Sikong

The young man looked to be about twenty years old. He was powerfully built, every bit as strong as Lei Chen, and held a spear in his hand. Though it was only half a zhang long, it was pitch-black from end to end, and a shocking chill seemed to emanate from it. Even the spearhead glimmered with a spot of golden light.

The most important thing was that the spear was not made of stone. It was fashioned from something Su Ming had never seen before. The moment his distant gaze fell upon it, his heart lurched.

A familiar feeling. An intensely familiar one.

But he could not tell where that familiarity came from. The danger threaded through it, however, swept everything from Su Ming's mind in an instant, leaving only the calmness of instinct.

"He isn't wearing animal hide, but coarse hemp clothing. Clothes like those... He must hold a high position in the Black Dragon Tribe!"

"I don't regret approaching the Black Dragon Tribe!" Su Ming's eyes flashed as he answered himself inwardly.

"I haven't come within a thousand zhang of your tribe. By the rules between tribes, fewer than three people beyond a thousand zhang don't count as hostile! I mean no harm. I just have a friend among your Black Dragon Tribe's people and wanted to come see her." Su Ming raced forward. With the speed of his fourth layer of the Blood Condensation Realm, he skimmed over the snow without leaving a trace, and his words rang out as he shot onward.

"Oh? In that case, you really aren't an enemy. Stop running. Come back to the tribe with me, and once we've found out what's going on, the Barbarian Duke can decide what to do." A cold glint flashed in the young man's eyes as he spoke unhurriedly. His speed did not slacken in the slightest, however; he raced after Su Ming, watching him as if waiting for him to hesitate.

"I'm an outsider. How could I just walk into your Black Dragon Tribe?" Su Ming didn't slow down at all as he replied with a laugh.

"Fair enough. Then what's the name of the person you know?" The young man's expression remained unchanged, but his eyes narrowed as he spoke while giving chase.

"I don't know her name. I only know she wears white and is very beautiful." The instant Su Ming uttered those words as he raced onward, he abruptly looked back.

He saw the fleeting killing intent in the young man's eyes at those words, and understood at once. He had been wondering why, with his cultivation and the fact that he hadn't come within a thousand zhang, the Black Dragon Tribe would have fired that terrifying spear at him even if they had noticed him.

There had to be a reason for all this. And then this young man, whose status was clearly high, had come after him alone. A guess took shape in Su Ming's mind.

"So it really was him!" The young man answered Su Ming with a cold snort. Striding forward in pursuit, he raised his right hand. A great mass of black qi swirled and spread, then wound around the spear behind him. After circling it several times, it rang out with a piercing shriek. The black qi had drawn the spear into the air, where it floated above the young man's head.

Su Ming's pupils contracted. This was a Barbarian Art!

The aura of blood and qi radiating from the young man clearly revealed his powerful cultivation, slightly higher than Su Ming's. Judging by his appearance, he seemed to be at the fifth layer of the Blood Condensation Realm, though he had only recently reached it and possessed no more than a few additional bloodlines. But he also had a Barbarian Artifact, and that changed things.

"We'll meet again after you're dead." There were more than seven hundred zhang between the young man and Su Ming, and they had already raced far from the Black Dragon Tribe. The only one in pursuit was the young man.

Yet as the spear floated amid the swirling black qi, the feeling of danger within Su Ming grew even stronger. At the young man's words, killing intent filled his eyes. He abruptly pointed at Su Ming with his right hand. With a shrill whistle, the spear wreathed in black qi shot toward him.

As it flew, the golden light at its tip suddenly flashed, as if it had torn through space. It raced forward at an unimaginable speed, closing to within three hundred zhang of Su Ming in an instant.

"A Barbarian Artifact!" Su Ming's pupils contracted as he recognized it. Forty-nine bloodlines appeared in his body at once. They surged at full speed, and his blood and qi erupted, driving his speed and agility to their limits. Just as the spear arrived, Su Ming suddenly dropped into a crouch. The gale screamed over him as the spear shot past, a mere seven inches above his head, then struck the ground with a thunderous boom.

The might of this strike was actually on par with the spear that had just been fired from the Black Dragon Tribe.

An ordinary fourth-layer Barbarian Warrior would have found it difficult to dodge. But speed and agility were Su Ming's strengths. After evading the spear, he didn't even look at it where it had buried itself in the ground. His eyes turned cold as he raced farther away.

Su Ming didn't need to spend too long wondering whether to take the spear. The Beast Skin Book had once said that only those in the Dust Opening Realm could make a Barbarian Artifact acknowledge them as its master; those below that realm could not.

But the other man had simply thrown it away, as if anyone could easily pick it up. That seemed suspicious. There had to be something strange about it!

Night was not far off...

Soon, the young man reached the place where his spear had struck. A cold glint flashed in his eyes, and he snorted, though his brow furrowed slightly.

As the son of the Black Dragon Tribe's chieftain, he, Sikong, was not the strongest among the younger generation, but he was no ordinary man. He had reached the fifth layer of the Blood Condensation Realm and possessed a Barbarian Artifact. Killing someone at the fourth layer of the Blood Condensation Realm should have been easy.

Yet his opponent had dodged. Sikong was now wary, and had also realized how cautious the other man was.

"What a pity. If he'd really meant to pick up my Barbarian Artifact, he'd already be dead." Sikong hesitated, but then, as if recalling something, carefully picked up the spear and gave chase once more.

In the forest, Su Ming ran like the wind, his speed growing with every flicker of movement. But Sikong stayed close behind him. The spear that came whistling after Su Ming from time to time made it seem as though he couldn't open up the distance. They maintained a gap of several hundred zhang as they headed deeper into the forest.

In truth, if Su Ming had really wanted to escape, his speed and familiarity with the forest would have made it easy enough. But he had no intention of pulling away. This was only the second time he had seen a Barbarian Artifact, and experiencing one firsthand had stirred a powerful desire in him. He wanted to obtain it!

As he raced onward, he kept an eye on the sky. When dusk deepened and the moon began to appear, a glint entered Su Ming's eyes.

"Barbarian Artifacts are no ordinary things. What he used earlier was simple; he must have something up his sleeve. He's been chasing me for so long without catching up. If I were him, I'd consider unleashing more of the artifact's power... But he's been cautious the whole way. If he uses that hidden move, it'll clearly cost him something. I just don't know what this Barbarian Artifact's true power looks like." Su Ming had reached a conclusion.

As Sikong pursued him, he grew increasingly impatient. He hadn't expected his opponent to be so nimble. The sky was darkening, they had traveled too far from the tribe, and Sikong had left in secret, not wanting too many people to know. If he returned too late, it would be hard to explain. He gritted his teeth and grabbed at the air with his right hand. Black qi swirled, and for the first time, he fully gripped the spear.

Just then, Su Ming suddenly called out as he ran, several hundred zhang ahead.

"You're chasing me like this. Are you really going to kill me? There's no enmity between us. If you're going to kill me, at least give me a reason!"

"Why all the pointless talk? You trespassed into Black Dragon territory. Anyone from my tribe can kill you! Even if your Wu Mountain Tribe comes after us, you'll have brought it on yourself!" Sikong sneered. As he chased Su Ming, he gripped the spear tightly. Waves of icy coldness flowed from it into his arm.

Sikong's expression darkened. With a cold snort, he raised the black spear in his right hand. In an instant, the surrounding forest seemed to fill with countless howling voices. Vast quantities of black qi poured from the spear, swirling around it until it looked like a black dragon!

The dragon bore countless claws, and long whiskers whipped about its face. It looked hideously ferocious!

"No matter who you are, you're going to die today!" Sikong sneered. His face had turned somewhat pale; unleashing the spear's power like this clearly took a heavy toll on him. He gripped the spear and was about to hurl it at Su Ming when Su Ming suddenly spoke.

"Is this because I saved Bai Ling?" Su Ming suddenly called out.

At the name, Sikong paused for the briefest moment. But in that instant, Su Ming's fleeing figure abruptly stopped. He turned to face him and raised his right hand, sweeping it forcefully toward him.

A sense of danger unlike any Sikong had ever felt crashed into his heart. His pupils abruptly shrank, and his face changed dramatically. He was about to throw the spear, but his body suddenly shuddered. It was as if wind had struck his face, or a light had stabbed into his eyes. He stared at Su Ming's pupils, and saw the shadow of a blood moon.

That blood moon filled his vision. Sudden agony tore through his body, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. Confusion, incomprehension, and disbelief filled his eyes. Trembling, he collapsed face-first into the snow.

As he fell, the spear in his hand—the one that had transformed into a black dragon but had not yet been thrown—gradually shed all its black qi. It returned to its ordinary form and dropped to the side.

Blood seeped from his body, soaking into the snow. A silver line could faintly be seen wrapped around him, sinking deep into his flesh. It seemed that one more pull would have torn his entire body to pieces.

He was not dead. He was still breathing, but he had passed out from the sudden agony.

Su Ming's heart pounded. He looked at the spear with lingering fear. The way Sikong had wielded it earlier had made Su Ming feel he was standing between life and death.

"When fighting someone, you mustn't let your mind wander or hesitate. If you can kill with a single strike as quickly as possible, never hold back and save it for later." Su Ming murmured, committing the lesson to memory.

"He had a Barbarian Artifact. I won this fight by sheer luck!" Su Ming crouched beside the unconscious Sikong. After hesitating, he bandaged his wounds. He didn't want him to die and bring trouble to the tribe. Judging by Su Ming's estimate, Sikong would wake soon.

Then, with feverish intensity in his eyes, he studied the black spear beside him. After examining it for a while, he gradually noticed something: in many places along the spear were tiny barbs, almost impossible to see unless one looked closely.

Su Ming studied it for a long while, then carefully gripped the only part of the spear without barbs and quickly left.