A Calf That Feared No Tiger

The moment Hong Tai finished speaking, the cultivators from the Dark Ghost immediately began closing in on everyone.

When the three families scattered around Blackwater Pool learned that the newcomers belonged to the Dark Ghost, they all panicked and immediately racked their brains for a way out, wondering how they could break the deadlock.

"Old Han, I'm afraid we'll have to split up and flee."

As the newcomers slowly approached, Zhou Qingchen's expression turned grave. The ease and leisure he'd shown earlier were gone.

He'd just learned from Han Duping that the leader, a man named Hong Tai, had actually reached the Xisui Realm.

In the Fourth Realm, the Xisui Realm was already the pinnacle of the cultivation world. Zhou Qingchen knew he would reach it sooner or later, but for now, he was only at the Pulse-Opening Realm.

The other side had learned all about them through Zhang Heng and still dared to bring people here to surround and wipe them out. They must be absolutely certain of victory.

"Mm. I know what to do."

Han Duping's gaze flickered.

"Clop, clop!"

Pang Jian suddenly sprinted toward the fallen warhorses.

The Dragon-Patterned Spear Zhou Qingchen had given him, with its rough feel, along with Pang Jian's long saber and bow and arrows, were all on the horses.

He knew nothing about the Dark Ghost and couldn't tell the newcomers' cultivation levels. All he could do was retrieve his usual weapons as quickly as possible and prepare for the bloodbath ahead.

"Everyone!"

Zhou Qingchen suddenly raised his voice and cried out like a man making a solemn vow, "Don't worry about me. Get out of here however you can!"

"I, Zhou Qingchen, promise you all this: if I make it out alive, I won't go to Red Mountain in the Upper Realm to cultivate until I've slaughtered every member of the Dark Ghost who came here today!"

Those loyal to the Zhou Family felt their hearts shake at his words, as if their morale had been bolstered.

"Kill those stinking rats hiding in the gutter!"

"They're just the lowly Dark Ghost! What's there to fear?"

The Zhou Family's cultivators tightened their grips on their weapons and, without the slightest fear of death, charged first at the Dark Ghost.

Outside Blackwater Pool, the terrain spread out in an open fan shape. Everyone was now at the part where the fan narrowed toward its ribs.

At Hong Tai's command, the Dark Ghost's people had filled almost all the open ground leading out. Anyone trying to escape would inevitably have to meet them head-on.

Soon, the servants loyal to the Zhou Family collided with the Dark Ghost's people, and the fighting erupted at once.

Just as Pang Jian grabbed his bow and long saber and took the Dragon-Patterned Spear in one hand, he looked up to see the bloodbath begin.

"Little Brother Pang Jian, I'm barely able to save my own skin on this trip. I'm afraid I can't look after you." Zhou Qingchen glanced over at Pang Jian, his brows knitted, and sighed. "The best I can do is draw as much of their fiercest fire as possible onto myself. Take care, everyone. I hope we meet again!"

With that, he charged out like a leopard.

Seven deep-red beams burst from the Heart-Protecting Mirror on his chest in quick succession. Like savage, bloodthirsty dragons of light, they blasted several Dark Ghost members who'd closed in on him to death on the spot.

The dead Dark Ghost members' bones shattered, leaving them as heaps of mangled flesh.

Zhou Qingchen's ferocity and dominance immediately struck fear into the Dark Ghost attackers. Those who hadn't reached the Pulse-Opening Realm scattered hurriedly, as if fleeing from snakes and scorpions.

Zhou Qingchen laughed boldly as he swept past heaps of mangled flesh, charging straight through as if no one stood in his way.

"I knew that kid would be the most troublesome."

Hong Tai had expected as much. He squinted at the Heart-Protecting Mirror Zhou Qingchen had revealed and smiled greedily. "Looks like it's a treasure bestowed by Red Mountain. Not bad, not bad!"

"Hiss!"

The python he rode immediately slithered toward Zhou Qingchen, crushing countless plants in its path.

Where the python passed, the forest seemed to have been plowed into a winding mountain road, several feet deep.

With Zhou Qingchen drawing the attention of so many Dark Ghost members—even their leader, Hong Tai—and bearing the brunt of their strength alone, the others' morale soared.

Amid the chaos, Ning Yao also reached the dead chestnut horse and kicked it, rolling its fallen body over.

At a time like this, she didn't have the luxury to care about the blood staining the pouch of spirit stones. She grabbed it and slung it over her back.

"Uncle Yuanshan, let's get out of here!"

Without even looking at Pang Jian standing nearby, she and Ning Yuanshan made for the end farthest from Zhou Qingchen and tried to break through.

That was where the Dark Ghost's defenses were weakest.

As for Pang Jian, she already considered him a dead man. He was bound to fall to the Dark Ghost's attack.

"I'm returning your money. From now on, I have no obligation to do anything for the Ning Family."

Watching her and Ning Yuanshan sprint away, Pang Jian pulled the pouch of silver coins from the very bottom of the Bamboo Basket. He didn't care whether Ning Yao wanted it or not and simply threw it at her.

Ning Yao didn't hear him—or pretended not to. She didn't even turn around.

Her attention was fixed on Zhang Heng, who blocked their way. Her bright eyes glinted with baleful intent as she shouted, "Zhang Heng, the Ning Family treated you well! How could you betray us?"

"Treated me well?"

Zhang Heng sat on one of the warhorses he'd taken, watching Ning Yao and Ning Yuanshan quickly approach. He sneered. "In your eyes, anyone who depends on you but doesn't bear the Ning name is just cannon fodder you can sacrifice whenever you please. When has the young miss of the Ning Family ever looked me in the eye?"

His gaze grew sinister as he stared at Ning Yao's valiant face. His throat bobbed, as if he were swallowing hard.

"You've done a great service. In a little while, we'll let this little beauty look you right in the eye from beneath your crotch."

From deep within a lush, leafy tree in the seemingly lax defensive line came a burst of laughter. "Elder Hong promised a long time ago that this little beauty would be yours to enjoy first."

At the sound of that voice, Ning Yao's face turned cold as water. She realized things weren't as simple as she'd thought.

Ning Yuanshan suddenly screamed, "Look out!"

Numerous long spears and short javelins shot from the brush and tree trunks in front of them, streaking through the air like sharp bolts of lightning.

The two scrambled to dodge and parry. Their advance through the encirclement was forced to slow.

"Han Duping, if you can get me out of here alive, I...I'll let you kiss me!"

Seeing that things were going badly, Shangguan Qin had lost all color in her face. At last, she was willing to deal with the fat man who'd been pestering her, even offering a condition that made her sick to her stomach.

Compared to falling into the Dark Ghost's hands and suffering their inhuman abuse, she could grit her teeth, close her eyes, and let Han Duping have his way with her once.

"Compared to my precious life, the few pounds of flesh on your body aren't all that important."

Han Duping, who'd long coveted Shangguan Qin's body, had no time to care about her now that his life was on the line.

His bulky frame was suddenly encased in gleaming silver armor. He crouched, tucking in his body, and began rolling along the ground like a shining iron ball.

The Dark Ghost attackers hacked at the ball with all manner of weapons, but only managed to send up a few sparks.

From inside the sphere, Han Duping took the chance to thrust needle-sharp weapons at those nearest him, killing several of the Dark Ghost besiegers.

"Han Duping! You bastard! You'll die a horrible death!"

Snubbed and insulted, Shangguan Qin cursed loudly through clenched teeth, but still chose to follow Han Duping in his attempt to break through.

At that moment, everyone trying to escape was being surrounded and intercepted by the Dark Ghost. Only Pang Jian stood among the pile of dead horses, looking this way and that as he waited for the right opportunity.

"Would you look at that? There's still a fool standing around instead of running."

A Dark Ghost member was short and skinny, yet moved with astonishing speed. Carrying a Wolf-Tooth Beacon Club longer than he was tall, he ambled toward Pang Jian.

The man suddenly leaped into the air and swung the Wolf-Tooth Beacon Club down at Pang Jian's head, hoping to finish him off before going after Shangguan Qin.

Shangguan Qin had a curvy, voluptuous figure—exactly his type—and he'd been itching for her for a long time.

"A Qi Refining Realm cultivator."

Looking up at the attacker as he soared through the air, Pang Jian suddenly recalled Zhou Qingchen's words: cultivators who hadn't broken through to the Pulse-Opening Realm couldn't circulate spiritual power through all their meridians, so their strength wasn't much greater than an ordinary person's.

His mind settled. The last trace of fear or tension left him as he watched the man approach with a cold gaze.

From childhood onward, he'd never been an "ordinary person" anyone could slaughter at will. In these mountains he knew better than anywhere else, he was always the one hunting the beasts!

He drew a deep breath and swiftly entered a fighting state. His mind was as calm as his eyes, and a bone-chilling killing intent seemed to coil around him.

As the Wolf-Tooth Beacon Club drew nearer, he dropped the Dragon-Patterned Spear he'd been holding and gripped his long saber with both hands, raising it to block the club from above.

"Clang!"

The sharp clash numbed both his hands, and he saw that the long saber had been battered out of shape.

He suddenly realized the saber's rigidity and quality were simply too poor. It couldn't withstand a fight between cultivators.

The next moment, he decisively grabbed the Dragon-Patterned Spear!

Once he truly wielded the spear as a weapon, he suddenly discovered that the weapon which had felt so heavy the first time he'd lifted it now felt unbelievably light.

He knew the Dragon-Patterned Spear's weight hadn't changed. That meant the only thing that had changed was himself!

"That dream...the cleansing of my hand bones and breastbone..."

In a daze, he felt a powerful force welling up from the bones in both hands gripping the spear!

"Hm?"

After his first strike, the Dark Ghost attacker saw that Pang Jian hadn't been killed with one blow and froze for a moment.

He adjusted the angle of the enormous Wolf-Tooth Beacon Club, so ill-suited to his build, and prepared to strike again.

By then, Pang Jian, much younger than him but tall and powerfully built, was already charging at him with the spear.

"You dare fight back?"

His eyes turned cold. He immediately spun the Wolf-Tooth Beacon Club with a whoosh, intending to smash Pang Jian's skull first, then crush every bone in his body.

"Bang!"

The moment the Wolf-Tooth Beacon Club collided with the Dragon-Patterned Spear, a savage force erupted. The spikes on the head of the club suddenly burst apart, spraying into the man's face and body and leaving him covered in bloody holes.

His hands couldn't withstand the violent impact. The skin split open in countless fine cuts.

"So that's a Dark Ghost cultivator? You're nothing special."

After landing a hit, Pang Jian looked at the Dark Ghost attacker's pitiful state and muttered to himself.

Then, without bothering to check whether the man was dead, he drove the spearpoint into his neck.

With a wet squelch, the Dark Ghost attacker's neck was pierced by the Dragon-Patterned Spear.

Seeing how easily the man had died, Pang Jian couldn't help thinking that Zhou Qingchen had been right. Cultivators who hadn't reached the Pulse-Opening Realm hadn't undergone a qualitative breakthrough. Their combat strength really was limited.

"Zhang Hu!"

After the man died instantly, Zhang Heng, riding the last surviving warhorse, suddenly roared in grief and rage.

At that moment, he abandoned his attempt to kill Ning Yao and Ning Yuanshan and rode straight toward Pang Jian!

"Little brother!"

Zhang Heng's eyes bulged as he charged. He'd spotted Zhang Hu among the fallen horses on the way over and had hoped to catch some sign of life.

But just like the Ning Family's warhorses he'd poisoned, his own brother, Zhang Hu, was well and truly dead.

"Pang Jian!"

After Zhang Hu's death, Zhang Heng had joined the Dark Ghost. Now his fury exploded. He howled Pang Jian's name and whipped his horse into a frenzy.

Pang Jian had just fought his first battle. Seeing Zhang Heng gallop toward him on the panicked horse, he immediately nocked an arrow and drew his bow.

The longbow, which usually took effort to control, snapped taut in an instant. He shot repeatedly at Zhang Heng on horseback, but Zhang Heng either dodged the arrows or knocked them aside with his long sword.

As horse and rider drew closer, Pang Jian suddenly changed targets and aimed at the galloping horse.

"Thud, thud!"

Several arrows pierced the horse's eyes, neck, and forehead in the blink of an eye.

The horse Zhang Heng had considered a companion went blind and thrashed wildly, throwing him off.

Before Zhang Heng could hit the ground and regain control of his body, Pang Jian shot forward like lightning and thrust the Dragon-Patterned Spear upward again and again, leaving a series of bloody holes in him.

By the time Zhang Heng hit the ground, he'd met the same fate as his brother, Zhang Hu.

"So fierce. I thought he'd be a lot stronger."

Looking at Zhang Heng's corpse, blood still gurgling from it, Pang Jian muttered, his expression strange.