Prefecture City of Azure River County

"Eh?" Xue Ying looked up, as numerous arrows shot straight towards him. Each arrow shined with a cold, metallic luster, powerfully tearing into the air.

"Truly overconfident!’ Xue Ying, as fast as lightning, quickly drew two parts of his spear from the weapon box on his back.

Hu!

Xue Ying’s spear consisted of two parts, each part being more than a meter in length. Armed with his spear, Xue Ying casually waved his hands to deflect the arrows. Because the Snowstrider Horse ran so fast, only a dozen or more arrows reached Xue Ying and with a ‘pu, pu’ sound, he easily deflected them as well. What’s more, not even a single arrow had harmed the Snowstrider Horse.

Immediately after Xue Ying had jumped down from the Snowstrider Horse, he rushed directly towards the hill. At the same time, the two parts of the spear united, becoming one long spear.

"It’s a tough one, retreat!" Ordered the Big Boss. From above, he had seen Xue Ying easily blocking those arrows. He knew this person was not one to be trifled with.

Xiu!

"Boss!"

"Not good…"

"We have provoked a calamity!"

The Big Boss and several others, even the bandits, were all frightened.

They looked below with horror. The youngster, clad in black, had jumped off his steed. He soared in the air, darting across like a shadow. Although he was only dashing up the steep mountain slope, his speed made their hearts shiver, their feet feel like jelly, and they soon became filled with dread! Too fast! Really too fast! Their location was high up in the mountains, and the distance between them and the young man below was initially around 300 kilometers.

Normally, considering the steepness of the mountain road, which was difficult to climb, they should have enough time to retreat.

But in reality, the speed of that black-clothed youngster who was rushing up the hill was truly terrifying. The surrounding rocks and woods couldn’t obstruct him at all. The inclined steep hill also wasn’t an obstacle for him. His speed was faster in this bosky mountain area than before, when he had been riding the Snowstrider Horse. It was so fast, the bandits couldn’t even see the black-clothed youngster’s figure clearly. They could only see a blurred black shadow.

"How, how could we run into such a strong Legend ranker…" the big boss felt his head would soon explode. Sweat quickly dampened his clothes and both his legs became soft. "This kind of fast speed while going uphill, he must be a Legend Ranker! A Silver Moon Knight couldn’t be this fast. Anyhow, if he was a Silver Moon knight, I would still be able to clearly see his figure and could still manage to fight with him."

"Azure River County only has a handful of Legend Rankers. Where did he come from? Where on earth did he come from?"

"How is this possible?

"No, no..."

The Big Boss unwilling to accept the truth before him. Despair, dread, and other various complex emotions emerged. He absolutely had no thoughts of confronting the youngster, the gap between them was simply too large.　　

Maybe if it had been a Meteor ranker or a Silver Moon ranker, he would have been able to fight them…

But for a Silver Moon knight to fight with a Legend ranker? Usually the latter could easily annihilate the first! In front of a Legend ranker, even a Silver Moon Grand Mage couldn’t cast a spell.

Thus it was obvious...

A Legend ranker was really powerful! A one man army who really showed a mortal’s limit. Meteor Knights were rendered powerless in front of a Legend ranker.

"Spare my life, please spare my life. Lord, please spare my life," said the big, burly and violent Big Boss as he suddenly knelt down, begging for his life.

Peng!

A spear’s shadow suddenly swept down. The Big Boss’ face became ashen, stricken with horror. He had no time to block it. The spear’s shadow directly struck his chest. Boom. His whole chest sunk, his internal organs were completely shattered. Simultaneously, just like a sandbag, his body flew away, hitting a distant big tree. The big tree immediately crumbled. The Big Boss fell down, blood sprayed out from his mouth, as his eyes bulged out. He died instantly.

"Run!"

"Quickly escape!" The other chiefs and bandits became completely insane. They immediately ran away, scattering in all directions. The disparity between their strength was too far apart. Although the other party won in numbers, their spirits were already exposed to fear. They only had one thought, to escape!

Shua, shua, shua!!!

He was too fast!

Xue Ying’s speed was astonishing, especially in the eyes of those tied up hostages. In their eyes, there appeared to be seven or eight afterimages, making it look like there were seven or eight ‘Xue Yings’ armed with spears attacking at the same time. With their slow speed, each and every bandit didn’t have enough time to react and block his attacks. But in reality, it was no use for them to block it either way. Pu, pu, pu. This included the two Meteor Rank knights and the Heaven ranked Mage, who forcefully tried to cast instantaneous magic. Everyone’s bodies were pierced through with the spear.

As for the magic? Faced with the high-­pressure air blast that rolled out from Xue Ying’s spear, the puny sharp blade-like attack magic just vanished into thin air. The magic couldn’t even touch the spear’s surface.

Xue Ying had successfully killed more than 30 bandits.

All the other bandits had already fled. Some went downhill, some went uphill. All in all, they fled in every direction. Xue Ying didn’t care! After all, as long as the powerful backbone was gone, the rest were just helpless minions.

"Eh?" Xue Ying glanced down at the several corpses of the most powerful Bandit leaders. Nowadays, his external sense was sharper. He walked closer to the corpse and saw the Big Boss’s magic storage armband.

Xue Ying extended his spear.

Clang!

Forced by the spear, the armband immediately detached from the arm. Xue Ying then picked it up with his spear, and the armband flew into his hand.

"My lord, please save us!"

"My lord, please save us!" the hostages pleaded. Those tied up hostages consisted of the elderly, some middle aged adults and a young couple. Their clothes were quite luxurious. They were afraid that if this powerful person left them, the bandits would return to capture them.

"Pu, pu, pu..." Xue Ying walked past them as he casually waved his spear. His spearhead slashed the ropes. In a flash, the hostages had regained their freedom.

"Thank you, Lord, for saving our lives!" A white bearded elder respectfully greeted Xue Ying and then immediately murmured an order to the other people nearby, "Gather the goods and give them to the Lord."

"Understood."

The merchants swiftly gathered all the valuables. Not only their goods, which had been looted by the bandits before but the bandits’ possessions as well. They searched the bandits’ corpses for money, gold notes and other valuable possessions. In a short time, they had already gathered and stacked all of the valuable goods, including a Star Breaking Crossbow, together.

"My lord, these were all of the bandits’ possessions, including our own merchandise which they’d looted before. All of this we give to you, my lord, as our thanks. Thank you for saving our lives," the white bearded elder said.

Xue Ying glanced at them.

That thick, high stack of gold notes were mainly from the "Eight Frozen Jade Eagles." The other two Meteor rank Knights didn’t have any magical storage items. They had only been carrying a little bit of money and a few items on their bodies.

"Okay." Xue Ying only collected the gold notes. The gold notes were worth around 80,000-90,000 gold coins. "You can take the other things, including the Star Breaking Crossbow. Maybe with it you can all protect yourselves? In what state is your looted caravan? And your horses?"

"The others are already dead, and the horses were the first to go. The Eight Frozen Jade Eagle simply didn’t care for our horses," the old man with a white beard explained.

"Oh."

Xue Ying nodded, "Please hasten, I will escort you through this Frozen Jade Mountain Valley. After we’ve crossed this valley, I will leave you all."

"Thank you my lord, thank you my lord." The white bearded elder quickly kneeled and kowtowed. The others also quickly followed him, kneeling and kowtowing. This Frozen Jade Mountain Valley was occupied by numerous bandit groups. They were just a group of old and young people. Without Xue Ying’s help, it would be really hard for them to get out alive from this valley.

"Quickly, I will not wait for you." Xue Ying had already jumped down. The distance until the bottom of the hill was around 200 miles, but Xue Ying didn’t care. He directly jumped to the bottom, peng, the ground was shaken. He didn’t even have to bend his knees.

"Not bad." Xue Ying bound the magical storage item. The storage space was only half the size of the space provided by the magic storage pendant his mother gave him. "The bandit leaders’ gold notes were worth another 150,000 gold coins. My Snowrock Castle was short on money, but now I’ve already gained this much."

Although he had sold the Shadow Leopard’s skin and the other valuable body parts for several tens thousands gold coins, when his brother had become a personal disciple, Xue Ying had gifted his brother with a fine magical storage space item and a magic staff. Common magic staves were already worth more than 5,000 gold coins. Because Qing Shi’s magic power was still weak, he still couldn’t efficiently showcase a high grade magic staff’s power. But Xue Ying had given Qing Shi a large capacity magical storage item. Xue Ying had spent 50,000 gold coins for the magical storage item, and its capacity was also two times bigger than his mother’s magic storage pendant.

When his power had reached Legend rank, Xue Ying had also changed his inner armor to second grade refined protection armor. So when he battled with other Legend ranker experts, the armor could now at least protect his vital points.

He had also exchanged his boots and clothes with ones made from refined material. But these had still been cheap. The expensive one had been his inner armor, which had cost 30,000 gold coins! So Xue Ying was now short on money.

The formidable Legend rank expert…..

Had become jolly just for several ten thousands gold coins? If other Legend rank experts knew this, they would laugh. After all, Legend ranked experts, what kind of status did they have?

　　...

After escorting these dozen people who had been lucky enough to keep their lives out of Frozen Jade Mountain Valley, Xue Ying no longer cared for them. He split from them and then spurred the Snowstrider Horse.

After a day of riding, Xue Ying spent a night inside Yellow Dragon City.

At dawn on the second day, Xue Ying continued his journey. After a whole day of riding, he had finally arrived at the Prefecture City of Azure River County at dusk.

"After two full days on the road, I’ve finally arrived. This is the Prefecture City of Azure River County?" Xue Ying looked into the distance. In the distance stood a huge, majestic city. The city was so big, it was difficult for normal people to see where it ended.

Atop this majestic city wall, after each mile there was a mounted black sphere. Each black sphere’s surface was decorated with a golden pattern. The whole majestic city emitted some kind of invisible power. Common people couldn’t sense this invisible power but Xue Ying had a sharp Qi sensory ability. With his extraordinary sense, he could detect this invisible power.

The Prefecture City of Azure River County had more than ten million citizens. Compared to Dragon Mountain Manor and the Empire, this city had a much longer history.

As a matter of fact, Provincial and Prefecture cities usually had long histories. Although the dynasties changed, this kind of ancient city would continue to exist under the new reign. The city was also fortified with magic, making it more impregnable. The Provincial capital was even more formidable. Each city could have more than 100 million citizens. Its size was more imposing, almost like an independent country. It is said that even the Gods’ conjoined forces still couldn’t shake the provincial capital’s defense.

"This is truly eye-opening. I feel that if the entire defence of this Azure River County’s prefectural city fully activated, every black sphere could easily kill me. That black sphere’s power is absolutely at the Transcendent power level." Xue Ying sighed. However he was unaware that each time they were activated, these black spheres consumed an astonishing amount of energy.

"Enter."

Still riding his Snowstrider Horse, Xue Ying entered the huge, majestic Prefectural city of Azure River County.