Blood Origin Realm

"Who was it? Who dared to ambush me?!" Ma Yan cried miserably.

Ye Xiwen no longer concealed himself in the crowd and stepped out. The moment Wang Lie saw him, he happily came forward. "You brat, you're back! You vanished without a word for an entire month. Where did you go?"

"I went to the back mountain to train," Ye Xiwen said.

"Huh? I can't see through your cultivation at all now!" Wang Lie looked at Ye Xiwen strangely. In terms of talent, the two of them were more or less evenly matched, though Wang Lie had always been slightly stronger. Yet now that he was seeing his friend again, he found that he could no longer gauge Ye Xiwen's cultivation.

Wang Lie could not see through Ye Xiwen's cultivation, but Ye Xiwen could see through his. Wang Lie's secluded cultivation had been a success; he had broken through from the Houtian Third Stage to the Houtian Fourth Stage in one stroke, reaching the middle ranks among the Inner Disciples.

"We can talk about that later. What happened to you? How did you end up getting swindled by him?" Ye Xiwen asked, staring coldly at Ma Yan.

"I just broke through to the Fourth Stage and wanted to buy a secret manual here. Who knew I'd get swindled by him? What kind of rotten manual costs five hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones?" Wang Lie said indignantly, his fat face filled with fury. "I decided not to buy it, and then he falsely accused me of having read it!"

If it had truly been a Xiantian Technique, then let alone five hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones, even fifty thousand would not have been expensive. But it was clearly incomplete; otherwise, it would not have been priced at only five hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Such situations were common. Not every secret manual people obtained was complete. Some were incomplete, and the more missing sections they had, the less valuable they became. That was why a dignified Xiantian Technique was being sold for merely five hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

"You're courting death! So it was you bastard who ambushed me!" Ma Yan's face twisted viciously. His hand still ached faintly, and killing intent flashed in his eyes.

He stamped his foot, and his tall, sturdy body shot forward in an instant, pouncing toward Ye Xiwen as he threw a punch.

Bang! Ye Xiwen had naturally been on guard against a sneak attack. He spread open his palm and caught the punch.

Rumble! Ye Xiwen seized Ma Yan's fist and twisted it hard amid a rumbling sound.

Crack!

"Aah!" Another pig-slaughtering scream rang out. Ye Xiwen had snapped Ma Yan's wrist outright. Ye Xiwen's strength now exceeded that of nineteen tigers, while Ma Yan possessed, at most, Four Tigers Strength. How could he possibly compare with Ye Xiwen in strength?

"Get lost!" Ye Xiwen shouted, raising his foot and kicking hard.

Bang! Ma Yan took the kick squarely. His burly body immediately flew high into the air like a kite with its string cut, then crashed viciously to the ground. Foam spilled from his mouth as he fell unconscious.

The people around them stared at Ye Xiwen in disbelief. Ma Yan, who ranked among the top twenty Inner Disciples, had been kicked into a state between life and death by Ye Xiwen and knocked unconscious. Who exactly was this person?

Ye Xiwen usually kept a very low profile—or rather, he had not been very strong—so no one paid him much attention. Naturally, no one recognized him.

Everyone around them wondered where such a ruthless figure had emerged from. He had knocked out a Houtian Fifth Stage Peak like Ma Yan with one move. He was absolutely a vicious monster of his generation!

Of course, Ma Yan's evil reputation here was well known, so no one spoke up for him. Most people were secretly cheering.

Ye Xiwen searched Ma Yan and found the manual, "Heavenly Immortal Steps." Without examining it closely, he tucked it away. In broad daylight and before so many people, he did not use his Spatial Ring. It would not be good if it stirred up someone's greed.

"Come on, let's go," Ye Xiwen said to Wang Lie as he turned around.

The two quickly left the marketplace. Wang Lie impatiently asked, "How did you become so powerful? Tsk, tsk, that Ma Yan was actually sent flying by a single kick from you!"

"Hehe, I've always been this powerful," Ye Xiwen said with a laugh, naturally unwilling to reveal anything about the special space.

"Please. As if I don't know you, brat!"

The two bickered and roughhoused all the way back to their respective homes.

Not long after Ye Xiwen returned home, Ye Kongming came back from outside as well. When he saw Ye Xiwen, a faint smile appeared on his face. "You're back!"

He did not say anything about Ye Xiwen barely coming home over the past month. Martial artists were like that. A casual journey could last several months, or even years, perhaps more than a decade. Before Ye Kongming had settled down, he too had traveled everywhere, so it was nothing strange to him.

Besides, Ye Xiwen had told them before leaving.

"Not bad. You've become much steadier." Ye Kongming nodded approvingly. He had also devoted considerable attention to this adopted son.

"Look at you, you've lost weight. You definitely haven't been eating properly!" The things a mother cared about were always entirely different from what a father cared about.

"You came back at just the right time. You can take part in the Sect Internal Competition in two days," Ye Kongming said. "The rewards for this Sect Internal Competition are generous. Even the top hundred will receive substantial rewards!"

"Yes, Father." Ye Xiwen nodded. He had returned precisely to participate in the Sect Internal Competition, but not for what Ye Kongming hoped—the top hundred. He wanted at least the top five, and he intended to contend for the championship.

"Why did the sect summon you this time?" Xia Chunxue asked Ye Kongming.

"Isn't it because the Zhang Family wants to hold this year's Core Disciple competition together with us?" Ye Kongming said. "The Zhang Family proposed that this year's Core Disciple competition be held in the Blood Origin Realm!"

"What? The Blood Origin Realm?" Xia Chunxue said in surprise.

Ye Xiwen was also stunned. Of course he knew what the Blood Origin Realm was. In this world, aside from the True Martial Realm, there were always countless large and small dimensional spaces. Some had been opened by mighty experts with great supernatural powers, while others had formed naturally. The large ones stretched beyond ten thousand li, while the small ones were only a few li across.

After countless years of propagation, these small spaces had each spawned their own life.

The Blood Origin Realm was one such small world. It contained countless exotic beasts and spirit herbs, and its entrance lay within Green Peak Mountain. The key to opening the entrance to this small world was held by the Yi Yuan Sect and the Zhang Family. Legend had it that many years ago, the founder of the Yi Yuan Sect on Green Peak Mountain and the ancestor of the Zhang Family had discovered it together. Both had obtained immense benefits within, allowing them to establish the foundations of today's Yi Yuan Sect and Zhang Family.

The Blood Origin Realm opened once every so often. The reason it was not kept open at all times was that the Blood Origin Realm was too small and its ability to recover was too weak. Closing it for a time before opening it again was also a form of sustainable development.

There was no internet at home, so I could only come to an internet café to update. That's why I was half an hour late—sorry!