Chapter 71: Ye Ling
At first, Ye Ling was surprised. After consuming the first medicinal pill, he had noticed that the effect was far more potent than what he would have gained from eating a medicinal herb.
Understandably, this was common sense because the pills were created from the refined essence of more than one herb. Nonetheless, for beasts, the pills were out of their reach. Although their intelligence matched humans, beasts were incapable of becoming alchemists.
Seeing Xu Min was not stingy with his pills and gave two more to him, Xu Min’s newly acquired lion could not help but feel grateful. Due to his injury, he had been forced to submit to a human; however, at least the human was treating him well.
Accepting the pills, the beast slowly laid down and took one pill at a time in it's mouth. He spent this time to use his energy to absorb every single stream of energy from within the pill.
While Ye Ling was absorbing the medicinal effects of the pills, Xu Min used his Qi to consistently sweep the surroundings to ensure that no human was capable of sneaking in on them.
Xu Min was slightly worried. Though Ye Ling had submitted to him, Xu Min remembered Ye Ling telling him was from the largest family of Golden-Furred Blood Lions. If his family noticed t Ye Ling had becomes a spirit beast, Xu Min knew he would be in a bad spot. It was likely that his family would hunt them down and kill him to release their family member.
Even so, Xu Min was glad to have Ye Ling by his side. This lion reminded him of Cao Cao who would hopefully help him deal with the opponents he would meet.
Suddenly, while being in deep thought, a frown appeared on Xu Min's face. He stood up. His Qi, which had been sweeping the area, finally detected a group of humans.
The group contained six people. Xu Min was incapable of determining who was within this group, but he had understood from the previous conversation that everyone would be against him. It was even possible that the Bu family members would be against him as well.
"Shit," Xu Min swore as he looked at Ye Ling who was laying down and consuming the pills. "Well, I guess I just got to do my best to protect him," Xu Min muttered as his sword appeared out of nowhere.He started swirling it around, warming his muscles up. One against six? The odds were not in his favor, but he still refused to interrupt his new found friend after knowing he was wounded.
Had Ye Ling known that Xu Min was willing to risk himself for him, he would have been dumbfounded. Right now, his entire focus was on healing.
When Xu Min had used his Qi to search the area, he had been noticed by the incoming people; moments after he felt multiple blankets of Qi sweep over him, and he gnashed his teeth. His Qi was still spread out. He noticed that now they were moving even faster than they had before. It was clear that they were aiming for him like a pack of wolves. As to what their aim was, Xu Min would not know before they had arrived.
The time went by slowly; Xu Min kept track of their advance. Even though they had sped up, they could not be so reckless. They were within a dangerous forest and rushing through it would be suicide.
After an hour, he could hear them approaching. The sword in his hand kept swirling, anticipating fierce contact. Ye Ling was still-still laying down; clearly, the injuries he had suffered had been serious. Serious enough for two medical pills to not be able to heal him quickly. Xu Mi finally understood how lucky he had been. If he had fought the healed Ye Ling, he truly would have died.
The sound of steps inched closer and closer. They tensed up Xu Min. His eyes focused in the direction of the incoming sounds. It did not take long before he heard laughter and chatting voices.
Moments after the group appeared in front of Xu Min, they were still laughing and having fun as they saw Xu Min. A bit of a frown finally appeared on their faces.
One of the people was Bu Ten, a member of the Bu family. He was clearly perplexed and upset. Xu Min was here as a part of the Bu family, but no one knew who he was. The Snow Moutain had promised a great reward for anyone who killed him. Uncertain of what to do, Bu Ten took a few steps back, his face turned sour.
Outside the arena...
"Old man Bu, what do you think this son of your family will do?" a man from Snow Mountain suddenly called out. A frown appeared on Bu Huang's face.
Outside the teleportation array were the guards, elders, and patriarchs seated on what seemed to be a large seating area. In front of them were multiple large water screens, and on these screens, one could see what was happening inside the Immortal Valley.
One of these had followed Xu Min since he attacked the Golden-Furred Blood Lion and until now. At first, the Snow Mountain fighters had snickered because they were certain that Xu Min was jumping towards his death. However, upon seeing him tame the beast, their faces froze while displaying ugly expressions. Bu Huang could not help but laugh out loud.
Now that the beast was healing, Xu Min was alone against six experts and one of them was a part of the Bu family. No one knew what would happen--a truce or battle.
Outside the Immortal Valley were other water screens which could display other battles; some showed human against human whereas others showed human against beast, and lastly some revealed fighters just following some groups. Nonetheless, the majority were looking at Xu Min's water screen; they were curious to see what the group would do.
Much of the audience felt jealous of the beast which Hui Yue had tamed, but the higher ranked experts such as Snow Mountain and Bu Huang knew exactly of the dangers with having Ye Ling as a spirit beast.
"Let us just wait and see," Bu Huang finally sighed. He would not blame Bu Ten for attacking Xu Min, nor would he blame Xu Min for attacking Bu Ten. In the end, they were all enemies within the Immortal Valley.
....
"Bu Ten, this guy is all alone. We are six. If we kill him, we will get quite a lot of treasure from the Snow Mountain experts because he is wanted, and we also might rank up." a woman tried to persuade Bu Ten. She seemed to be around nineteen years old, and her blue eyes were as cold as a winter day. Looking at this woman, Xu Min could not help but smile. Although they were more than him, he was not too afraid of them. As long as he could kill one or two of them, the rest should feel fear and then it would be easier to kill all of them.
"Have you guys ever killed anyone before?" Xu Min suddenly asked with a mocking voice, and the face of the cold woman changed suddenly. Her heart shook as she felt how the temperature dropped. The man in front of them no longer seemed as easy to deal with as he was moments before.
There was still a smile on his face. However, this smile was no longer warm and charming but cold and mocking. His brown eyes which had been gentle and deep were now like two black holes, sucking up their souls and paralyzing them in fear for a moment.
The cold felt as though it penetrated their bodies. It entered all the way to the bones, making them even more apprehensive.
"I have killed before," Xu Min finally said. His voice grew even colder than the voice of the woman, "and I don't mind if I have to kill you as well. Be decisive and come at me. If you have hesitation within your hearts, then you better leave so that you can stay alive."
After having warned the group, Xu Min stomped on the ground and pounced forward. With his sword in hand, he slashed down. The sword’s energy then shot towards the group.
They were taken by surprise and their attempts to avoid it were clumsy. One of them fell to the ground; another jumped to the side. One thought he could take the attack head on and found himself wounded while some ran backward.
"Come on now," Xu Min called out, "don't you want to kill me and get the treasure?" he asked mockingly, but the six experts were all quiet.
The one person who thought he could take the attack head on found out he had a deep cut in his stomach. His face was as pale as a dead person; he constantly popped medicinal pills into his mouth, ensuring that he would survive.
Suddenly behind him, Xu Min heard some rumbling. Moments after, a red lion with a golden mane appeared by his side. This beast was no other than Ye Ling, and his eyes swept across the wilderness in front of them.
"Six measly cultivators think that they can cause trouble?" he asked with a growling voice. The words caused the experts' hearts to tremble in fear.
"Don't worry about them," Xu Min explained, "they do not have the courage to attack me. Did you fully heal already?" he asked concerned. The concern was evident in his voice making the heart of the lion warm.
"Yes, thank you, master," the lion replied. He was sincerely grateful that Xu Min had gifted him the medicinal pills.
Together human and beast turned around and got ready to leave. The temperature slowly rose again, and the wilderness felt exactly as it had done before the six of them had attacked Xu Min.
"Screw this!" one of the men called out as he rushed after Xu Min and Ye Ling. With a jump, he tried to kill Xu Min from behind. However, the moment he had jumped, Ye Ling pounced into action.
He easily intervened the oncoming human. With a swipe of his paw, the throat of the human was shredded. The foolish fighter’s neck was completely open, and disbelief was in his deaden eyes. A simple paw strike was enough to kill him. He had never thought the beast was that formidable.
The rest of the group stood in the back, watching the horrific scene. Their hearts were in their throats, and their eyes were wide open. Only now did they understand why the Snow Mountain had called Xu Min Yanluo. He was without question the God of Death.
"We must not meet up with him again!" Bu Ten said with a low voice. "Although he is incredibly strong, his biggest asset is his ability to kill mercilessly. Anyone who gets enveloped by this killing intent will become weaker than usually because of the heavy pressure pressing down upon one."
The others nodded their heads and with a last glance at Xu Min and Ye Ling they moved on, wanting to leave the cave as soon as possible.
"Master, will we be fighting a lot of humans?" Ye Ling asked as he and Xu Min left the other way. Xu Min could not help but laugh.
"We will be fighting a lot of experts. Actually, there is a bounty on my head, and they will do all they can to kill me." Xu mIn said this without the slightest bit of fear in his voice. "Let them come. If one comes, I will kill one. If two comes, I will kill two. I will let their blood flow and make a river of it in the middle of this beautiful Immortal Valley. If they think they can kill me, then they should reconsider."