"Don't come any closer!"
The White-Clothed Youth, who had just obtained a seed quota, screamed at the top of his lungs.
His once-dashing white clothes were now torn and bloodstained, and the lackeys who had clustered around him were nowhere to be seen.
The jade pin holding up his hair had snapped as well, and his disheveled locks spoke volumes about his current plight.
The once high-spirited youth had fallen into a pool of blood, looking like a phoenix stripped of its feathers.
Sword light slashed down.
Su Qing casually plucked the spiritual energy from the mark that had fallen from the youth's forehead, then turned and flicked it into Tang Qian'er's mark.
Su Qing's indigo combat clothes were still perfectly neat, as though the struggle had never happened.
Mu Chen and Tang Qian'er, however, were somewhat out of breath, their clothes disheveled and their robes flecked with blood.
But compared with everyone else on the platform, their condition was hardly worth mentioning.
The vast Bluestone Platform stood empty, the thronging crowds and bustling scene from moments earlier gone without a trace.
Bloodstains and severed limbs on the ground bore witness to the fierce struggle that had just taken place, yet not a single corpse remained.
After plundering the marks of an entire platform's worth of students, the three had risen quite a few levels.
Su Qing and Mu Chen had already attained level-five marks, while Tang Qian'er's had reached level four. Judging by its color, hers was not far from level five either.
"Phew!"
After dealing with the last student, Su Qing let out a relaxed breath.
Then he turned to the other two and said,
"One fight, and we're rolling in riches."
"Exactly." Mu Chen picked up the conversation with a grin, equally delighted.
All three of their marks were now above level four, so they no longer had to worry about elimination.
"Oww!" Tang Qian'er ran to Su Qing's side, rubbing a bruise on her arm as she whined to him.
When Su Qing seemed not to notice, Tang Qian'er waved her pale, bruised arm before his eyes and rested her chin on his shoulder.
"All right, I see it."
Resigned, Su Qing reached out and caught Tang Qian'er's delicate wrist. He took a little pale-green ointment from his sleeve, dabbed it onto her bruises, and gently rubbed it into her snow-white skin with his fingertips.
Tang Qian'er gave a comfortable little moan, like a cat.
The pain in her bruises gradually faded, and as the ointment seeped into her skin, the pooled blood slowly dispersed.
Feeling Su Qing's warm palm massaging her arm, Tang Qian'er found a faint blush creeping across her lovely face.
"Done."
Before long, Su Qing had applied ointment to every bruise on Tang Qian'er's pale arm and withdrew his hand.
Seeing that the ointment had soaked into her skin, Tang Qian'er lowered her rolled-up sleeve, covering her arm again.
The three lingered no longer. They leaped down from the stone platform and headed toward the center of the Northern Cang Realm.
Silence returned to the area.
Similar events had occurred on Reception Platforms other than Su Qing's.
On another Reception Platform, a Black-Skirted Girl slowly walked to its edge and gazed quietly into the distance. A faint smile blossomed on her lips, stealing the splendor from a hundred flowers in an instant.
Behind her, more than a dozen pale-faced figures lay on the ground, the marks on their foreheads dull and lightless.
Several days later.
Whoosh!
Two figures raced through the forest, one fleeing and the other pursuing, startling a flock of birds into flight.
The fleeing figure's face was deathly pale. Every so often, he cast a swift glance around, as though something terrifying lurked in the surrounding woods.
Judging by his aura, he was at the late stage of the Spirit Wheel Realm, while Tang Qian'er, who was chasing him, was only at the middle stage.
Yet the fleeing youth could not muster even the slightest thought of stopping to fight back, for he knew that an even greater terror stood behind the pretty girl pursuing him.
Run!
As long as I find the group, I'll be safe!
The boss will deal with them!
As these thoughts raced through his mind, his steps quickened a little, as though he had squeezed out his last scrap of strength.
Hum!
As he swept past a tree, he used its trunk to block the pursuing girl's line of sight and flung a ribbon of spiritual energy back at her.
A gleam of sword light rose from the girl's hand and sliced the ribbon apart, barely slowing her down.
Seeing this, the fleeing youth gritted his teeth, lowered his head, and kept running.
Su Qing trailed far behind the two, watching them. A trace of boredom flickered through his indifferent eyes, and he yawned.
The girl giving chase ahead was none other than Tang Qian'er. The longsword in her hand was one Su Qing had snatched from some unlucky fellow a few days earlier.
Su Qing had taken the opportunity to teach Tang Qian'er a few sword techniques.
The youth Tang Qian'er was chasing now was another unlucky fellow. He had originally had several companions, but unfortunately, Su Qing had set his sights on their forehead marks, and they had fallen like broken halberds sinking into the sand.
Su Qing had left this last youth for Tang Qian'er to practice on. Although there was still a gap between their cultivation levels, Su Qing had already crippled part of the youth's fighting strength.
Besides, Su Qing also intended to follow this vine to its melons and root out a few more unlucky fellows through him.
Before long, Tang Qian'er and the fleeing youth had covered a considerable distance.
Tang Qian'er's stamina was beginning to falter. She panted, drenched in sweat, a faint flush spreading across her face.
The unlucky fellow ahead also looked as though he was about to exhaust his strength.
Yet a little while later, he suddenly surged forward as though experiencing a final burst of vitality before death.
With a strange, jubilant cry, he leaped into the bushes ahead.
In the blink of an eye, several figures stepped out from behind the bushes.
"Boss! It's her! There are two others too. They shattered Liang Yi's and Fang Huai's marks!"
The unlucky fellow who had fled here spoke to the leader of the group, whose aura had already reached the early stage of the Divine Soul Realm.
The leader's expression turned grim at those words. If only the spiritual energy within a mark was stolen, there was still a chance to rise again, but once a mark was shattered, its owner was eliminated, with no further opportunity.
Unfortunately, Su Qing was ruthless and cared nothing about that. When it came to enemies, his way was to cut down the weeds and tear out their roots.
The leader said little more. With a wave of his hand, he sent a wind blade hurtling toward Tang Qian'er.
Tang Qian'er had already stopped when the figures emerged from the bushes and was watching them warily.
As the wind blade flew toward her, Tang Qian'er's expression grew solemn. She raised her longsword and deflected it, but its force still drove her several steps backward.
"Heh, Yang Bin, you're pretty useless, aren't you? Letting a beauty like this chase you into such a sorry state."
One member of the group spoke in a mocking tone.
A peculiar gleam shone in his eyes as he brazenly surveyed Tang Qian'er's shapely figure. Smacking his lips, he said,
"Girl, why don't you join our group? We'll make sure you feast on the finest food and drink, and you'll get first pick of any resources. All you have to do is pay a tiny, insignificant price."
He made a squeezing motion with his fingers in the air, as though hinting at something, and broke into a lecherous grin.
As he finished, several strange chuckles rose from the group, and a number of unsettling gazes settled on Tang Qian'er.
They eyed her clothes, slightly damp with sweat, and her lovely hair, a little disheveled from the chase, with ill intent.