What's Going On?

Qian Sanjiang pondered how to report back to the sect master.

"Of these Blood Spirit Seven Swords, this kid has clearly entered the realm. Its killing power is sufficient as well. To accomplish this much in such a short time... If the sect master learns of it, he should be gratified..."

Qian Sanjiang was considering how to make use of Fang Che's achievement to give himself a resounding pat on the back.

That was the workplace for you. You had to make a living; there was nothing shameful about it.

After all, the Attendant's position came with no small number of benefits.

Fang Che sat in the carriage with his eyes closed, resting his mind.

Yet in his heart, he was weighing the Martial Students who had 'happened' to stop here and watch the dispute.

'Wei Zihao is the biggest suspect, but he shouldn't be the only one. That Qing Ziyue who was standing far away and looked rather frail is suspicious too.'

'But I don't want to touch them for now. First, it would be useless. Second, they're too close to their Lineages, and it would easily bring trouble to my own family. Third, keeping them around will let me cause trouble whenever I want once we reach the Martial Academy. Especially when I want to stir things up or pass along information, they'll always come in handy. Natural shields...'

'All of this can serve as a backup plan. Moving against them now would be wasting resources.'

'Resources that can be abused whenever I want must be cherished.'

Fang Che sat in the carriage with his eyes closed, his face utterly calm.

But his thoughts were turning over and over.

'After this trip, I'll be entering the Martial Academy. Once I go in, I have no idea when I'll be able to come out. Sigh, I never attended a Martial Academy in my previous life... I don't know the rules.'

'Night Dream is following me, and there should be someone watching me from the shadows as well. Whether it's the Guardian Hall or the One Heart Sect, neither will let me out of their sight.'

'But this trip will inevitably be inconvenient. I wonder how the Golden Horned Flood Dragon is cultivating now. I originally wanted to bring it along, but I don't know whether I'll have the chance.'

Fang Che gazed into the distance in thought.

That was the direction of Hundred Miasma Peak.

It was already part of the outer reaches of the Ten Thousand Spirits Forest.

It was not far from where he was now—only a little over five hundred li.

'But if the Golden Horned Flood Dragon hasn't cultivated to the point of becoming formless, carrying it around won't be of much use. It might even disperse after leaving the Extreme Yin Land.'

In the end, Fang Che abandoned the idea.

There was an Extreme Yin Land over there. He might as well let the Golden Horned Flood Dragon cultivate for a while longer.

It would be far better to let it wait a few more months, or even a year or two, than to go over now only for it to be exposed or disperse before it had finished cultivating! Fang Che gently exhaled and stopped thinking about the matter.

The Golden Horned Flood Dragon was a backup plan he had prepared for himself long ago.

Even before Night Dream appeared, Fang Che had been considering this hidden move.

After all, as a soul-body, it was simply too convenient for transmitting messages.

Even his previous scheme against the Su Family had been an accident, but part of the reason behind it had been the thought of sending those fellows to the Golden Horned Flood Dragon as nourishment.

He had been waiting all along. Once the Golden Horned Flood Dragon transformed from tangible to intangible and its soul cultivation advanced another step, he would bring it to his side.

Even now that he had Night Dream, he had not abandoned the plan.

But up until now, this restless plan could only be shelved temporarily.

'Careful planning affects the long term. I absolutely can't activate a plan early just because it's convenient and useful!'

At last, they had arrived at the Ten Thousand Spirits Forest.

The coachman had already turned back. As an ordinary person with only a little martial strength, driving this far was already his limit.

Only now did Fang Che say, "I'll buy this carriage from you. You can go back on your own."

Fang Che offered twice the price.

The coachman agreed readily.

He was simply very puzzled. If you wanted to buy it, why hadn't you done so earlier? Why wait until now?

Fang Che naturally had not wanted to buy it earlier. He had been sitting comfortably in the carriage, resting while organizing his thoughts. Although his thoughts had long since been sorted out, he could enjoy himself for as long as possible.

Because once the coachman left, he would have to drive the carriage himself!

Night Dream could only ride in the carriage.

--From here on, everything had to be completed independently to count as an achievement.

But Fang Che felt rather unbalanced about the young master driving while the maid rode in comfort, so he insisted on sitting and riding for half the journey.

"Go sit inside!"

Fang Che darkened his face. "This young master will personally drive."

"Ah?"

Night Dream was completely dumbfounded.

Her big, round eyes stared blankly at Fang Che.

Had the sun risen in the west? Why had he suddenly become considerate?

Could it be that he had finally realized this lady's peerless beauty? "If you haven't improved by the time we leave the Ten Thousand Spirits Forest, I'll sell you to a brothel!"

Fang Che threatened her, then picked up the whip. "Giddy-up!"

Night Dream: ...

Night Dream sat cross-legged in the carriage and waited.

Her big eyes kept rolling upward, her pretty face filled with speechlessness.

That was because Fang Che had abandoned her and the carriage in the forest and gone off to hunt Demon Beasts by himself.

"How can he be so at ease? He just left such a delicate beauty like me in the forest. And on the surface, I only have the cultivation of a Martial Apprentice at the third stage. Isn't he afraid that by the time he comes back, I'll have turned into a pile of bones picked clean by beasts?"

"He really doesn't know how to cherish a beauty."

"That heart of his is ridiculously big!"

Although she complained inwardly, she still had to put on a terrified, uneasy expression. She curled up in the carriage, not daring to move at all.

All she could do was pray.

Please, don't let any ferocious beast come over.

Otherwise, she would really be exposed.

Fang Che moved through the dense forest like a ghost. Wherever he passed, he did not even stir the slightest rustle of leaves.

His target was the Demon Beasts in the forest—Demon Beasts below the sixth level!

A first-level Demon Beast required one hundred cores for one academy point; a second-level one required fifty cores for one point; a third-level one required ten cores for one point; a fourth-level one required two cores for one point; a fifth-level one core was worth two points; and a sixth-level core was worth twenty points.

But a sixth-level Demon Beast was basically equivalent to the battle power of a Martial Master at around the fifth stage.

As for the seventh level... Ahem. Better not think about it.

The moment one appeared, he would have to prepare himself to become fertilizer.

Fang Che's target was not first-, second-, or third-level Demon Beasts.

That would be too slow.

So from the very beginning, he headed straight for the depths of the forest.

He completely looked down on the first- and second-level Demon Beasts startled into motion in the forest.

Yet the deeper Fang Che went, the more he felt that something was wrong.

But he could not put his finger on it.

At last, before a dense patch of shrubs, Fang Che abruptly stopped.

He looked at the shrubs, the grass, and the surrounding trees. That feeling that 'something was off' grew increasingly intense.

Yet he still could not say exactly what was wrong.

He could not help sinking into thought.

If he had a feeling, there had to be a reason. But where was the problem?

He focused and examined everything, one blade of grass, one shrub, and one tree at a time.

The strange part lay in the environment, but where exactly was the environment strange?

After looking for a long while, a spark of inspiration flashed through his mind. He suddenly remembered the two men who had tried to rob the road.

Because of those two men, Fang Che had paid special attention to the environment.

At the time, the two men had stood beneath thick trees. Their leaves had glimmered, and the blades had been plump and thick.

Looking at the scene before him again, the shrubs were growing vigorously, but whether trees or grasses, their leaves were all very thin. They could not be called malnourished, but neither could they be called richly nourished.

The shrubs were thin, but their mottled bark showed that they had stood for many years.

All the trees nearby were the same. They were unlike the thick trees from several people's arm spans earlier in the forest. There were almost no trees large enough for several people to encircle together.

Yet judging by the mottling of their bark, they were clearly much older than the trees outside.

There were several rotting animal corpses in the shrubs.

Fang Che turned one over. They had decayed thoroughly, but the colors of their fur and hide were still somewhat vivid.

Fang Che pondered for a long time, then surveyed the surrounding environment. Sunlight shone through, scattering dappled spots of light.

'This forest is strange. Logically speaking, trees deep in the forest, where human footsteps rarely reached, should be especially lush and robust. Yet this vast stretch is precisely the opposite. Could it be caused by the geology?'

No sense of crisis flashed through him. There was only an inexplicable stillness.

Standing here, he could clearly hear his own heartbeat. There was a faint, unsettling sense of dread, though it was not obvious.

Other than that, there was no abnormality whatsoever.

He had found nothing.

Fang Che let out a breath.

He would gather points first. As for these abnormalities... he could consider them slowly. But he absolutely could not ignore them.

In the darkness,

a one-horned monster snake emerged soundlessly. Its skin was almost exactly the same color as the surrounding environment, making it completely impossible to distinguish.

With a flick of its long forked tongue, it swept two nearby second-level Demon Foxes into its mouth.

Just as it was enjoying its meal, a sword ray suddenly fell and pinned it firmly at the seventh vertebra.

The monster snake's body convulsed. It thrashed violently, knocking the nearby trees this way and that.

But the sword had already nailed the monster snake to death.

A moment later, the sword was pulled free and transformed into a streak of startled swanlight.

With a puff, the monster snake's head was severed.

Blood sprayed everywhere.

Fang Che dripped the snake's blood onto his nameplate, then placed the excavated monster snake core inside.

A halo appeared on the nameplate.

The core and blood vanished simultaneously.

Several lines of text appeared.

Azure Wave City, Fang Che.

Points: 0.5.

This monster snake was undoubtedly a fourth-level Demon Beast.

"Only the fourth level."

Fang Che was somewhat dissatisfied. He immediately rose and plunged into the forest.

Within fifteen minutes, Fang Che's points had changed to three.

Sitting on a tree branch and chewing dry rations, Fang Che felt somewhat solemn.

'These points really aren't easy to earn.'

Six fourth-level Demon Beasts had yielded only three points.

That was with Fang Che's rich experience in the martial world and his familiarity with Demon Beast habits. He could swiftly determine where they were hiding based on the environment, which was why he could achieve such results.

It was clear from this that these one hundred points would absolutely not be easy to obtain.

'I need to find a Demon Beast pack.'

'This entire stretch of trees and undergrowth, covering several hundred li, shows signs of malnourishment. I haven't left the area yet. What exactly is the reason?'

Fang Che swept down from the tree.

Several hours later,

Fang Che returned to the carriage covered in blood. Night Dream was trembling inside.

"Y-Young Master, are you back?"

"You're really timid."

Fang Che snorted. He took off his dirty clothes, changed, and tossed the soiled ones into Night Dream's arms. "Wash them when you get the chance."

"Yes."

After a full three hours of fierce battle, Fang Che had obtained twenty-one points.

One hundred points was still a distant, distant goal.

He drove the carriage forward for several dozen li.

Then he stopped again, sword in hand, and got out. Under Night Dream's gaze, he rustled into the forest and vanished in an instant.

Night Dream noticed that Fang Che had paused just before entering the forest, as though he had deliberately observed the trees along the roadside.

She could not help wondering: What was so interesting about trees?

In the dense forest, Martial Students in tight-fitting outfits could be seen rushing back and forth almost everywhere.

Some were still locked in fierce battles.

Fang Che swiftly passed all of them. His body shot forward like an arrow, carrying him to the edge of the forbidden zone.

There would certainly be higher-level Demon Beasts here.

Sure enough, Fang Che found a pleasant surprise in a valley.

A pack of fifth-level Blood Fang Demon Wolves.

There were more than a hundred Demon Wolves in the pack, and that was only what he could see.

"Damn, that's nearly two hundred points!"

Fang Che grew excited.

Next came the question of how to wipe them out.

After all, the Demon Wolves would never just sit here like idiots, waiting for him to kill them.

Besides, a pack of fifth-level Demon Wolves would not have low combat strength. There had to be a Wolf King among them!

This pack of Demon Wolves did not have particularly glossy fur, either.

Their nutrition seemed rather poor. They must be very hungry, right? He took note of that.

The trees and grass around him were still the same as before.

They were alive, but malnourished, as if this land only guaranteed that these plants would remain alive—the most basic kind of living.

Beyond that, it provided them with nothing else.

Some trees had animal corpses beneath them, yet their leaves were not thick and lustrous, either.

It seemed that even the corpses of the dead Demon Beasts had provided these plants with no additional nutrients.

After watching for a while, Fang Che quietly retreated.

A moment later, he returned with a packet of medicinal powder in his hand.

In one of the great halls of the White Cloud Martial Academy.

A group of Martial Academy faculty members were staring at a huge illusory screen before them.

Beside it stood two pillars piled high with Seven Colored Spirit Crystals, radiating dazzling light. Their pure energy sustained the light screen.

The screen displayed countless names, with each person's score shown after their name.

"There seem to be quite a lot of applicants this year."

A Martial Academy professor watched the long list with considerable interest. "There are ten thousand spots, yet they still aren't enough. There are even people who haven't made it onto the list."

Another sighed. "I only hope the ten-thousandth place isn't above thirty points."

The others all wore bitter smiles.

Because the list did not display anyone beyond the ten-thousandth place, there was no way to know whom to admit.

"The highest number we've ever admitted all these years was only eight thousand two hundred. That's still a long way from ten thousand. Don't worry, it won't go over."

"Mm. The person in last place still has zero points. An entire day has already passed."

"That's true. From nine thousand two hundredth place downward, they all have zero points. Even among those above them, quite a few still have less than one point."

An old man with graying hair looked up at the scrolling list. "Has the top hundred settled yet?"

"Not yet. But someone in the top ten has already reached fifty points."

"Oh? Let's take a look."

Everyone looked at the ten names in the upper-left corner.

Qiu Yunshang: sixty-two.

Ding Ziran: forty-nine.

Xie Gongping: forty-eight.

Huo Churan: forty-seven.

Mo Ganyun: forty-three.

Fang Che: thirty-nine.

Ximen Xuri: thirty-eight.

While they were watching, Fang Che's number suddenly jumped twice. In an instant, it became forty-three, tying him with Mo Ganyun.

Then it jumped again—forty-five, forty-seven, forty-nine... It shot all the way to ninety-one, placing him firmly in first.

It took no longer than a single breath.

Only then did it stop.

Everyone suddenly stared in dumbfounded disbelief.

What... was going on?...

He had revised it several times, delaying things by a few minutes.