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Are you sure that he's trustworthy? " an orange haired youth dressed in similar colored clothes questioned the grey blue haired boy next to him. "Yeah, yeah . I told you Nei Li. The guy's been working at our clan house since birth. And till dad threw him out of the house and shipped him off to fighter academy, he didn't even put a foot out . He's probably the strongest fighter already, i can't even tell how many times he caught me when i was going peeping." Then ignoring the deadpan looks of his sworn brothers , the boy named Lu Piao continued" and let me tell you, that even the silver rank guards couldn't sense me when I go sneak out using the special technique that has been passed down from father to son" . Looking at the proud face of his brother Nei Li, pursed his lips.

From experience of his past life, he knew how hard it was to sense Lu Piao when he was at his business, especially when he visited his childhood sweetheart even when she was engaged to someone else.

So the existence of a fighter who could sense a perverted Lu Piao was definitely someone special. He had also heard about the guy in his past life from the survivors of the glory city massacre.

Apparently he had used some self created fighter arts to push back hundreds of demon beasts before collapsing in exhaustion.

Intrigued by Lu Piao's words, they all followed him to the fighter academy where they were directed towards the training arena. But when they got there , most of them were in for a shock.

All students, from youngest to oldest were focused on beating a single boy who was curled up in the ground. The gang quickly intervined, dispersing the rough housing crowd with a few bursts of intimidating spiritual aura attacks. But the boy remained curled over silent sobbing.

Lu Piao was the first to speak.

"Hong!?"

His voice was filled with disbelief. Hong, the servant boy was probably the strongest , both mentally and physically, boy of his age he had ever seen. So seeing the boy curled up while being bullied was shocking.

Hearing Lu Piao call out, the others too looked at him in disbelief, especially Nei Li. What happened here, why was a future powerhouse warriors curled up on the ground while crying?

Hearing Lu piao the curled up boy suddenly got up.

"Lu Piao!!!, how great it is to see you" he exclaimed before hugging him in his bare torso, all the while sobbing and smiling simultaneously.

Lu Piao , though taken back, quickly pushed him to arms distance and immediately stated "stay back, I'm not into men"

Which elicited a few choked up chuckles from Hong.

Then carefully looking from head to toe he couldn't help but ask.

"What happened to you Hong?"

"I was super depressed" Hong immediately replied an absurd answer no one was expecting.

Yes, Hong was depressed. Hong or Hank as he was known in his past life had faced a great mental crisis. After his untimely death due to electrocution, he was reincarnated by a ROB in the world of the tales of Demons and Gods in the first timeline with a few perks.

*Knowledge of multiple Murim martial arts

*saint/mystic gardens cultivation methods

*A body and mind with really high innate internal energy and potential in martial arts.

*Time regression(once)

*Technical knowledge on martial arts and techniques

With these five abilities, Hong believed he could climb to the top of the tiny world and other realms. But his dreams were not to be.

Sure a martial artist could have the strength enough to lift few tons or move as fast as lightning, but what could he do against thousands of beasts who could change the very energy completely into hundreds of kilos of ice or break through enhanced walls stronger than cold iron? Not to mention, how time consuming it was.

The ROB had told him that the first timeline was an incomplete one, and when Nei Li returns the timeline gets fully rewritten instead of creating a new timeline.

So without a worry Hong practiced a martial art of his fancy. The plum blossom sword art. A slow , but powerful and strong sword art that can bewitch anyone with its captivating plum blossom flower like sword energy.

He couldn't practice garden cultivation techniques, because, he wasn't attuned spiritually, but he believed after achieving enlightenment, he would be able to.

But the chance never came. Demon beast hoard of millions attacked glory city and Hong went down only after taking down a few hundred silver ranked beasts.

When he woke up, he was back at the fighter's academy. And though he had believed martial arts were true power, he understood that personal power is what makes the martial arts powerful, not the other way. He had seen the snow wind family patriarch become a black dragon like human and personally smash the head of a mountain sized snow ape in one punch. He had power. But he couldn't control it delicately like Hong did. But! He was still better than Hong.

For every ten gold ranked beast taken down by Hong, ten peak black gold beasts were killed by Ye Zong.

Hong was lamenting his future fate. Lu Piao, his best friend and his brothers and their fiancé's, and admirers, basically the entire cast will move to higher realms while the reincarnated regressor Hong will stagnate in a doomed city, hoping to be rescued.

So yes. Hong was depressed. The whole group looked dumbfounded for a second , wondering what would make a boy depressed enough to cry like that.

Stopping his crying and wiping away his tears, Hong looked at Lu Piao and then the group before asking why they were here .

Lu Piao scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"Welllll.. we were going to hunt horned sheep and thought you would like to come, but with how you are..."

Hong quickly interjected "I'll pack my sword " before disappearing into the small hut near the arena. The door wasn't even allowed fully close, as it was flung open again.

This time Hong was dressed in baggy black pants and a matching top. And unlike before, his left hand carried a sheathed straight sword about a meter long, while his aura changed from a pathetic crying child to a sharp warrior that made even the current body of Nei Li feel intimidated.

Lu Piao too felt the aura and immediately relaxed. This was the brother Hong he had come to know through all these years. But it also made them all wonder what could make such a strong warrior feel depressed.

"I'm ready" Hong stated towards the group. Feeling the aura of a strong fighter eminating from from him, they nodded with agreement. Soon they arrived to the training grounds and Nei Li revealed his plan on taking down demon beasts. The ehole thimg went like in the comic. Then aftercthe demonstration was over the paralysing agent laced arrows ,before dividing them into two groups.

Lu Piao, Wei Nan and Hong was in one group, while Nei li and the remaining three were in the other. Hong waited till he finished talking to raise a question.

"You still haven't told me why we are hunting horned goats, you know?"

It was Nei Li who answered since he felt that it was his responsibility.

" we are going to hunt horned SHEEP, not goats, to sell their parts for money to buy cultivation resources "

"So that means , more horned sheep hunted, the better right?"

"Yes" Nei Li answered, curious to where this was going.

"Then put some one more to brother Lu Piao's group to attract the attention, I've hunted horned sheep alone before. I can do it again" Hong replied with a tone brimming with confidence.

While Nei Li remained skeptical, he was curious about the strength of Hong .

What he didn't know was that, Hong had hunted far more dangerous beasts after his regression. Unlike before, where he had chosen a technique based on his personal aesthetics, Hong had chosen the strongest martial arts in his memories and combined them all into one to create a perfect art for himself . He had built the skeleton for this in his past life but after his rebirth, he had spent all his time on creating an unparalleled art. And with his god given talent in martial arts, he had created an internal energy art, aptly named "walking between heaven and hell".

The technique creates internal energy that has total compatability with the body while having the essence of all that exist on earth. The reason it was stronger than all demonic, elemental and righteous scriptures was because it allowed Hong to use all attributes without qi deviation. Sadly he knew no matter how overpowered his techniques were, they wouldn't even come close to hurting a peak legend rank beasts.

But regardless of the future, he was quite strong now, especially since he had reached master level with his arts. So without further ado, he motioned the gang to follow him so he could demonstrate his strength.