact him. If Xia Fei was doing anything that he did not want Oro to know, all he needed to do was activate the trigger and the space within the spatial ring would be sealed from the external world.
“Master, would… you like me to clean this place up?” Pod nervously asked. Normally, whenever Xia Fei was somewhere new, Pod would not even ask and immediately come dashing out to begin tidying everything around, but he was actually somewhat hesitant today.
This was most likely because of the wail in the dungeon which frightened him greatly.
“Just rest up. If you have the time, you can just tidy everything inside the spatial ring.”
Pod nodded his head repeatedly in agreement, feeling a little guilty inside. However, the Fiend’s Bloodcry was simply too scary that even the robot could not withstand it.
“Oro, you’re an expert. You ought to know how this Fiend’s Bloodcry came to be, right?” Xia Fei asked.
Oro chuckled. “If I’m not mistaken, there should be a hidden space here in this dungeon, and the sound we’re hearing is originating from it.”
Xia Fei was doubtful. “A hidden space? Then shouldn’t it be completely sealed off? How could sound escape like this? Could the space itself be compromised?”
Oro shrugged helplessly. “That’s one possibility. After all, I have yet to do any in-depth inspection of this place, and though you can hear this sound, it’s actually a type of telepathic call, using a sort of extremely subtle energy manipulation that’s affecting your brain, causing you to have an auditory hallucination. It’s not really a sound.
“If you don’t believe me, you can check with your robot companion. What he’s feeling isn’t sound but rather an extreme frequency electronic wave.”
Xia Fei was stunned once more. Affecting his brain to cause an auditory hallucination? That was an amazing power, which was comparable to a high-ranking illusory special ability! It was even a non-substantial mental illusion!
“I’m very curious about your current environment as well, but since you need to use this short period to make the breakthrough to the Law Sovereign, let’s wait till you achieve that before we proceed toward uncovering this mystery,” Lionheart Emperor Oro said.
Xia Fei nodded. Right now, breaking through the transom of Law Sovereign was the most important task at hand in order to acquire the qualifications to participate in the Dragon Ascension Conclave. He could leave the mystery of this dungeon at a later time; he had already been granted permissions to enter Crow City, meaning that he could still leave and enter the place as he wished after returning from the Dragon Ascension Conclave. There was no rush.
Deactivating the trigger, Lionheart Emperor Oro and Pod could no longer converse with Xia Fei. This allowed him to begin devoting his fullest concentration to his cultivation.
Furball remained unflinching to the horrible blood-curdling cries, which echoed ceaselessly in the dungeon, his eyes staring greedily at that row of Origin Crystals in front of Xia Fei, nearly dribbling saliva all over.
After a moment’s consideration, Xia Fei picked up one of the grade 4 crystals and gave it to Furball. The ball was beside himself with excitement, nuzzling Xia Fei like crazy in a shower of affection. This was a precious grade 4 Origin Crystal, with an energy concentration a hundred times that of a grade 3 Origin Crystal! This was practically a top-tier nourishment for Furball!
Since the Yu family had already prepared a hundred grade 4 Origin Crystal for Xia Fei, not using them would just be a waste. As there was no way Xia Fei could use so much energy in these fifteen days, he might as well treat Furball something good this time.
Retrieving the white jade ape from his spatial ring, Xia Fei placed a grade 4 Origin Crystal in it and the energy slowly flowed into Xia Fei’s seventh brain region. The pattern of his Space law slowly began to form.
Xia Fei was reviewing the results from his past cultivations. Xia Fei understood the saying that ‘haste makes waste’ very well, so it was important for him to first practice perfecting the very first pattern for his Law of Space before he proceeded further.
Nine mysterious images appeared in rapid succession, one next to the other, like a string of intricately woven kites, as they floated in his mind.
Approximately twelve hours later, Xia Fei took out a silver metal plate to hang on the wall.
This was the second pattern of the Space law, and cultivating this pattern once would allow him to ascend as a Law Sovereign!
This pattern was a lot more profound, complex, and abstruse than the one he had to replicate before.
If the first pattern was like a planet, requiring strict depiction of the mountains and river tributaries of the planets, then the second one was like a galaxy, requiring the equally precise drawing of more than ten planets, which meant that the difficulty of this task was several dozen times greater than before!
After he managed to calm himself down, Xia Fei began to attempt cultivating.
He did not use any Origin Crystal at the start because Yu Hua had already told him that the trick to making a breakthrough involved using the pure mental energy he had after the tide receded. It lay in his state of exhaustion!
Without Origin Crystals supplementing him, the energy that Xia Fei had in his body was quickly used up. After all, this was the second pattern, the path for a warrior to turn into a Sovereign. It was a lot more difficult!
The fine threads were trouble to begin with. The complexity of cultivation was well beyond what Xia Fei had expected, requiring an even finer control of what origin energy he had!
Just as he was about to run out of energy, he heard a bleak and shrill whistle. When people were in a state of nadir, they would very easily be affected by external surroundings. Xia Fei kept feeling a bout of chaos stirring in his brain region as his heart rate accelerated and his blood flow increased continuously! The pattern that he had completed about 10% of disappeared like dust in the wind!
His forehead was drenched in sweat. Cold sweat!
Because he was using the exhaustion method to cultivate, Xia Fei succumbed to the torment of the Fiend’s Bloodcry. He would have to gather a hundred times more concentration just to resist that tempting sound.
Xia Fei’s throat was parched and his face pale.
Opening his eyes, he slowly regulated his breathing.
“That was close! Isn’t it a bit too insane for you to cultivate while dividing some of your concentration to resist the Fiend’s Bloodcry?” Phantom said. That moment when Xia Fei’s experienced physical and mental instability, he nearly tipped over the edge and got overwhelmed by his inner demon.
Xia Fei shook his head. “You’re not wrong about the difficulty, but I won’t give up! The fact that the Fiend’s Bloodcry can tempt and distract me just goes to show that my tenacity isn’t strong enough.”
Xia Fei was stubborn to his very bones, and his innate maniac reared its ugly head once more. After resting for a handful of minutes, Xia Fei devoted himself to cultivation yet again, fighting against the Law of Space while also resisting the mournful wails which would cause any human’s heart to waver!
On the first day, Xia Fei had a tough time cultivating. He needed to stop and take frequent breaks, sweating profusely the entire time. On the second day, Xia Fei saw a significant reduction to the number of times he needed to take breaks, and by the start of the third day, Xia Fei was on average able to hang on for an hour!
This was indubitably a shocking number! It must be said that the cultivation Xia Fei now faced was not just grueling, but the repeated distraction coming from the Fiend’s Bloodcry beside him made this the most excruciating experience!
‘What you give is what you get.’ In order to achieve success that no one else had achieved before, it was necessary for people to withstand pain and agony that others could not take.
Slowly but surely, Xia Fei’s heart became like still water, and the sound, which previously shook his very core, became nothing but a distant distraction.
