Chapter 123: Start of Vengeance

“Daaah…”

The sound from the gigantic waterfall resounded across the valley, day after day, year after year. The water vapor made the ravine feel as if it were completely isolated from the sweltering world outside.

As the waterfall surged, it looked similar to a silver dragon. Under the waterfall, a youngster with a bare torso was clenching his jaw while firmly holding onto the large Heavy Xuan Ruler in his hands. Continuously hacking at the torrential current before him, every chop of the Black Ruler sent water flashing forth in the air.

Xiao Yan’s legs were like the roots of a plant, tenaciously gluing themselves to the wooden stake. On the surface of Xiao Yan’s body, a light yellow Dou Qi was faintly discernible and every time water flowed onto his body, a light mist would soar upwards.

For the heavy ruler to chop into the streaming water, a monumental amount of strength was needed, thus having already endured a period of time on the wooden stake, every swing of the heavy ruler caused the muscles on the arms of Xiao Yan to emit waves of acute pain.

With gritted teeth, Xiao Yan’s heel gradually weakened and finally in the middle of a chop, a banging sound was heard as the fierce flow of water finally struck him who had already reached his limit off the wooden stake and into the lake below.

“Pu.” Xiao Yan’s head emerged from the surface of the lake as he spit out a mouthful of lake water. He shook his dizzy head before forcing his almost numb body to swim towards the shore. After reaching the lakeside, his body fell weakly onto the ice-cold rocks while his aching muscles caused him to not want to budge even a fraction.

“Here, eat some of this.” A savory baked fish was passed over and waved in front of Xiao Yan.

Opening his eyes, Xiao Yan deeply breathed in the aroma as a ‘gu gu’ sound erupted from his stomach. Moving his body with great difficulty, he leaned against a giant rock before receiving the baked fish and gorging himself on the food.

As he gazed at the scene of Xiao Yan wolfing down his food, Yao Lao laughed before turning his gaze to sweep across the ten wooden stakes under the waterfall. Smiling, he remarked, “Really, not bad, in just five days, you’ve actually managed to endure for such a long time on the third wooden stake.”

With a mouth almost bursting with food, Xiao Yan could only ambiguously mumble out.

“Recently, mercenaries have appeared more and more frequently around this place.” Seated next to Xiao Yan, Yao Lao seemed to offhandedly remark.

Slightly shocked, Xiao Yan’s eyes slowly narrowed. Forcefully swallowing the food in his mouth, he sneered and said, “Looks like the Wolf Head Mercenaries have finally become aware of something.”

“According to their speed, I’m afraid it will be one month at most before they find this valley. Looks like we need to once again increase the pace.” Rubbing his chin, Xiao Yao smugly smiled.

“How do we increase it?” Yao Lao’s words caused Xiao Yan to blink his eyes, unconvinced. His current training speed was already considered to be high, would it be possible to increase it further?

“It can indeed be faster, but……you will suffer if you use this thing.” Yao Lao honestly replied.

“Have I not suffered a lot over this period of time?” Xiao Yan rebutted as he rolled his eyes while his mouth twitched.

“Hehe, that’s true……” All smiles as he inclined his head, Yao Lao took out Xiao Yan’s Storage Ring before leisurely removing over ten clear jade bottles from within. The jade bottles were filled with a type of red liquid that were as viscous as fresh blood.

“What is this?” Curiously staring at this unfamiliar thing, Xiao Yan asked.

“Burning Blood!” Yao Lao picked up a jade bottle and lightly shook it. Slightly smiling, he continued, “This was made by me using twenty three different types of fire attribute medicine ingredients and the blood from three types of rank two fire attribute Magic Beasts. If we want to judge its quality, it could be likened to a tier four pill.”

“Fourth tier?” Xiao Yan raised his eyebrows; this was the first time he had personally seen a pill of this level.

“What is the effect of this thing?”

“This ‘Burning Blood’, is only effective for a person who has a fire attribute Dou Qi. To a person with water attribute Dou Qi, it is undoubtedly a poison. When it is spread onto the body, it can increase the consumption of Dou Qi within the body and at the same time, it will also speed up the recovery of Dou Qi. Through this repeating process, your strength will gradually increase.” Yao Lao smiled, a crafty look in his eyes, “Don’t be happy just yet, I have mentioned that if you want to use it to increase your training pace, you need to partake in a great suffering.”

“What suffering?” Seeing Yao Lao’s expression, Xiao Yan also felt somewhat nervous as he cautiously inquired.

“Give me your hand.” A smile on his face, Yao Lao pulled Xiao Yan’s arm over before slightly tilting the jade bottle to let a drop of red liquid drop onto Xiao Yan’s arm.

“Hiss…….” As the red liquid touched Xiao Yan’s skin, Xiao Yan was first dazed before he fiercely sucked in a breath of cool air. His forehead was densely covered in cold sweat, his teeth were stuck together as his arms continuously trembled.

In Xiao Yan’s mind, the drop of red liquid on his arm was like a ball of flame, it continuously released a scorching temperature. This burning sensation felt as if he had thrust his arm into a burning bucket of coal.

As if he had predicted what kind of reaction Xiao Yan would have, Yao Lao smugly smiled. Once again taking something out of the Space Ring, a small jade plate made of white jade was used to slowly spreading the drop of red liquid, causing the area it had covered to gradually expand.

In the wake of the expanding reach of the red liquid, Xiao Yan’s arm trembled even more violently. On his arm, even the veins seemed to twist about, creating an extremely terrifying sight.

The red liquid adhered to the surface of Xiao Yan’s skin while traces of faint tepid steam continuously emitted forth. Xiao Yan’s arm also turned a shade redder.

This state continued for over ten minutes before vanishing little by little.

After the burning sensation completely faded from his arm, Xiao Yan finally let out a heavy sigh of relief. Wiping away the sweat from his forehead, he once again gazed towards the small jade bottle before him, but this time with a trace of fear in his eyes.

“This thing……is too terrifying.” With a lingering fear in his heart, Xiao Yan patted the arm which had already returned to it’s regular temperature. Staring at Yao Lao with a bitter look, he said, “We can’t be considering to use this to train right?”

“Steady your mind and sense the flow of Dou Qi in your arm, are there any changes?” Not answering Xiao Yan’s question Yao Lao asked with a smile.

Shrugging his shoulders, Xiao Yan could only comply and close both eyes. His thoughts quickly moved to the Qi Paths on his arm and after probing around, to his astonishment, the Dou Qi in the Qi Paths of his left arm was not only much thicker than the Dou Qi flowing elsewhere but the energy in this Dou Qi seemed to be somewhat stronger too.

Somewhat amazed, Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the side where Yao Lao was still smiling. He lapsed into silence for a while before resolutely gritting his teeth: “Come on, let’s fight it out!”

Seeing Xiao Yan’s resolute appearance, the smile on Yao Lao’s face widened even further. He had long ago foreseen that this little brat would not be able to resist the enticement of the high-speed increase of strength that ‘Burning Blood’ produced.

“Lie on your stomach; from now on we will spread it over your entire body once per day. This will help your training speed increase by a total of thirty to forty percent.” Yao Lao smiled as he waved his hand.

Xiao Yan cracked open his mouth and bit onto a portion of his clothes before tightly gripping a crack in the rocks with both hands. With a muffled voice, he spat out, “Bring it!”

Gazing at Xiao Yan who looked as if he were going to face a terrible enemy, Yao Lao grudgingly shook his head. The jade bottle tilted as a red liquid immediately flowed out……

“Ah……” A mournful and miserable howl suddenly resounded once again throughout the valley.

While Xiao Yan squeezed in every bit of time he had for training, the search by the Wolf Head Mercenaries became more and more intense, they payed the price of over ten of their companions lives before finally, they started to draw close to the valley where Xiao Yan was.

On a certain day one month later, when Xiao Yan was finally able to endure on the eighth wooden stake for a long period of time, at last, a member of the Wolf Head Mercenaries managed to stumble upon this quiet valley.

As he stood at the valley entrance, this Wolf Head mercenary blankly gazed at the youngster who was training under the waterfall. It was only a moment later when a cold breeze blew by did he regained his wits and at this time, ecstasy gushed forth in his heart. Without a word, he quickly retrieved the signal beacon from his bosom but just as he desired to release the signal, an intense, wind breaking force abruptly attacked from the front.

The strength of this attack caused the mercenary whose strength was that of a six star Dou Zhe to shiver in his heart; the sole of his foot slammed into the ground as his figure turned to flee.

“Boom!” A black shadow broke through the air and heavily smashed onto the ground. Immediately, dirt was flung about and a monstrously huge black metal ruler was left stuck deep in the ground.

His sight on the strange black giant ruler, the pupils of this Wolf Head Mercenaries member slightly shrunk. This unique weapon had already become a symbol of the youngster they had placed a bounty on.

As the dirt flew into the air, covering one’s line of sight, this experienced and seasoned mercenary did not show an disappointing display; his figure continuously backed off in a rush as his keen eyes darted back and forth over the surroundings.

Just as the mercenary was almost exiting the valley, his spider senses tingled as he abruptly dropped his body to the ground.

“Ka cha!” Just as his body dropped to the ground, a violent Qi energy ruthlessly tore through the area atop his head before finally hitting a big tree to one side. Immediately, cracks appeared across the tree trunk and following a breaking sound, the tree split at the middle.

Gazing at the tree which had been forcefully destroyed, the mercenary on the ground sucked in a cold breath. To create this kind of destructive force, how much strength was needed?

As the shock flashed and passed from his mind, this mercenary suddenly placed his palms on the ground, his figure became similar to that of a house lizard. Flicking his palms off the ground, in a weird manner, his body dashed towards the thicket.

The fleeing mercenary was very satisfied with this move of his; this High Huang Lizard Crawl Dou Techniques had helped him escape from jaws of death many times. From what he knew, among those at the Dou Zhe level, there were very few people that could stop him as he escaped through the jungle.

Just after the mercenary thought of returning to report and being able to receive the large reward before going to tavern to take revenge against the fair and well developed woman who disdained him, on the path before him, a pair of feet abruptly appeared.

The urgently dashing body suddenly stopped as the mercenary lifted his head, terrified, to meet the smile on a handsome face.

“You run very fast……” The youngster slightly smiled at the mercenary. In his pitch-black eyes an ice-cold killing intent caused the mercenary to tremble uncontrollably.

Gazing upon the mercenary who had lost his spirit, the corners of Xiao Yan’s mouth curled upwards while the giant black ruler in his hand chopped downwards ferociously. Immediately, a blood-curdling shriek resounded across the forested mountains.

Indifferently wiping the blood off the mysterious and heavy ruler, Xiao Yan cast a glance towards the corpse at his feet. His tongue lightly licked his lips as a blood-thirsty look appeared on his face. He softly murmured to himself, “Want to kill me? Good……from today onwards, every member of the Wolf Head Mercenaries who dares to step into the Magic Beast Mountain Range will be exterminated……since you all want to play, then we should up the stakes.”

“My vengeance starts now……”