"Oh, really? I'd like to see what gives a mere Three-Star Dou Zong the nerve to talk so big!"
Fan Tian slowly approached Ling Feng as he spoke.
Ling Feng frowned slightly. He had already crushed the jade slip, yet no spatial passage had appeared.
Watching Fan Tian draw closer, he grew anxious, losing his usual unruffled composure.
"What's going on? This shouldn't be happening!" Ling Feng took three more Silver Jade Slips from his Storage Ring and immediately crushed them. These three looked even higher-grade.
The crisp cracking sounds were especially piercing in the deathly silence. Three silver rays burst from Ling Feng's palm, and fine spatial ripples spread outward, surging in every direction. The immense spatial power seemed capable of tearing through anything.
Yet halfway out, those ripples vanished like stones sinking into the sea, swallowed entirely by the surrounding void. Not only did they fail to form a spatial passage, they did not even tear open a single fissure.
Ling Feng stared blankly at the empty void, a flicker of panic finally crossing his eyes. His greatest trump card was his ability to summon the Spirit Clan's Dou Zun and Half-Saint experts, who were as numerous as hairs on an ox. The three Silver Jade Slips he had just used had even come from three Dou Sheng. By all rights, the clan's Dou Sheng experts should have been stepping leisurely out of space by now, ready to shatter this man with a casual slap.
"What's wrong? Have your elders abandoned you? Why haven't they shown up after all this waiting?" Fan Tian suddenly accelerated, Dou Qi gathering around his fists as he hurtled toward Ling Feng.
The next day.
Clad in fitted martial attire, Fan Tian once again appeared above Sacred Pill City, treading on the void.
After devouring Ling Feng, he had spent the better part of a day cleaning up the battlefield, afraid of leaving even the slightest trace.
In the original story, when Gu Xun'er, Gu Qingyang, and the other outstanding young members of the Gu Clan fought over the opportunity offered by the Bodhi Ancient Tree in the Vast Desolate Ancient Region, Xiao Yan had drawn them into a fierce confrontation with Hun Yu, the Hun Clan's god-grade bloodline bearer, and Jiu Feng, the young patriarch of the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan. Jiu Feng had used the Heavenly Phoenix Phantom to seal off space, rendering Gu Qingyang's Spatial Scroll useless and preventing him from summoning the clan's Half-Saint experts. In the end, Xun'er and Blondie had been forced to fight Gu You, the Hall of Souls' Half-Saint, head-on.
Of course, the protagonist had won. But what struck Fan Tian was this: with so many of the Gu Clan's young prodigies gathered together, why had the clan not sent a Dou Sheng expert to accompany them? Jiu Feng, the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan's young patriarch, likewise had no Dao Protector, and neither did Hun Yu, the Hun Clan's god-grade bloodline bearer.
The Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan was one thing-it was only on the same level as the Spirit Clan and Stone Clan. But finding a one- or Two-Star Dou Saint or a Half-Saint should have been effortless for the Gu Clan and Hun Clan.
Thus, Fan Tian was certain that Ling Feng had no high-level expert guarding him personally.
By the conventions of the Dou Qi Continent, the stronger an expert was, the higher their status. Asking them to serve as bodyguards and hired fists for the younger generation seemed impossible. Throughout the original story, only Zhu Li, the Third Elder of the Ancient Void Dragons' Eastern Dragon Island, had secretly protected Zi Yan for a time.
But the Ancient Void Dragons had been divided for thousands of years, a host of dragons without a head. Dragon Island had remained embroiled in civil war, with Eastern Dragon Island fighting the other three alone. At least those three islands had Dragon Kings with some measure of bloodline authority presiding over them. Eastern Dragon Island had nothing.
Under those circumstances, personally protecting someone with the dragon emperor bloodline who had suddenly appeared in the Central Plains at the Dou Zong realm was understandable.
The key was that Zi Yan was only a Dou Zong, yet she insisted on roaming human territory with a blond brat named Xiao Yan, offending forces like the Hall of Souls along the way. How could Eastern Dragon Island not be afraid?
Never mind Zhu Li following her-even sending everyone from Eastern Dragon Island would not have been excessive.
So that case was exceptional and could not serve as a reference.
Fan Tian therefore concluded that on the Dou Qi Continent, no matter who you were, being given a Spatial Jade Slip or scroll that let you summon an expert at any time was already protection as vast as the heavens.
Expecting those experts to act as bodyguards and hired fists was unrealistic.
Fan Tian even wondered whether the Gu Clan had known that, when Xun'er was little, Xiao Yan had sneaked over every night to take liberties with her. It would not have taken a Dou Zun or Dou Sheng-even a Dou Emperor could have discovered it. Yet that brat had gotten away with it night after night.
Gu Yuan really did have nerves of steel.
Using his spirit devouring ability, Fan Tian had devoured that entire stretch of space, completely cutting off Ling Feng's chance of summoning his clan's experts through Spatial Jade Slips. Then he had taken down the Spirit Clan's young patriarch with the force of a thunderbolt.
The whole process had been clean and decisive, without the slightest dragging of feet.
In fact, Fan Tian had prepared a backup plan as well. If he could not defeat Ling Feng quickly, he would summon Sound Valley's Dou Zun, copying Jiu Feng and Hun Yu's tactics: I can call for help, but you can't.
Unfortunately, he had overestimated Ling Feng. His Dou Qi cultivation was already inferior to Fan Tian's, and his Dou Di bloodline had been suppressed. Although he possessed heaven-tier cultivation methods and combat skills, he could only practice them upon reaching the Dou Zun realm. They had merely ended up benefiting Fan Tian.
Fan Tian did not linger and headed straight to Yao Ling's shop.
Yao Ling seemed to enjoy peace and quiet rather than running around. Other people traveled all over the continent to gain experience, but she had rented an apothecary from the Pill Tower and spent her days refining pills, reading, selling pills, and buying medicinal ingredients.
Stepping into the shop, Fan Tian greedily inhaled the medicinal fragrance in the air.
"It's been a while, Miss Yao Ling!"
Yao Ling sat on a small stool beside a wooden tea table covered with all sorts of pastries. She held an ancient book in her left hand and a pastry in her right, reading as she ate.
"It's you, Ye Tian? Why are you back again?"
"What do you mean, back again? Am I not allowed to come? Don't you like me, Miss Yao Ling?"
Fan Tian spread his hands.
"No, I mean, didn't you only leave the day before yesterday?" Yao Ling put down her book, came over, and looked him up and down.
"I really missed your... scent... ah, no... your pills. I just couldn't get them out of my head, so I rushed right over as soon as I finished my business."
"Such a glib tongue!" Yao Ling blushed, studying Fan Tian with her large, lively eyes.
It had to be said that Fan Tian was quite good-looking, and his cultivation talent was excellent too. He was also the only person she had thought worth a second glance since leaving the Medicine Realm.
After all, Yao Ling was still only a fifteen-year-old girl. In her eyes, Fan Tian was far more pleasing than Ling Feng of the Spirit Clan.
"Has anyone caused you trouble these past few days?" Yao Ling blinked her lovely eyes and asked suspiciously.
"No. I'm such a nice person, and so handsome. Who would come looking for trouble with me?"
"Really?"
Yao Ling did not believe him.
Those two Spirit Clan members had clearly gone out to keep watch, and Ling Feng had followed them the next day.
"Really." Fan Tian walked over to the spot where Yao Ling had been sitting, plopped down, grabbed the pastries on the table, and began wolfing them down.
"You really do make yourself at home." Yao Ling rolled her eyes. Ordinarily, no one dared behave so casually in front of her.
"So stingy. I'm not eating your food for nothing. Here, this is for you." Looking at Yao Ling's stunning face, Fan Tian took a strangely shaped fruit from his Storage Ring and handed it to her.
"This is a Soul Infant Fruit!" Yao Ling exclaimed.
Before you continue