C11 Adultery

There were many people coming and going inside the Hidden Dragon Village. They kept cleaning up the broken limbs and throwing them into the bonfire on the altar.

A travelling merchant from a nearby town, upon discovering the miserable state of this village being massacred by bandits, hurriedly reported to the official. A team of ten armed Great Chu soldiers had just arrived from Tianhuang City and were cleaning up the mess.

No one knew that in the dried up well beside the altar, there was a young man who was gritting his teeth and bitterly cultivating. He did not know about the night and day changes and continued his cultivation in the cave for nine whole days.

It was fortunate that his body had the characteristics of a vampire and he wouldn't suffer from hunger, but he had already reached his limit. When the spirit energy in the area slowly dissipated, Hong Ling stopped cultivating and stood up.

At this moment, the youth's entire body was filled with pungent filth, and his body was extremely sticky.

"Early stage Essence Refinement into Qi!"

Hong Ling clenched his fists. He really did not think that in a short nine days, he would directly step into the early stages of Essence Refinement into Qi from the state of awakening, and become a true cultivator of the martial way.

Sensing the Authentic Qi surging in his body, Hong Ling's eyes flashed with a cold light. Since his body and the Primordial Spirit had undergone two mutations, he no longer had any problems cultivating this Jiuzhuan Profound Technique.

Furthermore, because he had broken through the ninth stage of the World Barrier, Hong Ling was extremely sensitive to the surrounding spirit energy and the rate at which he absorbed it was even faster than usual.

As he advanced to the early stage of Essence Refinement into Qi, the density of the dragon aura was already enough for Hong Ling to maintain his peak battle strength for an entire fifteen minutes while in his Dragonform.

Back then, he had only maintained his Dragon Transformation state for a quarter of an hour. Even though it was the same time now, he could guarantee that Hong Ling's fighting strength would always be at his peak condition, which included the use of Authentic Qi and his soul power.

"It's time to go out!" Hong Ling's eyes lit up, he was currently dressed in a tattered set of pants, with his upper body bare. However, a monstrous killing intent was congealing in his body, "Black Mountain Bandit Zhang Yan, I wonder if you are ready, I am not dead yet!"

After drilling through the pitch black tunnel, Hong Ling took one last look at the huge cave and fiercely smashed his fist on the tunnel's stone wall.

Rumble, countless stones fell down, washing up and filling up the tunnel bit by bit. Hong Ling stood at the bottom of the dried up well, raised his head and stared at the huge boulder above his head, and fiercely breathed out his Turbid Air.

Bending down slightly to gather his strength, he fiercely leapt forward and the Authentic Qi in his body instantly exploded, bringing him soaring into the sky.

With his right fist covered in a dark golden Authentic Qi, when he was near the entrance to the well, Hong Ling smashed his fist fiercely against the huge boulder.

"This won't do. Rushing straight ahead is too dispersed. Moreover, without the point of force, it's impossible to exert much strength."

Sensing the state of the stone, Hong Ling's eyes flashed with a dark golden light. Evidently, he had already used his soul power to scan and sense the structure of the dried well.

"This well must be at least 30 feet deep. If I want to borrow force from the wall, I only have 3 points of strength. This way, I won't have enough strength to break this giant rock!" Hong Ling pondered, "Moreover, because I don't have enough starvation energy, I can only finish the battle quickly. Forget it, once I transform into a dragon, it will be fine! "

Once he said that, his consciousness sunk into the Reverse Scale s on his chest, unlocking the seal made by the dragon aura. In an instant, both the Primordial Spirit and his body completed their Dragonform.

The youth was shrouded within the dark golden Dragon Scale. Tiny arcs of lightning floated around him as a majestic aura surrounded him, causing the space around him to slightly distort.

At this time, Hong Ling activated both his soul power and Authentic Qi. He gathered both of them into his right fist at the same time, and continuously gathered his energy.

This was the most powerful fist that he had comprehended while cultivating, but it would consume a large amount of his own dragon aura. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Hong Ling would not dare to rashly use it. However, he had no other choice. If he didn't go out now, he would really starve to death in this dry well.

Boom! The youth stomped hard on the ground with his right foot and immediately rushed into the sky. When he was ten feet higher than the others, he used his left foot to step on the wall of the well to raise his body again.

When he reached the sixty meter mark, Hong Ling stepped on the other side of the well with his right foot, causing his figure to rise yet again. When he was thirty meters away from the well, both of his feet stepped on the wall at the same time, he quickly bent down and gathered his strength, and fiercely punched out.

His right fist was filled with and soul energy, through Hong Ling's accumulation of soul force, it quickly smashed onto the huge boulder. With a boom, the huge boulder was instantly sent flying with a punch, and shattered into countless stones in the air.

Once again landing at the bottom of the well, Hong Ling withdrew his True Dragon Body, and then fiercely leaped up. He soared into the sky, and in an instant, steadily landed on the edge of the well.

"Who dares to trespass into the Chu Army's territory!"

A vigorous and angry shout suddenly exploded by his ear, causing Hong Ling's heart to tremble, as he looked towards the origin of the voice. Over there, a group of fully armed Chu soldiers were surrounding a middle-aged man, the weapons in their hands had already been unsheathed.

Hong Ling did not dare to move. He could feel that there was a tyrannical aura on that middle aged man's body. Other than middle stage Essence Refinement into Qi experts, the only thing that could make him feel fear was an even stronger existence.

Evidently, that middle-aged man was a cultivator of the middle stage of Essence Refinement into Qi. His cultivation was incomparably deep and around his side, there were nine soldiers of the early stage of Essence Refinement into Qi.

My name is Hong Ling, I am the only survivor of Hidden Dragon Village. I was once trapped in a dried up well with a huge rock.

Hong Ling cupped his fists and revealed his identity to the group of people, he did not dare to offend them.

The middle-aged man was clearly the leader of this group of soldiers. He waved his hand at the moment, and had everyone put away their weapons, not because he believed in Hong Ling's words, but because he had absolute confidence in him. Even if the young man was lying, or perhaps the person was the murderer, they could easily take care of him.

"Young man, I am the captain of Tianhuang City's tenth patrol, a middle stage Essence Refinement into Qi cultivator, Li Yan."

Staring straight at Hong Ling, Li Yan wanted to find some clues from the young man's eyes, but the young man's gaze was still as clear as water, not afraid of his status or cultivation at all.

"Greetings, Captain Li! Greetings, sirs!"

Hong Ling was respectful, neither humble nor arrogant, causing everyone's eyes to light up. To be able to reach the cultivation of an early stage Essence Refinement into Qi at such a young age, and to be able to treat people with courtesy, this youth's temperament was truly not bad.

"Brother Hong Ling, you said that you were trapped in the well. Do you know who exactly killed this Hidden Dragon Village?"

It had already been over ten days since he received the report. The entire village had changed beyond recognition, and the corpses had already been disposed of by someone, so it was difficult to find any valuable clues.

"It's the Black Mountain Thief, Zhang Yan, and his subordinates!"

Hong Ling said coldly after taking a deep breath. As matters stood, he once again thought of the Black Mountain Bandit, Zhang Yan. His heart was filled with killing intent.

"Hmm?" Li Yan's eyes narrowed as a cold light quickly flashed through them. "Little brother, are you sure that it's the Black Mountain bandit, Zhang Yan, or anyone else?"

"I can swear to the heavens that if there is even a single false word, I will die without a place to lose my body!"

Li Yan and the nine Chu soldiers looked at each other. They did not expect that this young man would insist that it was the Black Mountain Thief, Zhang Yan.

"Forget it, little brother. You should first rest. Change into a set of clean clothes and eat something to rest yourself!"

Li Yan threw a glance at a soldier. The man understood and gestured for Hong Ling to go ahead. The young man did not argue, and followed him to wash up, and changed into the white clothes they sent over.

After eating the food provided by Li Yan's group, Hong Ling wanted to take his leave, but Li Yan stopped him.

"Little brother, where are you going?"

Hong Ling looked at him with a unhappy expression. He had already paid for the food and clothes provided by Li Yan's group, but at this moment, he actually stopped him.

"Captain Li, where I'm going seems to be my freedom!"

The young man's tone was cold. This Li Yan, ever since Hong Ling had invited him to go with his subordinates to exterminate the Black Mountain Bandit, Zhang Yan, had stuttered and refused. Now, he had stopped him.

"No, little brother, you are a felon in the imperial court, where did your freedom come from!"

With a slight raise of his eyebrows, Li Yan gave a meaningful look to the soldiers around him, immediately causing nine people to unsheathe their sabers, and point them at Hong Ling.

"You said that I am a felon of the imperial court?"

Hong Ling looked at the group of people, he did not want to cause any trouble, but if someone were to recklessly throw dirty water on him, he would not sit still and wait for death.

"Could it be that what I said was wrong? You, as a martial artist, killed the villagers of Hidden Dragon Village, yet you blamed it on Zhang Yan. This is even more of a crime." Now that our brothers have caught you and you are running away in fear of your crimes, you deserve to die! "

Li Yan did not stop talking, he spoke as if he was serious, the rest of the soldiers all nodded, they stared at Hong Ling with unfriendly eyes, the long blade Authentic Qi in their hands surged, and slowly moved closer and closer.

"Just what kind of benefits did Zhang Yan give you? It's worth it for you to cover up such a heinous crime for him!"

Hearing that all these people were spouting nonsense, the killing intent in Hong Ling's eyes became real, the Qi on his body circulated as he coldly looked at the surrounding people.

"Brat, if you want to blame something, then blame yourself for not clamoring to get revenge on Zhang Yan. If you forget everything, then maybe I will just cripple your cultivation and spare your life."

Li Yan paused for a moment before continuing, "But you stubbornly refused to give up. You wanted to seek revenge on Zhang Yan and cut off our path to riches. This is a huge taboo. Do not blame us for being cruel and merciless when we reach the netherworld!"

Li Yan was not worried that there would be any big problems, but of course, he was also confident that he would be able to win against Hong Ling.

Nine cultivators at the early stage of Essence Refinement into Qi, combined with his own middle stage Essence Refinement into Qi cultivation, if he wanted to kill a little kid at the early stage of Essence Refinement into Qi, it would be as easy as flipping a palm.

What responded to him was the look of disdain in the youth's eyes. It was a look of haughtiness, or perhaps pity.

"Enough?" Hong Ling asked coldly, "Since you've said enough, then die!"

He clenched his fist into a fist and with a tap of his foot, his figure had already flashed in front of a Chu soldier. The youth's fist was filled with energy, and before the soldier could even react, his throat had been shattered by a punch.

The soldier, on the verge of death, could not understand why Hong Ling, who was clearly the furthest from the white-clothed youth, would sacrifice himself to kill him. When the soldier saw the ice-cold killing intent in the youth's eyes, he suddenly let go of the blade in his hand and threw it towards the ground.

Hong Ling grabbed casually and raised the long blade in his hand. He held the blade with one hand and pointed it at the remaining people in the distance.

"You bunch of evildoers. You first colluded with Zhang Yan, and now you want to frame me. Are you all prepared to die?"

Under the cloudy sky of Hidden Dragon Village, Hong Ling wielded his blade and stood up straight.