Counterattack

In the dense, shadowy forest, figures moved among the trees. The Mo Family's Martial Artists spread out in a semicircle, searching the area, each of them wearing a grave expression.

Mo Yan Yu's face was icy. "Search! The moment you spot him, launch a Blue Smoke Bomb. Don't engage him!"

"It's been three days, and we still haven't found him. Yet he's left traces behind. I don't know whether he doesn't know how to hide his tracks, or whether he's doing it on purpose..." Kalu's face darkened, his temper roused as well.

For the past few days, they had searched the forest and often spotted traces of Shi Yan's passage. From the broken branches and footprints, it was clear he had been circling nearby. Yet every time they sent people to search, they found nothing—not even a glimpse of him.

"Expand the search area!" Mo Yan Yu made up her mind and barked, "Spread out, and search this whole area thoroughly! The moment you see him, launch a Blue Smoke Bomb. I'll get there at once!"

The Mo Family's Martial Artists all acknowledged her order.

"Could something happen to the Earth Dragon?" Kalu frowned worriedly. "My medicine bottles are all over there. If that brat goes and causes trouble, and destroys them, we'll be in a mess."

"Don't worry, Master. Qiang Sen and seven Martial Artists are guarding the Earth Dragon. Qiang Sen has already reached the Postnatal Triple Heaven. That little thief is no match for him." Mo Yan Yu spoke proudly.

Kalu nodded and said no more.

The Mo Family's search party spread farther and farther out, the distance between them growing wider. Each Martial Artist carried a Blue Smoke Bomb, so there was little to worry about. The moment Shi Yan appeared in their line of sight, they only had to launch one, and they could rest easy.

A Martial Artist walked beneath the shade of the trees, his face grim as he cursed under his breath. Every so often, he looked up at the ancient trees overhead, then glanced at the bushes around him.

They had searched for three whole days without catching sight of Shi Yan. And since he was merely a minor Martial Artist in the Postnatal Realm, they couldn't believe he would dare linger nearby. They assumed he had left long ago. So whenever they went out searching, they grumbled inwardly, convinced they were wasting their time.

As the Martial Artist passed beneath the thick branches of an ancient tree, he instinctively raised his head to look up. A murderous, icy, evil aura suddenly descended from above. Shi Yan appeared out of nowhere and slammed his knee into the man's face, pouncing like a hungry wolf.

Thud!

A surge of tremendous force struck him. The Martial Artist's face was covered in blood as he toppled backward, staring up at the sky. Tears and blood mingled in his eyes, leaving him unable to see a thing.

Clutching a dagger, he swung it wildly and shouted, "He's here! He's here!"

Just as he was about to release the Blue Smoke Bomb in his left hand, a sharp pain shot through his wrist. He couldn't bear the sting, and his left hand loosened; the Blue Smoke Bomb was snatched away.

Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom!

Shi Yan's expression was cold, his eyes unconsciously turning dark red as he moved at high speed around the Martial Artist, murderous intent surging from him. He dodged the man's wild dagger swings while kicking him in the head again and again.

Essence surged through his two legs. Each kick landed like an iron hammer. After just five vicious blows, the Martial Artist had stopped breathing.

Shi Yan stepped forward and took the dagger from his limp hand. Calmly, he swung it and slashed the man's throat to make sure.

Wisps of invisible, intangible energy flowed out of the man's body, mixed with unease, anger, fear, and other emotions. They poured into the acupoints in Shi Yan's body. In a mere few dozen seconds, every last bit of vitality had drained from the Martial Artist, leaving him a shriveled corpse.

Frowning, Shi Yan stepped closer and searched the corpse. He found only a bag of food and more than thirty Purple Crystal Coins. Without ceremony, he claimed the dead man's possessions, then darted away through the forest like a fox.

This was the first time he had killed someone, yet he hadn't felt the slightest fear. He had remained unnervingly calm from beginning to end. As he kicked the Martial Artist's head again and again, he had felt exhilarated, as if a desire had been sated. His whole body had been flooded with an indescribable pleasure. It was as though he had been born a warrior, meant to reap other people's lives in battle.

The pleasure killing brought him was intoxicating. That moment had felt wondrous, and the oppression he had endured in recent days seemed to vanish the instant he cut the man's throat.

Shi Yan knew this was wrong. He understood that something must be wrong with his body. An ordinary person would never be so calm the first time he killed, much less feel such overwhelming pleasure, like an addict getting his fix.

The energy from that man had flowed into his acupoints, and a bloodthirsty urge had sprouted in his heart once more. Before long, after the acupoints in his body had spun furiously, a strange energy entered his essence, refining and strengthening it once again.

The benefits were real!

For five days straight, Shi Yan had been like a specter in the forest, appearing and disappearing as he struck in one corner after another. Every attack was swift and clean; before the Martial Artists could release their Blue Smoke Bombs, he killed them with a sudden ambush.

In five days, three more Martial Artists had been killed. Every time Mo Yan Yu and the others discovered a body, it was shriveled, as if all its vitality and blood had been drained away.

Mo Yan Yu grew more and more restless. She and Kalu searched all over the forest, hoping to find Shi Yan, and gradually began to sense the danger.

The first Martial Artist had died with his face mangled and his head badly battered. There were signs of a struggle, too.

The second and third Martial Artists had both been ambushed from behind and stabbed several times in the chest and abdomen, though there were signs of a brief struggle.

The fourth Martial Artist had been killed by a single slash across the throat, clean and swift, without a trace of a struggle.

The deaths of the four Martial Artists showed that Shi Yan's killing skills were growing more and more practiced. This stretch of forest seemed to have become a stage on which he displayed his talent. He made clever use of the terrain and concealed his tracks, hunting them like a seasoned hunter.

The deaths of the four Martial Artists made the others uneasy. Mo Yan Yu and Kalu also began to take the matter seriously. They ordered the remaining Martial Artists not to act alone, but to move in pairs. That way, if one was ambushed, the other could immediately step in and help, preventing anyone from being silently killed.

High in a towering tree dozens of meters tall, nestled among layer upon layer of leaves, Shi Yan sat cross-legged, gazing through the gaps at the figures wandering far away.

They've gotten smarter, Shi Yan thought with a cold laugh. It won't be so easy to kill them with a single ambush anymore.

He didn't rush to act. After observing for a while, he saw that since losing four Martial Artists, they had begun moving in pairs. That meant they could no longer search every direction thoroughly. They weren't heading toward him just then, but had instead gone deeper into the forest in three other directions.

Once he was sure they wouldn't come his way anytime soon, Shi Yan gently closed his eyes and circulated his essence. In the past few days, the vitality of those he had killed hadn't dispersed into the world right away. His acupoints had absorbed it, and after the vortexes in them purified it, it had flowed back into his body, increasing his essence more than twofold.

With a thought, the flow of essence suddenly quickened. The much stronger essence flashed through his meridians like lightning, rushing from his lower abdomen toward his right arm. As it surged into his arm, he suddenly held his breath and focused his attention, then exerted himself with a sharp burst of force!

The essence in his arm suddenly ran wild like a horse that had broken free of its reins, charging madly toward his index finger!

Hiss!

A faint wisp of silvery-white smoke suddenly emerged from his index finger, making a strange sound in the air. It didn't gather together, and after lingering only briefly, it scattered.

Shi Yan's eyes snapped open, bright glints in his dark pupils, his face full of delight.

Essence overflow!

This was a sign of the Postnatal Triple Heaven. After this period of training and painstaking cultivation, he had finally broken into a new realm with the help of the strange power fed back from his acupoints!

The overflowing essence was still too loose to condense into a radiant beam, but from now on, he could infuse it into weapons and use it to directly injure an enemy's internal organs. This meant that he was gradually mastering the use of his essence.