Savage

The bonfire swayed, sparks glittering in the air as moths flew into it and turned to ash.

Wang Chan sat on a bluestone, his bearing clear and otherworldly. His fingertips rolled the sand, sending grains pattering down as though they were chess pieces falling from an immortal's hand, the earth his board as he manipulated the universe.

"Chen Xuan, in the territory of Red Crow City, you're the only one barely qualified to keep up with my footsteps..."

Wang Chan murmured to himself. Thinking of the vast, boundless Qi Refining World he had once witnessed with his own eyes in the Yellow Millet Dream, a heroic spirit seemed to rise from his chest and pierce the skies.

In this life, he would become the player moving the pieces.

Not the humble bystander in the dream who could only stand in a corner, enviously looking up at those Great Figures whose names had resounded through the ages.

"Senior Brother Wang Chan..."

Just then, four Green Deer Mountain Disciples returned, dejected and dispirited.

Wang Chan swept them a glance, looking as though he had expected this. His tone was flat as he said:

"Chen Xuan got away, didn't he? Chen Xuan excels at all manner of combat. You couldn't capture him... Hm? Where's Senior Brother Shen?"

The four exchanged looks. Then, one of them wore an awkward expression and recounted what had happened moments ago.

"Shen Lingfeng... ran away?"

The calm, unruffled expression gradually faded from Wang Chan's face, replaced by gloom. He opened and closed his mouth, unable to make a sound.

He paced back and forth beside the bonfire. After a long silence, he began to reflect on himself.

"I was careless. I shouldn't have flaunted my eloquence and made Shen Lingfeng lose his nerve... People aren't puppets on strings; their minds are fickle. From now on, I need to be more cautious in what I say and do..."

Wang Chan had never expected Shen Lingfeng to be so useless. "He's someone who has undergone Second Ascension, yet he's that afraid of Chen Xuan, who's only been refining Qi for half a month... Why does such a good-for-nothing exist in this world?"

Shen Lingfeng had ruined the situation!

The four looked awkward when they heard Wang Chan cursing Shen Lingfeng. One of them stepped forward and said, "Junior Brother Wang, what should we do now? You know everything. We'll listen to you."

Wang Chan rapidly weighed the options in his mind. His tone solemn, he said, "Based on my understanding of Chen Xuan, once he discovers that Shen Lingfeng, who has undergone Second Ascension, isn't here, I'm afraid he won't wait for the Peach Blossom Garden to fall. He'll come straight for me..."

The moment Shen Lingfeng fled, the plot had broken away from the trajectory of the Yellow Millet Dream. A chain reaction of disastrous consequences would follow!

No!

He had to leave immediately, lie low, and wait for the right moment!

Wang Chan set off at once, intending to descend the mountain alone. He had taken only two steps when his expression suddenly changed, and he shouted, "What are you trying to do?"

At some point, the four Green Deer Mountain Disciples had surrounded Wang Chan!

A middle-aged man blocked the road. A streak of brilliant azure Immortal Qi gleamed in his eyes as he spoke with a troubled expression: "Junior Brother Wang Chan, it doesn't seem right for you to abandon us and leave alone, does it?"

Wang Chan shouted angrily, "Idiots! What use is there in leaving together? It would make it easier for us to expose our tracks. You don't understand how troublesome Chen Xuan really is!"

The middle-aged man shook his head and explained with a smile:

"News of your affairs has already reached Green Deer Mountain. Shen Lingfeng has a powerful background and can leave just like that, but we can't... If we lose the Yellow Millet Dream, our skin will be flayed from our bodies. That would be more terrifying than death..."

"Wang Chan, I'm afraid you've gotten one thing wrong about this Yellow Millet Dream of yours. It wasn't you who chose us. It was our Green Deer Mountain that chose you."

The middle-aged man pointed at Wang Chan, then at the others present, and said, "The five of us will die together, if die we must."

Wang Chan froze. Then his face turned deathly pale, but in the end he clutched his belly and burst out laughing, laughing until tears streamed down his face.

"Ha, hahaha... You people are too interesting."

The human heart was difficult to fathom.

A dragon stranded in shallow waters could be bullied by shrimp!

The mountain wind howled as a figure raced through the forest.

In the distance, on a small mountain called Ox Horn Mountain, the bonfire suddenly flickered, then went out, leaving everything in darkness.

"What happened?"

Chen Xuan halted at once and gazed toward the shadowy outline of the mountain beneath the moonlight. Then he shook his head and chuckled.

No matter how many schemes and stratagems there were, now that he had arrived, he would not continue letting his thoughts run wild and disturb his state of mind.

Wang Chan's Yellow Millet Dream was a toad hiding behind a person.

Every so often, it would stick out its disgusting tongue and lick you. Its viscous saliva would cling to your skin, impossible to shake off, making you feel as though your entire body was unclean. You couldn't hide from it either. It was utterly revolting.

The only thing he could do was crush it beneath his foot.

"Wang Chan, tonight, you have no second road left to take."

Chen Xuan's brows drew together into a deep crease. He began advancing up the mountain, his steps firm yet cautious, his entire body seeming to merge completely with the tree shadows beside the road.

The moonlight was bright and pure, spilling across the empty mountain path. Occasionally, a shadow flashed soundlessly from beneath the trees at the roadside. Even if someone widened their eyes to inspect the area, they would find nothing and only assume a gust of wind had passed.

"There's a smell of blood..."

Chen Xuan moved forward beneath the shadows. He suddenly caught a faint scent of blood in the air. Ahead, something that looked like a human shadow seemed to be writhing. He slowed his steps and proceeded with even greater caution.

"Thud!"

Under the moonlight, a figure came down the mountain, kicking a round object as plump as a ball along with his feet. He appeared leisurely and relaxed, creating an extremely eerie and bizarre scene.

"Even if Qing Yazi came in person, he wouldn't dare threaten me..."

"A bunch of idiots. You actually naively thought I left to flee for my life? Hah, how could you understand my grand plan..."

The ball rolled along the mountain road. It had disheveled hair and faced upward—shockingly, it was the head of a middle-aged man!

The middle-aged man had died with his eyes open. They bulged round, as though he had seen something unimaginably horrifying before his death.

"Infighting..."

Beneath the tree, Chen Xuan stopped completely. Seeing this sinister scene, his expression settled into utter calm, and even his heartbeat nearly vanished. Yet a force was rapidly growing in the silence.

He hid behind the tree and closed his eyes, listening only with his ears to the approaching footsteps as he patiently waited for the other party to pass.

Wang Chan walked beneath the moonlight, kicking the human head, his manner leisurely as though he were out on an excursion. Yet his clothes were stained with copious blood, standing out jarringly.

"Hm?"

At a certain moment, he raised his foot. Just as it was about to come down, it stopped in midair. He tilted his head slightly and looked toward a large tree not far away.

Chen Xuan opened his eyes and walked out.

A smile curled at the corner of Wang Chan's mouth. He waved and said, "Chen Xuan, it seems I have a few things to tell you in advance..."

He was about to explain a few matters and say some things that would certainly sound very reasonable. But the person standing before him would not give him that chance. This person would not listen to a single word he said.

"Boom!"

Chen Xuan suddenly shot up from the ground like a Heaven-Shaking Giant Ape descending into the Mortal World. The wrath he had steadily accumulated and the momentum that swallowed and exhaled the heavens and earth surged forth like an avalanche at this moment—

The smile froze on Wang Chan's face. In the next instant, his handsome, immortal-like face was seized by a massive hand. His body was then lifted into the air, and Chen Xuan slammed him into the wilderness beyond the mountain road.

"Puff, puff, puff!"

Wang Chan's body swept through the air and across the ground like a small boat caught in giant waves. Through the gaps between the fingers, his horrified eyes saw a sky-covering tide of fist imprints, their edges mixed with golden-white radiance, surging toward him.

His waist and abdomen, chest, and neck... First came a trace of coolness, followed by endless stabbing pain. Vast amounts of strength and liquid poured from his body through its countless wounds.

Messy strands of black blood intertwined in the air. Illuminated by the golden-white radiance of Immortal Qi, they looked incomparably gorgeous and rich.

"Pfft!"

The world before Wang Chan's eyes suddenly went dark. A sharp weapon pierced into his eye socket and was instantly pulled free, only for another vital part of his body to be pierced through immediately afterward. This repeated itself hundreds and thousands of times.

He could no longer see anything.

"Ah!!!"

A shrill, utterly tragic howl erupted through the mountain forest, sending birds and beasts fleeing in alarm.