Xu ZiHuan had always used that kind of arrogant gaze when he looked at Xu ZiJing. He only curbed that expression of his when he saw Xu ZiYan. After all, in Xu family the person with the highest status among their generation was Xu ZiYan and not him. Although he felt unwilling, Xu ZiHuan wasn’t stupid enough to actually show it.
His father had long told him to not limit his view by only looking at the small family of Xu family. Xu ZiYan’s talent was indeed good, but the cultivation world was so large. There wouldn’t be a shortage of people with heavenly spiritual veins, but how many of those were really able to have the last laugh? As long as Xu ZiHuan cultivated well and went to the Liu Guang Sect, his opportunities wouldn’t necessarily be less than Xu ZiYan’s.
“What are you guys doing here?” Xu ZiJing frowned slightly. She really despised Xu ZiHuan’s bossy and arrogant demeanor.
“Nothing, we’re only passing by,” Despite replying, Xu ZiHuan never looked at Xu ZiJing. Instead, his gaze was firmly secured onto Xu ZiYan’s body.
Xu ZiYan’s eyebrow rose but he did not speak. Since he had joined this team, he would comply with the team’s rules. And since everything was to be negotiated by the captain, he naturally wouldn’t take the initiative to talk.
Seeing how Xu ZiYan didn’t speak and how he had instead looked at Xu ZiJing, Xu ZiHuan’s eyebrows wrinkled slightly. “In this team of yours, you actually let a woman become the captain?”
Xu ZiYan shrugged his shoulders. He did not discriminate against women. What was wrong with them? Although the cultivation profession for women may be more difficult, for those clever and famous female cultivators, wasn’t that a powerful role? Xu ZiJing was a good example. In the future she would become a very strong cultivator. Getting onto good terms with her now could also be considered as him scheming for benefits in the future. ╮(╯▽╰)╭
Xu ZiHuan’s frown became tighter as he gave Xu ZiYan a glance that said: your dignity has fallen.
Xu ZiYan pretended he couldn’t see it. This kind of gaze that was neither itchy nor painful wasn’t one he cared about.
The corner of Xu ZiJing’s lips tilted up in an undetectable curve before quickly disappearing as if it had never been there. She coldly stared at Xu ZiHuan. “Do you still have business here?”
Xu ZiHuan’s face looked extremely gloomy. After giving Xu ZiJing a fierce glare, he turned around and left.
The teenage boys and girls in his group looked at each other before quickly following him.
From start to finish, Xu ZiRong had been observing Xu ZiYan’s expressions. He found himself discovering another doubt about Xu ZiYan.
If it was the Xu ZiYan from his last life, he definitely wouldn’t have tolerated the provocative gaze from Xu ZiHuan. It was either this Xu ZiYan had become even more subtle, or……
His expression became a bit gloomy. Xu ZiRong was extremely not used to this feeling where not everything was under his control. Xu ZiYan’s change was really too great, and he no longer knew if his plans could still proceed smoothly.
In his last life, he could cultivate using Blood Sea Heart Sutra under the eyes of Xu family. Other than how the opposite party was confident about how he didn’t have any contact with cultivation, his contempt for him was also a very big reason.
Nobody would have thought that a normally bullied little child would boldly steal chicken from the kitchen in the middle of the night. Later he even dared to risk himself as he quietly snuck into the forest to practice slaughtering spiritual beasts.
This was because, other than getting bullied during the day, nobody worried or cared about him. So Xu ZiRong had a lot of free time for him to use.
But looking at his situation now, Xu ZiYan had practically placed him under his own eyelids. Thus, nowadays nobody dared to bully him. However, it also meant that if he wanted to do something secretly, that would also be quite problematic to accomplish.
Gently rubbing his forehead, Xu ZiRong suppressed the irritability in his heart. Forget it. After all, one could achieve anything with enough effort. In his last life he was able to become a blood devil even though he was bullied into that miserable state. In this life, although he didn’t know Xu ZiYan’s purpose in treating him like this, it was still a huge improvement from before.
“ZiRong, do you have a headache?” Xu ZiYan noticed Xu ZiRong’s action and asked with some concern.
Xu ZiRong paused slightly before he raised his head and smiled. “I’m fine.”
Xu ZiYan saw that Xu ZiRong indeed didn’t look as if he was uncomfortable and thus relaxed. Everyone once again started to hide themselves around the patch of Polarized Grass.
After waiting for some time, this patch of grass didn’t let them down. In total, they hunted four Rock Cats——including the one Xu ZiYan had cooked into charcoal, it could be considered as finishing things as planned.
Out of the four Rock Cats, two of them were hunted by Xu ZiYan. Because he now had the experience of zapping something into charcoal in that first attempt, he adjusted the spiritual energy output the second time and successfully harvested a half-cooked Rock Cat. =.=
For the remaining two Rock Cats, one was captured by Xu ZiJing and the other was finished by Xu ZiXue.
It could be estimated that most if not all of the Rock Cats who lived in this area were all captured by them in one go, so they decided to change locations.
Xu ZiRong followed Xu ZiYan with a smile, but nobody noticed how his palm held a drop of bright red. That droplet of blood rotated in his palm. Threads of red wisps was drawn out before they followed Xu ZiRong’s veins and arteries and entered his body.
After Xu ZiYan slayed the Rock Cat, this drop of essence blood was obtained by him when he took the initiative to ‘collect’ the prey. As long as he was successful in absorbing this drop of essence blood, he would be able to enter the first layer of Qi Condensation Stage.
Perhaps it was because he was very confident that Xu ZiYan wouldn’t let him be harmed, Xu ZiRong felt at ease as he absorbed this essence blood while they walked. As the droplet of blood continuously decreased, the spiritual energy in Xu ZiRong’s dantian grew.
“Be careful,” just when they had all assembled in preparation to leave, Xu ZiLuo suddenly roared loudly. In between them, a dark shadow suddenly jumped out of the grass, pouncing toward the weakest Xu ZiRong.
Xu ZiYan reacted very quickly. Extending his hand, five bolts of purple lightning suddenly shot out. The shadow that had rushed over suddenly released a scream as it twisted in the air in pain. After that, it changed its direction and still pounced toward Xu ZiRong.
Xu ZiYan’s heart was very startled. He was still getting used to using spiritual energy, and so in his moment of desperation just now he had already inputted all the spiritual energy in his body in those 5 bolts of lightning. Now his body was empty of energy and thus it was completely impossible for him to defend Xu ZiRong again.
The colour of Xu ZiRong’s face immediately changed. The shadow that had pounced over had obviously made him its target. In addition, with his current strength, even resisting wasn’t something possible.
That pale grey spiritual beast opened its mouth wide, dirty fluids dripping down from it. It’s scarlet eyes were transfixed on Xu ZiRong’s head, where its two strong forepaws could penetrate Xu ZiRong’s skull at any time.
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Brain-Devouring Rat!
Seeing its face, everyone recognized this extremely frightful spiritual beast.
This spiritual beast was adept at making sneak attacks. It ate brains and the most powerful part of its body were those two front paws. Making a fatal blow, those paws could completely penetrate one’s skull to dig out a brain.
After this Brain-Devouring Rat attacked one must never hesitate to flee. If he managed to catch Xu ZiRong’s head, there wouldn’t be any chance of him surviving.
Splat……
Just when Xu ZiRong thought he had been reborn just to die again here, blood splattered in front of his eyes.
Xu ZiRong’s eyes suddenly became wider as he stared at the Xu ZiYan who stood in front of him to block the attack. The Brain-Devouring Rat’s front paws poked a bloody hole in the other’s shoulder.
“Kill it!” Xu ZiJing yelled loudly as she, Xu ZiXue and Xu ZiLuo all released their attacks.
That Brain-Devouring Rat was already half-dead because of Xu ZiYan’s lightning bolts. After being surrounded by Xu ZiJing and the other two, it quickly died.
Meanwhile, Xu ZiRong stared in disbelief at the Xu ZiYan who, though his face was twisted because of his pain, still squeezed out an ugly smile. “What’s wrong? ZiRong is fine, right?”
“Why……” Xu ZiRong’s lips moved. His mind was now completely messed up, making it impossible for him to think.
Why did Xu ZiYan save him? He couldn’t understand, he completely couldn’t understand!
“Hiss……” Xu ZiYan inhaled, completely not noticing what Xu ZiRong had said. Although he had long anticipated the cruelty of the cultivation world, his first injury was actually this severe. It really exceeded his expectations.
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He also knew that at this moment he surely cut an extremely sorry figure. Even without further examinations, just looking at the Xu ZiRong who was scared speechless told him all he needed to know.
That Brain-Devouring Rat had penetrated his shoulder and his blood had splattered all over Xu ZiRong’s face. It probably scared the child to death.
“Don’t be afraid ZiRong, big brother is completely fine,” he tried extremely hard to use a gentle tone to comfort Xu ZiRong, though unfortunately the effect wasn’t that good. After all, his shoulder was still bleeding so those words probably didn’t seem so convincing.
Xu ZiRong couldn’t help but tremble. He stared at that Xu ZiYan who, though his face was twisted due to pain, was still trying to comfort him and felt unexplainably excited.
He did not know where that excitement came from and only stuck out his tongue to taste the blood by the corner of his lips. Warm but with a metallic sweet taste……delicious……something coveted……
A hint of blood-red appeared in Xu ZiRong’s pupils, something that looked both strange and fascinating.
Xu ZiYan really didn’t devote any energy to notice how his precious baby brother’s eyes had changed colour. Forgive him, this person who lived under China’s flag and never suffered such a heavy injury. Even if a cultivator’s body was levels tougher than a normal person’s, getting a hole poked into his shoulder still hurt like crazy alright……
Xu ZiYan’s shoulder injury and how his body was completely empty of spiritual energy made him uncomfortable to death. However, he still had to maintain the image of an elder brother, so he could only withstand the pain as he pulled aside the Xu ZiRong who had sat onto the ground.
The other party kept behaving as if he had suffered an extreme shock. Xu ZiYan could only hug him as he stroked his back, trying his best to comfort this ‘scared to death’ child.
Xu ZiRong only obediently laid in Xu ZiYan’s lap, his long eyelashes covering all the expressions in his eyes.
In fact, he felt a bit ridiculous. This was because that hand gently caressing his back was awkward to the point others couldn’t bear to watch it, but the warmth it imparted made Xu ZiRong hate to refuse it.
Xu ZiYan’s injury wasn’t light and his shoulder was still bleeding. It could be said that the most fitting thing he should do right now was to take out the medicine from his interspatial bag to treat his injury……instead of stupidly trying to coax a child.