In high spirits, 35 outer disciples stood in the courtyard, staring hopefully at Austin.
Austin was the most popular and the most prominent man among the outer disciples recently. Rumor had it that he would reclaim the title of "No. 1 outer disciple.” People always admired the strong and powerful. Being around Austin had them in total awe and adoration.
Meanwhile, for Austin, seeing his followers eager to serve him got his adrenaline pumping.
He delivered a speech before all of them, after they had declared their loyalty to him. He urged them to focus on cultivating their vital energy, and moreover, to always stay together. Austin believed that unity meant strength, and focusing more on the quality of his followers rather than the quantity was more crucial to him. This way, he would be able to focus on helping them cultivate their skills and strengths.
On that day too, he took out a large number of vital energy crystals, and gave each of them 1, 000, making him spend 35, 000 vital energy crystals in total.
He had more than 300, 000 vital energy crystals in his Space Ring, and offering 35, 000 wouldn't hurt his fortune.
But to the outer disciples, it was already a large sum of money—considering their current status and level.
Everyone was thrilled to receive 1, 000 vital energy crystals, thankful that they followed the right leader.
Austin, however, accepted them as his followers on the spur of the moment. It was a quick judgment on his part. He was not ready to spend most of his time with them, as he was used to only having Evan around and his pet, Violet.
So he chose two of the most intelligent and capable outer disciples and had them manage the team on his behalf.
The two chosen team leaders were Donald Lei and Curtis Zhang. They were at level 6 of Energy Gathering Realm and both had excellent communication skills too.
Austin asked Donald and Curtis to stay while he dismissed the others. He gave each of them an extra 1, 000 vital energy crystals as a reward and urged them to discipline the team for him. . . . .
After he was done, Austin went back to his cultivation room and began to practice Golden Sun Scripture.
He and Mindy would set off to the Mysterious Ancient Well tomorrow. According to her, it was a dangerous place, and as such, he needed to be fully prepared.
Early the next morning, when Austin arrived at the mountain pass of Sun Sect, Mindy was already there waiting for him. He could tell that Mindy attached great importance to the pure femininity blossom.
He felt a little embarrassed to have a lady waiting for him.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtWhen she saw Austin, Mindy gave him a sweet and dainty smile, and soon after, they began to start their journey.
Their destination was fifty miles away from Sun Sect—neither too near nor too far. The twin blossoms would blossom in five days, and Mindy and Austin just had plenty of time before that.
Before heading south, they stopped at Peace Town to buy two horses and daily necessities for their travel.
Just as they left Peace Town, more than ten bulky men appeared out of nowhere and followed them quietly.
The leader of the men wore a blood red cloak designed with a gigantic wolf growling at the sky.
Experienced cultivators would recognize the mark at first glance. This man must be a leader of the Blood Wolf Team. After all, not every member could wear the cloak when they carried out a mission.
"Tell our men to keep an eye on that brat. He may have something to do with the death of our five brothers. We must not let him go!" the leader demanded in a cold voice. . . . .
On their way to the valley, Austin and Mindy hardly spoke while their horses raced forward. She led the way, while he followed after her.
After a day of traveling, they found a place near a river where they stopped to spend the night.
They made a campfire and ate the food they had bought in Peace Town.
After finishing their dinner, Austin set up a tent for Mindy, and the lady immediately went to sleep. She must have been exhausted for the day.
Austin sat on the ground with his legs crossed and began to cultivate the Golden Sun Scripture.
Although Mindy hadn't spent much time with Austin, she knew he was a reliable man. She trusted him enough and fell asleep immediately. She understood that he would not take advantage of her. . . .
As Austin began his cultivation, the vital energy in the air swarmed around him at high speed.
He had been cultivating Golden Sun Scripture for many days, and he found that when it began to operate, he would absorb so much positive vital energy in the atmosphere and a slight amount of negative vital energy.
He guessed it might be because Golden Sun Scripture was a positive vital energy refining formula.
The light sphere in his elixir field was about the size of a fist. It glowed like burnished gold, making his entire elixir field bright and warm. Austin felt like he had endless energy.
He planned to improve himself, even more, to make him stronger and more powerful. He was settled to refine his vital energy by cultivating Golden Sun Scripture and shape his body by cultivating Overlord Body-refining Formula.
As long as he could refine his vital energy and body to extremes, he believed that he would be a really strong cultivator. . . . .
Two days after, Austin and Mindy finally reached the valley where the Mysterious Ancient Well was located.
The valley was hard to find. They had to trek through a dense forest and walk across a dangerous marshland before reaching the entrance of the valley.
They even encountered many level 1 and level 2 demonic and diabolic beasts dwelling in the areas before the valley.
But it took Austin not even a bead of sweat to deal with all of them.
What was more, Austin used his simplest physical attack—a punch strong enough to slay a beast.
The power of his single punch equaled to 1, 000 pounds. Along with his Wind-commanding Skill, he feared no demonic and diabolic beasts below level 2.
Those beasts were like newborn babies to Austin—frail and harmless, which greatly shocked Mindy.
Several months ago, Austin and several outer disciples had an uphill battle in dealing with two level 2 evil apes in that Beast Mountain.
During that time, it would take Austin and his companions a while to kill several beasts. Now, he could effortlessly slaughter two level 2 evil apes by himself.
Mindy didn't understand how Austin was able to make such significant improvements in a short time. . .
Half an hour passed after Mindy and Austin entered the valley. Suddenly, a cold breeze blew ahead of them. On its path was an ocean of white mist filled with frost on the ground.
Mindy jumped in excitement.
"Here we are. Look! That's the Mysterious Ancient Well." Austin looked at where Mindy was pointing and saw an old well.
It was surrounded by a strange ground grey as ash. Even the stones were pitch black as if a wildfire had circled the area. It stretched for about fifty feet in radius. The surroundings looked eerie that even mosquitoes and worms would avoid sheltering in its scope.
"Every 30 minutes, the Mysterious Ancient Well will change its temperature between extremely cold and extremely hot. These two kinds of temperatures alternate. As a result, no living things thrive around the well,” Mindy explained as she could tell that Austin was confused at the sight of the place.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmNot until then did Austin realize that living things couldn't inhabit such an environment.
"The twin blossoms will not blossom until two days later. Why don't we put up the tent and wait here? We'll pick the blossoms in two days,” Mindy offered.
Austin nodded without hesitation.
All of a sudden, he felt something. He began to use his spiritual sense to check what was going on within four hundred meters.
With the spiritual sense, he saw several people.
Slowly growing in number, they entered the valley in succession.
There were about more than ten of them.
One of them wore a blood-red cloak, which was very eye-catching.
The giant wolf on the cloak reminded Austin who he was.
He must be from the Blood Wolf Team! It seemed that the Blood Wolf Team had gotten the news as soon as Austin had left the Sun Sect, and sent people to kill him.
They were definitely on his trail.
Five members of the Blood Wolf Team had been killed in the outer mountains of Grand Desolation Mountain.
Blood Wolf Team didn't know who killed them. And because they died while carrying out their mission to kill Austin, they automatically thought it was him who assassinated them all.
Austin could tell that the man in the red cloak reached the Earth Realm.
"Seems like we can't just wait here for two days," said Austin.
Puzzled, Mindy asked him why.
He told her what he had seen.
Mindy was pale with fear when she heard that people from the Blood Wolf Team were after them. The team was well-known in Violet Orchid Empire as they had a reputation of being a cruel and brutal team of cultivators.
Upon learning that a cultivator of Earth Realm and more than ten members of the Blood Wolf Team were hunting them, Mindy was gripped by terror.
All the lively colors had left her cheeks.