Going back a few minutes, Evi was exhausted after finishing his bowl of food. It wasn't easy for his body to adapt so easily to suddenly training so intensely.
If he didn't care for his body properly, his progress would slow down and maybe even stop. Luckily, he had Yoze to help him out when it came to his recovery.
Not only did Yoze provide him with plenty of food and nutrition, but the massages Yoze gave were like magic. After each massage, he no longer felt sore, and he wouldn't feel sore the next day, which allowed him to continue his training.
But no matter how magical Yoze's massage hands were, they couldn't give Evi more energy, so after the massage was completed and he had put on his clothes, he quickly fell into a deep slumber.
"These days are wonderful."
With a smile plastered on his face, Evi felt more comfortable than he did when he was back at home. Yet, before he could fully fall asleep, he felt something tingling in his mind.
Sometimes, it was as if a hot needle pricked his brain, then a heavy hand, and then an oppressive wind. No matter the sensation he experienced, he was slowly waking up and was incredibly uncomfortable.
"What is going on? I am having a migraine. I should have drank more water." Unable to sleep any longer, Evi sighed out of his nose and opened his eyes.
But what he saw nearly gave him a shock of a lifetime. A black shadow was standing above him, staring at him with a thick black bag in its hand.
"My shadow demon is trying to kill my sleep!" Evi's mind whirled quickly out of fear. Instantly, his flight or fight instincts kicked in, and without much thought, Evi chose violence.
He immediately punched the shadow's crotch, thinking that it most likely wouldn't be effective. Unexpectedly, his shadow demon seemed to be made out of some weird material like thin leather since he could feel the power of his fist hitting directly into his shadow demon's body.
Even though this was only a punch from his instinctive reaction, his shadow demon crumbled as it shouted for help.
"Brother, help me!"
"Shit, my shadow demon is getting back up! I need to get out of here before they eat my heart!" Evi felt his mind slowly catching up with reality as he stood up quickly and tried to run away.
Knowing that with his basic knowledge of Spiral Twin Fists and slight progress in Boneless Man, he wouldn't even be able to fight two shadow demons simultaneously. Evi quickly resolved his heart to escape before his shadow demons could gang up on him.
"Where is Yoze? Is he also fighting his shadow demons?" Sweat fell from Evi's forehead as fear mixed with adrenaline kept him up.
"Ah, help me, Evi! I'm in danger!" Yoze screamed after he noticed that Evi was trying to run away.
He had painfully set up this battle scenario for Evi to gain some battle experience and to know that his training was working. Though Evi had only learned around 20 percent of the first level of Spiral Twin Fists, it was more than enough to take out these two ordinary robbers.
To ensure his act was convincing enough, he even changed his aura to give off a sense that he was powerless and helpless to save himself. This was one of the reasons why Blood Stepper felt confident that he could take him as a hostage.
"Yoze, you are alive! Wait, you two aren't my shadow demons, thank god." Evi clutched his heart tightly as he breathed out a sigh.
Now that he had gotten some distance away from one of the shadows, he noticed they weren't shadow demons at all! He had just been tired and tricked by the darkness of the night.
Though Evi knew these robbers were dangerous, he couldn't help but feel better knowing that his enemies were humans who could be defeated. Especially two regular people that Yoze could defeat with a snap of his fingers.
"Wait, Yoze, are you okay!? Don't do anything to him, robber!"
After figuring out that he wasn't fighting the representation of his darkest desires, Evi quickly understood that this might have been a test. If he could rescue Yoze from the clutches of the robber, then he would pass. He would fail the test if he could not stop the robber from killing Yoze or if he was defeated.
"Shit, how do I save, Yoze? As a Super Scholar, what would Yoze do?" Evi thought to himself as he stood a safe distance from the younger robber.
"An ordinary scholar would use their words to deal with the situation while a martial artist would use violence. But as an aspiring Super Scholar myself, these two methods have downsides."
"For my robber to call the other robber his brother means their relationship is deeper than being transactional. This should allow me to have more negotiation power if I capture him!"
"Using a combination of diplomacy and violence is the way of a true Super Scholar!" Evi felt his mind was running hot as he quickly devised a plan and took action.
While the younger robber was still recovering from his crotch punch, Evi quickly threw a hard Spiral Bear Fist to the robber's chest. A heavy thud came from the younger brother's chest as all the air in the younger robber's lungs escaped through his mouth and nose.
"Hey! I told you to stop! Do it or else!" Blood Stepper gritted his teeth hard as he didn't expect Evi to be this strong.
He had thought that as an assistant to Yoze, who seemed to be a martial artist, Evi would not be capable of fighting. But what he regretted the most was that he didn't check if Yoze and Evi were truly asleep.
Blood Stepper initially skipped this portion of their routine due to the worry that this would alert Yoze that something was wrong and lead to them being led into a trap. Who would have thought that they would have run into a trap regardless?
"If you don't stop now, I'll cut his throat! This is your last..." Just as Blood Stepper's last words were about to leave his mouth, they became stuck.
He saw his younger brother's face getting punched after punch, and it almost looked like he was falling directly into Evi's fists. Instead of asking Evi to stop punching his brother, Blood Stepper almost wanted to tell his younger brother to stop eating these punches.
"It couldn't be that hard not to get hit, right?" Blood Stepper mumbled to himself.
After throwing a seven Spiral Koi Fist combo attack, Evi was exhausted, and his body quickly became heavier. After training intensely in a body cultivation method and a martial art technique for a whole day, he had not fully recovered even though he had eaten demon meat.
Luckily, after throwing his seven fists, the younger robber was thoroughly defeated but still alive and breathing. The only thing now was that his face was full of large lumps and bumps that almost looked like tumors.
Knowing that this was his only chance to pass Yoze's test, Evi endured his fatigue, walked behind the younger robber, and took him hostage.
"Let Yoze go! I have a hostage!" Evi screamed.
"You monster! I said I would let your friend go if you didn't attack my brother. Now I don't feel like it." Blood Stepper said cruelly.
Seeing that the situation had turned from bad to worse, Blood Stepper knew he needed to step up his game. In a fight between two monsters, the more ruthless one would win.
So he pressed his knife against Yoze's throat and cut into it. Due to how dark it was, he couldn't see how deep he had cut into Yoze's throat and could only hope that he had cut deep enough to draw blood.
"Hey, calm down, we don't want any trouble. I can see that you two are robbers, and you made us your next targets, which is fine." Evi's eyes flashed as he adjusted his breath to slow his rapidly beating heart.
"We are ordinary scholars trying to get to New Swampscott City to deliver a letter from White Crimson City. Since we are not from around here, we don't care whether you steal from the people or not."
"So as long as you let go of Yoze, I will let go of your brother. Hey, can you talk a bit so that your brother doesn't think you are dead?" Evi said with a stern face as he shook the younger robber awake.
"Ahh, brother, let's do what he says. I don't want to die." The younger brother answered quickly.
Seeing that his younger brother was trembling and his face was heavily damaged, Blood Stepper felt his heart clench with pain. He didn't expect that he would cause his brother so much pain by dragging him into his robberies.
"Fine, but you must let go of my brother first and let him run away for three minutes. After those three minutes have passed, I will let your teacher go."
"Brother..."
"Shut up and just do as I say!" Blood Stepper barked.
"Okay."
Evi smiled as he saw that even though these two brothers were robbing people, they maintained a solid family relationship. But when he remembered that there was most likely blood of the innocent on their hands, he shook his head and wiped away his smile.
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