"What is he doing?"
"Does he want to fight that monster bare-handed?"
"Probably… I don't think we should mess with them. This guy is a genius with Black Talent. He definitely belongs to a powerful clan."
"Don't worry, after this fight, he will be either exhausted or dead, so he doesn't stand a chance against us. And those ladies that came with him doesn't look powerful. I bet they are only his female servants."
"Well, it would be a shame to miss a berserk Metal Bear Spirit Artefact, so I'm down, but if it gets dangerous, we run."
"Alright, but wouldn't be a shame not to play with such beauties? Let's kill the guy first then we can enjoy both the Artefact and the ladies."
"Hehe."
While Xuefeng was fighting, two guys in black cloaks were planning their robbery watching secretly from the shadows. They heard the sounds of the battle and sneaked to watch what was happening. Seeing a potential loot for plundering they couldn't resist it.
'We don't have much Lightning Qi, so you only have one chance. We need to save some of it for your cultivation. You will be using Thunder Fist Spirit Art as it requires the least amount. When the bear jumps after its charge, you will pierce its heart with one strike. Lightning Qi Arts are much stronger than the Serpent Arts I messily created earlier, so you don't need to worry about its power.' Ling explained the plan.
While Xuefeng was recalling the Spirit Art Ling inscribed into his mind earlier, the Metal Bear has finished healing itself and started charging at him once again. It was quite pissed, it had to use its berserk ability which can only be used once a month and also leave a bunch of after-effects that are harmful to the body.
Now that its body was strengthened, it wasn't scared of this human tricks. The bear decided to use its ultimate strike by jumping on its prey, using its weight to pin Xuefeng to the ground before ripping him into shreds.
The bear thought that Xuefeng was scared and didn't move because of that, but just as it jumped into the sky with huge momentum, Xuefeng right hand emitted multiple white lights that looked like miniature lightning bolts.
Xuefeng dashed forward placing himself beneath its landing spot and striking a little further than the spot in between its front legs. That was the place its lungs and heart were supposed to be.
The bear couldn't fix his position mid-air and impaled itself on Xuefeng. Lightning Qi cut through Metal Bear skin and muscles with ease, creating a hole right through its chest.
"Thump" Metal Bear corpse dropped to the ground with Xuefeng upper body sticking out of its back. When he got out of the hole, he was red all over his body.
'Good job, now collect the Spirit Artefact.' Ling complimented him.
Xuefeng looked towards the bear's head and saw a red crystal hovering above it. He approached and grabbed it into his palms. It was as big as the centre of the hand and warm to the touch. He didn't think more before putting it into his dantian.
'It's a Berserk Crystal after you activate it, you will multiply your physical strength by a few times and you will regenerate your injuries even without my Fate Qi but obviously, it will take much longer. The power-up will last for a few minutes before you get hit by after-effects, but I can easily fix those. It also needs about a week to regenerate. Decent Spirit Artefact.' Ling introduced the Berserk crystal to him.
'Nice, quite good for my first loot.' Xuefeng was pleased with his first fight. Although it was pretty dangerous, he improved quite a bit today.
"Go clean yourself before you come closer to us. You stink." Xiao Wen blocked her nose and commented looking at him up and down. Even Wuying nodded. She already calmed down seeing Xuefeng was alright after this intense fight.
"Right, be right back." He was covered in bears blood with all his intestines, it was obvious he would stink.
While he was jumping into the lake, the ladies looked at each other with a face asking 'Are you going or me?'
"Hah, okay, you take care of the bear and I will put down the rats." Xiao Wen laughed and disappeared from where she stood.
"Brother, why didn't you go out?" The shorter guy asked with his voice shaking.
"I was about to ask the same question. What about our plan?" His brother answered also panicking.
"Screw the plan! Did you see how he killed that bear? He went right through it making a hole through its chest. I'm not going to mess with the guy like that." The image of Xuefeng's body all red from blood was still in his mind.
"I agree, we should find a weaker target for our next robberies." They nodded at each other and turned around to run away, but then froze. The pretty servant girl which stood by the lake a second ago was now behind them.
"Oh, so you planned to rob us?" Xiao Wen smiled devilishly and asked.
The brothers looked at each other and cried "Disperse!" before dashing towards the forest splitting into two directions.
"Eh, I was itching for a fight since I came here. Why did they decide to run? Well, I guess hunting might be a nice change of pace." Xiao Wen sighed and followed one of the brothers.
They decided to escape because they didn't even realise she appeared behind them. They trained their Spirit Awareness from young, so if anyone can sneak behind them, that person was definitely stronger than them.
The shorter guy was urging his Movement art to the limits running through the forest when he heard his brother blood freezing cry. He didn't stop running cause he knew his brother is already dead.
'She already got him, I can't run away from her, I need to hide, I need to hide.' He started panicking and looking for a place to hide. After few hundred meters he saw a hole in an old tree, which made him brim with happiness.
Just as he was about to enter it, he heard a female voice behind him, "If you don't want to die, you must fight."
He turned around and saw Xiao Wen slowly approaching him like a demon from the abyss, her hand was dripping with blood.
"No, please don't kill me, please don't kill me." The man mind crumbled watching his brother blood on her fist. He dropped to the ground and begged for mercy.
"I'm disappointed. I don't like killing without fighting, but you gave me no choice." She shook her head and pointed her hand toward the kneeling man.
A black fireball started forming in her palm before it launched on the man's body. With a loud explosion, his body was blown to bits and his remains burned to ashes. He didn't even let out a scream of pain. She didn't bother to search their bodies as she didn't think anything they had anything that could be interesting to her.
After burning the man, the flames flew back into her body without leaving any traces left in the surroundings and she returned to the lake.