Devouring The Heavens

Chapter 9 – Strength of Eighteen Bulls

Xuanyuan was furious at himself.

Upon hearing Qian Kuai, he immediately realized his mistake. He attracted these enemies because he threw those two men into the stream, instead of killing them. So they gathered reinforcements.

He should have killed them, then no one would know and no one would have come after him.

Xuanyuan glanced at them. Qian Kuai who had just whipped him had nine bulls strength, three of them had seven, and four of them had six. It was not difficult for him to fight them, but Guxing was in danger.

He could sense the danger of the whip in Qian Kuai's hand. There was a rotten smell coming from it. He was feeling stiff from the previous hit, so even though Xuanyuan was inexperienced, he knew that the whip was poisoned.

Turning his head, Xuanyuan evaded another attack from the whip. He took a few steps back and looked at the gang coldly.

"Do you really want to die?"

Xuanyuan held back his strength so his enemy couldn't see his true power. They laughed at him like he had just told a joke.

"You are only a kid with eight bulls of strength. How dare you threaten us." The vicious servants behind Qian Kuai laughed loudly. They might not have done if they faced Xuanyuan one on one, but the situation now was eight against two, with one of them being the wolf. They were not hesitant to provoke Xuanyuan.

"Who knows which of us will be the one dying. We'll all fight him together. I want to skin him alive." Qian Kuai jumped and lashed his whip towards Xuanyuan. With a clean crackling sound, it headed straight at Xuanyuan. The seven men rushed him together.

Yun Zhenluo wasn’t very far away, she was quietly observing.

The whip missed Xuanyuan. His face darkened, turning to Guxing he said,

"Guxing, go find a weak one and strike to kill. Be careful!"

Guxing ran away immediately. Those men were not fast enough to follow him, but they all mocked Xuanyuan when they saw the wolf escape.

"Well, well, well... Even your wolf abandoned you. Prepare to die." One of the servants laughed. But at this moment, Guxing ran back extremely fast. It struck the cocky servant and its claws pierced through his body as its teeth bit into his neck. This man had seven bulls of strength, but when his neck was bitten, he stopped breathing.

This shook the groups confidence. Xuanyuan didn't evade or hide, but rushed right towards them and let his full power lose. He grabbed the necks of two men with six bulls of strength, like he was grabbing baby chicks. He took a few hits from them but they could not even cause him any pain. He lifted the two men into the air and then crushed their throats, their bones snapped like twigs.

You could hear the bones breaking amidst their screaming. It was a horrifying sight to behold.

It only took a few minutes and all the subordinates were defeated. Their bones were broken and they couldn't move. Those who were still alive but couldn’t move were finished off by Guxing's sharp teeth. Xuanyuan had broken their necks. The only one still standing was Qian Kuai.

Qian Kuai couldn't believe his eyes. Even if one possessed the strength of nine bulls, when facing attacks from a group of people, he should have been severely injured yet Xuanyuan was so powerful.

"The kid is not hurt from all those attacks? Has his skin been refined by a sacred instrument during his training?"

Qian Kuai was dumbfounded. Xuanyuan was cunning. He turned to Guxing and said slowly,

"Guxing, this is a fight between me and him. Go to the side, and don't get involved."

Guxing retreated and Qian Kuai felt a bit more relieved when he heard that. He wore a cold smile and thought to himself,

"The kid has a death wish. If he and the wolf attack together, I might be in trouble. Now he wants to fight alone, it's a great advantage for me."

"Good kid. Wouldn't want your friend getting hurt." When he finished speaking, Qian Kuai took a step forward and brandished his whip. Xuanyuan rushed towards him and was struck by the whip. A sharp noise exploded and a bruise appeared on Xuanyuan's arm. Xuanyuan couldn't care less and ran forward. His fist struck against Qian Kuai's chest.

There was sound of broken bones, Qian Kuai coughed up blood. His lungs were damaged. Xuanyuan's arm hurt but was not paralyzed. His heart was singing,

"I was right!"

Not far away, Yun Zhenluo smiled slightly,

"He is an intelligent boy. Dragon scale powder is not any ordinary sacred instrument. A little bit of poison cannot easily pierce through the skin protected by that powder. It cannot paralyze Xuanyuan."

Qian Kuai’s face turned pale. His eyes filled with killing intent and he shot the poisonous dart at Xuanyuan.

"Go to hell!"

When the dart hit Xuanyuan’s chest, there was a clear sound of an impact, but he was not injured despite the sharp pain coming from his chest. He moved closer to Qian Kuai and gave him a strong punch. The strike was so powerful that it crushed his heart and his chest collapsed. His mouth opened and blood started pouring from it.

When Xuanyuan finally regained his composure, he realized the patch of grass where the dart fell had turned from green to grey. He was a bit scared when seeing this. Qian Kuai's tactics were evil and Xuanyuan could have been killed. He moved his hand to his chest. It was still slightly painful. He took out the dragon scale he was using as chest plate. He sighed,

"looks like I was saved by the dragon scale given to me by my beautiful master."

Yun Zhenluo witnessed Qian Kuai's attack but she was too far away to help. It was fortunate that he hid the Dragon scale on his chest, otherwise he would already be dead. Yun Zhenluo was relieved.

Xuanyuan had just killed someone. He had a hard time calming down, but he understood that he would be dead if he didn’t kill his opponent. The dart on the ground was the best evidence. He slowly realized that when he fought his enemies, only one side would be allowed to live. Kindness to his enemies was cruelty to himself. He was relieved to not have Guxing fighting with him, otherwise Guxing may have died. For Xuanyuan, that would be a worse punishment than death.

He made a promise to himself, he would never again let his enemies live. Then he swiftly picked all the coin bags from the dead bodies. Qian Kuai was the wealthiest, he carried 380 warrior coins on him even when he was tracking an enemy. Xuanyuan collected 600 warrior coins from all the bodies. That put a huge smile on his face.

He combined this with his own savings of 5,400 fighter coins. It was quite a large sum of money.

After he finished, he told Guxing,

"Take care of the bodies. You can eat them if you like, but get them out of sight so their ugly faces won't annoy our beautiful master."

He turned around and saw Yun Zhenluo was looking at him. He put on his trademark silly smile and scratched the back of his head. He sounded a bit guilty,

"Thank you master, for your gifts. If I didn't have the dragon scale with me, I would've died."

Yun Zhenluo didn't criticize. She merely shook her head and said,

"You never know what's on people's mind. You're still young. You must be careful and don't show any weakness when facing your enemies."

Xuanyuan nodded heavily and went silent.

Another five days passed.

During these five days, Xuanyuan practiced day and night without slacking. He finished the bottle of dragon scale powder and finally, all his pores were cleansed.

The sensation throughout his whole body was incredibly refreshing. Every single pore, every inch of his skin was breathing in Qi.

His face became bright and radiant, his skin smooth like a beautiful jade piece, but it was also very tough. He whipped himself with Qian Kuai's whip, but he was not hurt at all. It only left a small red mark.

Xuanyuan had already reached the peak of the fighter realm. He now possessed the strength of eighteen bulls. It was way beyond Yun Zhenluo's expectation.

Who knew how powerful Xuanyuan would become when he reached the warrior realm. His strength was already comparable to an ordinary warrior. Except for the exceptional warriors, no one could harm him.

Guxing stayed close to Xuanyuan during the past five days. Its strength grew from six bulls to ten. Its torso became more muscular, and fur softer. However when it was provoked, its fur became piercing spikes.

"Now you have to advance past the fighter realm, and aim to become a warrior. In order to do so, you have to sense your material body, and if you can understand the connection between refining your skin and your flesh, only then you will be able to break through your limit. Fighters refine their skin, warriors their flesh. You have to absorb the spiritual Qi into your body and close all of your pores, so you can refine your flesh." Yun Zhenluo's voice moved away from the tree house. He nodded in agreement.

He had killed the housekeeper of Yue Family. He was probably on the kill list of that family now. It would be stupid for him to go into the city. He could only strive to improve his strength and in the end, get his revenge.

His power grew so much that he was starting to consume even more food. He now ate twenty jin of meat with every meal.

Only eleven days passed, but he had grown taller. He used to be about one hundred and sixty centimetres, he was now one hundred and sixty five. He is still shorter than Yun Zhenluo, but he's only fourteen years old. There was still time to grow.

"Beautiful Master, we’re almost out of food. I'm going out to hunt." Xuanyuan said, then started to ride Guxing, who was now a metre tall when standing all fours, they ran towards the Beastly Forest.