"Hm? What's going on?"
The rogue cultivator stopped, a trace of surprise creeping into his strange voice, which mingled male and female tones.
He had not expected such a change to occur in the world around him.
A black-clad man approached and reported gravely, "My lord, it seems someone is coming."
The rogue cultivator said, "You mean the powerful aristocratic clans guarding this area?"
"Yes. Everyone we sent to stop them has been wiped out. At least two Earth Rank cultivators are heading here now, accompanied by several half-step Earth Rank experts of the Human Rank."
The rogue cultivator glanced at Xiao Jingcheng, who lay dead at his feet after an ignominious end, and sneered.
He was an expert who had recently risen from the rough-and-tumble world of outlaws. His name was Wu Tao, though those of the Greenwood called him "Thunderclap Hand."
He had once been a notorious bandit in the mundane world, making his living by raiding homes and plundering. His attacks were often vicious, striking with the force of a thunderclap.
Wu Tao was born with strength and courage, and favored beating his enemies to death with his Iron Sand Palm, powered by a hard-body qigong technique. Even after embarking on cultivation and learning divine abilities and spells, he could not shake his martial brute's habits.
As it happened, his primary spirit creature was a Blazing Mountain Tiger, known as the lord of the mountains. After swallowing a Change Fruit obtained through a fortuitous encounter, it had mutated, granting him formidable strength far beyond that of cultivators at his level.
This only heightened his renown, and for a time, he rampaged unchecked through East Pass, his roars ringing through the mountain forests.
But had Wu Tao's good fortune ended there, he would have amounted to no more