Chapter 199: 199
Zhou Xuan, a woman in her mid-thirties, has been a member of the Heavenly Sword Sect since she was a child. In fact, the very first memory of her childhood that came to her mind was an Elder testing talents in their small village. She couldn't recall her parents, her village and even her friends. Everything about her childhood was so distant and fuzzy that she couldn't recall anything about it, and yet the memory of being selected as a member of the Sword Sect was vivid in her mind.
When she first joined the Sword Sect, she didn't have a clue as to where she was going. At that time, she was a mere child, unaware of the world around her.
In her immature mind, she imagined herself to be going to a better place… a place where she would be full and happy.
She remembered the excited voices around her, telling how lucky she was to get into the Heavenly Sword Sect. Even though everything has now turned fuzzy, the envious shouts and the feeling at that time remained crystal clear.
At that time, her happiness was through the roof. She felt like she was at the top of the world. It wasn't until she entered the Sword Sect that she realised just how naive she had been.
Yes, there was food to eat, warm and luxurious clothes to wear and servants at her disposal, but the competition was equally ferocious. There were factions within the sect, each one vying for their own benefits and as a newcomer, she wasn't considered human, but more like resources to be divided by her senior sisters.
She remembered how they took her resources, bullied her and even humiliated her.
The naive and cheerful girl slowly grew up to be a cold and calculating woman who would do anything for her own benefit.
Though her start in the Sword Sect was full of difficulties and troubles, she eventually carved her own place. But the Sword Sect didn't do charity; she had to earn the resources for herself by any means. And so, she took on the most dangerous task of completing missions outside the Sect.
This way, not only could she hone her skills, but even earn resources that she couldn't in the safety of the sect.
Over time, after going through many life and death situations, she finally managed to step to the peak of the Foundation Forging realm… just a hair's width away from the Vein Expansion realm, but that was a chasm that separated her and countless others like her. Just the resources she needed to step into the Vein Expansion realm were more than twice what she had used after coming to the Sword Sect.
God knows how many people like her were stuck at the peak of the Foundation Forging realm, slowly gathering precious resources, trying to earn enough gold coins to buy them and crawling their way, and yet, the majority of them would never be able to accomplish this dream. Some would grow old, some would succumb to their injuries, and some would be robbed and killed by their own friends and families.
She didn't want to be one of the unlucky ones, so she did her best to gather resources by any means necessary.
And just for that, she even joined a team heading to the endless mountains to hunt a few demonic beasts for money.
But who would have thought that the moment she and her team stopped for some rest, someone would shout in such a shrill voice.
In that instant, her eyes widened in disbelief, and her breathing almost stopped.
Not because of the voice, but because of the contents of the voice.
The events that took place more than a month ago were still vivid in her mind. She could clearly remember that massive beam of light as well as that raging storm that tore through the entire Heavenly Sword Sect.
At that time, because she was at the outskirts of the Sword Sect, she wasn't affected by the cyclone, but the destruction left by it was clear in her mind.
It wasn't until the dust settled that she, along with the other members of the Sword Sect were informed that it was done by the man who always accompanied Cang Yue… Yang Ze.
It was he who lured a demonic beast to the sect and caused such destruction and mayhem.
Earlier, many members of the Sword Sect were a bit sceptical. They hadn't seen any demonic beast with their own eyes or heard any roars.
As for Yang Ze… It wouldn't be a lie to say that he was one of the most famous people in the entire Sword Sect… not because he was a man, but because Cang Yue herself announced in the market that he was her Dao Companion.
Many of the Sword Sect members held a grudge against Cang Yue for killing their friends and families and were looking for ways to make her feel the same pain. Her announcement at that time was akin to giving them hope. Since they couldn't take action against Cang Yue, they could definitely take action against Yang Ze.
But before they could do anything, this spiralled out of control.
The matter of Yang Ze luring a demonic beast to the Sword Sect was further strengthened by what Cang Yue spoke herself.
"I considered him to be my Dao Companion, but he harmed me and even brought such calamity to the Sword Sect in hopes of making the two great sects, the Sword Sect and the Duality Sect, go to war with each other."
After Cang Yue's statement, the entire Sword Sect was in turmoil. Almost every single member of the sect wanted to tear his flesh and drink his blood.
And after the announcement of rewards, even the most lazy and laid-back member of the Sword Sect was beaming with excitement.
The rewards for the members of the Sword Sect were enough to make anyone red with excitement.
Any member of the Sword Sect who could capture him alive would be given resources till they reach the peak of the Vein Expansion realm.
For people like Zhao Xuan, this was a heaven-sent opportunity.
But after running aimlessly for more than one month, no one was able to find him. Forget about capturing him alive; no one even knew whether that bastard was alive or not. He seemed to have disappeared overnight from the world.
Even Zhou Xuan herself tried to find him, but couldn't. In the end, she had to give up just like any other person.
But who would have thought that she would hear about Yang Ze in this obscure place?
"THE EVIL BASTARD YANG ZE IS HERE."
"THE EVIL BASTARD YANG ZE IS HERE."
She could still hear the voice reverberating in her ears while she was sitting comfortably on the ground with the fellow members of the Sword Sect.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The scene plunged into an eerie silence as five women looked at each other in silence, each one wondering and confirming whether they misheard it or not.
It wasn't until a few more moments passed that one of the women stood up, reached out to grab the sword near her and rushed in the direction of the sound with all her strength.
"Fuck." The remaining four women suddenly came back to their senses as they too grabbed their swords and rushed in the direction of the shout.
Lin Meilin's voice was akin to throwing a dynamite in a still pond. The moment she shouted, the first one to react was Yang Ze, who was still in disbelief that she would choose such a crude method. But after a moment of disbelief came panic and a desire to run away. His first thought was to run away and avoid trouble.
But thinking about how this was a disguise and he would change his appearance in the future, as well as the fact that this was training, he calmed down.
Taking a deep breath, he turned around to look at Lin Meilin, only to find that she had disappeared at some point.
"Great." Yang Ze didn't even have time to curse when he saw someone rushing towards him.
Taking a deep breath, Yang Ze didn't run away but braced himself for the fight.
In less than five seconds, the figure of a woman in her late twenties was already standing in front of him.
The woman glanced at him once before exclaiming in happiness.
"Heavens help me."
"It really is you."
She herself couldn't believe that such a pie would fall upon her from the sky. By now, every single member of the Sword Sect had memorised Yang Ze's appearance by heart. Just a single glance was enough for her to verify the identity of the person in front of her. After all, his ordinary middle-aged face wasn't the most distinct feature about him. Instead, it was his short height.
Without wasting a word, the woman simply lifted her sword and, without taking it out of its sheath, sliced it towards Yang Ze.
"...." Looking at the sword still inside the scabbard, Yang Ze merely narrowed his eyes before lifting his hand that had a pair of gloves upon it and met with the sword.
There was no loud explosion or earth-shattering noise.
After a dull sound, the woman twisted her entire body with a one hundred eighty degree turn, leaving her sword in the air for an instant before her body rotated with her right foot aiming at Yang Ze's head.
Yang Ze's eyes were stuck on her figure, easily seeing through her. He simply raised his right hand to block her foot before pushing her figure away from himself.
In an instant, the two of them separated while looking at each other in silence. Whereas Yang Ze was calm, the woman's heart was in turmoil.
This small conflict with the man was beyond her imagination.
When the sect put a bounty on him, they also gave information about how his realm was at the Foundation Forging.
She herself was in the mid-stage Foundation Forging realm, and with the suppression of the world, even a man at the peak of the Foundation Forging was no match for her.
But just two moves were enough to make her realise that the man was far from simple. Perhaps he was already in the realm of Vein Expansion.
Yang Ze's eyes were now looking at the figure of four more women rushing towards him.
"A pity that none of them have any decent talents." Taking one look at their personal panel, he simply shook his head. Even though he had already used his daily sign-in opportunity early in Yuyang City, it didn't stop him from checking their personal panels, and once he did, he was disappointed to find that the highest talent amongst them was 'Green' rarity talent.
By now, Yang Ze had a complete understanding of the rarity of the talents.
The most common talents and the lowest grade ones were 'white' talents. The majority of the people in this world have these talents.
Above 'White' talents were 'Green' talents, and after them were 'Blue' and 'Purple' talents respectively. And at the top were 'Gold' talents, each one with a heaven-defying effect.
Other than the Behemoth, he had yet to see anyone with a 'Gold' talent.
Shaking his head, he cleared his head of these distracting thoughts while focusing on the women rushing towards him.
This time, he didn't wait for them but instead bent his knees and rushed towards them, intending to be the first one on offence.
"What the…" The four women didn't expect Yang Ze to rush towards them.
In their eyes, a man in the realm of Foundation Forging trying to fight them head-on was no different than suicide. A man couldn't even fight against a woman in the same realm, much less four.
"Whoever knocks him out cold would be the one to get rewards." No one knew who shouted first, but with this statement, the four women immediately used all their might to take down Yang Ze.
"Come." Taking a deep breath, Yang Ze raised his hand, and with that, a thin layer of black internal energy covered his hands with a tinge of gold.
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