"The biggest difference between beasts and humans is that humans have brains."
Su Qing could no longer bear to watch. He jumped down from the tree, drove his blade into the Spirit Beast's brainstem, and finished it off, speaking with resignation.
"Who could possibly compare to a monster like you?" Tang Qian'er said, panting heavily.
"When Mu Chen told me you were a freak, I didn't believe him. Now I've seen it for myself. You really are a freak."
"I keep feeling like there's a double meaning in that."
"Double meaning, my ass." Tang Qian'er curled her lip.
Although she had never taken part in anything like this before, she had improved rapidly under Su Qing's guidance over the past few days.
Although she refused to give an inch verbally, a trace of admiration for Su Qing had also risen in her heart.
What a freak!
"I've taught you everything I can. How well you put it into practice depends entirely on your understanding. Unfortunately, someone showed me today just how vast the gap between two people can be."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? I've already been learning really fast, okay!"
Amid their laughter and banter, Su Qing collected the soul essence of the Spirit Beast he had just killed.
"We've harvested enough for today. With a little more practice, you'll pretty much be ready to graduate. Come on, let's find the next target," Su Qing said, wiping the blood from his blade and sheathing it.
"Wait."
Su Qing raised a hand to stop Tang Qian'er.
"What's wrong?" Tang Qian'er asked.
"Something interesting is happening over there. Let's take a look."
Su Qing gave a mysterious smile.
Mist wreathed the forest, and the mountains sank into the distant glow.
Dozens of Northern Spiritual Academy students had gathered in the dense forest, but their usual youthful energy was absent. All of them stared ahead with grim expressions.
Over a dozen lean, hardened figures carrying the scent of blood lounged against the trees there, studying the students with faint mockery.
Several familiar figures stood at the front of the students. They were all among the academy's highest-ranked students, and like the others, they were angry yet wary of these adventurers.
After all, they were only a group of young teenagers. They still felt some fear when facing Spirit Beasts, let alone these adventurers who had tasted blood.
"Didn't you hear what I just said, you little brats who haven't even grown your hair yet?"
An adventurer wearing leather armor spoke lazily.
"Hand over all the soul essences you've got."
"This is robbery!" a student shouted, his face flushed red.
"Correct answer! Too bad there's no prize!" The adventurer and his companions roared with laughter.
"We're students from the Northern Spiritual Academy. Our instructors are here, and they're both Divine Soul Realm experts."
Another student brought up their two instructors in an attempt to intimidate the adventurer team.
"No need to introduce yourselves. I know you're Northern Spiritual Academy students. You're exactly who we're robbing!"
"Little dolls in an ivory tower. Not everyone is like that freak. You're so weak, you're practically the perfect prey."
The adventurers burst into laughter again.
"Didn't your instructors tell you? This is part of your training on the Northern Spiritual Plains, too! As long as we don't kill you, they won't interfere."
"Hurry up and hand them over. If we start fighting, there's no telling what might happen."
The adventurer ran his tongue over his pale teeth. "I can be pretty rough."
"Or does someone want to give it a try? You? You? Or you?"
"We're both at the late stage of the Spirit Movement Realm. Want to have a go?" The adventurer pointed at Mo Ling with a smile, but bloodthirsty light gleamed in his eyes.
Yet as soon as he finished speaking, a light, airy voice drifted over, instantly chilling the adventurers' boisterous laughter.
"How about I have a go with you?" Su Qing emerged from the woods beside them with Tang Qian'er.
The adventurers' expressions changed instantly, their relaxed postures snapping taut.
The youth's earlier cheerful demeanor had vanished. The murderous aura between his brows was so thick it seemed ready to drip.
"Green Bamboo Snake?" a hesitant voice asked from among the adventurers.
"You know me?"
Seeing that someone among the adventurers had recognized him, Su Qing turned his gaze toward him.
After Su Qing came to this world, fear and unease had driven him to begin cultivating at a very early age.
He had entered the Northern Spiritual Academy at ten and begun sensing spiritual energy, broken through to the Spirit Wheel Realm at twelve, and reached its peak that same year.
He had mastered divine abilities from the Thirty-Six Heavenly Arts, including Nine Breaths to Subdue Qi, Subduing Dragons and Taming Tigers, and Embryonic Transformation, as well as orthodox arts from the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends, such as Shouldering Mountains and Sitting in Fire and Entering Water and Traveling with Divine Speed.
He had also studied numerous dangerous spiritual arts in the spiritual art chambers of the Northern Spiritual Academy and the Mu Domain, pursuing them with reckless madness.
Thus, Su Qing had become a regular visitor to the Northern Spiritual Plains, using Embryonic Transformation to temporarily give his body the mature appearance it would have several years later so he could operate there.
Fear could drive people to do things beyond their fears, because only ever more frantic behavior could numb them enough to escape the unease within.
In the years between his first steps onto the Northern Spiritual Plains and his cultivation deviation, madness had only bred greater madness.
At the academy, he was a prodigy and a refined gentleman. Once he put on his "mask," however, he became the unpredictable Jade-Faced Butcher-Green Bamboo Snake.
Only when cultivation deviation stripped him of all his cultivation did Su Qing receive a blow to the head that brought him to his senses.
While he recovered, the companionship of Mu Feng and his son Mu Chen, along with Tang Qian'er and the others, gradually soothed the unease and fear within him. Only then had Su Qing slowly begun cultivating his character and tempering his spirit.
Just now, however, that familiar atmosphere among the adventurers had drawn out a strand of the viciousness buried deep in Su Qing's heart, bringing it back to the surface.
A burly figure stepped out from behind the others with a solemn expression. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Lei Cheng, captain of the Thunderstorm Team. I've long heard of your reputation."
"You know my old reputation, yet you still dare come out and greet me?" Su Qing gave a cold scoff.
"Though countless souls have fallen to you, you aren't someone who kills indiscriminately. Those people all deserved their deaths."
"I believe our Thunderstorm Team hasn't done anything that would warrant a massacre at your hands."
Su Qing stared at Lei Cheng expressionlessly. An invisible pressure congealed in the clearing, and trails of cold sweat ran down Lei Cheng's temples.
"Have you gone mute? You bullied people from my Northern Spiritual Academy and thought that would be the end of it?" Su Qing frowned when Lei Cheng remained silent.
Lei Cheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief. "Of course not. A while ago, we found a fully mature Jade Spirit Tree in a valley, but it has Spirit Beasts guarding it."
"Our team is too weak to do anything about it. But you're a different matter."
"What Spirit Beasts are guarding it?" Su Qing asked gravely.
"A Fire Spirit Ape King, roughly at the middle stage of the Spirit Wheel Realm, with over a hundred Fire Spirit Apes under it," Lei Cheng replied.
"We'll work together. I assume you've prepared a way to deal with the Fire Spirit Apes, or you wouldn't have entertained the idea."
The murderous aura between Su Qing's brows eased slightly as he spoke.
"I'll handle the Fire Spirit Ape King, and you handle the Fire Spirit Apes. We split it seventy-thirty in our favor. Fifty percent is the normal share for cooperating; the extra twenty percent is compensation for them."
"Agreed," Lei Cheng answered after a moment's thought.
"Hey." Su Qing turned toward Tang Qian'er.
"What is it?"
"Do me a favor. Go back to camp and bring Mu Chen here," Su Qing instructed.
"Sure!"
Su Qing withdrew his gaze from Tang Qian'er's departing figure and looked at the Northern Spiritual Academy students beside him, whose faces held a mixture of admiration, shock, and bewilderment.
"All right, everyone. It's settled. You can all head back."
When Lei Cheng had called out the nickname given to him by the assorted denizens of the Northern Spiritual Plains, Su Qing had already used an art to prevent the sound from reaching the Northern Spiritual Academy students.
Thus, in the students' eyes, Su Qing had resolved the problem after a brief exchange with the adventurer team's leader.
Although they had heard nothing, that man's expression made it clear that Su Qing was also a renowned figure on the Northern Spiritual Plains.
As everyone left, a chorus of "Thanks, Brother Su!" and "Brother Su, you're a badass!" rang out, expressing their admiration.
Before long, Tang Qian'er returned with Mu Chen.
"Bro, what did you need me for?" Mu Chen ran over with a broad grin and slung an arm around Su Qing's shoulders.
"Something good." Su Qing lightly patted Mu Chen's arm, signaling for him to let go. He was squeezing his neck.
Tang Qian'er had been beside Su Qing earlier, so she already knew about the agreement between the two sides.
Although she found it unbelievable, when something like this happened to Su Qing, it somehow seemed quite reasonable.
And he had looked so handsome just now, intimidating an entire team of adventurers all by himself!
Pah, pah, pah! However handsome he is, he's still a pig! Tang Qian'er, oh, Tang Qian'er, have you forgotten how this bastard usually torments you?
Tang Qian'er hurriedly shook her head, trying to fling away the strange emotions that had just surfaced in her mind.
Su Qing paid no attention to the girl's sudden odd behavior and explained the matter of the Jade Spirit Tree to Mu Chen beside him.
As soon as Su Qing finished explaining, Mu Chen agreed.
He grinned and patted Su Qing's shoulder, marveling, "That's my bro for you. Seriously strong."
The group immediately set off, with Lei Cheng and the Thunderstorm Team leading the way to the valley.