Chapter 328: Chapter 327 Xia Yunxi
Wandering the ends of the earth, the four seas are his home.
After Shi Xiaole left Great Cold State, he began embracing the life of freedom he had longed for in his previous life. He traversed perilous mountains, crossed unfamiliar waters, entered new cities at sunrise, and left at sunset.
Along the way, while maintaining his martial arts training, he occasionally played the part of a gallant swordsman, fighting for justice. Before he knew it, half a year swiftly passed.
He was taller than before, about one meter eighty, his facial features outgrowing their youthful softness, revealing a masculinity and elegance uncommon in ordinary men.
What progressed the most was his cultivation, which had reached the mid-phase of the Ninth Layer of Xuan Qi Realm.
One must understand, Shi Xiaole’s potential was mostly reflected in his comprehension, even his cultivation talent was not as outstanding as the Sunset Little Sword Marquis and the others.
The reason for such quick progress, apart from mastering the Brahma-I Unity, was due to the contribution of the essence of the Devil Path, imparted by the Black Devil Divine Monarch.
This was despite the difficulty in absorbing the essence of the Devil Path, otherwise, Shi Xiaole would have broken through to the Spiritual-Passage Realm long ago.
"Young Master, where are you heading? I can take you part of the way."
Standing by the shore, a large ship approached, with a steward-like man on board smilingly asking.
Upon probing with his spiritual sense, there were more than twenty experts of the Spiritual-Passage Realm on the ship, with the highest cultivation at the Second Layer of the Spiritual-Passage Realm. In Redbud State, where martial arts standards were lower than in Great Cold, this was not a low level of strength.
"Sure."
Shi Xiaole smiled because he didn’t have a destination anyway.
"Miss, look at that Young Master, he is very handsome."
On the ship’s third deck, a maid pointed to Shi Xiaole and said to the young lady beside her.
"What is the use of a man just looking good?"
The young lady dismissed it casually, but still couldn’t help but took more than a few glances at Shi Xiaole.
In the vast Divine Continent of East Victory, there were naturally numerous handsome men and beautiful women, but she had never seen anyone as striking as Shi Xiaole.
The large ship continued to drift in the river, heading west.
Shi Xiaole discovered that there were many others on the ship just like him, young men and women who looked rich and noble. Every night, maids would invite them to parties in the cabin.
Shi Xiaole preferred a low-profile demeanour, but many maids had noticed him. Every time, they would come to knock on his cabin door, but he would politely refuse them all.
Those drinking and partying gatherings were just a waste of his time.
On the sixth day, the cabin suddenly began to shake violently.
Opening the cabin door, Shi Xiaole saw that the ship had actually entered the ocean.
"Young Master, we have encountered some enemies. Please, your esteemed self, step aside for a moment. Our young lady has arranged a few small boats, you all please leave first."
Half a month later at noon, the steward who had invited Shi Xiaole onto the ship bustled in, speaking in an urgent tone.
In Shi Xiaole’s sight, dozens of meters behind the large ship, there was another ship of similar size in hot pursuit, looking extremely threatening.
Without saying much, when he followed the steward onto the deck, he found that all the other young masters and mistresses had already assembled.
"Everyone, please hurry and escape."
The steward beckoned, and the sailors had already untied the ropes of the small boats.
"During this time, Miss Cai treated us with great food and wine. How can we just run away and abandon her?"
"Yes, Steward Cai, we want to stay and help."
The young masters and mistresses had great sense of justice, most were not willing to leave.
As they were talking, Miss Cai had already leapt out from the third floor of the ship’s cabin. With a display of her flying skill, she was at the top in no time, holding a long sword, her figure fluttering elegantly, appearing heroic, causing many young masters to be entranced.
From the pursuing ship, a man in black was walking over the waves, covering tens of meters in the sea in no time, and started fighting with Miss Cai.
Both were cultivators of the Ninth Layer of Xuan Qi Realm, locked in a deadlock.
"Kill!"
Following the young man, numerous others crossed the sea surface, brandishing their swords and attacking, fighting with several experts of the first layer of Spiritual-Passage Realm on the ship.
Leading them was astonishingly a woman clad in white, with cultivation at the Eighth Layer of Xuan Qi Realm. She took on two of the experts at the first layer of Spiritual-Passage Realm, on her own, causing many spectators to be secretly shocked.
One by one, the experts on the ship were being cut and wounded, falling on the deck, and the situation was gradually tilting towards the disadvantageous.
The young masters and mistresses turned anxious and were about to step forward to help, but the steward stopped them, saying,"Run! This is what the young lady has ordered."
"We are not cowards afraid of death."
A young master rushed out first, picked up a blade on the ground, and charged at the woman in white.
"Fool, get lost!"
The woman in white glared, one sword strike sent flying the young master, seized the opportunity to shake off the attacks of the two expert at the first layer of Spiritual-Passage Realm, and rushed towards the steward.
"Heart Severing Palm!"
The steward was at the Second Layer of Spiritual-Passage Realm, his moves clearly more skilled than the woman in white. After a dozen moves, he spotted a flaw and lunged a palm towards the woman in white.
Whoosh!
At the crucial moment, a sword light flashed, piercing through the steward’s left shoulder.
"Junior Sister Wang, are you okay?"
The man in green who had appeared asked Wang Junior Sister.
"Brother Tao, I’m fine."
Junior Sister Wang’s cheeks flushed. Their lingering gaze revealed their relationship to be that of a couple.
"Despicable, how dare you ambush us?"
The young man in green was at the ninth level of the Xuanqi Realm and was highly skilled in swordsmanship. He was even superior to the steward, so the master and miss were both surprised and angry. All they could do was curse out loud.
"You lot of idiots, you don’t even know when you’re being fooled."
Wang Yuwei stamped her foot in irritation, preparing to fight back, when all of a sudden, many people started to shout.
It turned out that the sailors from before were all martial artists. They whipped out short knives from their clothes, immediately controlling the young masters and misses, forcing them into a tight space.
Shi Xiaole was squeezed in the center, with the fragrant-smelling young misses leaning against him.
"Steward Cai, what is...?"
The young masters and misses looked at their injured steward.
The steward who appeared so amiable before now was filled with cold hostility and resentment. He clutched at his wound and glared at Lv Tao and Wang Yuwei, saying, "Meddling in what doesn’t concern you, you’ll get your comeuppance soon enough!"
"Mr. Cai, these past two years, you’ve continuously enchanted the sons and daughters of various sects, taking them across the sea to secretly harm them. What exactly are you planning?"
With Lv Tao’s words, all the young masters and misses present immediately paled.
"Nonsense!"
The steward, Mr. Cai, didn’t answer. With a wave of his hand, the sailors’ knives pressed against the young masters’ and misses’ throats as he said, "Let us go, and make that man in black stop fighting the young Miss. Otherwise, all these people will die."
"You are despicable!"
Wang Yuwei gritted her teeth in anger, but there was nothing she could do. The two sides were separated by a distance of five feet. Even Lv Tao would be unable to subdue the steward and the sailors in one move.
Seeing the situation, the young man in black inevitably halted his actions. Miss Cai sneered, then along with her maid, deftly leaped down to the steward’s side.
"These people, albeit the heirs to unremarkable sects, are still human. You’d best be careful—not to do anything rash. If anyone dies, it will be on your heads."
Miss Cai let out a mocking laugh, causing the young masters and misses to seethe with anger. They had thought her to be a good person.
"Let’s go."
Miss Cai took the lead as she started to retreat toward the small boat. Shi Xiaole was about to make a move when a sudden thought stopped him.
"You’d best not leave."
A charming shadow flashed past, followed by dozens of Sword Qi descending from the heavens.
Shh, shh, shh...
The sailors’ arms were instantly severed, and they fell to the ground, howling in pain.
The color drained from the faces of Miss Cai, her maid, and the steward. They tried to escape, but they were not nearly as fast as the figure. She came from afar and there was barely anyone on the ship who was her match.
As her long sword light passed, the actions of Miss Cai and the others were frozen.
"Senior Sister!"
Whether it was the black-clothed man, Gao Fei, Lv Tao, Wang Yuwei, or the other masters who had boarded the ship, seeing the woman in the yellow robe appear, their faces were full of veneration.
Why shouldn’t they venerate her?!
As the eldest disciple from Heavenly Wood Fortress, Xia Yunxi was only twenty-four years old but had already reached the first level of Spiritual-Passage Realm. Most of the third level Spiritual-Passage Realm masters could not match her, and she could even fight those at the fourth level.
Even throughout Redbud State, there were few of the same generation who could compare to her.
"Which organization do you belong to? What are you trying to do?"
Xia Yunxi was as hot and flamboyant as a summer sunrise, beautiful beyond compare. She was like a peony among many flowers, always able to attract attention at first glance. Many of the captive young masters even forgot to breathe.
Miss Cai was jealous and angry, her face contorted in resentment. "You had better let us go, or all of you are as good as dead."
Trying to extract their secrets, Xia Yunxi tapped their acupuncture points using the sword hilt.
"Well, are you going to talk?"
Wang Yuwei, who had been holding back her anger, snapped at them.
No one noticed Shi Xiaole’s eyes shining in the crowd.
The next moment, an irresistible impulse surged through Miss Cai, causing her to involuntarily shout, "If you dare to interfere with the Three Talents Association, there will be only a single path left for you—death!"
The Three Talents Association?
Xia Yunxi and the others were all baffled, but Shi Xiaole felt his heart jolt.
He immediately thought of the mysterious Three Talents Association in Great Cold State, the one that had kidnapped the children. Were they both the same force? If so, then the scale of this Three Talents Association would greatly surpass anyone’s imagination!
Shi Xiaole continued to employ the Soul Transfer Great Method. Unfortunately, Miss Cai was obviously of too low a status, knowing only that her task was to transport the people on the ship to a remote island called Wuhui Island.
"Take them away now."
Xia Yunxi waved her hand, and the masters of the Heavenly Wood Fortress immediately took the shattered Miss Cai and her group away.
The young masters and misses breathed a sigh of relief after being freed, and hastily thanked the people from Heavenly Wood Fortress.
Wang Yuwei humphed, not suppressing her displeasure. Xia Yunxi, on the contrary, responded with a smile. In an instant, the smile caused the souls of those young masters to almost leave their bodies.
"Senior Sister, that Wuhui Island should be the Three Talents Association’s den. Let’s go and wipe them out!"
After everyone left, Wang Yuwei suggested, the excitement evident in her clenched fist.
"Don’t act rashly. We don’t know the extent of the Three Talents Association’s power. We should return to land and report this to Heavenly Wood Fortress."
Gao Fei was older and more prudent.
Xia Yunxi nodded, "Junior Brother Gao is right. The Three Talents Association is well-organized and we don’t know their full capacity. It’s not something we can handle, let’s leave it to our sect."
