Completing the Mission
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Wu Tianyu raged as he held his limp left arm, running through the forest.
'Those stupid nobles! That bitch is less than a third of my age, yet she can force me into such a situation! If I had half of the background she had, I wouldn't have been forced into this situation.' Wu Tianyu was infuriated as he ran farther and farther away from the village.
Wu Tianyu was once a normal person in this world, destined to live out his 100-year lifespan and die a meaningless death.
But after he found the corpse of an expert demonic cultivator, he thought his life was about to turn around.
However, bad luck after bad luck had made him question just how lucky he was.
First, he lost his right arm to a random merchant, and then he was forced to give up the goal of fulfilling his long-suppressed desire. And now he was being chased into a miserable situation by a random Core Disciple.
Thankfully the expert demonic cultivator was a rich man who possessed more items than Wu Tianyu would ever use in his entire lifetime.
"Just wait until my Yang Repleshing Art brings me into the Qi Sea realm! I'll come back and make your life worse than death!" Turning back to give another hateful look in Xue Bai's direction, Wu Tianyu cursed.
"No need! I'm already here, you scum!" Xue Bai replied back, just as angry. He had already caught up.
Notching three arrows, Xue Bai sent them all flying at Wu Tianyu, blocking his advances and his retreat options, forcing a fight.
"Damn it!" Wu Tianyu stopped and turned around to face his hunter, "Have you no righteousness! Those villagers are going to die! Go save them, not chase after me!"
"I'm a noble, you ass hat! I have bodyguards for this!" Xue Bai berated as he slashed both his Sword Law and Lava Spring Sword at Wu Tianyu.
'Ass hat?' Wu Tianyu was dumbstruck at hearing such an insult, but he had no time to question that before Xue Bai was already near him.
Knowing he wouldn't be able to win the fight without taking ruthless measures, Wu Tianyu hardened his will and decided to sacrifice his useless arm.
Letting Xue Bai slice it off, Wu Tianyu got close and tried to end the fight with a punch to the latter's Dantian.
The Dantian was also known as a cultivator's greatest weakness, so if one strong punch landed there, all of Xue Bai's cultivation would dissipate, leaving him as defenseless as a fish on the chopping block.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHowever, to Wu Tianyu's despair, his punch only landed on Xue Bai's stomach before ricocheting off, sending him tumbling back into the dirt, coughing blood.
"I had wanted to fight you fair and give you a decent death, but you touched a sore spot." Xue Bai spat to the injured Wu Tianyu, "Since you know I'm a noble, why not use that to my advantage? How did the defensive robe feel? It can take a few hits from a Domain Lord."
Feeling a myriad of emotions, Wu Tianyu glared at Xue Bai with a pair of vicious and bloodthirsty that would send shivers down any man before once again turning to flee.
"I said earlier, you'll die soon." Xue Bai said as he grabbed his conjured sword and threw it at Wu Tianyu, piercing him into the mud below him.
Wu Tianyu tried to dodge, but the rebounding force from Xue Bai's robes left his body numb and uncontrollable. So he was forced to watch the conjured sword pierce his Dantian, effectively crippling him.
Enraged and full of anxiety, Wu Tianyu was about to try and talk to Xue Bai and get him to spare his life.
His cultivation technique was his gateway to immortality, and even if he was crippled, he could build it back up in just a few years.
However, Xue Bai was merciless. Smacking the man's jaw with as much force as his wrist could generate, Xue Bai took away his speaking ability.
"Die in agony." Xue Bai coldly spoke as he pierced his Lava Spring Sword into his stomach as well.
His Sword Law would dissipate soon, and he needed the man to stay unmovable for a moment.
Sitting down cross-legged, Xue Bai immediately started to cultivate on the spot.
From every that he knew, and even his father Xue Bai was told that battle was always the best method of breaking through stages.
He, of course, wasn't at a bottleneck, but currently, he was feeling rusty and unsharpened, staying on his peak for so long. And this bounty mission was supposed to not only be a breath of fresh air but also to get him to taste a true fight and also help him break through to the 9th stage of the Bone strengthening realm.
It was effectively hitting three birds with one stone!
And the scriptures weren't wrong.
Almost instantly after he started cultivating, Xue Bai felt his Martial Veins absorbing the Spiritual Qi in the air almost twice as fast as they usually did.
Not wanting the phenomenon to stop, Xue Bai was quick and swallowed an entire bottle full of Bone Strengthening Pills and continued his accelerated cultivation session.
He was already close to the 9th stage, and after another hour of speedy cultivation, he felt the chance to break through.
9th stage of the Bone Strengthening realm!
Excited, Xue Bai stood up, ignoring the searing pain that came from deep within his bones, and once again stretched his limbs and enjoyed the satisfying and aesthetically pleasing cracking sounds that came from his skeleton.
"Father was right!" Xue Bai was content with this mission now, and his previous anger from being threatened by Wu Tianyu was expelled.
However, that didn't mean that the criminal was pardoned, so after making sure there were no internal injuries from the breakthrough, Xue Bai grabbed the dying man's hair planning to drag him back to the village.
The walk was slow, and after about ten minutes of muffled screaming for mercy, Xue Bai arrived, where he found Big Wang tending to the villagers.
Though he was a cultivation maniac and was once a famed soldier under Xue Feng, Big Wang had a soft spot for the weak.
"Young Master, you're too quick to anger. That man was obviously trying to goad you into being indecisive so he could escape further." Big Wang sighed as he sensed Xue Bai's approach, "Mistress had told me not to show myself unless it was a life or death situation. And if I didn't feel bad for the villagers, I wouldn't have."
"If I weren't here, Young Master, his plan would have worked too." Big Wang continued. "He knew it was a lost battle once your Sword Law came out."
Though Big Wang was a servant to Xue Bai in a sense, he was also a close companion. Not only that, but Big Wang's future was tied to Xue Bai's, so he truly wanted the best for him.
So while his words were somewhat piercing, they were all true, not giving Xue Bai any chance of an argument.
"I know," Xue Bai sighed, "However his words were too dirty. I couldn't help but get angered."
His androgynous appearance was always a soft spot for him, but over the years, he had gotten over it, or so he thought. But once he had heard such words from Wu Tianyu, his years of pent-up anger toward it emerged.
"You still have time, Young Master. You're young." Big Wang comforted, "Commander Huo always had a good saying for this. Don't blame yourself for your first mistake. However, don't let it happen again."
"Big Wang, It's my appearance that caused this situation just as much as my temper." Xue Bai couldn't help but say.
"Then maybe get a tan?" Big Wang had no advice to give about such a topic. Not even a blind man would mistake him for a girl.
"Maybe," Xue Bai sighed, "How are the villagers? I brought Wu Tianyu back alive in case one of them wanted to personally avenge that 'Sister Yao' I heard about."
"They're fine. While there was a lot of smoke, it was only near the walls, and most of the villagers stayed in the center of the village. So they'll all be fine after a few days of healing." Big Wang answered, "Thankfully, you sniped that torch before it further ignited the fire. If not for that, the situation might've been much worse.
"Thank you, Young Master!" Suddenly all of the villagers that Big Wang had already helped surrounded the duo and knelt in gratitude.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"It's fine." Xue Bai was calm in the face of their gratitude, "I only wish I could've been faster and saved that Sister Yao of yours."
The village chief's daughter was full of tears, but she still shook her head, "As long as that monster is dead, then I'm sure Sister Yao will be grateful in her next life."
"Do you want to avenge her?" Xue Bai enquired. He had kept the man alive for this reason. If not, he would just kill Wu Tianyu now. While he was able to drag the man easily, Wu Tianyu would still struggle in his grasp, annoying him.
"No, no, no." The village chief's daughter shook her head like a rattling drum. While Wu Tianyu was crippled and rendered motionless, his expression and the ferocity she once saw in him earlier made her afraid to even set foot in his direction.
"Suit yourself." Xue Bai shrugged his shoulders.
Grabbing Wu Tianyu's neck, he twisted like one would a chicken, killing him almost instantly. He also stored Wu Tianyu's corpse in his spatial ring, but now before taking his own off.
Wu Tianyu had regrown an arm and had advanced his cultivation more than two realms above his innate limit in less than two months. Whatever fortuitous encounter he had must've been an extremely valuable one, and Xue Bai was greedy for it.
Of course, the cultivation technique he used was off-limits. Cultivation techniques that used the lifeforce and vitality of others to advance one's own cultivation were banned throughout the Baishen Plane, and rightfully so.
Whether it was using Yin to replenish Yang, using Yang to replenish Yin, or something similar, as long as one didn't want to be an enemy of the entire righteous faction, no one dared to use it, at least publicly. Xue Bai was no exception.
Plus, Xue Bai was a good man, especially to Xiao'er. So how could he turn her into a husk just to boost his cultivation base a stage or two?
However, whatever else Wu Tianyu had, as long as it wasn't extremely morbid and demonic, Xue Bai would take it without care.
"Big Wang, you can stay with the villagers." Xue Bai waved as he planned to leave.
"Be safe, Young Master." Big Wang replied respectfully.
Nodding simply, Xue Bai found where his Wind Chasing Horse was left and started his ride back to the Iron Fang Base.
"Let's see what this legendary flower picker found." Xue Bai muttered as he sent his consciousness into Wu Tianyu's spatial ring.
Inside, Xue Bai found four small piles of things. Three of the piles were normal, as they were just pills, talismans, and jade slips.
However, it was the third that made Xue Bai nauseated.
"I thought you only kept corpses in the other spatial ring. So why the hell are there more in this one?" Xue Bai muttered in disgust.
Promptly ignoring the three husks, Xue Bai pulled out the valuable things that he was so curious about.
He planned to hand the corpses to the Base Lord when he arrived. Though they were extremely disheveled and only husks of their previous beautiful young selves, corpses were something extremely respected in this world.
So rather than being heartless and throwing it into the forest, why not give them to the Base Lord and gain some favor from the family of the deceased? It was a win-win.
Since, most likely, the Jade Slips had the demonic cultivation technique inscribed onto them, Xue Bai ignored those and went directly to the pills.