When Chen Ming flew back on his sword and reached the mountaintop, he spotted the figure before him, hurriedly took the bottle of Purple-Fiend Throat-Sealing Powder from his Storage Bag, and hurled it at the figure below.
"I never thought I'd run into you just as I was leaving."
Chen Ming looked down. It was the Blazing Purple Tiger that had injured him with a swipe of its paw. Afterward, he had gone to sell medicine, but when he returned for revenge after several days of refining medicine, the tiger had vanished without a trace.
As for whether this was the same Blazing Purple Tiger, Chen Ming had no idea. As long as it was a Blazing Purple Tiger, that was enough.
The sound of Chen Ming cutting through the air alerted the Blazing Purple Tiger below, and its eyes fixed on him in the sky.
When it saw Chen Ming hurl a bottle at it, it leaped toward the mountainside, clearing more than twenty meters. The bottle missed, smashing against a rock and scattering powder across the ground.
Seeing this human dare to attack it, the Blazing Purple Tiger let out a roar from deep in its throat. The sound rang throughout the mountain range, carrying an intimidating pressure that sent the birds and beasts fleeing.
Seeing his first attack miss, Chen Ming took out five more bottles and hurled them at different parts of the Blazing Purple Tiger's body.
With two consecutive leaps, the Blazing Purple Tiger dodged all the bottles hurtling toward it.
Seeing this, Chen Ming stopped throwing poison powder and activated the Fireball Technique, unleashing more than fifty fireballs at the Blazing Purple Tiger in succession. After flinging out dozens of fireballs, he instantly took out five bottles of poison powder and hurled them after the flames.
Not a single one of the dozens of fireballs hit. Its speed was simply too great. But one of the bottles of poison powder following behind struck it squarely on the forehead, scattering its contents.
Before long, the Blazing Purple Tiger began to convulse, then foamed at the mouth and collapsed on the ground.
Standing on his Flying Sword, Chen Ming watched excitedly and thought, Finally, a hit! Let's see you survive this!
Chen Ming was in no hurry to descend. If the beast launched a final, desperate counterattack, the loss would outweigh the gain. He had plenty of time anyway.
Chen Ming activated the Explosive Flame Technique, bombarding the Blazing Purple Tiger's head again and again. Only when he saw that its head had been blasted out of shape did he stop casting.
Chen Ming landed in front of the Blazing Purple Tiger, took out his Flying Sword, sliced open its belly, and extracted a fiery-red demon core.
After putting the demon core into his Storage Bag, he flew away on his sword.
Flying through the air on his sword, he took in the scenery along the way. Ahead lay an enormous basin surrounded by mountains, and then he passed over a vast grassland.
Next, he crossed a river whose banks were lined with farmland and orchards. Twenty li beyond the river stood a city.
The city's name was Forgotten Serenity.
Ignoring the bustle of the city, he walked straight inside and entered an alley. In a flash, he slipped around a corner, and then two figures appeared in the alley.
Chen Ming flashed in front of the two men and brought down a knife-hand strike, actually chopping both their heads off.
Chen Ming had intended to knock them unconscious, drag them somewhere secluded, and ask why they were following him. Instead, he had failed to control his strength and sent them straight to the afterlife. He could not help shaking his head.
All Chen Ming could do was walk away helplessly and head farther into the city. Before long, a shrill scream came from the distance.
After asking around, he learned that there were four great cultivation clans here, though even their strongest members were only at middle Foundation Establishment.
The Chen, Bai, Huang, and Li clans were the four great cultivation clans of Forgotten Serenity. It was a city of cultivators, where even the weakest residents were at the second or third Qi Refining layer. The two men Chen Ming had accidentally killed had been a pair of small fry at the second Qi Refining layer.
After flying for so long, Chen Ming had thought he had left the Righteous Dao Alliance's territory. Yet this place was still within its domain.
The only thing that both relieved and puzzled him was that the Five Elements Sect had not issued a warrant for his arrest.
"He's here!"
"He's here!"
"He's coming this way with the devil's own swagger!"
"Then hurry up and run! Why are you still standing here watching?"
"Right, run!"
"What's going on?"
Suddenly, a commotion broke out on the street outside. Looking out, he saw the formerly bustling street abruptly fall silent. The vendors who had been tending their stalls and the crowds wandering along the street had vanished without a trace.
"Waiter, what exactly happened?"
Chen Ming beckoned over a waiter in the teahouse and asked curiously.
"You must be new here, sir! It's that legendary Young Master Bai, the one who brings bad luck to anyone who meets him, out for a stroll. Who else could cause something like this? Once you've seen it often enough, it stops being strange."
The waiter had thought something had happened, but since it was only this, he explained casually.
"Tell me more!"
Chen Ming took out a Low-Grade Spirit Stone, tossed it to the waiter, and spoke.
"The Bai clan's eldest young master, Bai Xiaochun, used to be a famous cultivation genius. At fifteen, he reached the seventh Qi Refining layer and was accepted as a disciple by the Dawn Dharma Sect."
"But Bai Xiaochun absolutely loved refining pills. He was practically obsessed with it. I heard that was where the Dawn Dharma Sect's nightmare began."
"Recently, though, the Dawn Dharma Sect sent him packing. I heard he blew up their entire sect grounds, and now no one knows where the people of the Dawn Dharma Sect have gone!"
After accepting the Spirit Stone, the waiter began recounting the story.
"Oh! Are the people of the Dawn Dharma Sect a bunch of Daoist priests?"
Hearing the name, Chen Ming understood. Then something else occurred to him, and he could not help asking.
"That's right, a bunch of Daoist priests!"
The waiter really did answer every question.
"That's quite an interesting story!"
As Chen Ming spoke, he indicated that he needed nothing else and let the waiter return to his work.
Chen Ming had never expected that exploring the side of the world unknown to mortals would be so interesting.
So the Daoist priests who had tried to seize Azure Sun Temple's grounds were actually from the Dawn Dharma Sect. They had even come up with a rather ridiculous excuse, claiming that "Buddhism was born of the Dao." Just thinking about it made him want to laugh!
Chen Ming had originally thought it was a probe by the Demon Sect, or some deliberate scheme. Who could have expected such a surprising truth?
Chen Ming wanted to see what this world's Bai Xiaochun looked like and how he differed from the image in his mind. What intrigued him most was whether a rabbit followed him around as well.
With that thought, Chen Ming rose and headed outside. Upon stepping through the door, he saw a young man walking toward this stretch of street.
He was on the thin side, neither particularly tall nor burly, and usually wore a blue-green robe washed almost white or ordinary cultivator's clothing, with his hair tied high.
His skin was fair, as though it had spent years living up to his name. His face was delicate, his regular features retaining a hint of youthful innocence. His eyes and brows were clear and lively, and when he smiled, he looked like the boy next door.
Fair and clean, with an obedient face and handsome features. He looked decent enough.
Overall, he matched Chen Ming's mental image quite well. Unfortunately, no rabbit followed at his side, leaving Chen Ming with the nagging feeling that something was missing.
He really did walk with something like the devil's swagger, outrageously arrogant, enough to make anyone want to rush over and give him a beating.