"Yu Jingjing, if you want a beating, just say so!"
Luo Lan's fiery temper flared. She glared, drew her sword, and faced Yu Jingjing.
"Hee-hee, I was just joking."
Yu Jingjing took two steps back and pouted. "I heard this kid has the worst spiritual root in your Lingxiao Sect. Luo Lan, what exactly did you see in him, keeping him by your side every day?"
Luo Lan gave a proud, cold laugh. "My junior fellow apprentice is a swordsmanship genius."
After only half a year of cultivation, her junior fellow apprentice had already grasped the Four-Part True Intent of the Lingxiao Sword Technique.
If he devoted ten or twenty years to swordsmanship, what kind of terrifying level would he reach?
Matching Ancestor Lingxiao would be well within his reach.
"I've also heard this kid was rated as having grasped the Four-Part True Intent. But Luo Lan, his cultivation speed is still a serious weakness. Some people may be inferior to him in swordsmanship, but they can crush him with their cultivation level!"
Yu Jingjing smiled faintly.
She cast an almost imperceptible glance at the young man from Lingxiao Sect, the disdain in her eyes growing more pronounced.
Not far away, in Lingxiao Sect's camp, a young man stood with his hands behind his back in front of a tent, watching everything unfold in the distance. His face was as still as a well.
"Junior fellow apprentice, let's go."
Luo Lan didn't want to waste any more words on Yu Jingjing. She took the young man's hand and hurried toward the camp.
When the two entered the camp and saw the man in front of the tent, she quickly cupped her fists. "I didn't expect Senior Brother Qin to be here too."
"With the Beast tide raging through Cloud Mist Mountain lately, each sect sent Foundation Establishment disciples here to hold the line. I'm in no rush to break through, so I thought I'd come here to hone my swordsmanship..."
Qin Changtian smiled faintly. He gave Chen Changming a meaningful look and said, "Junior Brother Chen, perhaps we could find a chance to discuss the Lingxiao Sword Technique?"
"Senior Brother Qin, my swordsmanship is far too crude to display before you."
Chen Changming smiled and politely declined Qin Changtian.
Instinctively, he felt that Qin Changtian was deeply calculating. Under the pretext of discussing swordsmanship, he might be trying to probe his true strength.
He would only use his trump cards when his life was in danger.
So it didn't matter whether it was Qin Changtian or even the Senior Sister he had always respected—he would keep his true strength hidden from either of them and never reveal his trump cards.
A look of disappointment crossed Qin Changtian's face, but he soon returned to normal.
After entering the camp,
Luo Lan took two tents from her Storage Bag and set them up. Then she parted ways with Chen Changming and went into one by herself.
Seeing how thoughtfully his Senior Sister had taken care of things, Chen Changming was quite touched.
He entered his tent, sat cross-legged, and began cultivating the Evergreen Art.
He hadn't neglected the Evergreen Art lately, but the fourth breakthrough still seemed a long way off.
Chen Changming wasn't in a hurry.
The fourth enhancement would take at least fifty thousand repetitions. Even at his fastest, he wouldn't break through for another two or three years.
"Keep a low profile. Never reveal your strength in front of others. Otherwise, if I attract a powerful enemy, I might not even live to see the Evergreen Art's fourth enhancement..."
He silently repeated the thought several times, growing ever more vigilant.
Qin Changtian had just reminded him that people as selfless as his Senior Sister were rare in the sect. Most people were selfish and rarely considered others.
He had to keep lying low, letting all kinds of cultivation arts grow stronger, and stay hidden until his cultivation improved.
In the second half of the night,
roars from Beasts echoed faintly out of the mountains. Before long, the noise grew louder and louder, waking many people in the camp.
"Beasts are attacking!"
Someone shouted.
In an instant, figures shot out from the various camps and rushed toward the entrance to the valley.
Chen Changming had just stepped out of his tent when a figure flashed past him and his Senior Sister's voice rang out. "Junior fellow apprentice, the Beasts are extremely powerful. Be extra careful when the fighting starts!"
"All right, Senior Sister."
Chen Changming answered and rushed out after her.
Beneath the pitch-black night sky, a huge swarm of Beasts poured out of the valley entrance, surging toward the camp like a mighty flood.
At the same time,
a tide of cultivators surged forward and met the Beasts head-on.
The moment the two sides clashed, a desperate battle erupted.
By the time Chen Changming arrived, the main force ahead had already engaged the Beasts. He stayed in the rear, his gaze shifting as he studied the Beasts in front of him.
"Awwooo!"
A chorus of howls rang out. More than a dozen enormous black wolves broke through the cultivators' defenses and lunged toward the weaker cultivators in the rear.
"Those are Iron-Armored Wolves!"
As he looked at the black wolves covered in iron armor, Chen Changming's pupils narrowed slightly.
On the way here, he had heard his Senior Sister mention these Iron-Armored Wolves. Even a first-rank, low-tier one could grow over two meters long. They were vicious and quick, with powerful armor. They were the most numerous kind of Beast in all of Cloud Mist Mountain.
They were also the most troublesome.
One mistake, and an Iron-Armored Wolf could tear you apart.
"Kill!"
Many disciples from other sects, whose cultivation was similar to Chen Changming's, charged forward with their swords.
Chen Changming activated the Dragon Glide Step, his movements agile and nimble. Holding his sword in one hand, he dodged the attack of a first-rank, low-tier Iron-Armored Wolf and brought his blade down from behind.
Clang!
His sword bounced back. The Iron-Armored Wolf was completely unharmed.
"That defense really is something..."
Chen Changming smiled faintly and dodged the Iron-Armored Wolf's attack once more.
He had only been testing it just now, to see how tough the armor covering the Beast's body was.
A flash of sword light.
This time, Chen Changming cut off one of the Iron-Armored Wolf's iron claws with a single strike. The giant wolf let out a pained howl, then turned and ran.
A first-rank, low-tier Beast was worth two hundred contribution points. How could he let the Beast that was practically in his grasp get away?
Chen Changming dashed after it and struck repeatedly, killing the Iron-Armored Wolf for good.
In truth, he could have killed the Iron-Armored Wolf with one strike.
But Chen Changming didn't want to reveal his strength, so he added a few more strikes before finishing it off.
After killing it, he waved his Storage Bag and put the Iron-Armored Wolf inside.