Hunter and Prey

Autumn wind soughing, the forest layers dyed in brilliant hues.

Under the golden sunlight, the entire mountain forest seemed draped in a layer of golden gauze.

Yao Yan walked through it with Ling Er, his gaze occasionally following the withered leaves blown down by the autumn wind. Before he knew it, he had drifted into memories. It had been nearly a year since he came to the Shennong Mountain Range. Ever since taking Hun Xuzi as his master, time seemed to have hit a shortcut key.

More than three years had passed in the blink of an eye.

It truly proved the saying: cultivation knows no passage of time.

"Rustle, rustle~"

The faintly chilly autumn wind swept through, stirring the fallen leaves in the woods as though they were playing a solemn killing tune.

Yao Yan stopped walking, withdrawing his gaze from the surrounding scenery and calmly settling it on the people blocking his path. He was faintly surprised. He had not expected anyone in Shennong City to truly have ideas about him. Had the Yao Clan's name lost its deterrent force?

That was one of the peak clans of the Dou Qi Continent.

"Ying ying."

Ling Er vigilantly widened her eyes and swept her gaze over the newcomers. She keenly sensed their ill intent, her emerald-green eyes darting about before she nimbly leaped off Yao Yan. After a few bounds, she landed on a nearby tree trunk beneath Yao Yan's gaze.

I'm outta here~

Yao Yan's lips twitched at the sight.

This little thing really treated him as her keeper. Gluttonous and lazy, she ran whenever something happened. He had raised her in vain all these days.

Fortunately, he had never expected Ling Er to help him with anything.

Yao Yan looked at the six people blocking the way and politely asked, "Do you need something?"

"Little brother, are you from the Yao Clan?"

The leader grinned and cupped his hands as he asked.

Yao Yan nodded, waiting for him to continue.

The leader drew a breath, his expression turning solemn as he said in a deep voice, "The six of us saw you heading into the Shennong Mountain Range alone and feared you might encounter danger here, so we came specifically to assist you. Might you need mercenaries? The six of us are all skilled Dou Spirits. If we join forces, we can even handle an ordinary Dou Wang!"

Not a bad excuse... I've learned something. Yao Yan politely replied, "No need, thank you."

"...Could it be that you have guards? If so, then my brothers and I have meddled."

The leader's expression stiffened, and his smile faded as he slowly spoke.

"What do you think?"

Yao Yan answered with a question.

That slightly teasing remark instantly silenced the scene. The leader could no longer keep acting. They had gathered here to ambush and kill him in the first place; putting on this act had merely been a probe. Yet Yao Yan was so cheeky. It was precisely because of his calmness that they did not dare make a move for the moment.

"If you have nothing else, I'll be leaving."

Yao Yan softly said this and raised a foot to depart.

"Crunch, crunch~"

His feet stepped on the withered leaves, producing continuous cracking sounds. Every step seemed to land on the six men's hearts, and an invisible pressure stopped even their breathing.

At last.

The tallest figure among the six could not endure it any longer. A fierce look flashed in his eyes as he coldly said, "The brat already saw through us, so why keep pretending? If he really has backing, do you think he'll let us go after he leaves?!"

"He's right. This brat is bluffing. He almost fooled us."

The leader gave a savage grin and was the first to erupt with powerful Dou Qi. The aura of a Nine Star Dou Spirit Peak instantly swept outward. Surging power coursed through his body, immediately calming his anxious emotion. At the same time, he launched an attack on Yao Yan, his fist wrapped in earth yellow Dou Qi smashing heavily toward Yao Yan's head.

He held back not at all with this blow. In his full power burst, both his speed and strength were driven to their limits. It could be called the peak of his punches.

He could even picture Yao Yan getting a headshot.

Boom!

The fist swiftly came down. Its immense power directly caused the surrounding air to explode, forming air waves as dust billowed and withered leaves flew everywhere.

Wrong touch... The leader's heart jolted. It did not feel like he had struck a head, but an extremely solid rock. As the surrounding dust quickly dispersed, an excessively beautiful face entered his vision, along with those ink-black eyes.

"This..."

At the same time, the others were astonished by Yao Yan. He had caught the leader's violent attack with one hand, and his body had not even moved.

Something was wrong!

The leader instantly sensed Yao Yan's abnormality and strangeness. Before he could react, an irresistible force surged from his arm, pulling him toward Yao Yan. At the same time, the other party drove a swift fist toward his chest. There was no fluctuation of Dou Qi; it seemed like an ordinary punch.

Yet that ordinary punch made his entire body tense. Instinctively, he circulated all the Dou Qi in his body and gathered it at his chest.

Bang!

Accompanied by a muffled cracking sound, the Dou Qi the leader had gathered was shattered by that punch. His chest instantly caved in, the clothes on his back tore apart, and as a ring of air waves spread outward, everything before his eyes instantly blacked out.

Yao Yan casually tossed the corpse onto the ground beside him. He glanced at the bamboo hat that had fallen to the ground, unhurriedly picked it up, and wore it on his head, concealing that face which so easily invited trouble. Treating everyone else as air, he waved his hand at Ling Er. "Let's go."

"Ying?"

Ling Er tilted her head, seemingly unable to understand why it had ended so quickly. Whenever she encountered bad guys who wanted to pursue and kill her, she would toy with them for a long time. Why had Yao Yan stopped playing after only a little while?

Unable to figure it out, she stopped thinking about it. She leaped down and returned to Yao Yan's shoulder after a few steps.

She leisurely swished her fox tail, her emerald-green eyes curiously watching the remaining five people stand stiffly in place. They did not dare move, and even held their breath, allowing Yao Yan to pass by them like five wooden statues. It looked rather amusing.

As he passed them, Yao Yan suddenly thought of something. He paused and said, "Each of you, cut off an arm. You have to pay some price for trying to rob and kill someone."

As soon as he spoke.

The young man with the effeminate bearing immediately hardened his gaze. With extreme decisiveness, he raised his weapon and severed his own left arm. Enduring the intense pain, he thanked Yao Yan, "Thank you for sparing my life, my lord!"

Seeing this, the other four gritted their teeth in succession and raised their weapons to cut off their own left arms.

"Thank you for sparing our lives, my lord!"

Watching them, Yao Yan suddenly said, "What would you do if I wanted your right arms?"

The joke was clearly not funny at all.

The faces of the Five-Man Arm Severing Group instantly fell. They had no idea how to answer that question.

The effeminate young man pondered for a moment, then broke the silence with a bitter voice. "Nothing else. Death is all."

Losing one left arm might allow them to struggle on, but if they lost both arms, then in a place like Shennong City, only death awaited them. People like them had often relied on their strength to bully others, and they had made plenty of enemies. Now that they had been crippled, those people would certainly swarm in and tear them apart.

"Then I wish you good luck~"

Yao Yan gave a soft laugh and meaningfully glanced deep into the forest before leaving with Ling Er.

The five watched Yao Yan go. Only after he vanished from sight did they exchange glances like survivors of a disaster, each seeing the relief in the others' eyes. Clearly, none of them had expected to survive in such a manner.

The effeminate man bitterly smiled. "He never took us seriously at all."

"Didn't they say he only has the strength of a Dou Shi? The fuck is this a Dou Shi?!"

The burly man looked at their leader, who had been killed by a single punch, and could not help saying.

Everyone's expressions were grim. None of them had expected the intelligence to be this wildly wrong.

"Looks like you failed."

Just then, a sinister voice rang beside them. A gaunt man with vicious eyes slowly emerged from the distant forest. Six similarly dressed subordinates followed behind him, their gazes greedily fixed on the group.

The effeminate man saw the newcomer, and his expression changed. Then he seemed to realize something and said, "Vulture? You've got your eyes on him too!"

Vulture did not go after Yao Yan. Instead, he slowly walked to the leader's corpse and removed the Storage Ring from his body. As he sized up the Storage Ring, he shook his head and sighed. "A lot of people have their eyes on that fat sheep, but few dare to act. You were the fastest group to make a move, though your ending was a little miserable... It seems this fat sheep isn't so easy to eat."

As he spoke, he played with the Storage Ring while setting his sights on the one-armed group.

All of them were Late Dou Spirits who had roamed the Shennong Mountain Range for years. Their Storage Rings certainly contained no shortage of good things. Especially now, when they were in such poor condition and had practically delivered themselves to his door, how could he refuse?

Picking on the weak and fearing the strong was an essential skill for mercenaries.

"Just you people!"

The burly man's eyes flashed fiercely as he coldly spoke. Then Dou Qi surged around him, fire attribute Dou Qi churning madly like a fiercely burning blaze.

The effeminate man stopped the burly man, who was about to attack, and said in a deep voice, "We're indeed in bad shape right now, but it won't be easy for you to kill us either. Be careful not to fight us to mutual destruction and let others reap the benefit!"

"True, which is why I found another group of helpers."

Vulture smiled and clapped his hands.

Soon, another group slowly emerged behind him. They actually outnumbered Vulture's group by several people. The two groups silently surrounded the one-armed group, intending to directly hunt them down.

Naturally, the one-armed group would not sit and await death.

As dazzling Dou Qi erupted in succession, the three groups immediately clashed in battle.

At this moment.

On a tree trunk not far away, Yao Yan was watching the battle. With his current soul power, how could he have failed to notice people following him? Rather than alerting the snake, he preferred to wipe them all out at once, and the one-armed group had been bait he deliberately left behind.

See? Quite a few fish had taken the bait.

"Actual combat between Dou Skills really is dazzling. It's much better than Dou Qi Manifestation."

Yao Yan ate the snacks he had bought in Shennong City and quietly offered his assessment as he waited for the battle to end.