Xiao Jianming poured all of his strength into this single swing in the hopes of taking the Blue Centipede down in one go.

Fang Xing knew Xiao Jianming was now performing his final strike, and his eyes began to glisten. He immediately nocked the bone arrow, and the spells inlaid on the bow’s body s.h.i.+ned as Qi was poured into them. A giant force rushed forth from between the heaven and earth, before—with a swoosh sound—the bone arrow disappeared from the bowstring, tearing the air as it pa.s.sed and leaving a frighteningly sharp sound in its wake.

Xiao Jianming hardened his heart. His iron sword was angled slightly as it landed in the middle of the centipede’s body and cleaved it in half. It was also at this moment that the bone arrow reached its destination and—coupled with a bang—a house-sized stone around three hundred feet away was shattered into pieces.

All eyes turned towards Fang Xing, unsure of what he was playing at. Fang Xing’s face turned bright red under their curious glances, and he waved his hand and said, "Heh heh, it’s been too long since I’ve used a bow. I’m just getting used to this!"

‘Ack, so the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d just missed…’ all of the disciples thought the same thing to themselves.

Xiao Jianming laughed coldly when he saw the Blue Centipede trying to escape from within the scattered stones with only half of its body remaining, and he immediately had the eagle give chase. This time, he’d kill it once and for all.

As for the airborne Fang Xing, he also hastily nocked a bone arrow once more. Using all of his might and concentration, he pulled the bowstring until it was curved like a full moon and aimed it towards the Blue Centipede

Xu Linyun did not join in with this and looked on with interest from afar. The Qing-Yun disciples from all four valleys also watched everything that happened, although for them it was with a sense of nervousness. They actually wanted to see if this boy—who had dared to challenge s.h.i.+xiong Xiao Jianming and attempt to steal his prey—would end up with success or failure.

Woosh….

s.h.i.+ng….

Both the sword light and bone arrow were released towards the fleeing centipede at the same time.

The sword light was slower, but it was closer and very flexible as it s.h.i.+fted hundreds and thousands of times while covering a great area. The white light of the bone arrow drew power from the [Bow of Startled Dragon] and had an influence focused on a single point near the centipede’s head that was no less impressive than the sword light. As both attacks drew closer, the Qing-Yun disciples’ hearts seem to freeze in their nervousness.

At this precise moment, someone in front of the centipede let out a loud shout of surprise as a red shape coiled close. The Blue Centipede lost all control over its body and was tugged away by the silhouette, only for both the sword light and bone arrow to arrive mere moments later. Two loud explosions rang out as a giant hole was blasted into the ground, the force smas.h.i.+ng and scattering the nearby stones to create a dust cloud that hid the results.

"Hahaha, I didn’t expect to get a ninth-tier beast core here!" a loud, feminine voice laughed. As the cloud of dust began to clear, the Qing-Yun disciples were left dismayed by what they saw. Behind the dust was a little girl around the age of twelve or thirteen—even younger than Fang Xing—who wore a bright red dress and held a fiery whip in her hand. She was observing the corpse of the Blue Centipede in front of her with great interest.

Krrk… crack….

The girl showed well-practiced movements as her small yet strong hands began to crack open the Blue Centipede’s fourth segment as effortlessly as opening the sh.e.l.l of a crab. Then, she reached her hand inside its body and grabbed a fist-sized beast core colored an earthy yellow. After a closer inspection, she smiled excitedly and yelled out, "It’s actually an earth-element beast core, what a gain!"

While the little girl was celebrating, the Qing-Yun disciples were looking at each other in confusion.

What was happening here? Where did this random girl come from, and she even took the beast core?

It was also at this moment that the golden crow beneath Fang Xing s.h.i.+vered. "Sh*t, why the h.e.l.l is she here?" he muttered.

"What’s wrong? Who is this chick?" Fang Xing asked curiously.

The golden crow seemed a bit nervous as he quietly answered, "She’s from the Myriad Beasts Sect of the Bohai Kingdom. F*ck, how did she dare to cross the borders to come here?"

Something about the crow seemed abnormal to Fang Xing. "What happened exactly?" he asked with quick urgency.

The golden crow puckered his beak before muttering to himself, "Not to worry, no need to be nervous. They’ve never seen what I really look like anyways, so they might not know it’s me…. Calm—calm down…. How did they know the Beast King Cauldron is here? Dammit, could it be because I activated it earlier? Did they sense it from that? That must be it… I have to come up with a method to cover up the scent…."

Fang Xing smacked the golden crow twice while sitting atop him. "What exactly happened? Tell me now!" he softly demanded.

The crow’s answer was filled with bitterness. "A month ago, I made a pa.s.s in the Bohai Kingdom and stole the Beast King Cauldron from their Myriad Beasts Sect, then I went into hiding in the deep forests before making my way into the Chufung Kingdom. I didn’t think cultivators from the Bohai Kingdom would dare to come here. Since this girl showed up, the other guys from the Myriad Beasts Sect must have also followed; she couldn’t have come here on her own…."

Fang Xing asked a few more questions before understanding that the crow had single-handedly caused all of this. The small red-dressed girl was the daughter of their sect master and was like the little princess of the Myriad Beasts Sect. It was more than likely they’d entered the Chufung Kingdom’s territory to chase after the golden crow who had stolen their Beast King Cauldron. Under normal circ.u.mstances, finding the crow within an area as large as the mountain ranges would not be easy, but he had used the cauldron twice already within these short few days. They must have sensed the scent of the cauldron and followed it over here….

Fang Xing was speechless. "Mm, looks like I can’t judge a book by its cover. Stealing their precious Beast King Cauldron and then calling it broken…."

"Is this the time to worry about such things? Why don’t you hurry and help me think of a way out?" the golden crow urged.

Fang Xing smirked. "Don’t you just have to cover up the scent? That’s not a problem for your grandpa!" As he spoke, he took out a mask from his storage ring and secretively pa.s.sed it to the crow before quickly advising him on how it was used. The crow was left overjoyed.

While the pair had been muttering to themselves, the disciples next to the altar below had already begun conversing with the girl. Shen Lo had been intimidated by Fang Xing, and so—in order to suck up to Xiao Jianming as thoroughly as possible—he was the first one to jump out when he saw it was just a little girl. "How dare you? Who are you? Return s.h.i.+xiong Xiao’s beast core this instant!" he yelled.

The girl grinned. "Whether little s.h.i.+xiong or big s.h.i.+xiong[1], I killed the beast; its core is mine!"

"Nonsense. The beast was killed by s.h.i.+xiong Xiao, how could you steal it just because you want it? Hurry and return it!" Shen Lo sternly demanded while taking a step forward and holding out his right hand.

The girl s.h.i.+fted her eyes and spoke with a half-smile, "What if I don’t give it to you?"

Shen Lo was surprised; he hadn’t expected the girl to not even take his words seriously. He looked to Xiao Jianming and—not seeing any signs that he would be stopped—he toughened up and continued to yell, "Then don’t blame me for making it ugly!" With that, he activated Gravitational Force in an attempt to raise both the girl and the beast core.

In that same moment, the girl suddenly dropped her expression and activated Gravitational Force as well. Shen Lo could only feel a lightness beneath his feet, and his entire body felt as though a strong force had picked him up before he was sent flying towards the girl. In mere seconds, he was so frightened that it was though his soul had fled from his body. Shen Lo was quickly pulled in front of the girl, and—afraid she would kill him in a single move—he pushed both of his hands out in front of him in a desperate attempt to defend himself.

Yet the girl simply laughed. Her slender hands curled in the air before relaxing, and Shen Lo was sent flying up into the air before being tossed behind her. Suddenly, loud noises broke out from the bushes, and a ten-foot-tall man hastily walked over right into Shen Lo’s path. The man grabbed Shen Lo like a headless chicken, and no matter how much the latter tried to escape, he couldn’t move at all.

The Qing-Yun disciples grew pale while Xiao Jianming grabbed onto his iron sword, but when he saw that the giant man did not kill Shen Lo despite having him in his grip, he restrained himself. He then looked at them coldly, trying to guess where they had come from.

Xiao Jianming could tell that this girl wasn’t so simple and thus he didn’t rush into anything. Although the girl had seemed to use no effort while activating Gravitational Force, he could tell she’d actually used her full might. For her to show such fluid movements and proficiency in this skill despite being only Spirit Stage tier five was extraordinary; forget about Shen Lo, it was unlikely anyone in the middle tiers of Spirit Stage would be able to gain an upper hand against her.

Although Xiao Jianming of course wasn’t afraid of her, he firmly believed she wasn’t here alone. Furthermore, he didn’t know whether she was friend or foe, and decided he would observe their reason for being here before acting.

"Hehe, it’s all good now!" The girl clapped her hands. "Don’t any of you move! Don’t try to bully me because my cultivation level is low; none of you are my opponent!" Her little face then tilted up towards the giant man beside her. "Xiongnu, where’s big brother Zhaoyang?"

The giant man—seemingly mute—only let out a few sounds before pointing northwest.

The little girl nodded. "Tell them to come over here. I think the clues are here!"

The giant man nodded before a jade talisman was sent for people elsewhere.

"Dear young lady, where did you come from? What are you doing on the trial grounds of our Qing-Yun Sect?" Xiao Jianming finally asked in a calm manner as he walked forward. "And please, how about releasing Shen, my s.h.i.+di?"

The girl took a few cautious steps back when she saw him, but soon laughed, "You’re pretty strong, but you can’t bully me just because you’re bigger. My big brother Zhaoyang will be here soon, and if you bully me, they’ll bully you back. As for who I am, I won’t tell you yet, but let me ask you something: have you seen anyone using a cauldron of about this size to control beasts?" As she spoke, she moved her arms to demonstrate the size of the cauldron, at approximately three feet.

Expressionless, Xiao Jianming replied, "Never seen it. You’d best let him go first," before taking another step forward with his palm on his iron sword. He was the eldest s.h.i.+xiong of the Qing-Yun disciples, after all, and he couldn’t allow a Qing-Yun disciple to fall into the hands of someone else in his presence.

The girl jumped in alarm and took another step back. Suddenly, she let out a loud scream, "Hurry, Big Brother Zhaoyang! Someone is bullying me…."

Xiao Jianming was startled. He hadn’t expected her to react in such a manner and wasn’t sure if he should take back Shen Lo by force or wait.

"Oh really? Who dares to do that?" a voice abruptly interrupted from the sky.

As everyone looked up, they could see that seven or eight giant black shadows were flying in from all directions, and a closer look revealed that the bodies of these shadows were all pitch black, fang-baring giant bats. Atop these vicious-looking bats sat a number of men, with a youth in the lead displaying a face so pale he didn’t even look to be alive while an embroidered gown adorned his body.

All seven or eight of them surrounded the Qing-Yun disciples in an indistinct circle before intentionally revealing their cultivation levels to the surrounding area. All of the disciples could feel the weighty power pressing down on them and were left in shock.

Of these men, three of them were in Spirit Stage tier nine, and even the remainders were in tiers seven or eight.

[1] Whether little s.h.i.+xiong or big s.h.i.+xiong: This is a play on words. The "Xiao" (Xiao1) in "Xiao Jianming" is similar to the "xiao" (xiao3) meaning small. Here, the little girl is treating "s.h.i.+xiong Xiao" as though Shen Lo is saying "little s.h.i.+xiong".