The car continued down the road, and Ye Wudao's thoughts were a tangled mess.
One Ye Family had already been so hard to deal with. With the Li Family added to the mix, taking revenge had indeed become much more difficult.
What Zhang Hankuang had said about how difficult it was to advance to the Xiantian Realm weighed on him even more.
After about three or four minutes, Zhang Hankuang slammed on the brakes. Ye Wudao lurched forward slightly and was pulled from the whirl of his thoughts.
Tilting his head, Ye Wudao peered through the windshield at the road ahead and asked curiously, "Are we there?"
Hu Lianfeng unfastened his seat belt and shook his head. "Not yet. It's still a ways off, but we can't drive any farther."
"The Great Canyon is just ahead. The engine noise and headlights would drive the demonic beasts into a frenzy."
"We'll have to get out and walk."
With that, he opened the passenger-side door and climbed out.
At the same time, Zhang Hankuang and Qin Tianlong got out as well.
The first thing the three men did was open the trunk and retrieve their weapons.
Qin Tianlong took a long spear with a wooden shaft and said to Ye Wudao, "We'll go on ahead. You follow behind."
"There's a steep slope by the canyon. Don't go down it. Stay up top and watch."
As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Tianlong turned and pushed off the ground, shooting away like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Zhang Hankuang wasn't about to be outdone. He followed close behind Qin Tianlong, moving just as fast.
Hu Lianfeng glanced at Ye Wudao and said solemnly, "Did you remember what Elder Qin said?"
Ye Wudao nodded.
Hu Lianfeng gave a slight nod, then turned and sped off in the same direction.
Watching the three men's speed, Ye Wudao was stunned. So this was how fast Houtian Realm experts could move?
They were nearly as fast as a car speeding down the highway.
He looked at the ground where they had departed. Three footprints had been stamped into it, with cracks spreading around each one.
With no time to think, he hurried after them.
After running for a minute or two, he suddenly heard shouts of battle ahead, mixed with a chorus of roars that sounded like beasts.
"Ha..."
"Kill!"
"Roar..."
The sounds rose and fell, one after another, without pause.
Ye Wudao slowed slightly as he looked toward the slope in the distance.
This was supposed to be a slope?
It was practically a cliff, almost perpendicular to the ground, with only the slightest incline.
For him, walking down it was out of the question. He might not even be able to climb down.
Standing at the edge, he could see several enormous searchlights below, illuminating the dark canyon.
A crowd of human martial artists armed with weapons were fighting a pack of ferocious-looking beasts.
The beasts seemed drawn by the searchlights and were surging toward them in a frenzy.
The humans, meanwhile, were holding them back with everything they had, refusing to let the beasts get close.
"So these are demonic beasts?"
Ye Wudao took a close look at the creatures.
Some resembled wolves, but were bigger than tigers.
Some looked like sheep, with long, sharp horns on their heads.
Some resembled wild boars, their bodies covered in thick armor-like plates.
There were others he couldn't even describe. They didn't look like any common species of animal.
But without exception, they still looked like animals. None had the human torso and beast's head, or the beast's body and human head, that he'd imagined.
The beasts without human features all looked the way members of the beast race should.
The canyon floor was a long way below, and it was hard to see in the dark. He could no longer make out Hu Lianfeng or Zhang Hankuang.
There were far too many people wielding blades in the canyon.
But after searching for a while, he spotted Qin Tianlong.
Qin Tianlong was easy to recognize with his spear in hand.
More than that, he hadn't chosen a spot crowded with human martial artists. Instead, he had plunged straight into the horde of demonic beasts.
There wasn't another human martial artist anywhere near him. More than a dozen demonic beasts had surrounded him.
He wielded the spear with astonishing mastery, jabbing, thrusting, stabbing, and sweeping. Every strike was incredibly fast.
The dozen or so beasts couldn't get near him. Now and then, one of them would even collapse.
It was precisely because of his dazzling performance that Ye Wudao could pick him out at a glance among the crowds of humans and beasts.
"Is this the strength of an Xiantian Realm expert?"
Ye Wudao kept his eyes on Qin Tianlong, growing more and more astonished.
His fighting ability had already gone far beyond anything Ye Wudao thought humans were capable of.
Especially when Qin Tianlong leapt high into the air, sometimes jumping seven or eight meters. Ye Wudao was dumbstruck.
He also noticed a layer of white material clinging to the tip of Qin Tianlong's spear. Unfortunately, he couldn't make out what it was.
He regretted not bringing a pair of binoculars.
"Body Tempering trains the body, Houtian trains the force, Xiantian trains the qi, and the Grandmaster Realm trains the spirit."
The words suddenly surfaced in his mind.
"Is that qi?" he murmured, watching Qin Tianlong fight like a god of war in the distance.
"Hey, kid! What are you standing around here for?"
Just as Ye Wudao was engrossed in the battle, a gruff voice suddenly rang out behind him.
He spun around. Three men and a woman were walking toward him.
The men were middle-aged, and the woman was elderly.
Seeing the long blades in their hands, Ye Wudao took half a step back.
Hu Lianfeng had warned him to be careful if he ran into strangers in the Rift World.
Killing people in the Rift World wasn't against the law.
He had to be especially wary of people carrying the same kind of weapon.
They were all from the same sect or lineage, and they wouldn't bat an eye at killing someone and robbing them.
"My master told me to wait here."
He looked at the four and answered softly.
"Wait for someone? Why aren't you out there killing demonic beasts?"
The middle-aged man at the front frowned as he asked.
"I only started practicing the Martial Path today. I haven't even begun properly. My master said he'd bring me here to broaden my horizons."
Ye Wudao answered cautiously.
"You only started practicing the Martial Path today, and your master dared to bring you to the Rift World? Your master's got some nerve!"
"Who's your master?"
The middle-aged man asked again.
Ye Wudao pressed his lips together before replying, "My master is Hu Lianfeng."
At this point, all he could do was invoke Hu Lianfeng's name.
The middle-aged man's tone had carried a faint hint of murderous intent. Ye Wudao was genuinely afraid that the four might suddenly attack him.
"Hu Lianfeng? Scarface Hu?" The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes and asked gravely.
Ye Wudao nodded. "That's right."
Since the man knew Hu Lianfeng's name, he was either a friend or an enemy.
Ye Wudao prayed that these four weren't enemies of Hu Lianfeng's. Otherwise, he was done for.
But the next second, he realized he really was done for.
The middle-aged man burst into laughter. "I was wondering who it was! You're that bastard's disciple!"
"Searching high and low only to find him without any effort at all!"
Then his expression changed, and he barked, "Kid, blame your bad luck. You chose Hu Lianfeng as your master, and you just had to run into us."
"Do you know who we are?"
Ye Wudao furrowed his brow and said sternly, "You're my master's enemies?"
The middle-aged man pointed his broadsword at Ye Wudao and sneered. "Enemies? I'd love to hack him to pieces and scatter his remains!"
"That bastard Hu Lianfeng killed my junior brother and stole our Four Blade Sect's secret blade techniques. We've wanted to settle the score with him for a long time."
"Unfortunately, that scoundrel has reached Houtian Great Accomplishment. We're no match for him."
"I never thought we'd run into you today! Heaven itself has granted us this gift."
"I'll kill you first and offer you up to my junior brother!"
Ye Wudao's mouth twitched. What the hell was this?
He'd brought up Hu Lianfeng's name hoping it would shield him from trouble. Instead, it had brought him even greater disaster.
Still, he'd gathered that the Four Blade Sect was probably a minor sect.
They couldn't even deal with Hu Lianfeng, so at most they were at Houtian Minor Accomplishment.
But even so, he was no match for these four!
He laughed bitterly to himself. Was this what the ancients meant by fortune hiding within misfortune, and misfortune lurking within fortune?
Hu Lianfeng had taught him the Northern Dark Divine Art, awakened the system, and set him on the Martial Path. That was fortune.
Then he'd run into Hu Lianfeng's enemies. That was misfortune!
Fortune and misfortune intertwined. Was this fate?
He narrowed his eyes and shouted, "Aah! I'll fight you to the death!"
The middle-aged man facing Ye Wudao laughed. "Hahaha! You?"
But what happened next left him dumbfounded. Ye Wudao didn't charge at him. Instead, he turned and ran down the slope toward the canyon.
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