Yan Fengxian
Wang Mo and Xue Bai had been fighting for almost an hour at this point, and throughout the fight, Xue Bai had constantly been evolving and adapting to both Wang Mo's reckless actions and his much deeper combat experience.
Though young, Wang Mo had been fighting for almost ten years. As a demonic faction, the Wang Clan had the belief that the weak ate the strong. Wang Mo was the grandson of the Grand Elder, yes, but he was not above that standard.
If anything, he was held to a higher standard than his peers.
Should Wang Mo not become the expert that he was born to be, his life would be a living hell. His grandfather would be forced to endure countless suppression, and Wang Mo himself would have his life threatened.
It was almost like the stereotype of a trash being the son of a genius father. Even if the father was the clan's most shining genius so long ago, he wasn't anymore. He no longer had the potential he did in his youth.
Instead, he was supposed to pass the torch onto the next line, and should the next carrier of the torch not be fit to hold it, both generations would burn.
And thankfully, Wang Mo carried the torch well.
Xue Bai knew this, and he wanted to use Wang Mo as a grindstone for his growth. However, now that Xue Bai had become sharper than the grindstone, what purpose did it serve?
Decoration? Xue Bai did not want to keep Wang Mo around as a potted plant.
As such, after realizing that he was now stronger than Wang Mo, he decided it was time to put the boy out of his misery.
Jumping back, Xue Bai brought his Deep Glacier Sword up to his torso and streaked his finger along the blade.
And following his actions, the sword slowly became dyed with a purple hue.
Xue Bai used his space element.
"You've done well to help me out, Wang Mo. As a reward, I'll send you off painlessly." Xue Bai said. And without waiting for Wang Mo to reply, lunged at him once more.
"Huh? You think because you dyed your sword, you have a chance against me?!" Confused and enraged, Wang Mo shouted. He obviously didn't know what Xue Bai did, and instead of knowing the power of the space element that was used in front of him, Wang Mo thought that Xue Bai had just dyed his sword a random color.
Fearless, Wang Mo, like before, met Xue Bai's lunge head-on.
He was starting to get tired, and, at this point, his resolve to kill Xue Bai was only strengthened even more. The more the boy grew, the worse a feeling appeared in his soul.
'He can't leave this secret realm!'
Sadly, unlike the usual clash of swords that happened, something that shook Wang Mo's soul occurred.
Like an iron sword slicing through mud, Xue Bai's Deep Glacier Sword, which was infused with the space element, severed Wang Mo's sword in half without a strand of resistance.
Horrified, Wang Mo tried to jump back and dodge the incoming fatal attack, but Xue Bai wasn't any slower than him.
"Rest forever, demon spawn. Your family won't be too far behind." Xue Bai coldly spoke.
The sword clashed with flesh, and Wang Mo was sliced in two from the breast down.
Feer still in his eyes even after death, Wang Mo's now two parts fell to the ground, staining the lush green forest floor a morbid red.
Xue Bai stared at Wang Mo's carcass for a moment, but even though it was the first time he had killed a person, and he should be distraught, Xue Bai felt nothing but an odd calmness he couldn't explain.
It wasn't a happy calmness as if he were relieved, but instead, a type of calmness one would have when they went through their usual routine.
It was just another walk in the park. So why would there be any emotional fluctuations?
He stayed still for a minute to try and understand why but eventually stopped.
'Maybe the world is slightly changing me.'
Xue Bai wasn't scared of the world turning him into a cold, heartless monster that felt no emotions. He knew himself well. The situation was just odd.
However, after thinking about it, he felt like maybe it was because of a few years of living in this world that he wasn't phased by the killing.
Usually, transmigrators would have to kill someone extremely early on in their new lives and, therefore, would feel grossed out, shaken, or even throw up. But Xue Bai was given almost three years of a grace period to adjust his mentality.
He had seen people be killed before. So maybe it was just a small mentality change he had noticed yet.
Thinking that far, Xue Bai simply shrugged his shoulders at the problem and continued with his plan.
Looking at the small clan of hawks who were still sitting idly a few dozen meters away, Xue Bai simply waved them off.
"You can take your species and leave. I have no more for you to do."
Xue Bai only needed them to kill the Wang Clan members. And now that the job was done, their services were no longer needed.
Eager to leave Xue Bai, the Thunderhawk happily cawed before it spun around, turned into a flash of lightning, and flew off after hearing the order. The rest of its species was confused at first, but they soon followed it back home.
Now alone, Xue Bai went to Wang Mo's body and took its spatial ring.
As the leader and a massively arrogant bastard, Wang Mo held every valuable item the Wang Clan entourage found on his person.
"Oh, he was telling the truth. He did find a middle Yellow-grade spirit fruit." Xue Bai commented as he inspected the ring.
Unlike most natural treasures, spirit fruits were extremely easy to absorb and usually contained little impurities. Because of that, they were highly sought after. Sadly, since it was hard for a normal fruit to evolve into a natural treasure, their ranks were low, almost all entirely being low Yellow-grade.
So the fact that Wang Mo found a middle Yellow-grade one surprised Xue Bai. However, since it was now his own, the surprise turned into happiness.
Other than the middle Yellow-grade spirit fruit, there were almost a dozen low Yellow-grade ones inside, along with a few valuable ores that Wang Mo also found.
Now alone, Xue Bai decided he would do some looting before he left. The secret realm would only close after another six or so hours, and with the spirit fruits he had earned, he planned to hole up and cultivate.
Though he wasn't sure if he could break through again, the progress he would make would not be little.
–
The rest of Xue Bai's time in the secret realm was peaceful. Relying on his overwhelmingly powerful soul and memories, he managed to loot every important spot in the secret realm. And in this process, he found another three middle Yellow-grade spirit fruits and another seven low Yellow-grade ones.
Bringing his total loot gains to 5 middle Yellow and 25 low Yellow-grade spirit fruits from his two separate looting sprees and Wang Mo's Spatial Ring.
After picking the final spirit fruit from his memories, Xue Bai decided that it was time to leave the secret realm.
But there was one problem. The Emperor, Duke Wang, and Duke Yan were outside watching the exit. And knowing their strengths, Xue Bai knew it was almost impossible to slip past them without them noticing.
The cloak that Xue Feng gave to him only worked for those under the Qi Sea stage. But those three were of the strongest in the continent, and it would only take a single sweep of their Spiritual Sense to see who was under it.
Xue Bai also couldn't send a message to his father to help him out.
Secret realms were on a different dimension, separate from the Baishen Plane. And because of that, it was extremely difficult for someone to send a message back to the Baishen Plane.
It wasn't impossible, but the technology required needed someone much stronger than the ones on the Southern Continent.
Only the Central Continent had message slips that could traverse through different dimensions without being destroyed by the void halfway.
This meant that Xue Bai had two options. He could either try and find another exit or hide together with the Yan Clan members.
Though the Duan Imperial Family was allied with his father in the game's plot, it was only because of the threat of the Wang Clan.
Without the considerable threat that made the arrogant Duan Imperial Family lower their heads in weakness and make allies, the clan could have easily been an enemy.
But the Yan Clan was different. Yan Zhenyu and Xue Feng were extremely close to each other. And moreover, Huo Long had a childhood sweetheart in the clan.
Xue Bai didn't think that Huo Long would praise him to the heavens, but he was the protagonist's benefactor. Huo Long's moral compass would ensure that the Yan Clan girl would at least know of his name and the kindness he showed to Huo Long.
If he were able to mix in with the crowd of the Yan Clan members, neither Duan Zhen nor Wang Yichen would bother to look at him.
On Earth, a cloak was definitely something out of the ordinary, but here on the Baishen Plane, it was not only rare for someone to wear but also extremely common.
Perhaps a person was embarrassed about their poor looks, or maybe they wanted to keep a low profile. There were many reasons a person would wear a cloak.
Duan Zhen and Wang YIchen were careful and suspicious individuals, but some random child in a secret realm with only Muscle Nourishing realm youngsters wouldn't warrant a Spiritual Sense sweep.
And even if it were suspicious enough for the two to sweep their Spiritual Sense across the crowd, neither of them would do it. Yan Zhenyu was a patriarch of the second-strongest clan in the Great Xuan Empire. Duan Zhen and Wang Yichen wouldn't disrespect him so blatantly.
They could be suspicious, but they wouldn't offend the man in such a manner for the slightest bit of suspicion.
Moreover, since there wasn't a second exit in the secret realm, Xue Bai eventually decided to find the Yan Clan members. He didn't have much of a choice, though.
Finding the Yan Clan members didn't take long, but now Xue Bai had the problem of how to get to the Young Miss of the Yan Clan without being attacked.
Huo Long's childhood sweetheart was the only daughter of Yan Zhenyu, a pleasant and curious girl named Yan Fengxian. Right now, she wasn't much older than Wang Mo, who Xue Bai had just recently killed, being only 13 years old.
And though she was a year older than Huo Long, it didn't matter much since they were childhood sweethearts.
From what Xue Bai remembered in the game, Yan Fengxian had awakened a peak Yellow-grade set of Martial Vein and had also joined Wushen Academy. There she would fall in love with Huo Long.
But since it was only 972, Xue Bai wasn't sure if she had fallen in love yet. The only thing he was sure of was that the seed of feelings was there.
If Xue Bai remembered correctly, earlier this year, Huo Long had saved her life from a greedy Wushen Academy student who lusted over the Young Duchess. So now Xue Bai only hoped that he could take advantage of that.
Thinking of how to get the girl's attention, Xue Bai suddenly got the perfect plan.
Xue Bai tried his best to act like a teenage girl and ran out shouting, "FengFeng! Oh my heavens, it's so good to see you here!"
Yan Fengxian, hearing someone call her by her nickname, turned around instinctively to see who it was. But she also kept her guard up and stood behind two of her strongest clansmen.
Though she was talented, at 13, she was still only in the middle stages of the Blood Exchange realm, and in case of a sneak attack, she needed to be near them for a chance of survival.
"Fellow Daoist, if you come any closer, I will order my clansmen to attack you! Since you know my nickname, I must know you personally. Can you take down your cloak before we let you get any closer?" Yan Fengxian asked politely.
Though he was annoyed that he didn't get close enough to whisper, Xue Bai planned for something like this.
"I am Brother Huo Long's friend! He told me so much about you." Xue Bai yelled out, pulling out his trump card.
Yan Fengxian was head over heels for the protagonist. And any mention of Huo Long's name, the girl would let her guard down, mainly because of her young and innocent naiveness, but also because not many people knew of her and Huo Long's relationship. Anyone who did could only be a friendly person.
Hearing Huo Long's name, a smile appeared on Yan Fengxian's face, and to Xue Bai's prediction, she let her guard down.
'Anyone who knows our relationship and my nickname should be a friend.' Yan Fengxian inwardly thought as she let Xue Bai come closer.
'Success! Now all I need to do is camouflage with them and escape!' Xue Bai thought excitedly.
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