The Hunt Begins

*bam*

Fang Shi's body flew backward and crashed into the ground with a bam. Everyone was stunned speechless. Entire arena turned dead silent. They could even hear each other's breathing.

Fang Jing stood amongst the audience, similarly astonished.

"Bast*rds! Are you done enjoying? Go pick up my cousin!" she shouted towards Fang Shi's lackeys.

Yun was still standing on the platform. She had only used the strength of the Second stage Qi Condensation realm. However, she at the end of the day a peak Qi Condensation expert, so even when she suppressed her strength to the Second stage, it was not something even a normal Third stage could compare.

After Fang Jing's shout, everyone woke up from their stupor and talking about the fight animatedly. The silent arena became lively once again.

Fang Shi's lackeys hurriedly picked up his body and scurried off to get him treated. If something happened to him, they couldn't bear their Patriarch's wrath. Even their families might get implicated.

"Congratulations Yun, you broke through," Fang Jing spoke gritting her teeth, she then turned to Xue'er, "Xue'er, if you didn't want to give my cousin a chance, you could have directly said so. Why did you have to humiliate us like this?"

She was distressed. Originally, she thought Xue'er had believed her and agreed to meet Feng Shi. But only now did she realize how naïve she was for underestimating Xue'er's intelligence. Xue'er had already seen right through her. Although she had tried to deceive her, she still couldn't accept the fact that she fell for Xue'er's trap. Now, forget about rewards, she must take the blame for this incident and face the rage of her Patriarch, even her own father won't be able to speak for her.

"I sincerely gave him a chance. If he had defeated Yun, I would have agreed to meet him, too bad he lost miserably," said Xue'er coolly, "Although Yun had a breakthrough a few days ago, she only used the power of the Second stage. So, whom your cousin lost to is not the Third stage."

Fang Jing was already going hysterical in fear. She knew she had messed up big this time. Initially, Patriarch Fang didn't want anyone powerful to raise from her branch as it would be a risk for his sons later. But her father, Fang Dong gave up everything he had earned in his life and made a lot of promises to convince Patriarch to let her attend the Pure Mist Academy. If the Patriarch had still persisted, it would have made him look petty and made a lot of people in the clan unhappy. Now, with Fang Shi getting injured because of her, he got a legitimate reason to reject her going to the Academy. He doesn't even need to return the things offered to him by her father, he could just name it price for healing his son.

Her future is doomed, her father's savings gone, and she still must suffer punishment. And the worst thing was she had no one to blame. Yes, she could blame Xue'er or Yun but that would just be venting her frustration for a moment. If she did act against them, not just her, her whole family would face Lin Jian's wrath.

"H-How did it become like this?" Fang Jing's face had already gone pale. While just thinking about rewards, she never considered she had placed her entire future as a stake on a gambling match and even more ridiculous was, her payout was just a small amount of money the Patriarch had promised for setting up a date. When she realized it, she didn't know if she should be angry at herself or Xue'er.

"Jing, there is a saying," said Xue'er, "He who holds a weapon, dies by it."

Fang Jing trembled when she heard it. Yes, she tried to deceive her, but herself got deceived in the end. "I-I …"

*bam*

Fang Jing's knees caved in as if she couldn't even stand her own weight and she fell onto her knees.

"If you or he himself had asked me sincerely, I might have considered it. I hate façade," Xue'er turned around and started walking out, Yun and Yi started following her.

"My elder cousin is an Inner disciple at the Pure Mist Academy, he will definitely take revenge for what you have done!" Fang Jing shouted her eyes red with rage.

Xue'er didn't even turn back. In seconds, they had left the arena and started towards Lin estate.

"Miss, you have changed. I cannot point it, but there was something different about you today," said Yi, "Normally, even if you found their petty acts, you wouldn't go this far, right? …"

Yi was about to continue when Yun pulled her and pointed her to Xue'er's trembling hand. "What are you talking about Yi? Miss is the same as always,"

"Did I overdo it? I am I turning into an awful person?" asked Xue'er. She had always been an innocent and kind girl, but she was exceedingly intelligent. She had never wanted to hurt others. Her hands were still trembling, Fang Jing's matter made her extremely uncomfortable as if she lost something or something dark had invaded her heart. She couldn't describe this feeling and she hoped she would never have to experience this again. But she had to face a lot of enemies soon. Both the Thousand Poisons Sect and the ones behind them the Long Clan would try to harm her and her family.

She could still remember her father's words, 'Xue'er, showing mercy to your enemies is the same as harming yourself and even the people close to you. I know it is hard to change, but always remember if something bad happens to you, your Big brother Yan, me, and your mother all of us will suffer the same pain as you. I am sorry Xue'er, I wanted to keep you away from the dark side of this world, but your father is incompetent.'

'No! I will not let anyone close to me suffer ever again. If becoming ruthless is the only way, I will do it!' she had thought.

"Miss, what are you talking about? Patriarch was right, you cannot be merciful to these scum, they will come back to bite you one day. You were already pretty lenient," said Yun, "But miss, perhaps you might even have to kill in the future, if you are still like this, you will make it difficult for the Patriarch, you don't want that right?"

"Thanks, Yun, I know. I will try to change,"

…

A week had passed since Yun showed her prowess at the Academy. Xue'er and Yun were sitting in her courtyard meditating. They both had broken trough levels consecutively. So, they were now consolidating realm and improving their foundation.

In the Body refinement realm, cultivators use their spirit to draw Qi from their surroundings to refine their bodies. When the entire body is refined and made it suitable for practicing Qi, they would open up their Dantian where they will store Qi and enter into the Qi Condensation realm.

In Qi Condensation realm, at each level, cultivators would try to completely fill up their Dantian and then try to break through the limit by expanding it. At most, every cultivator can expand their Dantian nine times. But the final size of the dantian will depend on its size when it was first opened. This can also be termed as talent. The bigger the dantian they opened, the more Qi they can store and better is their talent. For example, Xue'er had opened up a massive dantian that was twice that of a normal cultivator. But that was when it was just opened. At every stage, the dantian's size doubles. Now, she is at the Fifth stage, her dantain is tens of times larger than normal cultivators. But the disadvantage is it takes a longer time and more resources to break through to the next stage.

Since Xue'er had broken through twice continuously, although her dantian capacity had increased, her Qi concentration had reduced drastically. Which if not taken care will affect her future cultivation.

Suddenly Yi rushed in, "Miss, Fallen Star Hunt is starting in two days!"