"Crown Prince, this forest is so huge, do you expect us to find him in such a space?" A handsome young man in the elegant robes asked annoyed. Crown Prince gathered Young Masters from various clans in the capital and they set off to finish one guy somewhere in the Moon Lake forest.
At first, they didn't agree, but he proposed them many benefits, leaving them with no choice but to accept.
They already arrived here 30 minutes ago but all they met were endless beasts which they had to defeat if they wanted to proceed forward. Some of them were injured cause they just thought with a fierce Rank 4 Spirit Beasts. Even with 11 people, it was hard to take it down.
"Yeah, Crown Prince, we wasted so much energy just to kill that Giant Centipede. Who knows how many Spirit Beasts we will meet before we find that guy." Another Young master complained. They were used to easy life but now they had to fight in the forest thousands Li away from the capital.
"To think that I could enjoy my new concubine in the hot bathtub right now while sucking on her ample…" "Enough!" Crown Prince couldn't stand anymore when the next Young Master started to mutter under his nose and shut them up.
"If you don't want to stay with us, you can go back to the capital, but you will not be getting that Spirit Artefact you wanted." Zhen Ping was already getting irritated, so he gave them the choice. To be honest, he arrived here without any plans, hoping he will somehow meet Liu Xuefeng and manage to beat him up.
But after half an hour, all they met were Spirit Beast that kind of wore them down a bit.
"Let's wait here for a bit and regenerate our Spirit Qi. We can't delve deeper without sufficient preparation." Crown Prince stopped their advance in one of the openings in the forest and forced everyone to recuperate.
'I guess it's time.' Ling was observing all of their movements from the moment they arrived in the forest. She was luring powerful Rank 4 beasts towards their direction so she can weaken their morale and strength. Now she wanted to lure them with Xuefeng body towards the other parts of the forest.
If they followed the current path, they would soon hear the noises from the Nightmare den and she didn't want that. Before they started to regenerate their Spirit Qi, Ling jumped out of her hideout and showed a surprised expression seeing them.
"Hey! What are you doing here, prince?" She greeted and asked in Xuefeng voice.
"What?" The group of young masters was quite dumbfounded seeing someone appearing out of nowhere in front of them without them realising.
"Liu Xuefeng!" Crown Prince cried out in anger seeing Xuefeng face. He was also quite surprised noticing how much Xuefeng changed in such a short time. His muscles were much more visible under his clothes, his shoulders were broader and his chest fuller. Even his face was more handsome than it was during the Spirit Awakening Ceremony.
It was all thanks to Ling Fate Qi nutritious regeneration ability. As Ling was creating clones of Xuefeng, she was copying his current look, so the changes Crown Prince noticed were real.
"I have finally found you!" Crown Prince grinned as he gave a hand signal to the others in his group to surround him. He planned to beat him up first before asking what he did to Princess Shan that made her throw away her veil for him.
His lackeys knew that sign to heart as this was not the first time they were doing this. They moved quickly trying to encircle Xuefeng but Ling didn't let them. She jumped backwards and started running away.
"Catch him!" Crown Prince was determined to chase Xuefeng and he moved in pursuit. The others were happy that they finally found their goal for their expedition and chased after him.
Ling planned to lure them far away, but because her Spirit Qi was insufficient, after about 5 minutes of intense chasing they finally caught up to her. They blocked her possible escape routes, trapping her in one position.
"Haha, I finally caught you rat. You thought you can run away from me?" Crown Prince approached Xuefeng clone waiting for him to fall into desperation but Xuefeng stood in the middle of their encirclement calmly, without any emotions Crown Prince expected.
"What? You are too scared to talk? You think you can just take someone else's possession and get away with it?" Crown Prince thought he was just dumbfounded from the situation so he stopped carrying. He approached Xuefeng ranting his mouth at him.
"Kneel down and apologize!" Crown Prince pulled out his treasured sword and commanded as he aimed it towards Xuefeng's heart.
"Hehe, you better kneel down brat, who asked you to anger our Crown Prince."
"Yeah, who gave you the guts to steal Crown Prince's woman. You must be courting death."
"To think trash like you can call himself a Young master like us, disgusting."
Crown Prince Lackeys started to insult Xuefeng just like they always did. If they knew that the person who they were insulting had a black talent they would think twice before coming here. All they knew was what Crown Prince told them.
Hearing to all the insults, Xuefeng smiled coldly, then looked with disgust towards the Crown Prince.
He was surprised to see Xuefeng first response to be a smile. He wanted to see his enemies beg for mercy. He liked to feel he has power over someone's life and death.
Just as he was about to vent his anger, Xuefeng suddenly pushed forward and the sword Crown Prince was holding went right through Xuefeng chest.
Everyone gathered around them, gasped, holding their breaths, seeing the situation. They didn't know Crown Prince would instantly go for the kill.
"Why did you kill him so fast?!" They were hoping that everything will end up on the beating and they would be done. They didn't want to be responsible for a murder and risk getting hunted by Xuefeng's relatives.
"I-I didn't! It was him…" Crown Prince panicked from Xuefeng sudden move. From the shock, he wanted to let go of the sword but he realised he couldn't. He looked at his hand and saw it was tightly held by Xuefeng arms.
"Heh, did you enjoy talking to my clone?" Xuefeng asked with a sneaky smile of his face. In the next second, his body started to swell and before the others could react exploded.
Crown Prince was blown back, flying tens of meters in the air, only stopping with a crash on a wide tree. He was covered by the white Qi barrier but still spat blood from his mouth from the impact. The crystal on his necklace cracked and soon turned into powder. It was his life-saving Spirit Artefact that would generate a barrier if his life was endangered.
His lackeys were also pushed back but their injuries weren't that severe as they were a few meters away from the explosion.
"Fucking bastard." Crown Prince cursed. How could he get tricked by that? When he stood up he suddenly felt a spring of pain coming from his arm. He looked at it and saw it was charred black. His hand was the closest to the explosion and the barrier activated too late.
"Aaaaaaaaargh…" Crown Prince cried from pain as he gritted with his teeth. He pulled out his best healing pill and swallowed it with the blood leftovers he had in his mouth. His hand started to heal, but the pain was unbearable.
"I will fucking kill this bitch! Find him! Now! He has to be near if he manipulated the clone!" He shouted towards his Lackeys with his eyes red. He also released his Spirit Awareness into his surroundings and soon found Xuefeng running away from them.
"I found him! Follow me!" He pushed the pain away, picked his sword which was also blown away but still in one piece, and chased after Xuefeng.
'These cultivators are too easy to trick.' Ling thought as she watched them doing exactly what she wanted.