(The next day, morning)

After the mercenaries had a brief breakfast, they once again continued their journey. The route they took this time around was much more tranquil than the one from yesterday. Along the way, they encountered Magic Beast attacks twice but both were dispatched quickly without much effort.

The group finally arrived at their destination just as the sun had risen completely. It was a sunken basin that was covered with numerous medicinal plants.

There were many different types of medicinal plants growing within the sunken basin. The aroma of herbs diffused into the air and gave one a refreshed feeling if they were to inhale it.

"Everyone, let"s set up camp here. Please refrain from damaging the medicinal herbs…" Yi Xian turned around and gently smiled as she gracefully wiped the perspiration from her forehead.

Hearing the Fairy Doctor"s words, all mercenaries immediately responded loudly and quickly began to put up their tents enthusiastically. *Ahem!* Not that tent… That one, yes that one…

As they were setting up camp, Yang Lei whistled in his heart, "d.a.m.n, just a few words from Xian Xian, and she"s already got all the mercenaries wrapped around her finger…" As he hammered the stake into the ground, he smirked, "Hehe… Xian"er is already mine… I wonder how many hearts would be broken?"

It seemed that the position the Fairy Doctor held in the mercenaries" hearts was much higher than he had expected. Yang Lei began to wonder if he could find a way to manipulate these mercenaries…

Shaking his head, Yang Lei observed Yi Xian who had started instructing the medicinal herb gathering team on the unearthing of the medicinal plants. Her pale white dress swirled gently in the wind as she gently instructed the herb gatherers, her gentle and kind face enchanting all

"Fairy Doctor, are you okay? Your face is red…" A herb gatherer was about to ask for help when he saw her strange expression. "So alluring…" he thought as he stared at her in a daze.

"I-I"m okay…" Yi Xian turned away and fanned herself with her slender hand and said, "It"s a little hot…" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Yang Lei chuckling with his martial brother, Xiao Yan.

When Yang Lei noticed that more people were looking at the Fairy Doctor than he wanted, he decided to stop teasing her and began to walk around the sunken basin, deep in thought…

As Yang Lei walked around, he whispered to Yao Lao, "This sunken basin has a much denser and concentrated energy compared to the other regions."

"Of course. If there wasn"t such a dense and concentrated energy, how would there be so many different medicinal herbs growing here?" Yao Lao scoffed as he stroked his beard slowly.

"Well, then tell me: what is making the energy gather and condense here?" Yang Lei walked around a pair of enthusiastic herb gatherers who were frantically shouting over an herb.

"Uh, I don"t know…" Yao Lao said embarra.s.sedly. He suddenly shouted, "That"s not a fair question!"

"Hehe… maybe you shouldn"t have acted so smart and knowledgeable," the student didn"t hesitate to bring the teacher down a notch. When Yao Lao heard this, fake tears of anguish dripped down his beard…

According to what Yang Lei had heard from others, the basin was extremely vast and its central terrain was still mostly unexplored by the Thousand Medicinal House. The area that the mercenary group were staying at was only the exterior periphery of the extensive basin.

Yang Lei examined the entire exterior zone with Xiao Yan beside him, but they did not find any medicinal ingredient that Yao Lao needed. Yao Lao shook his head and glanced into the pitch-black interior as he poked his shrunken head out of the black ring. He sighed, "Seems like I"ll have to wait…"

After a brief silence, Yang Lei and Xiao Yan returned to their campgrounds. Although Yang Lei could hold his ground against two or more beasts at a time, Xiao Yan couldn"t.

"You should return to your tent. I"m going to have a chat with someone," Yang Lei stopped outside of Xiao Yan"s tent. He patted his junior martial brother"s shoulder as he turned away.

"Brother Yang, is it… that man from last night?" Xiao Yan hesitated. Yang Lei had already told him about the scheming Mu Li and the man who had monitored him all night.

"Yep," Yang Lei nodded, "His true cultivation is a 7-star Dou Zhe. I"ll be able to handle him myself…" Although he didn"t explicitly say it, both brothers knew what he meant: you are too weak right now!

"Brother Yang!" Xiao Yan gritted his teeth as he looked up at his martial brother"s vanishing back and said, "I will catch up to you! I will become your sharpest blade!"

"Xiao Yan!" Yang Lei turned around and his eyes flashed angrily. "I don"t lack subordinates! I don"t want some mindless cronies that do what I say! What I want-" he took a deep breath, "-are martial brothers! Martial brothers that are willing to defy the heavens, reach the top with me!"

"Martial brothers?" Xiao Yan whispered. Indeed, Yang Lei had recruited him under the t.i.tle of martial brother. Back then, he hadn"t taken it seriously. But now, he was starting to think…

"I hope that when I stand at the top, my martial brothers would be there with me. On the other hand, if my martial brothers reach the top, I would be there to keep him from being lonely as well!"

"I hope that when I am powerless and helpless, my martial brothers will be there by my side!"

"True martial brothers share hardship; true martial brothers share success! True martial brothers entrust their own lives to each other! To become true martial brothers, one needs to go through tribulations and trials!" Yang Lei"s voice was filled with hope and pa.s.sion as his piercing eyes stared at Xiao Yan. Suddenly, he coughed and added, "Of course, we need good women too…"

"True martial brothers…" In his dazed state, Xiao Yan hadn"t heard the latter part of his senior martial brother"s speech. If he had, he would be depressed by now.

"Think about it…" Yang Lei smiled as he walked away. Since he had grown up without a mother, he needed care and affection! Although he had a biological father and brother, they were bound to the Yang Clan! Even though they were only second young masters, thus having almost no chance to grab the Young Clan Lord spot, his childhood friends Gu Tianji and Li Kuang were also bound to their respective clans.

Yang Lei needed friends who could go through trouble with him! Thus, he had recruited Xiao Yan to become his martial brother. However, just recruiting people won"t do him any good.

To become true martial brothers, they needed to strengthen the trust between them, until it reached the point of life and death!

Now, Yang Lei was on the way to meet a potential martial brother. The man in the tree from last night!

As he made his way through the sweating herb gatherer teams, his eyes scanned the mercenaries lazing around. When he had made his way to the busiest part of camp, Yang Lei stopped.

There were twenty or so mercenaries hanging around, chatting and joking. Yang Lei immediately spotted the man he was looking for. How could he not?

While the other men were laughing, joking, and chatting about women, Ji Kuang was sitting there with his fists clenched and teeth gritted. The other men were oblivious to this as they continued talking about their favorite types of women.

The corners of Yang Lei"s mouth turned up slightly as he walked up slowly to Ji Kuang. This was going to be easier than he thought…

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Ji Kuang"s POV

"Hahaha, do you know what type of women I love the most?" A mercenary with a long scar running down his cheek grinned. I think this b.a.s.t.a.r.d needs a little more scars…

"Nah, you"re so ugly, women can"t get near you," his friend joked as he laughed happily. At least this one was more polite, not talking about women like that…

I was only here because I couldn"t stand the other Wolf Head Mercenaries. Every time I saw their faces, I would remember that it was them who had caused my elder sister"s death! It was them who had caused my only family to suicide!

Although they didn"t recognize me since I was too young back then, I recognized them. I recognized every single one! I needed to kill every single guilty member!

I wanted to force them to kill themselves like they had done to my Ji Qing! No, I wanted to rip them apart and feed them to the Co Apes!

As I listened to these stupid mercenaries beside me, I felt like they needed the same punishment. Just when I was about to make them shut up, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Glowering, I turned my head and saw a young man nodding at me. At least he wasn"t smiling. I would have punched him…

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When we had arrived at his tent, he motioned for me to sit down. When I sat down, I frowned and jumped up. What was this sticky liquid? Although I didn"t have the chance to bring it to my nose before he stopped me hurriedly. Still, the fragrance had still reached my nose. d.a.m.n, that smells good! I knew at that moment that it was something exotic!

He gave me some water to wash my hands and he cleaned the mat before telling me to sit again.

As I stared at him, he nodded gently. He opened his mouth and said, "You want revenge on him?"

I was bewildered. Him? Did this boy know? I narrowed my eyes, "Who?"

"Mu Lu sh*t, ah? Hm, maybe you"ll be able to kill him with your 7-star Dou Zhe strength. But would you make it out alive his thirty something 4-star Dou Zhe cronies behind you?" He tilted his head and looked at me indifferently as he listed out my probabilities of winning.

"How did you know?" I ignored what he had said and asked him a question curiously.

"Eh, nothing gets pa.s.s me," the youth smiled sheepishly as he scratched his head. Suddenly, his piercing gaze locked on mine. "I would never interrupt my enemy when he is making a mistake…"

He grinned, "Mu Li, ah, sending someone who hates him to monitor me, his enemy? Such a big, juicy mistake… How could I ever bear to stop him?"

After trying to a.n.a.lyze his motives for a while, I took a deep breath. On that very day, in that very tent, I told someone else my story for the first time. The story of I, Ji Kuang!

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Author"s Note: Want Ji Kuang to be recruited or not? Vote below by liking my yes or no comments!

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