26 The Companion

Time flied fast; less than 10 days only left for the trial assignment. Wei Gaoyuan was planning to return to the flying ship to end his trial journey earlier.

The way back was not as peaceful as he expected. Many participants had to ambush others on the way back to rob what they needed, which even caused a few casualties.

On the day when Wei Gaoyuan walked about halfway back, he heard shouts from not far ahead. He was about to take another way to avoid it but was attracted by the conversations ahead.

"We've said we got no pine crystals! why are you pushing us so!?"

"Easy, I'm just unhappy to look at you, I just don't like the guys from the East Mountain Sword Club! Is it enough?"

"You H-Sun club… shameless! 4 vs 2! If brother Gaoyuan were here… do you cowards dare speak like that?!"

"Wei Gaoyuan? He must have been in the stomach of some spirit animal~ And… I don't mind helping you to reunite with your brother Gaoyuan…"

The East Mountain Sword Club? That girl's voice sounded sort of familiar.

Wei Gaoyuan crept closer and saw a boy and a girl surrounded by four men. The boy in the middle wore the uniform of the East Mountain Sword Club; it was Hu Xiaoshu, and surely the girl who just talked was Lin, no wonder it sounded familiar.

Wei Gaoyuan naturally wouldn't sit by since Hu Xiaoshu was his only friend in the club. When he was going to step out another voice came from a skinny tall man of the four, "The girl looks not bad… sister, would you mind playing with your brothers in the..."

"Bastard! I'll kill you!" Hu Xiaoshu was furious and stabbed that man with the sword.

And he was soon surrounded by the three men of H-Sun, and the left one was stopping Lin.

Wei Gaoyuan picked up a little branch on the ground as Hu Xiaoshu was kicked over after two rounds combat. The skinny tall man's eyes flashed a glimmer of fierce light and stabbed to the belly of Hu Xiaoshu with a sword strike!

This strike would undoubtedly ruin Hu Xiaoshu's Dantian even though he wouldn't be killed!

Wei Gaoyuan shot out the little branch.

The skinny tall man raised the corner of his mouth, showing a cruel smile. "No…Stop!" Lin screamed then was kicked over on the ground.

Just as the sword in the skinny tall man's hand was about to pierce Hu Xiaoshu's belly, a little branch shot from the woods and smashed his hand, forcing the sword to drop out of his hand.

"Who!?" the skinny tall man immediately scanned around with vigilance, a serious looking on his face.

"Wei Gaoyuan, the true enemy of your H-Sun club…" Wei Gaoyuan walking out slowly, step by step.

"Wei Gaoyuan?!" thin skinny tall man's pupil suddenly expanded, a serious and nervous looking on his face. Watching Wei Gaoyuan got approaching slowly, he suddenly shouted, "Run!" Then turned first and ran away fast.

The other three also knew Wei Gaoyuan and ran quickly after the skinny tall man.

Wanna escape now? Too late. Raising the corner of his mouth, Wei Gaoyuan started running at the same time to chase them up.

He wouldn't let the skinny tall man escape, who insulted Lin just now and even intended to ruin Hu Xiaoshu's Dantian, vital "energy center" for a martial artist.

The four running in front were not that weak, all at about the level of Interior Force; the skinny tall man reached almost the peak of Interior Force. But for the hunter following them, they were just the kids who learned to walk. Only a few seconds later they saw the back of Wei Gaoyuan appeared at the front, the chasing game was over.

Wei Gaoyuan turned around, four strokes, the four were knocked down on the ground. Then he stepped on the knee of the right leg of the skinny tall man, violently slamming it with the interior force of the Mystery. Everyone heard a series of crisp sounds from skinny tall man's right leg, followed by his shrill screaming. The bone of his right leg was broken into at least five.

The other three couldn't stop their legs from trembling. Even if the skinny tall man would be cured, his road to martial arts would inevitably be affected in the future.

However, that was not the worst. After that stepping, Wei Gaoyuan gave his belly a kick! The skinny tall man became deadly pale and sweaty all over his body soon.

"You...you ruined my Dantian!!" the skinny tall man pointed at Wei Gaoyuan, full of resentment and despair on his face.

"I've only done what you've done just now," Wei Gaoyuan sneered.

The face of the skinny tall man gradually turned into still and dead. That his Dantian was ruined meant his level of Martial Arts had gone zero accordingly, that was to say, now he was an ordinary person. Even more desperate, the cost of rebuilding Dantian was so great that his family, fortune and ability could never afford it; his road of Martial Arts had come to the end.

The other three had scrambled up, one of them begging on his knees, "Sorry! I'm wrong! Sorry! This is my Escape Fu, brother Wei…please let me go…please…"

The other two took the hint to quickly apologize as well. Not only did they hand over their own Escape Fu, but also took out all their belongings and thrust them into Hu Xiaoshu's hands as compensation.

Wei Gaoyuan exchanged a look with Hu Xiaoshu then said to them coldly, "Go."

The three men all ran away as fast as they could, like the ducks that escaped from the kitchen when Wei Gaoyuan suddenly roared behind, "Stop!"

As if struck by lightning, the three suddenly stopped and stood still.

"You've said… let us go…" one of them said with courage.

"Take away your companion!" Wei Gaoyuan pointed to the skinny tall man on the ground.

The three relieved with a sigh, quickly lifted up the skinny tall man and fled away.

After the four of H-Sun club disappeared in distance, Hu Xiaoshu came to Wei Gaoyuan carefully, with a grateful look, and was bowing to him, "Thank you for saving us, brother Goayuan. If you didn't come in time, my life of Martial Arts must have been terminated..."

"Don't mention it," Wei Gaoyuan held the elbow of Hu Xiaoshu to stop his bowing: " they virtually wanna take their revenge on me, so it's me who drag you down."

At the time Lin's feeling was quite mixed. At first she just thought Wei Gaoyuan was just a freeloader under the care of Mu Yunyi; and later she found he was far stronger than his peers, hence she'd always suspected that Wei Gaoyuan might have a unique method of cultivation that was not accessible to other students in the club.

Wei Gaoyuan didn't know Lin's current thoughts. He greeted her with a nod, then turned to Hu Xiaoshu, "How about other companions?"

"We was scattered to find the pine crystal," Hu Xiaoshu looked helpless and continued, "I never thought the pine crystal was so hard to find; Lin and I have been searching it for almost 20 days in this forest yet found nothing… Wish other companions would have a good luck."

Wei Gaoyuan knew exactly what he said was not exaggerated. For the rare pine crystals, he'd gone deep into even the territory of the spirit animal, and gained the guidance of the little fox, and fought fiercely with the giant spirit eagle while picking them. Let alone Hu Xiaoshu and Lin.

Obviously, most pine crystals could only be found in the territory of spirit animals, the central area of the land; however for most of the participants who were at stage of the Undistinguishment, it was a huge handicap how to survive fighting against a much powerful sprit animal who was no weaker than stage of the Mystery.

"In that case…" Wei Gaoyuan suddenly woke up — there was certainly quite few pine crystals on the periphery of the trial island, and that might be why the pine crystal was set as the main criteria by the four major sects...

Therefore, this trial assignment might actually aim at the competition and even fighting for the pine crystal among the participants. As for anyone at the Mystery, it couldn't be within the plan of the four major sects as almost everyone knew Gu Qianqian was the top genius among the young martial artist in the Qizhou City, who was just approaching the bottom of the Mystery.

If that was true, the very small number of pine crystals on the periphery of the land were probably laid in advance by the seniors of four major sects, deliberately, Wei Gaoyuan thought and looked into the distance, his dark deep eyes flashing...