Translator: Kazeyuki_ Editor: Jimmy_

With a fast speed, Qin Wushuang got out of the Green Jade Mountain and returned to the camp. Currently, Zhao Muzhi and the others have been waiting here for a long time. The nine Core disciples were discussing their plans for the next step. When they saw Qin Wushuang rushing back, they were all surprised.

It was because Qin Wushuang appeared in a somewhat embarrassing state. All of his clothes were somewhat shredded and his entire body showed signs of a blood-soaked battle. Especially on his skin, there were layers of blood streaks. Apparently, he had received a few injuries from the Wind Wolf’s tyrannical attack.

Qin Wushuang said with a serious expression: “Everyone, I was attacked by a War Beast when I entered the mountain. However, I didn’t disgrace us and killed that War Beast. However, I feel that my Spiritiual Qi is roiling and is showing signs of breaking through. Everyone, please protect me for a day and a night.”

Although these Core disciples grasped the picture that Qin Wushuang had lightly sketched, they knew that it must have been a dangerous and ruthless battle.

When they heard Qin Wushuang speaking about breaking through, each of them was dumbfounded.

Even Zhou Fu said stutteringly: “Junior Brother Wushuang, you are breaking into the Middle Stage?”

“Yes, the signs are becoming apparent. Please excuse me.”

Qin Wushuang had always been straightforward as he dived into his tent and started to seal himself off from the outside world.

The others looked at each other in dismay, still trying to adjust their senses and come back to reality. Only Wei Yi had a clear mind: “Don’t be surprised, for sure, the enemy is just more than one War Beast. Everyone, stay alert, and since Junior Brother Qin is going to break through, we need to put our mission to the side. For this one day and night, we must not let anyone enter within these one hundred metres.”

Among this group of disciples, Wei Yi had his reputation. After all, Wei Yi had been the leader among the young generation for many years, it was helpful to use his reputation after years of building it up.

Those disciples did not dare to act sluggish and started moving. Regardless, it was a great merit when Qin Wushuang entered the mountain and killed the vicious beast. And being the leader, he had finished the mission and was about to break through. Naturally, they had no reason to not protect him.

Even Zhao Muzhi nodded to agree without any objection.

For the nine Core disciples, Wei Yi was the most powerful and guarded the outer perimeter. Then, it would be Zhou Fu with Lü Teng and Jian Rui. In the final circle of defense was Zhao Muzhi, Deng Bohu and Miao Zhongxia.

With the three layers of defense, even if the enemy came to attack, their layers of defense would not allow the enemy to break into the camp easily.

Qin Wushuang sat in the middle of the tent with a strangely calm mood. He had estimated the length of time he’d require would span the day and a night along with some leeway. If things went smoothly, he would most likely succeed by the early morning tomorrow.

It was because that he found out that it went smoothly when he had merged the Spiritual Qi from the Wind Wolf. During the process, he did not encounter any obstacles. Qin Wushuang felt that his own Spiritual sea was like a vast ocean that hundreds rivers converged together without any signs of insufficient capacity.

Currently, Qin Wushuang knew that the fortuitous opportunity he had encountered in the Great Cang Mountains had been blessing in utter defiance of the natural order. It had rebuilt his body to a demonic level. Regardless of how much he absorbed the Spiritual Qi, he did not feel any discomfort in his body nor any rejection.

Waves of Spiritual Qi continued to merge into his sea of Spiritual Qi. And within this sea, it developed an absorption power as if it was eager and hungry to absorb all Spiritual Qi from the Wind Wolf.

This was the most desirable stage. If Zhuo Buqun, the Head Palace Master had learned that Qin Wushuang’s sea of spiritual Qi displaying such a reaction, he would be extremely astonished.

It was because this was a performance of the sea of Spiritual Qi that showed it had life. The usual sea of Spiritual Qi were steady and thick. Such an active sea of Spiritual Qi was a rare quality even among tens of thousands of people. When this person trained, he would require only half the amount of effort compared to normal martial artists.

On the contrary, Qin Wushuang did not act over-excited. He slowly organized the Spiritual Qi until the last strands merged into his sea of Spiritual Qi. As Qin Wushuang slowly consolidated it, he only felt his pubic region slowly getting enlarged and expand. It was as if a new born baby was growing at a speed visible to the naked eyes…

With the expansion from the pubic region, the Spiritual Qi also danced and exuded a vigorous vitality. Qin Wushuang guided the Spiritual Qi and continued to circulate it inside his body.

He knew that the Middle Stage was the continuation of the Initial Stage of the Spiritual Martial Force. Although there was a trench between the two, once he filled this trench, he would make it to the Middle Stage.

Only, a warrior at the Middle Stage would have the ability to exercise the Qi. They could use the attributes of their artery to move it along. Such method was somewhat different than the Initial Stage.

For instance, the liver had the attribute of wood; the heart, fire; the spleen, earth; the lung, metal; and the kidney, the attribute of water…

The five basic attributes had started to enlarge their influence within their body and show themselves. Finally, Qin Wushuang understood how a warrior at the Middle Stage could use elemental attacks.

The reason was that the basic training of a Middle Stage took a different path corresponding to the five elements. While one followed these paths, they could easily distinguish the five elements.

Qin Wushuang started to move his twelve honorable veins, the eight classic arteries with the five elements as the basis. All these paths corresponded to the five attributes. As it passes through all the acupoint of the entire body, the dots would form into lines, and lines would form into a dimensional area. From this point, it would serve to exercise the entire body.

Unaware of how much time had passed, Qin Wushuang only felt all the Spiritual Qi traveling through the major arteries and veins of the body, all of them seemed to have received a call from the pubic region and rushed there.

Qin Wushuang only felt waves of warm current surging into his pubic region. An unprecedentedly strange feeling filled his entire body that only made him feel extremely relaxed.

Middle Stage of the Spiritual Martial Force!

In Qin Wushuang’s pubic region, that wave of warm current contiued surging up as if it was going to deliver him to some peak and float above everything.

In his brain, only these words repeatedly appeared—Middle Stage.

Whoosh!

Qin Wushuang knew that this must be the most crucial moment. As long as he kept guiding this wave of warm current to its peak in the pubic region, the moment it stopped would the time he ended his isolation…

…

In the depths of the Green Jade Mountain, a man dressed in grey robe suddenly frowned and opened his eyes. He had awakened from his meditative state and muttered a few words of a spell with his hand making gestures.

After a moment, this man in grey robe raised his sword-like brows and a wave of extremely evil light shone out from his cold eyes. Carrying within it was a few treacherous intentions, he stood up with astonishment. Again, he spoke the spell and made the hand gestures. Still, nothing reacted like a stone dropped into the deep ocean.

“Hum? Where did Little Wind go? He’s not within my summoning zone?” Although he thought inwardly, he could not help but feel a burst of pain. Cold sweat emerged from his entire body and a wave of bad feeling slowly crept into his mind.

“No, it’s not right…” That man in grey robe shook his head lightly, “I just woke up from my meditation and have just achieved a breakthrough. Logically, I should not have such impatient thoughts. What is going on? Besides, Little Wind is my contract beast and protects me. He should not be able to go further than the three hundred mile range of our connection, could it be?”

In the mind of the man in grey robes, those terrifying emotions started to accumulate. In the end, it formed a terrifying thought.

“Something happened to Little Wind?” When the man arrived at this conclusion, he dashed from the cave and used his inner spiritual aura to search while tracing the presence of his contract beast. In a moment, he found some evidence.

The more he followed the clues, the more restless the man in grey robe became. Basically, he was sure that his most prized assistant, that vicious Wolf was no longer alive. However, he still carried a glimmer of hope as he continued to search.

To him, this Wind Wolf was much more valuable than his own brother. One man and one beast were bound by contract. They had gone through many battles and experienced many moments of life and death. Their deep relationship had given them a deeper connection than any other bonds that the man in grey robe had with other people.

He must see the living wolf or its corpse. This was the conviction of the man in grey robe.

Suddenly, he quickened his footsteps and his body scrambled forward like a whirlwind. In front of him, there was a giant branch that had been drilled open through the middle into halves by a spiral Spiritual Qi attack. It opened to the side and in the middle, there was a giant hole.

The ground was full of potholes showing clear signs that the Wolf had dug into the ground.

When the man in grey robe took a closer look, he almost spat out a mouthful of blood from his throat. Most likely, he would not forget this scene for the rest of his life. Under that giant hole, there was the head of the wolf. Its expression was malevolent and its eyes remained wide open, filled with terror and desperation.

“Little Wind!” The man in grey robe held his chest. He felt as if the sky had darkened and he could not stand straight. He grabbed that wolf’s head and a trace of indescribable sadness flashed through his sharp eyes. Then, his sadness was consumed by an endless rage and hatred.

“Little Wind, who killed you? Who!” The man in grey robe whistled to the sky. His anger could not be described by words. He only wanted to kill to the Ba Shu Country and vent his hatred by slaughtering tens of thousands of people! Even though it would be hard to extinguish the fires of his wrath.

This long whistle soared to the sky. Even the birds that heard this sound wave ran away in a hurry. They flapped their wings as they fled, terrified.

As the man in grey robe looked at the wolf’s head in his hand, he put it away carefully as if he were handling his own brother. At the same time, he mused evilly: “Little Wind, regardless of who did this, I will make them pay, kill all nine generations of their family, cut down their heads, and peel away all their skin to build a human skinned coffin. I will use their skull to make the gravestone and use their organs as sacrifices for your soul in the heavens! Little Wind, just wait for me!”

When he said that, there were no more sadness nor any other emotions in the eyes of the man in grey robe. Instead, he had become extremely calm and started to plan his revenge.

He discerned that the person who had killed Little Wind should have the power of a Middle Stage warrior. From this battle, the enemy’s power would not be that much stronger than Little Wind. Or else, he would not have allowed Little Wind to attack for so long.

Thus, from his eyes, there was some determination of a total victory.