"Beat them? Sure. Dad said I've gotten a lot stronger lately, and I've been looking for someone to spar with."
Dazhuang, Ermeng, and the others didn't hesitate. Laughing and joking, they stepped forward.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
As the three planted their feet, blood energy billowed upward like wolf smoke, rumbling like thunder. Faintly, dense Divine Radiance could be seen shining around them.
They were all cultivators in the Blood Moving Realm!
"They? What right do they—"
Zishan Shou had just begun to question them when he paused. His expression unchanged, he silently swallowed the rest of his words and beckoned to those behind him. "Kun'er, you go."
"Mingyuan, you go play with the friends from Stone Village, too."
Lei Yunkun, the Thunder Marquis's fourth son, sent his youngest brother into battle.
"Enough talk. Attack together!"
Lei Mingyuan, Zishan Kun, and Jiao Peng—three young prodigies who enjoyed considerable renown across this land—exchanged glances, then charged as one.
The oldest, Lei Mingyuan, darted forward and threw a punch. Countless black arcs of lightning howled past, fierce and domineering.
Unwilling to lose, Zishan Kun summoned a Purple Great Sun, which streaked forth, scorching and powerful.
"Nameless nobodies! I lost to Shi Hao, but that doesn't mean I can't handle you! Down you go!"
The most arrogant of them, Jiao Peng, let out a vicious laugh. As he swung his arm, a dusty-gray Primordial Ferocious Flood Dragon crashed through the void, its momentum astonishing.
"Heh. Don't know how good you are, but you sure have a big temper."
Dazhuang, who had never been afraid of anything, refused to believe his luck would fail him. He leaped toward Lei Mingyuan.
"Rumble!"
With a light flick of his fingers, a dazzling golden bolt of lightning split the air, smashing through Lei Mingyuan's lightning like a wrecking ball through dry twigs.
"What? You've mastered a powerful lightning technique, too?"
Lei Mingyuan was startled. He immediately summoned an even more powerful flash of lightning, within which a purple thunderbird appeared and disappeared.
But before it could fully take shape, a Golden Beast's claw shot through the air and crushed it. Lei Mingyuan was sent flying with a heavy blow.
"I, Shi Meng, am here!"
Ermeng strode in with a tortoise-like gait he'd apparently learned somewhere. He looked ridiculous, but the moment he attacked, he unleashed a Sacred Silver Moon moving at blinding speed.
It sliced through the scorching Purple Great Sun and skimmed so close over Zishan Kun's head that it nearly took his scalp with it. The latter broke into a cold sweat.
Pihou was just like his name: mischievous to the bone, and the least diligent of the lot when it came to practicing precious techniques. Naturally, he hadn't mastered the village's two clan-guarding techniques as well as Dazhuang and Shi Meng.
But he had more clever tricks up his sleeve than anyone.
Faced with the roaring apparition of the Primordial Ferocious Flood Dragon, Pihou calmly summoned a pair of black wings and soared into the air. Then he brought out a pair of crimson blades and cleaved it in two.
Demon Ape Wings! Bull Demon Twin Blades!
"Those are... precious artifacts?"
Jiao Peng's attack faltered, and he reflexively tried to counter.
Unfortunately, the next moment, the crimson blades were already resting against his neck.
"Correct."
The little fellow Pihou, also known as Shi Zhonghou, put away his Demon Ape Wings and answered with a smile.
In the blink of an eye, all three matches were decided!
"..."
For a moment, a deathly silence fell over the field.
"Enough. The three of you can stop pretending. They're just a few nobodies with no reputation. Beating them doesn't prove anything."
A voice full of disdain rang out unexpectedly.
"Ahem. It's our first time showing our faces outside the village, after all~"
Pihou and the other two smacked their lips, still unsatisfied, but obediently did as Little Shi said. They released their opponents and returned.
"You secretly used the village's precious artifacts. I haven't even settled accounts with you for that yet."
Shi Hao glared at Pihou, who immediately shrank back into the crowd.
The people from the great clans looked at the Stone Village children with strange expressions.
Lei Mingyuan, Zishan Kun, and Jiao Peng were no nameless nobodies, as Shi Hao had called them. Each was an outstanding member of his tribe's younger generation.
Yet all three had lost to the children of Stone Village.
And that was without the youth who seemed to be a supreme expert lifting a finger.
Stone Village's image as a transcendent, hidden super-clan quietly took shape in the hearts of the various tribes, and their wariness of it grew.
But the five great tribes reacted rather strangely.
"Those are the Suanni Precious Technique and the Green Peng Precious Technique?!"
Zishan Shou, Lei Yunkun, and the others were well-informed. Their bodies jolted in unison, and they exchanged glances before murmuring together.
The Thunder Clan had hundreds of thousands of descendants, but it was merely a branch that had migrated from a super-clan called the Thunder Department. The lightning techniques they commanded weren't particularly profound.
The fierce Flood Dragon technique of Luofu Marsh came from their ancestor's good fortune in once seeing a Primordial Ferocious Flood Dragon. By chance, he had obtained part of its inheritance, but the technique was incomplete.
The Purple Qi Secret Technique of the Zishan Tribe came from a clan leader who, several hundred years ago, fell into a mountain cave and, by sheer chance...
In short, the inherited techniques of these tribes all had flaws of one kind or another. None could be called complete.
But now—
Ancestors above, two complete supreme techniques had appeared here at once! Even the ancient foundations of ancient clans and great sects were no more impressive.
"If we can bring these two supreme techniques back to our tribe, won't we be able to rule this boundless land once and for all?!"
Zishan Shou and the others' expressions shifted repeatedly, their eyes filled with greed and burning desire.
That mysterious Sacrificial Spirit, whose strength they knew nothing about, would be troublesome, though. They'd have to test it first.
"Little Brother Shi Hao, this was a normal sparring match, but your villagers were far too rough. Peng'er seems to have suffered serious internal injuries."
With that thought, Jiao Cang could no longer hold back his greed and spoke up.
"Oh? So now you're not only planning to welch on the three jars of fierce-beast true blood you owed us, you're also trying to turn the tables on us. What are you testing?"
"Answer me, and perhaps I'll tell you the truth myself."
Shi Hao's bright, sharply contrasting black-and-white eyes swept over him. It was as if he could see right through Jiao Cang's clumsy scheme, making the latter guiltily avert his gaze.
"Heh heh, Little Brother Shi Hao, you jest. I was only..."
Embarrassed at being put on the spot by a five- or six-year-old child, Jiao Cang felt secretly humiliated. He forced an awkward laugh.
"Can't be helped. Debts must be repaid. That's only right."
Little Shi cut Jiao Cang off, his face expressionless. Turning toward the village, he cupped his hands and called out, "Grandpa Chief, someone wants to welch on what they owe Stone Village. What should we do?"
"What else? We kick their asses!"
An old man's furious roar rolled through the air like thunder, making the heads of many powerful figures buzz. The Scale Horses grew restless.
A series of quick footsteps approached. From the depths of the ancient village came a group of white-haired elders, their legs surprisingly nimble, each carrying a precious artifact blazing with Divine Radiance.
At their head was an old man in a coarse hemp robe, his hair black.
His eyes flashed like lightning, and his imposing aura made everyone lower their heads. His sturdy frame and heaving chest made him look like an enraged old lion prowling his territory.
Shi Yunfeng, a mid-stage Spirit Transformation expert, had arrived!
P.S. Come to think of it, this book's numbers so far are better than those of my last book—the one about the Martial Ancestor.
That book only got a few minor promotional spots in the end. It didn't even qualify for a PK, and the editor sent it stumbling off to launch.
I hope that once this book has more chapters, it'll get a chance at a PK. Fingers crossed.
Before you continue