Strike Back

A crowd of people had started gathering in the Dark Forest, which was filled with all kinds of trees and plants. Warriors from the Mo family had scattered around and were searching for Shi Yan in their designated areas. They all had serious looks on their faces.

Mo Yanyu's face was as cold as ever. She ordered in a sharp voice, "Go search for that bastard! Now! Once you have found any trace of him, set off the blue smoke bomb! Don't fight him individually!"

"It has been 3 days and we still cannot find that guy, but we keep finding traces of him. Is he that poor at covering his tracks, or has he been intentionally playing with us?" Master Karu said with a sour face, apparently irritated by Shi Yan's tricks.

For the past few days, the whole crowd had been looking for Shi Yan in the Dark Forest. They could occasionally see the footprints and broken tree branches he left behind on his way through. He must have been around this area for days, but no matter how hard they searched, they couldn't find anything, not even the smallest clue of the whereabouts of Shi Yan.

"Search a bigger area!" Mo Yanyu was pissed off, and shouted her new order, "Start from here and search separately! Do your best! Once you see him, release the blue smoke bomb! I will be there in an instant!"

The warriors of the Mo family all complied obediently.

"Is it okay to leave the Ground Dragon alone?" Master Karu frowned, and said worriedly, "All my medicine bottles are with the dragon. If that boy messed with my medicine, he would cause me more trouble than I can handle."

"Master Karu, don't you worry. The Ground Dragon is being guarded by Johnson and seven other warriors. Johnson has already reached the Third Sky of the Elementary Realm. That asshole is no match for him." Mo Yanyu said with a proud face.

Master Karu nodded in consent and said no more.

The warriors of the Mo family had moved further and further away, and the members had become more and more distanced from each other. With one hand on the blue smoke bomb, the warriors were not that stressed. If they were to see any trace of Shi Yan, all they had to do was to set off the blue smoke. A Simple Task!

One of the warriors was walking in the shade, cursing Shi Yan at the same time with an angry face. He occasionally looked up at the tree branches above his head, and then checked the bushes in his vicinity.

They had been searching this area for the past three days, and none had even seen Shi Yan at all. Plus, Shi Yan was a junior warrior only in the Elementary Realm! They didn't believe that he was still in the area, they all thought that he had already left. Therefore, all the warriors were not happy when they were ordered to search this area again, complaining in secret and thinking that they were wasting their time doing a pointless task.

A warrior arrived under one of the aged trees, shaded by thick branches and leaves. This time, when he looked up, all he could feel was a chilly, cold, bloodthirsty, and evil, pouring down onto him. All of a sudden, he could only see Shi Yan jumping down from the tree like a fierce wolf, crushing the warrior's face with his knee.

"Bang!"

With a strong blow, the warrior's face was instantly covered in fresh blood. He fell on the ground, with his eyes filled with blood and tears. For a moment, he couldn't see anything.

All he could do was wave his dagger wildly, shouting in panic, "Here! He's over here!"

Before he could release the blue smoke bomb in his left hand, an intense pain spread from his left wrist. He couldn't stand it and let the blue smoke bomb be taken away from him.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Shi Yan put on the cruelest face he had ever made. Before he could realize, his eyes had already turned dark red with a murderous look. He moved swiftly around the warrior, hiding away from his random stabbings and continued stomping on his face, without any mercy.

With his Profound Qi running wild through both of his legs, Shi Yan's every hit was as powerful as an iron hammer. Under such strong attacks, it only took five stomps for the warrior to stop breathing.

Seeing this, Shi Yan stepped towards the dead warrior and grabbed the dagger from his lifeless hand. With a calm and cold expression, he casually swung the dagger and gave another stab straight into the warrior's neck.

All of a sudden, a strong wave of invisible energy spilled out of the warrior's body, mixed with strings of emotions such as distress, anger, and panic, all pouring out at once. The energy was quickly absorbed into Shi Yan's meridians. Within a few seconds, the warrior had lost all his Profound Qi and turned into a shriveled body.

Shi Yan approached the dead body again. He searched through his pockets with a frown, and only found a packet of food and a few dozen Purple Crystal Coins. Shi Yan took away his possessions and quickly left the scene. He didn't want to stop in one place for long, making his way through the dark forest swiftly like a fox, and soon disappearing into the trees.

This was the first time that he had ever taken a man's life. However, he was not at all nervous or panicky. He had remained calm and cool-headed the whole time. When he was stepping hard onto the warrior's face, he felt nothing but an overwhelming thrill, a great satisfaction that he couldn't describe with words. He was free. He felt like he was a warrior by nature, and that he was born to kill.

He highly enjoyed the feeling of euphoria brought to him by killing, it was the most wonderful moment he had never experienced. All the unpleasant feelings that had been haunting him for days were instantly cast away the moment he cut that warrior's neck.

Deep down, Shi Yan knew this wasn't right and that there must be something wrong with his body. No normal person would be this calm and steady on their first kill, nor would they feel this kind of intoxicating thrill or bliss.

As the Profound Qi from the warrior's body rushed into Shi Yan's Meridians, there was again a strong urge of murder flaring up inside his body. Before long, a strange energy poured into his Profound Qi, making it even stronger and more concentrated than ever.

This felt so good!

For five days, Shi Yan was like a ghost in the Dark Forest. He was everywhere, always killing, with precise accuracy. The murders all happened in sneak attacks before those poor warriors had a chance to release their blue smoke bombs in their hand.

Within five days, another three warriors became Shi Yan's victims. Every time, when their bodies were discovered, they had already become mummified with all their blood and Profound Qi sucked away.

Mo Yanyu became more and more agitated. She desperately searched and searched around the dark forest with Master Karu. Both of them had started to smell a crisis on the horizon.

For the first victim, his face was terribly destroyed, with a cruel blow to his head, and there were still some traces of a struggle.

For the second and third victims, they were both secretly attacked from behind, with several brutal stabs in their hearts and abdomen, with only traces of a brief struggle still there.

However, for the last warrior, he was killed instantly with a clear cut on the throat and there was no trace of struggle at all.

Judging from the four dead warriors, Shi Yan was becoming more and more skilled at killing. The Dark Forest had become a perfect arena for showing off his talent for murder. He skillfully used the landscape to cover his own tracks. Like an experienced hunter, he was secretly hiding in the forest, watching and waiting for his next prey.

The death of those four warriors had made the other warriors all very nervous. Mo Yanyu and Master Karu were also starting to take this seriously. As per their new orders, no warrior was allowed to act individually. They were only allowed to move in the groups of two. This way, if one of them was attacked, the other one could come right over it help, in order to avoid the tragedies that had happened before.

In the Dark Forest, on the top of an aged tree, wrapped and covered by layers of leaves, Shi Yan sat cross-legged in silence, looking at those little human figures in the distance through the leaves.

"Huh, not as stupid as before... " Shi Yan sneered on the inside. He knew it wouldn't be that easy for him to strike and kill now.

Shi Yan wasn't in a rush to attack. He watched those warriors for a while and noticed that after the death of the previous four warriors, the Mo family warriors had started to act in groups of two, hence they couldn't cover a search area as large as before. Right now, they were not coming in his direction, but moving away towards three other locations.

After making sure that the warriors were not coming his way, at least not in a short period of time, Shi Yan quietly closed his eyes and started to circulate the Profound Qi inside his body. The Profound Qi of those killed by Shi Yan over the past few days had all been absorbed by Shi Yan's Meridians shortly after they died. After they were purified by his meridians, the Profound Qi went back to his body, making his Profound Qi increases twice in strength again.

Shi Yan started to circulate the Profound Qi inside his body faster and faster with his mind. He could clearly feel that his Profound Qi was much stronger than before, rushing through his Meridians like an intense lightning all over his body, from his abdomen and all the way to his right arm. Shi Yan held his breath, cleared his mind, and concentrated all his attention in pouring the Profound Qi into his right arm. Now! He released this burning energy all at once!

The Profound Qi inside his arm was flowing rapidly towards his right index finger like wild horses escaping from their reins.

"Bzz bzz"

Some silver colored light smoke suddenly shot out of his right index finger, making a strange sound in the air. The light smoke didn't gather in the air and only lasted for a few minutes before fading away.

Shi Yan opened his eyes, with bright sparks shining in his black eyes and a surprised smile on his face.

He had successfully managed to push his Profound Qi outside of his body!

This marked him reaching the Third Sky of the Elementary Realm. After his rigorous practice over the past few days, he had finally made it to a new level with the help of that strange power inside his Meridians.

Although the Profound Qi that was forced from his body was not in a concentrated shape, and couldn't make itself into a sharp beam, he would be able to infuse his Profound Qi into all kinds of killing weapons, and could directly rupture the enemy's organs with his Profound Qi shot; which meant that he had already reached a milestone in his control and operation of Profound Qi.