Surrounded (1)

Chatting for a moment longer, Zhang Xuan was questioned on where he obtained the Hongjin Pearl Fruit from. He casually replied that he got it from the market, causing Master Lu Chen and the rest to exclaim at his fortune.

“Right, brother Zhang Xuan, are you a local or…” Lu Chen asked.

“I am a teacher at Hongtian Academy!” Zhang Xuan replied.

“No wonder you possess such strength and a deep understanding towards painting!” Master Lu Chen praised him. He turned around to Huang Yu and Bai Xun, who were sitting by the side, and said, “Painting can mold a person’s personality and train their character. Don’t let fighting and killing occupy your mind all day long! Since brother Zhang Xuan is a teacher of the academy, go and visit him to learn from him whenever the both of you are free. I will consider giving the person who learns a thing or two from him a pass and give them what they want!”

“Yes!”

Huang Yu replied with a bitter expression whereas Bai Xun’s eyes were glittering with excitement.

Through their crossing of blows, he understood that Zhang Xuan’s current ability far surpassed him. To be able to learn from such an expert was definitely much more interesting than simply just learning boring painting!

At the very least, he felt more relaxed learning from him than Master Lu Chen.

“My apologies for the sudden intrusion today. It is getting a little late, so master, I will be bidding you farewell. I will visit you another day!”

After accomplishing what he came for, Zhang Xuan decided to take his leave and clasped his hands together towards Lu Chen.

“This time, you came here to look for Fighter 6-dan cultivation techniques, but it is a pity that I don’t have many of them here. I will speak to Shen Zhui about this matter a few days later to bring you to the kingdom’s Book Collection Vault to browse through them! It just happens that he seems to be out hunting these few days, so he isn’t in the capital at the moment!” Master Lu Chen said.

“You have my utmost gratitude, master!” Hearing these words, Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.

It was impossible to find more than a few Fighter 6-dan cultivation technique manuals at any ordinary location. However, in the kingdom’s Book Collection Vault, the location that was reputed to have the most complete collection of books in Tianxuan Kingdom, he was surely able to find many of them!

If he was able to enter the vault to browse through the Fighter 6-dan cultivation techniques, he might be able to form Heaven’s Path Divine Art and break through successfully!

“You’re too courteous…”

Lu Chen nodded his head with a smile…

Leaving the master’s residence, Zhang Xuan headed towards the academy.

The sun had already set when he was still having dinner with Shen Bi Ru. At this moment, the moon hung high up in the sky, illuminating the ground with a cold silver glow. Going by the clock of his previous life, it should be around twelve already!

Despite the time, he didn’t feel fatigued in the least. Instead, his eyes were glowing in exhilaration.

The trip to the master’s residence was truly worth it!

Compiling the Heaven’s Path Golden Body has propelled the strengthening of his physical body, causing his prowess to soar. With his current cultivation, even if he were to meet with a Pixue realm pinnacle expert, he would be able to easily subdue them!

Besides, he also found a dozen books or so on Fighter 6-dan cultivation techniques. Even if it was insufficient for him to compile a complete version of Heaven’s Path Divine Art, it should still be beneficial to his training.

“My physical body has already reached 90 ding of strength. If I were to find higher tier physical body enhancement techniques, will I grow even stronger?”

There might be many different secret manuals on training one’s physical body in Master Lu Chen’s study, but they were the simplest and most basic cultivation methods. If such books could possess such effects after being compiled by the Library of Heaven’s Path, didn’t this mean that if he were to assemble together a set of more profound physical body cultivation manuals, the book compiled would be even more incredible?

If this was true, his physical body would probably play a significant part in his battle prowess in the future!

Just as he was immersing himself in his delight, his ears suddenly quivered.

The growth in strength of his physical body had also caused his hearing and vision to sharpen. He suddenly realized that someone was stalking him!

His footsteps swayed and he came to a stop. “Those friends who are following behind me, come out!”

“Hehe, I didn’t expect that you would be so wary!”

“What is the use of being wary! Lad, you made us lose money, don’t even dream about escaping from us today…”

Hualala!

As his voice trailed off, a few human silhouettes dashed out from the darkness and surrounded him. Every one of them looked at Zhang Xuan coldly, as though staring at a corpse.

“It’s you all?”

Zhang Xuan recognized them.

He recognizesd two of those in the group as Master Mo Yang, who was exposed in the market earlier today by him, and the artifact dealer who was working with him.

The remaining few should be the ‘supports’ who were hidden within the crowd.

At this moment, ‘Master Mo Yang’s’ face was swollen red and the skin around his eyes was bruised black. A few parts of his clothes were torn off and he no longer possessed the serene and enlightened disposition and appearance from before. In fact, if one were to claim that he was a beggar on the street, people would believe him.

Looks like after being exposed, those ‘victims’ didn’t let him off the hook so easily.

But that’s to be expected as well. After all, which of those who were able to engage in the expensive sport of treasure speculation didn’t come from extraordinary families?

After realizing that they were scammed, they could already be considered to be kind for not killing him on the spot.

The artifact dealer didn’t seem to be in a much better state than him. His two eyes were bruised black and two sausage-like swells hung by his mouth, causing his speech to be indistinct.

Glaring at Zhang Xuan, the resentment and anger in their gazes were clear to see.

This was a ploy that they spent a fortune to set up, only for it to be wrecked by this young man here. Not mentioning how they had to spit out the meat that was already in their mouths, they even almost got beaten to death. Thus, it was understandable that they would feel intense resentment against him.

“You little bastard, you sure ran away fast back then. Let’s see where you can run off to now!”

A maniacal gleam flashed across the eyes of the artifact dealer.

“You all want to kill me?”

Noticing the aura of the surroundings growing eerily cold, Zhang Xuan frowned.

“If you have to blame, blame it for your big mouth for saying things that shouldn’t be said. In your next life, remember to keep your mouth in check!”

Master Mo Yang sneered savagely as he clenched his fists, causing jiya jiya sounds to echo in the surroundings.

The reason why their fraud failed was due to this fellow. It took them awhile before they managed to find him, so naturally, they wouldn’t allow him to escape easily!

“I’m sorry, but I don’t wish to die for now, and neither do I wish to keep my mouth in check!” Zhang Xuan said.

“You don’t wish to die?” Ruthlessness flickered across in the eyes of Master Mo Yang. “This isn’t up to you. Brothers, kill him, slice him apart and feed him to the dogs!”

“Roger!”

With a cold snort, one of the ‘support’ stepped forward, and lifting his arms up, he sent a palm down towards Zhang Xuan.

The moment he made his move, his cultivation realm was made apparent. Fighter 5-dan pinnacle!

No wonder he could still escape to Tianxuan Kingdom to conduct fraud even after being outlawed by Liuzhu Kingdom. He did indeed possess some capabilities.

If it was yesterday night, even if Zhang Xuan was able to emerge victorious against this fellow, he would have to utilize the strength of the Library of Heaven’s Path to exploit his weakness. However, with an overwhelming progress in the strength of his physical body, possessing nearly a hundred ding of strength now, Dingli pinnacle meant nothing to him now.

Chuckling softly, he sent a slap towards his attacker.

“You’re courting death!”

“Number Four’s nickname is Metal Palms. His hands are capable of splitting rocks. Back then, in Liuzhu Kingdom, a Pixue realm primary stage was killed by a single palm of his. Yet, this fellow dares to exchange blows with him without any preparation? The ignorant sure are fearless!”

“To think that we were done in by such a fellow, what misfortune!”

…

Seeing that fellow going against Number Four without dodging at all, Master Mo Yang and the rest sneered.

[This ‘support’ may not seem unexceptional, but his strength isn’t for show. His palms are capable of even striking through metal, what does a young man who isn’t even twenty mean before that? To face it head on, what else can he be doing other than courting death?]

Just when they thought that Zhang Xuan would be crippled by the blow, they saw the one whom they called ‘Number Four’ Metal Palms being as weak as a slab of tofu. Unable to withstand Zhang Xuan’s blow, his bones shattered and his ribcage sank in as he was blasted away by the force of the blow. His head stabbed onto the ground first, causing him to look like a bulb of wild onion.