Chương 412: Herb picking

Enter the carriage? …

'Bitch…' Xie Qin's muscles tightened as he clenched his fists tightly. It was obvious that he viewed Xie Ling as his property already. Within the entire village, he was the most outstanding genius, second to none. If not for the constitution which she possessed, it was likely that he would become the next Clan Chief! As the most beautiful female, he was drawn to her and saw her as his future bride already. Only he deserved her. How could his pride tolerate this?

How many times had he mentioned joining her within the carriage and was politely refused? Why the hell would he have preferred to rise a horse? And now she dared to give that privilege to another man before him? And a crippled trash no less?

"That won't be necessary." Old Du laughed faintly to dispell the tension before glancing at Long Feng.

"Kid, you're lucky. Come over and ride my horse. I will walk!" Saying that, he directly leapt off the horse and landed in the forefront of the group. Long Feng felt everyone's gazes on him and he felt speechless. What exactly was going on? After a brief hesitation, he thanked the old man and mounted the horse while taking note of the piercing gaze that wanted to drill a hole in his side. He couldn't care less though. Xie Qin and a hundred other of his kind wouldn't be worth a complete glance from him.

"Since that's resolved, we should keep going." Old Du shouted before taking the lead.

"Brat, you're dead! You're so dead!" Xie Qin's voice exploded in Long Feng's head, causing the latter to frown at the killing intent he sensed. Long Feng silently glanced at Xie Qin before closing his eyes. In his mind, he decided that if Xie Qin tried anything at all, he would kill him at once. Whether he was strong or weak as an ant, anyone who had killing intent towards him reminded Long Feng of the head warden. Seeing that Long Feng was completely disregarding his threats, Xie Qin snorted and faced his front.

'just wait, bastard! I'll make sure you die a dog's death! And you, bitch! Once I lay my hands on you, I'll make sure you regret this dearly!' His eyes were extremely cold as he remained silent. They finally entered the forest and the sunlight was instantly reduced to mere rays that barely penetrated through the large leaves and light the forest. Several distinct roars of wild beast echoed in every direction, promoting everyone to stay on high alert.

"We're going to pick three different mortal grade herbs. They might be guarded by powerful Imperial beasts, so proceed towards the closest location cautiously." Old Du cautioned before leading the way. His aura served as a protection, and all wild beasts below the Imperial realm didn't dare to approach their group. As they moved in silence, Xie Ling's head suddenly popped out of the curtains behind the two horses.

"Brother Long Feng!" She called out with a giggle.

"Uncle Du is exaggerating. Don't mind him. He's a rank eight Imperial. In this entire area, few people and beasts are stronger than him, and they won't be found here." She assured. Long Feng nodded without looking back.

"I see. Thank you for your help, young miss."

"Just call me Xie Ling." She corrected.

"Sure." Long Feng replied casually. He didn't really care about the name. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Brother Long Feng, you said you're from the Eastern region?"

"Mm."

"How is it in there? We live here in the borders and I've never left. I do want to travel far away someday." Long Feng thought briefly before he replied, "To be honest, it's not much different from here. Perhaps there are much more forces and they're all powerful, but the rules are the same. The scenery… well, I never went out much as well."

"Oh." Xie Ling nodded.

"Over here, only forces that aren't ranked can survive. We might count as a five star force, but we're probably among the weakest out there." Long Feng didn't deny that. The Xie Clan was easily the weakest force he had seen since he came to the mainland. They barely met the criteria to be a five star force.

"How powerful was your clan?" She asked curiously. Long Feng didn't think before he replied, "it's barely a four star clan."

"Waaah! That's very impressive! That means you have Dao realm masters! How powerful are they?" Long Feng didn't have to think much for the answer. All he needed to do was think of the head warden and he had his answer.

"They're very strong." Xie Qin listened to them speaking with an expression that would make black color blush in shame.

"Around these areas, the strongest force is the Tie clan, and they're a five star force as well. Their clan chief if a late stage deity, and I heard rumors that he refined his cultivation once. I wonder what that means." Long Feng calmly digested her information without a change in his expression. A late stage deity who refined his cultivation once was essentially a normal peak deity. The Tie clan wasn't an embroidered pillow.

"Your clan seems to have some issues with them?" He asked causally without expecting an answer. To his surprise, Xie Ling nodded and began to explain,"That's right. The Tie clan coverts our ancestral tower, and my father will never give it up. Since a while ago, we haven't been on good terms." She replied.

"Ling'er! You can't spill out our secrets to a stranger!" Xie Qin exclaimed while shooting a glare at Long Feng.

"Secret?" Xie Ling blinked innocently.

"I thought it was general knowledge." Xie Qin stared at her and didn't know what to say in response. In the end, he gave up and returned to his brooding silence. Long Feng wanted to ask what the ancestral tower was, but he realized that it wouldn't be right since it likely involved a secret of theirs. Besides, he could already imagine that it was the tall tower behind the manor.

"Brother Long Feng, how strong were you back then?" Xie Ling suddenly asked curiously. Many ears perked up at once to hear his answer.

"I was at the Imperial realm." He calmly replied, drawing gazes of disbelief from nearly everyone.

"You? Hah!" Xie Qin laughed mockingly.

"Why don't you go ahead say you were a deity? What a joke!" The reason for their disbelief was simple. He looked roughly sixteen years of age, and at that age, some Xie clansmen had barely reached the Yang realm. Even Xie Ling was only at the spirit realm at the same age. As for Xie Qin, he was now a rank one Imperial, but his age was twenty two. One could imagine how hard it would be for them to believe, especially considering how little they knew about the world.

"Wow! Brother Long Feng was really strong!" Xie Ling exclaimed with stars in her eyes.

"I guess I was." Long Feng sighed.

"Ling'er, you're too innocent. You can't believe everything others say, because it is very common to spout nonsense and lies." Xie Qin gently advised.

"Huh?" Xie Ling glanced at him.

"But…" she wanted to bring up the gray pupils she saw when he woke up. Even if he said he was a true spirit realm master or beyond, those eyes were more than enough to prove it. But she held her mouth just in time and nodded. As they spoke, a beast suddenly leapt at them from the side, emanating the aura of a rank four Imperial.

"Insolent beast!" Old Du turned into a blur and appeared before the beast, smacking it away with a slap. It smashed through many trees and gouged out a long scar on the earth before it paused, barely breathing. Laughing, old Du rushed over and crushed its skull before digging out it's spirit root.

"Good." He praised before returning.

"Uncle Du's strength never cease to amaze me. A step away from the peak Imperial realm…" Xie Qin praised with an intoxicated expression.

"Hahahaha! With your talents, reaching this level is only a matter of time!" Old Du replied as they resumed their journey. By evening, they arrived at the location of the first herb. It was being guarded by a rank three Imperial beast which was swiftly dealt with by old Du. They directly headed to the next location which was close by, and the beast was even weaker. Killing it was extremely easy. Once they harvested the second herb, night fell, forcing them to find a secluded location to set up camp.

Moving in this forest at night was unwise, as the beast seemed to become much more dangerous in the dark. They didn't want to take the risk, so they set up tents in a rather quiet location. Old Du used his aura to chase all beats in the surroundings and the guards began to stand watch in shifts while others rested. Long Feng recklessly sat down on a rock and stared at the sky through the gaps between the leaves above.

The twinkling stars reminded him of the endless mysteries in his own Dantian and he couldn't help but wish there was some way he could recover his cultivation. Sighing, he closed his eyes and casually spread out his soul power. The surrounding hundred meters perfectly reflected in his mind, including every grain of sand and wild beasts. After a few seconds, he was about to withdraw his soul power when he sensed a few unusual auras beyond the range of his soul power.

What he sensed were merely fluctuations, yet they seemed different from those of wild beasts. A frown appeared on his face as he closed his eyes. When he reopened them, a faint flickering silver glow appeared in the center of his pupils. His soul power instantly expanded, surpassing its limit and covering several hundreds of meters. After carefully scanning around, he found the source of the fluctuations.

"Seven cultivators…" his frown deepened briefly before his face loosened. It wasn't particularly a surprise to find other cultivators in a forest. What made him curious was their lineup.

"One peak Imperial, one rank four Imperial and five rank one Imperials. Overall, they're stronger than our own group." He pondered. Excluding him, old Du had the highest cultivation here and he was a rank eight Imperial. That other group had a peak Imperial, and even though they were lesser in numbers, each of them was rather strong in view of this place. He noticed that they were setting up camp as well, so he simply noted their location before withdrawing his soul power and deactivating the eye.

He gently massaged them as he laid down to rest. If he could cultivate, then he would naturally spend the night doing so. Unfortunately, he was no longer able to do that.

"I'll need to decide what to do soon. If there's really no way to fix it, then I'll have to fully destroy the cyclone myself and cultivate from scratch again… with my experience and resources, it should only take a year." A bitter smile appeared on his face as he imagined himself being at the Connate realm once again. It was simply unthinkable. He closed his eyes to rest, but they snapped open a second later with several emotions surging through them.

"What did I say… destroy the cyclone myself and cultivate again… destroy…" he froze as something appeared in his mind. He quickly sat upright with a strange light in his eyes.

"What was that…Destruction is the nexus of Rebirth, isn't it?" A simple jade token appeared in his grasp.