It was summer time, and the weather outside the city was scorching hot. The sunlight hurt the eyes, the ground was dry, and the green mountains looked like a long green belt in the distance. There were no clouds to be seen, and under the blue sky, a yellow dirt road went straight into the mountain forests.
The cry of a bird could be heard as a black spot flew past.
Not long later, the sounds of horses galloping could be heard as two horses flew by. They galloped past at speed, causing a trail of dust behind them. The first rider had a formidable and touch look, he was wearing a full body of black and had an eyepatch over one of his eyes. The other rider was wearing grey armor. Surprisingly, it was Zhou Genwei, who had been relegated to an officer guarding the outskirts.
“One-eyed sir, I was planning on stopping the piece of trash from going out of the city, but then I remembered he had the protection of a celestial blessing, so having him out of the city is way better! That was why I deliberately made it so it would be easier for him to head out, to force him out of the city.” Zhou Genwei laughed out loud as he rode his horse.
“How else would we get the chance to kill him?” The one-eyed man let out a cold smile.
Zhou Genwei said, “Logically, that brat has been out of the city for one hour at most, he shouldn’t be too far away.”
The one-eyed man said, “If he is still on the move, my man-eyed eagle will find him.”
Zhou Genwei said, “However, if he’s in the forest, then it will be much harder.”
“We’ll wait for him at Indigenous City!” The one-eyed man slapped his horse and sped ahead.
“Go!” Zhou Genwei followed closely behind.
After the two of them disappeared and the dust settled, a black-clothed man jumped down from one of the large trees on the side of the road.
“Zhou Genwei, I can’t believe you want to kill me!” Ding Hao did not bear that much of a grudge toward Zhou Genwei, but since the man already wanted to kill him, he would have to return the favor!
“The only reason he even has these thoughts is because he feels that I’m easy prey since my cultivation is weak! This sort of person who preys on the weak should just die!”
Ding Hao had already suspected someone was after his life, which is why he climbed up that large tree not long after leaving the village. He did not have to wait long before seeing Zhou Genwei and the one-eyed man following right behind him.
“It seems like I’ll need to be careful.” Ding Hao opened his storage pouch, shouting, “Minion, come on out.”
Minion’s sharp nose would be very useful when travelling in the world. After following Ding Hao in perfect-stage meditation for such a long time, Minion’s sense of smell was extremely good.
“You better work hard, you mongrel. You’ll only be able to eat sh*t if I die.” Ding Hao’s shadow disappeared into the forest.
“Woof! Woof!” Minion cried out indignantly as he followed behind.
Ding Hao did not dare walk on the main road, neither did he dare to roam too deep into the forest, so he walked along the main road.
Along the way, Minion helped him evade a lot of danger. It would always scout on ahead, and then Ding Hao would advance after the coast was clear.
After a distance of travelling, Minion seemed to have noticed something, and started to bark behind them.
“Is there someone following behind me?” Ding Hao stopped in his tracks as he raised his eyebrows.
“Woof.” Minion was incredibly smart nowadays, and could perfectly understand human speech.
“Why is someone following me?”
Ding Hao could not figure it out, “It might just be someone passing by. Let’s change our spot and let them through.”
However, after walking some more, Minion’s barking became increasingly intense.
“Not good, he knows my location and is following me!”
Ding Hao was sweating, not expecting to encounter so much danger so early one. He did not panic, but took out a map to look, “There’s a large plain not far away, it will be easier there.
The plain was filled up with wild grass that was as tall as half a person. The tips of the wild grass were yellow while their bodies were green. A small wind blew, pushing down the tips of the grass and turning the yellow plains into a wide world of green.
When Ding Hao reached the center of the wild grass, he crouched down and hid, concealing himself.
“Now, where is my little rabbit?”
A black-robed shadow sneakily walked out of the forest with a jade talisman in hand. The black-robed figure walked into the wild grass and looked down on his jade talisman, “He’s nearby. Little rabbit, you’re my prey, don’t even think you can run away!”
It was a tracking talisman, there was a red dot on the talisman, indicating the prey was nearby.
“Brat, you should just come out.” The man said as he walked around the tall grass.
“He’s right in front!” The man kept his talisman and started making large strides forward.
However, with one step forward, a sudden sound came from under his feet, and a large flame started to spread from under his feet!
“Fiery fruit!”
The man retreated hurriedly and Xiao Lin jumped right out, his hand was ablaze as he used Nine Layers Blazing Palm, Twin Layered Palms!
Bam! Xiao Lin’s attack caused the man to flew back a few steps.
“Not bad, brat. You actually dare to ambush me.” The man said, surrounded by flames.
Ding Hao oldly said, “Who are you to dare fight me?”
“Dare fight you?” The man gaped, before laughing, “Brat, you’re a pompous one! You sure talk big for someone who’s only at Innate Stage level one. You really deserve to die for walking out of the city!”
Ding Hao was shocked, this man seemed to know him.
Who was he?
“Don’t you find it strange?” The man laughed as he threw off his cloak, revealing a white-faced man.
“It’s you!” Ding Hao suspected a lot of people, but he had not crossed his mind.
It was the white-faced man who sold him the black cloak!
“Aren’t you surprised?” The white-faced man laughed coldly as he slowly kept his black cloak into a storage pouch.
Ding Hao figured it out in a flash.
“So you’ve had your eyes on me since you sold me the cloak!” Ding Hao was calm as he continued, “There’s probably some tracking skill in the black cloak. As long as I left the territory, you could chase me and kill me!”
“You’re quite smart.” The white-faced man said, “How could I make money just off selling black cloaks? Killing and stealing fills my wallet! Everytime I see a brat who doesn’t know his place, I will sell them special cloaks! Just like you, trying to court death outside the city as an Innate Stage level one. Even if I don’t kill you, someone else will!”
Ding Hao said, “There really are all sorts of dangers outside the city. I guess you’ve killed a lot of people like me?”
“Quite a few. To tell you the truth, I got all my armor and weapons like this!” The white-faced man looked very pleased, “You won’t be much of a fight at your level. Just hand me your storage pouch and I’ll grant you a quick death.
“How about I hand you my storage bag and you spare my life?” Ding Hao said.
“That won’t do.” The man shook his head, “How will I ever do business if I let you off? Furthermore, I’m only at Innate Stage level five, wouldn’t I die if you had anyone backing you? Well let’s stop with the nonsense. The road of cultivation is just like this. The only way to get anywhere is by stepping on the corpses of others! Just accept your fate!”
“So you’re only Innate Stage level five!” Ding Hao smiled.
“It’s enough to kill you!”
“Are you sure?” Ding Hao slowly took off his cloak, revealing a youthful face.
“What? You’re Innate Stage level three! I clearly saw you at level one, how could you have broken through in just these few days?” The man was shocked, looking like he had seen a ghost.
He would neve know that Ding Hao really did go from level one to three in just a few short days.
However, he calmed down and said, “What’s so good about level three? I’m already level five! One’s in the middle stages and one is still early, you’re still going to die since we’re so far apart!”
The man started to have a sinister look on his face.
“We’ll see who is going to die!” Ding Hao was not afraid of an Innate Stage level five at all.
Ding Hao’s yuandan was extremely big, his spiritual energy was larger than most people at Innate Stage level four! An Innate Stage level five was not that far away from him! Trying to bully the weak with your strength, this time you’ve found a dead end!
“Tiger Fist!”
The white-faced man cultivated the widely used Tiger Fists. It was an impressive martial arts, even the flames surrounding him could not get near his body thanks to the currents brought up by the Tiger Fists.
“Tiger Fist, huh?” Ding Hao said mockingly, before shouting, “Nine Layers Blazing Fist!”
Ding Hao had already trained with the Nine Layers Blazing Fist for a few days, but it was always by himself. He still did not have any practical experience with it, so it was a bit premature to be using it in a battle to the death.
“Nine Layers Blazing Fist! How fierce!”
The white-faced man was taken aback by Ding Hao’s techniques, but he let out a smile after that, “You only know two layers! You don’t even have any combat experience, there are so many flaws! Dream on if you want to defeat me with just this!”
“Tiger Descending Mountains!” the man shouted, planning on clashing with Ding Hao!
The Tiger Fist was a fierce and intense martial arts, and this man had cultivated it to a decent degree, so the man quickly gained the upper hand, shouting, “Again!”
He followed up with another flurry of blows.
Ding Hao started to get more and more familiar, and unleashed the third layer of attacks, dramatically increasing his fire power!
“Tiger Bounding Through the Rivers!” The man started to raise his spiritual energy, using more powerful skills.
The man thought to himself, “I’m at Innate Stage level five, and you’re only level three. You’ll die as long as I exhaust your spiritual energy!”
After seven or eight blows, the man started to feel something was up.
“This isn’t right, the brat still has spiritual energy left. If this goes on, I might be the one who runs out first! This brat must be some genius with a lot of spiritual energy. Looks like I’ll need to use some tricks!”
Thinking that, the man jumped back, nodding as he said, “Little rabbit, I can’t believe you managed to gain so much spiritual energy at just Innate Stage level three. You’ve got a lot of potential, but it’s a pity you met me. Ha ha, I can’t believe I get to kill a genius today, how fun!”
“Alright, I’m done playing with you.” The man retrieved a well-crafted hand crossbow from his storage pouch, smiling slyly, “This is a high-grade hand crossbow, every arrow is worth five thousand! Since you’re a genius, I’m willing to spend that money. Stop struggling, you’re still going to die in the end!”
“Really?” Ding Hao knew that he could not afford to be picky either.
He quickly retrieved a porcelain bottle from his pouch, breaking in into pieces and throwing it onto his own foot.
Whoosh! The seed and spiritual soil inside the bottle fell onto the ground, and it quickly started to grow. The green colored vines quickly wrapped around Ding Hao’s whole body.
The green vines quickly matured as it turned from green to a purplish-black, forming a hardened armor. Only Ding Hao’s eyes could be seen.
“Crying about five thousand bucks, this armor of mine costs thirty Yuan stones! Let’s see who dies!”