Chapter 18: Chapter 18 On My Own Killing Cultivators (Part 3)
"Shaking Heaven!"
The river bandit attacked first by Xie Tian only felt that a thick bear paw suddenly appeared before his eyes, striking upwards from below and hitting his own jaw. He felt himself scream in agony and fly upwards at the same time, everything around him spinning, but it only spun for three breaths before the sky darkened forever.
The piercing screams were the best stimulants. Bolstered by this scream, Brother Leopard finally reached the peak of pleasure. His eyes glazed over as he felt his body quiver and he strained to discern the situation of the battle.
The experienced Brother Leopard knew that within the span of two more breaths, he would come down from the sexual climax and regain clarity to see the battle clearly.
Unfortunately, the battle situation two breaths later was not what he wanted to see.
The moment the first man was sent flying, another river bandit responsible for attacking from behind instantly turned around, intending to strike at Xie Tian while he was off balance. Sadly, just as he raised his bloodstained blade, a severe pain shot through his foot and he couldn't help but cry out in agony.
As the second scream echoed, the sub-leader turned and ran. Xie Tian, having executed the Shaking Heaven Bear Earth Palm, propped himself up with one hand and flipped his body over again, not even glancing at the fleeing sub-leader as he shot towards the second man!
But reaching the man before him was the Meridian Mace sliding out of his sleeve.
A well-forged weapon is the best armament for a brute force martial artist, and the Meridian Mace in Xie Tian's hand was a premium among well-forged weapons, capable of piercing through even mechanized armor to embed two inches into flesh, it effortlessly pierced the second man's heart and then lodged in the neck of the sub-leader five zhang away, protruding a little through the throat.
This was why Xie Tian did not look at the sub-leader. He knew that his spoils of war could achieve a double kill.
After slaying three men with hardly any consumption beyond the second move of Shaking Heaven Bear Earth Palm, Xie Tian walked behind the still-standing sub-leader under the watchful eyes of the now-lucid Brother Leopard. He pulled out the Meridian Mace, shook off the blood, and walked towards Brother Leopard.
Brother Leopard was stunned. He awoke from his daze and saw everything that had just happened, but he couldn't believe it.
Three of his men, the sub-leader at the seventh layer of brute force, the other two at the sixth, killed in three moves. He himself couldn't have done it, yet the person in front of him, who was clearly only about twelve or thirteen years old, did.
Thud! Thud! Thud!...
Xie Tian halted his steps and looked towards the completely naked woman.
She wasn't much different from the woman he had seen on Anlan Mountain. The only difference was that the woman on Anlan Mountain had cut off a man's head, whereas the woman in the Hexi Corridor, taking advantage of Brother Leopard's distraction, picked up his knife and jabbed it into Brother Leopard's dantian, mangling it.
"Little hero, thank, thank you for saving my life." The woman sobbed profusely, kowtowing and thanking Xie Tian for his great kindness.
"I didn't save you," he dropped a sentence, paused, and then said to the woman without a trace of cultivation, "The Yin family's caravan is on the main road."
Afterward, he decisively picked up his backpack, not even bothering to take the quality knife from Brother Leopard's abdomen, and disappeared into the dense forest.
Because of Xie Yun, because of the woman on Anlan Mountain, Xie Tian now avoided women like they were venomous snakes, the more beautiful they were, the more fiercely he kept away.
But there seemed to be one person he couldn't avoid.
Two days later, with one hundred and thirty li from the exit of the Hexi Corridor, Yin Tian'er was woken up by noise again.
This time, it wasn't urgent hoofbeats that woke her, but rather the sound of squabbling. She furrowed her lovely eyebrows, pulled back the window curtain, and looked out to see a flag opposite her, emblazoned with the three characters for 'Ferocious God Gang.'
"Flame Evil Demon Zhao Xuyang, why would he stand against my Yin family?"
When Yin Fang reported to her with a grave face, Yin Tian'er donned a veil and stepped down from the carriage, gracefully greeting Zhao Xuyang with a curtsy. Softly she said, "Yin Tian'er pays respect to Elder Zhao."
Zhao Xuyang's sinister gaze swept over her veiled face, and he sneered, "Miss Yin of the Yin family, give me an answer!"
"In the oath that my Yin family made with you, there's never been a clause about randomly searching our followers," Yin Tian'er replied without fear, smiling lightly, "I deeply regret the death of your son, but an oath is an oath..."
"Miss Yin, I'm afraid this time it's not up to you!"
A cold laugh from a distance interrupted Yin Tian'er's words. She looked up to see more than ten menacing flags emerging behind the Ferocious God Gang's camp, each without exception representing a force among the Hexi bandits.
Seeing this, Yin Tian'er tensed up, and the Yin family guards quickly shrank their protective circle, as if facing a great enemy.
"Heh heh, don't be nervous, our target is not the Yin family."
More than ten heads of the Hexi bandits stepped forward in unison, their faces visibly burning with rage. They had greeted Zhao Xuyang before sharply addressing Yin Tian'er, "Since your Yin family's caravan entered the Hexi Corridor, five days have passed. In these five days, forty-seven of us Hexi bandits have died miserably!"
Yin Tian'er's eyebrows furrowed as she countered, "May I ask the leaders, what does this have to do with my Yin family?"
"Hehe, Miss Yin, let me explain," a middle-aged scholar holding a black bone fan and with a pale face took two steps forward, chuckling, "Including the leader of Ferocious God Gang, Zhao Da, there are more than ten groups here. Miss, do you think with our ability, it's easy to find someone in the Hexi Corridor?"
Yin Tian'er nodded slowly, "With Leader Li Yuanyang in charge, nobody can escape."
Li Yuanyang snapped his black bone fan shut and praised with a smile, "I'm flattered. It seems Miss knows our intentions well."
"Is it Leader Li's meaning that, since you've all searched the Hexi Corridor and haven't found that person, he must be hiding within my Yin family's caravan?" asked Yin Tian'er.
"Hehe, the lady is too cautious. I've never said for certain," Li Yuanyang's smile faded, speaking lightly, "But I believe, a search would be in both our interests, don't you think?"
Yin Tian'er's voice remained firm yet gentle as she smiled, "To break an oath is something I, as a young woman, must respectfully decline."
You...
"Enough with the pointless chatter!" Zhao Xuyang completely lost his patience, but he didn't dare to go too far with the Yin family. He immediately approached and bowed deeply to Yin Tian'er, saying, "As long as the Yin family's young lady agrees to let us search, my Xiongshen Fort owes the Yin family a favor. Deal or no deal!"
"Alright."
Yin Tian'er's attitude took a sudden turn, leaving Li Yuanyang staring in disbelief. But he had forgotten that the Yin family was known for their business acumen, and their custom of not getting out of bed for anything that wasn't profitable had been ingrained in their bones. His mix of threats and persuasion was completely ineffective against the Yin family.
Overjoyed, Zhao Xuyang swung his hand back sharply, "Bring that woman here, let's identify her, one by one!"
Yin Tian'er also nodded to Yin Fang, and the guards immediately spread out, subtly on alert at the outermost perimeter.
An hour later, a woman walked out from among the caravan, came to Zhao Xuyang's side, and spoke weakly, "There's, there's no such person."
"Say it again?" Zhao Xuyang's eyebrows shot up in anger, as he barked.
Frightened, the woman immediately knelt down and explained urgently, sobbing, "It's true, there's no such person. The lad is easy to recognize, his face is deathly pale, like he's ill, and he had some sort of awl-like weapon in his hand..."
The leaders each began to share their clues.
"The deathblow to my men was a puncture wound!"
"Strange, my subordinates were killed by a blade..."
"The murderer isn't highly skilled. I investigated the battlefield, he even got wounded fighting my subordinates who were at the fifth layer of the Barbaric Strength Realm!"
"Nonsense, everyone knows that my Blood Wolf was about to break through to the ninth layer of the Barbaric Strength Realm, and now he's dead. How could he have been killed by someone with low cultivation?"
...
The leaders were talking over each other, making the situation even more complicated. Even Yin Tian'er felt confused. Not wanting to delay any further, she stepped forward and said, "Honored leaders, could you please mark the battlefields and the times they occurred on the map?"
At her suggestion, the leaders lit up, quickly pulling out maps and marking them. In short order, a new route appeared on the map of the Hexi Corridor.
The route was nearly a straight line and, when considered chronologically, almost matched the itinerary of the Yin family's caravan - only one was on the main road while the other traveled through the forests.
"Ha ha! The young lady is truly brilliant, finding a path amidst the many threads for us all. I consider this favor accepted!"
Holding the map, the leaders happily took their leave. Yin Tian'er watched the bandits from Hexi depart and then shook her head, climbing into the carriage under the admiring gaze of her subordinates.
But just as she was halfway into the carriage, she froze completely.
Then came her extremely surprised exclamation.
"Ah! Could it be him?"
Xie Tian, unaware that the beauty he avoided like the plague had inadvertently betrayed him, was currently hidden in a cave, cultivating the seventh scroll of pickled vegetables.
The cultivation technique was named Eighteen Silk Brocades, and from its name, it was utterly cryptic. Only Xie Tian knew that within the Eighteen Silk Brocades, there was only one diagram, showing no cows, cranes, snakes, or bears, simply eighteen lines on the human body.
There were countless pathways and meridians in the human body, and the Eighteen Silk Brocades boiled them all down to just these eighteen lines. If he could master these eighteen lines, Xie Tian would be able to step into the realm of Muscle Transforming.
The pathways and meridians were mostly attached to the skeleton, with some hidden beneath the skin and muscles. Only if he could temper these throughout his body to be both firm and flexible, could extend and retract, would a Martial Artist truly be said to control his own body, even able to command his movements when his bones were broken.
Without a master to guide him, Xie Tian had no idea the difficulties of Muscle Transforming, nor the profound martial wisdom required to reduce countless pathways to just eighteen lines. All he knew was that as long as he wasn't afraid of pain, cultivating the Eighteen Silk Brocades was simple.
Though the process of Muscle Transforming was many times more painful than toughening the skin, refining the flesh, or purifying the bones combined, Xie Tian could bear it, and with the acceleration from killing cultivators, in just three hours, his body suddenly boomed like thunder. Amidst the pain, his whole being felt as if it had been bathed in refreshing rain, utterly soothed.
Xie Tian closed his eyes, sensing the changes within his body, as if there had been countless locks inside him, binding him to the level of an ordinary person. Once he had successfully cultivated the Eighteen Silk Brocades, those locks had suddenly opened, liberating him.
This incredible sense of release made Xie Tian experience overwhelming tingles on his scalp, so comfortable that he almost moaned out loud.
After he finished his practice, Xie Tian couldn't wait to punch the stone wall with all his strength. He was sent stumbling backward, his arm aching, but there wasn't the slightest reaction in his eyes, only shock.
"Xie Da was also at the seventh layer of the Barbaric Strength Realm, but the force of my punch is almost half heavier than his..."
This realization made Xie Tian involuntarily recall the seven cultivation techniques he had practiced—Mixed World Bull Demon Power, Golden Snake Skybound Fist, Dragon Form Soft Body Technique, Shaking Heaven Bear Earth Palm, Crane Dance Nine Heavens, Tiger Soul Fist, Eighteen Silk Brocades.
It was only now that he finally realized the uniqueness of the cultivation techniques he had practiced, and these were all required by the legacy of the Evil Emperor. From this, it became clear how formidable the Evil Emperor's legacy was.
"Muscle Transforming is indeed like leaping over the dragon gate..."
With nearly a thousand pounds of force contained within his body, Xie Tian couldn't help but smile. With his rapid cultivation progress, even facing an adversary at the ninth layer of the Barbaric Strength Realm head-on, he wouldn't be the slightest bit inferior!
"Wait for me, Marshal Xie, Xie Yun..."
After cultivating the Yuan Nourishing Technique for two hours, a rejuvenated Xie Tian stepped out of the cave. The moment the sunlight touched the tip of his toes, a life-and-death warning from his killer instinct hit him like never before!
"Inner Qi Realm!"
Xie Tian suddenly looked up, and in the next instant, he transformed into a frenzied crane, desperately fleeing for his life.