Ji Xi :
What is going on here, where is my brother ? .
The girl seeing the current situation was bewildered at what was happening in front of her, noticing the guy on the left Song Che, she was beginning to become a bit nervous and was currently asking about the fate of her older brother .
" Don't fret much, he is here beside me, you should come and take a cover quickly, else the next flurry of attacks will start .
As I said this in a hurry, seeing that the Feather was gleaming even more as if it was greeting the newcomers, so I tried to warn them, but just as I finished giving them all a warning, a guy that looked to be a pampered Young Master stepped forward and actually pointed at me and said :
Princess Chu, you really shouldn't trust this guy, if your brother was indeed taking cover with him, then what kind of an enemy were they hiding from, also since your senior brother is with him, then it shouldn't be a problem for your senior brother to reply once you call him .
Another Young Master took the resume of putting more accusations on me upon himself and said :
Wei Li's words might indeed be right, this guy is mostly wanting to take the young miss of the Green Sword Villa as a hostage and ask for a huge ransom for you later .
Wei Li's was the first one to speak, then after him came a bunch of young masters who were all fawning over Ji Xi, the second guy who spoke and a lot of his people cheered him for it was called Ji Nan, I was able to know his name from the mouth of the third person who came forward to accuse me of even more severe accusations, that third young master said :
Fairy Chu, you should be more wary of strangers when you are out in the world, this guy seemed to have done something to your senior brother, that guy looked quite dangerous if you ask me, so I do agree with what Wei Li' and Ji Nan said .
The third young master who stepped forward to say this was even more bolder than the other two and tried to get close to Ji Xi, but just as he was about to almost touch her, he suddenly jumped backwards and I saw that at some point the girl seemed to be running out of patience and she unsheathed her sword .
If he had even moved a little bit slower than how he did just now, that throat of his would have been punctured by the sword in her hands just now, that guy name was Ba Zhi, I was able to hear his name after hearing what Ji Xi had in store for him, she said while walking calmly towards where I was :
Wei Li, Ji Nan, Ba Zhi, you guys shouldn't concern yourself with what this young miss want to do or who she interact with, especially you Ba Zhi, if something like what you were trying to do happened again, this young miss won't care about your Ba family's face and I will personally cut your manhood and feed it to the dogs .
Hearing her say this so casually and with such a cold voice, every male present felt a chill running down their lower body, some even winced in pain as if they were already imagining this really happening .
Ba Zhi :
Chu Ji Xi, we all came here due to the same circumstances and for the same purpose, we are also sharing similar troubles as people from the younger generation in the capital city, aren't you going far by this threat of yours .
Echoes of agreement sounded from around him and I was more or less surprised at the fact that such guys were from the Capital City, I indeed hadn't heard about any of these guys before today, so it was actually a surprise to know where they came from .
His obscured words about them being here due to similar circumstances and them being here for the same goal, I also sensed that in his words there were some other kind of mysteries, but I currently had no interest in finding them out, so I dropped the subject, but I raised my guard up a little bit more, just in case of the situation went off suddenly .
And just as I was expecting, somone did try to fish out troubles in this muddled water, the person was none other than the completely forgotten about Song Che, he used the dagger from before to try and attack Ji Xi, intending to kill her directly .
The girl sensing that something was wrong, she become vigilant, but even though she raised her guards up, the Mental Energy and the materials that this dagger was made of allowed it to glide in the air at an abnormal speed, that went even beyond what the girl can be able to deal with .
She seemed to have realized this as well and was about to burn her own Blood Qi for a slight bit increase in strength, but I appeared in front of her directly before she do this and stopped her by directly infusing my Blood Qi into hers which brought the process into a halt .
She coughed a mouth of blood and looked at me bewildered at why I did that, I was even able to see that doubt began to actually cloud her judgment, wondering if she should have really trusted me before, but the current me didn't have enough time to resolve her doubts, I covered her behind me and only conjured a barrier that covered only the two of us .
With my current reserve of Mental Energy, covering small distances won't consume as much as before, the dagger clashed with the barrier and sparks once again appeared, but this time I had already though of a plan that should allow me to save the girl and also get my hands on that dagger .
The barrier being more compressed than before and covering a short distance made it a lot stronger than before, it allowed me to bear with the incoming dagger without any sort of troubles unlike before, I as before made him think that his dagger was being targeted and like before he preferred to be safe than sorry and recalled it back .
But this time I controlled my Retribution Sword to flew towards that dagger, him seeing the appearance of my sword, his eyes began to gleam with greed, unaware of the disaster he was inviting to his doors .
The clashes between the two flying weapons kept sounding through the whole underground area, a new mix of violet and blue mixed with the original eerie green glow, it made the whole scene look even more mysterious, my sword kept on getting pushed back time after time, the girl behind me began to tug my robe from behind, probably worried at what might befall her if I lost, unaware of the fact that all this was merely an act .
Yes, my Retribution Sword cannot be pushed back quickly like this, this was the situation I wanted, this was the plan I devised, just as the sword of mine was pushed back to my hand, I saw that the dagger seemed to have gained even more momentum than before as it came rushing towards me, but just as the dagger was nearing, it suddenly stopped midair and fell to the ground, no longer moving .
Song Che :
You, you, what did you just do ? .
He looked at me in disbelief and the corner of his mouth had a faint trace of blood on it, it seem that losing this flying dagger of his cost him both physically and mentally as well, I was able to see that his complexion become even paler than before and his eyes become bloodshot .
I understood his troubles more clear than anyone here, bewilderment, sluggish thoughts, all kinds of negative effects that the Panel helped me remove was what he was currently suffering, but what hurt him the most without any doubt was the loss of that dagger .
He kept yelling at it to move, but all that the dagger did was flashing with violet colored light and that was all, the energy of resentment was what allowed this plan of mine to succeed, taking advantage of the properties of that energy, I used it to devour the Mental Energy he used to control the dagger .
After a few clashes with the sword and the dagger and its owner failing to understand what was actually happening, the Sword managed to infect the dagger with the resentment energy and after that successfully happened, it was simply a matter of time before the dagger get contaminated by the resentment, that was why it was currently flashing like that .
As he was on the verge of losing his mind, a stupid person that wanted to carry favor and prove his worth stepped towards the dagger amidst the chaos, Song Wei, I found myself turning to the girl behind me and said :
" Sorry, it seem that you won't be able to avenge your fallen comrades yourself .
The girl barely had the chance to stare at me with bewilderment before a sudden shrilling scream sounded from where the dagger was, the scream didn't last long and before anyone know it excluding me, Song Wei's body began to disintegrate at an alarming rate to the naked eyes .
He first grow old, his hair turned white in color, then it fell, his face become tight, his back hunched forward, his vigorous spirit was turned off, then his old body began to be devoured by the resentment energy, decaying in less than 10 seconds, after 10 seconds had passed, the resentment that was engulfing and swirling like flames around his body dissipated .
But only after it finished devouring the life out of that guy, he tried to prove himself worthy enough to be kept alive, but he overestimated his own capabilities and end up crossing the death doorstep completely by himself .
The shocking scene left all the people present stunned and completely unsettling, the stillness was broken by the crashing sound that the skeleton who was once Song Wei falling to the floor, normally the resentment wouldn't have even left anything of him, but due to the amount of resentment in the dagger being less than the amount in the sword and the fact that this guy's skeleton was able to let go of the dagger, all allowed him to keep his skeleton after death .
People present collectively sucked a cold breath of air, that almost turned the place to a vacuum, just as I was about to reach for the dagger and the pouch, I saw that Song Che seemed to be the first to come back to his senses, he directly launched an attack, throwing something at the deepest part of the cave not at me or anyone here .
The moment I saw him do that, I understood what he was trying to do after hearing a loud explosion sound coming from there, I was still able to get the dagger and sadly the pouch was already collected by Song Che, but I didn't feel much of a loss, my target was achieved after all, then I turned to the guys who was still standing at the entrance in daze and said :
" Take cover, or else you all going to die .
I then took the girl's behind me hand and motioned for the other companions of her to follow us, which they agreed to do instantly, but it was the other guys who still in trance about what had just happened who was still stubborn and unclear about what was going on, one of them even began to actually say :
Dont fret, that guy might be just trying to scare.....us .
Just as the guy who stepped forward to say this was talking, he turned towards his comrades to say this, something behind his back began to glow and as he finished saying this and turned his head, his body was directly split in two and his body exploded with Blood soon after .
Screams soon followed and like a headless chicken, these people began to panic and were moving aimlessly, then some of the more intelligent people, recalled what I just say and directly took cover, some who were unable to calm themselves down in time, were hit by the flurry of energy blades, some even used their own people as meat shields and both people who did this were killed .
Screams began to echo in the cave followed by the sound of flesh being torn apart, loud explosions were heard one after another, this flurry of attacks continued far more longer than the previous ones, the scene was chaotic and nightmarish to the extreme .
I felt that my stomach were beginning to churn, so I ended up lowering my head and leaned my back on the piece of rock that we were covering behind, letting my heart rest a little, I had no feeling of regret, after all I tried to save as many people as I can just now, them listening to me or not was completely up to them, so their deaths can only be blamed on themselves .
What happened to my Senior Brother ? .
Just as I was breathing heavily trying to regulate my current breathing rhythm, I heard Ji Xi ask this, I briefly told her about what happened before and saw that the corners of her face that were uncovered by the mask showed a faint crimson blush on her cheeks .
The girl bowed down in gratitude and thanked me for all that I did, I nodded at her casually and told her not to take it too much to the heart, I then asked them to meditate and restore themselves to their peak state, some of them complied, while others were still a bit wary of me and volunteered to act as guards for those who would be recuperating, I didn't take this to the heart and just sighed and rested my head on the big rock that kept us safe .
I didn't intend to eavesdrop on what the rest of those guys were saying, but I was still able to hear them talking about how many people would be actually able to survive, the screams and explosions hadn't stop all this time, seeing that the cave shaking hadn't stopped and realizing that I might have some time on my hands .
In reality, I was just trying to find something that can keep me busy and divert my attention from all the screams and noise, I inspected myself first and found something strange with my body, a small shard of the attack that hit me was actually still hanging around in the lowest part of my stomach, but that wasn't the only strange thing .
The strange force that appear every time I'm activating Dragon-Tiger Transformation was actually acting very weird, that force would normally be absorbing my Blood Qi or roaming around my body, but this time it actually rested in where the Dantian as mentioned before in the Charging Tiger book .
Weird enough that strange force seemed to have taken root there as it was unmoving, what was even more weirder, was the fact that it was absorbing the green shard of energy in my body, the speed of it doing that was meager but it was indeed happening .
I didn't know what was going on, the Panel seemed not able to interfere as well or maybe there was no reason for it to interfere, maybe what was happening was a good thing in the end, maybe or maybe, the person who created this mysterious method left some more mysteries in it than what met the eyes .
There was already some mysteries regarding what might happen after someone try to run the three books created by that mysterious guy, but now I who should have been dead after using Dragon-Tiger Transformation so many times, can't help but find myself intrigued to know what exactly might be happening here .
Why was that strange force acting like this only this time, what kind of relationship does that weird feather have with the Dragon-Tiger Transformation and the author of these books, was there even a relation or this was nothing but a coincidence, what exactly would happen after the shard in the Dantian get absorbed will something change with my body, will something change with the strange force, should I be worried .
The only answer that I had an answer for was the last question, I shouldn't be worried that much, since it was in my body, then the Panel could exert a huge influence upon it, no matter how strong it was and how strange it was, this was what made me settle down a little, if I remembered correctly urging the three methods ( Tiger's Force, Crouching Tiger, Charging Tiger ), together with the Dragon-Tiger Transformation resulted in making the person burst from inside out .
What might happen in my case, I can't help but truly wonder about this, could the problem be related to that strange force and if it was indeed responsible for this, then since I'm able to evade getting implicated by using Dragon-Tiger Transformation, could I be able to crack those methods secrets .
Something inside me felt the urge to try increase more and more, but all this was for nothing, since I had remembered that I still lack the Tiger's Force book, even though it was a Yellow low-grade technique, without it, there was no need to continue thinking about solving the mysteries in these methods in this life, or the next one even .
To unlock the secret, I need the three methods, but Senior Brother Fu had told me before that this booklet was lost and the people who might still have it, are the Evil Tigers group, wait a minute.... .