There are three forest towns on the outskirts of Qihua Forest that are no less impressive than metropolitan cities on the plains. The first is Tilie Woer Town, which is located near the eastern border of the Huanabang Principality. It is known for its production of rare and exotic flowers and has a population of about 30,000. It belongs to the jurisdiction of the Huanabang Principality, but there is no security unit stationed there, so it remains an independent town.
The second town is Shao Shu Dai Ti Town, located 20 kilometers north of Tilie Woer Town. It is known as the "Town of Fine Wine" and uses the many delicious fresh fruits from Qihua Forest to produce aromatic and delicious wines. It is a favorite of wine lovers throughout the Qiwu continent and has a population of nearly 50,000. It is located at the northernmost point of Qihua Forest and is a member town of the Qilanlou League. However, insiders know that Shao Shu Dai Ti Town is also the largest smuggling center in the continent, so it is also known as the "Town of Smuggling."
The third and final major town is a military town belonging to the Tailong Empire, located on the west side of Qihua Forest and nicknamed "Dragon Blade." It has a population of nearly 70,000, of which 30,000 are the regular troops of the Tailong Empire, who are responsible for maintaining the security of the border between the Tailong Empire and the Huanabang Principality and the Qilanlou League.
Now is the beginning of the busiest time of the day in Shao Shu Dai Ti Town, known for its fine wine. As a town famous for its wine, it naturally has no shortage of taverns, bars, and hotels that cater to the wine industry.
Qingbi Tavern is a well-known establishment in Shao Shu Dai Ti Town, named after a unique green-colored wine made from a special type of bellflower that only ripens once every three years in Qihua Forest. Like the wine, the tavern has a light and lingering fragrance, a rich and elegant taste, and a clear and translucent color that leaves a lasting impression on those who taste it.
The tavern is built with fragrant wood from Qihua Forest and has three floors, each covering an area of over a hundred square meters. The decor is simple and elegant, and the service is warm and courteous, making every customer feel at home. Therefore, Qingbi Tavern is one of the four largest taverns in Shao Shu Dai Ti Town and the oldest, with a history of over a hundred years.
At this moment when the lanterns were lit up, the Qingbi Tavern was as crowded as usual.
On the third floor of the Qingbi Tavern, there was a dedicated area for wine tasting. Unlike the noisy first and second floors, the third floor was filled with more refined wine connoisseurs. Although they may talk in a pretentious manner, it was indeed much quieter than the lower floors.
However, at this moment, the previously pretentious wine connoisseurs suddenly became strangely quiet, and all of them focused their attention on the stairs leading up to the third floor.
At the stairs, a charming and beautiful female server walked up, and someone asked her if there was anything worth seeing. Every female server in the Qingbi Tavern was charming and beautiful, but everyone was used to it. Moreover, this female server was not the most attractive one in the tavern. So why did everyone turn their heads to the stairs?
The answer was soon revealed as a person followed the female server.
In the eyes of the crowd, that person was very peculiar and strange, appeared to be around twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, dressed in a dark brown adventurer's robe commonly worn by adventurers, and his whole body, including his hands and feet, was hidden in a large cloak except for his head. Despite his young age, he had snow-white long hair that even an old man in his seventies or eighties might not have. His completely white hair was casually tied behind his head with a white hairpin, while the rest of his long hair flowed over his shoulders and back. Beside him was a tall magical beast that reached the strange man's waist. Judging from its appearance, it was a wolf-like magical beast.
After this man and beast ascended to the third floor, the female server leading the way said in a coquettish voice, "Mr. Yawen Long, do you want your usual spot?"
Needless to say, this person was Yawen, who had come out of the Qinglan Realm a month ago. The magical beast beside him was his magical beast, Greedy Wolf Star. However, to avoid attracting attention, he had disguised himself as a woman and called himself Yawen Long.
Ignoring the attention of the people upstairs, Yawen said to the female server, "As usual!"
He then sat alone in a dark corner of the third floor where the light did not reach, at a shadowy seat by the window. Greedy Wolf Star obediently lay at his feet.
The female server smiled and turned to go downstairs. Less than a minute later, she came up again, holding a tray with a one-liter wine bottle and a small wine glass on it. She placed the wine on Yawen's table and poured him a full glass. Yawen quickly drank it and the female server immediately refilled his glass.
After finishing the glass, Yawen turned his head to look outside the window. After a while, he turned his head to see the female server standing next to him, looking at him with an infatuated gaze. Yawen frowned and sighed, "You don't need to serve me here, you can leave!"
The female server responded with disappointment, took one last longing look at him before turning around and heading downstairs with the plate in her hand.
Undeniably, Yawen possessed an irresistible charm that attracted young girls, inherited from his mother's beauty and father's handsomeness. What's more, his current appearance, devoid of the usual frivolousness of a typical young man in his twenties, exuded a calmness that came with age. With his strikingly handsome face and head full of white hair, Yawen's composed demeanor unknowingly emitted a peculiar charm that left all the female servers in Qingbi Tavern dizzy with infatuation, completely unaware that Yawen was only eighteen years old.
Upon witnessing this situation, one customer couldn't help but sourly comment, "Really, a white-haired young man is causing all these female servers to act this way. Are they bewitched?"
His friend quickly shushed him and reminded him of what happened half a month ago, warning him not to provoke trouble.
The customer snapped out of his trance and immediately lowered his head, silent.
However, how could Yawen, with his refined cultivation, not hear these words? He simply ignored them, turned his head to look out the window, and as Yawen gazed outside, the once silent third floor of the tavern became lively again. The customers resumed their conversations, inevitably mentioning the chilling incident that had occurred half a month ago.
Among them were three friends, all in their late twenties, drinking together at the same table, facing Yawen. Two of them had been stealing glances at him since he walked upstairs, looking nervous and fearful. Even their usually daring friend, upon hearing the vague mention of the incident half a month ago, fell silent, something they had never seen before. Curious, they asked what had happened.
Another friend, who was trying to prevent his friend from blabbering, cast a quick glance at Yawen, who seemed to have not noticed them. Only then did he quietly recount what had happened half a month ago.
It turned out that Yawen had been lost in the Qihua Forest for half a month due to his prolonged stay in Qinglan Realm, forgetting the way back to the kingdom. He eventually stumbled upon Shao Shu Dai Ti town, which was the opposite direction of the kingdom. When he entered the town on that day, it was already the same time as now. Yawen had been surviving on fruit for the past seven or eight days, starving and desperate, so his first priority was to find a place to eat. He chose Qingbi Tavern.
As he ordered a pile of food and was about to indulge in a feast, a sudden scream rang out, and a petite figure rushed towards him. With quick reflexes, Yawen dodged the figure, avoiding any harm.
When he regained his focus, he realized that the figure in front of him was actually a female server from the restaurant. For some reason, she was panicked and stumbled towards him, knocking over his neighbor's table in the process. As a result, his neighbor's dinner was all over the floor.
Yawen looked regretfully at his own dinner and then up at the seven or eight burly men at the neighboring table. The apparent leader of the group sniffed his hand and commented on the waitress's breasts while his companions laughed obscenely.
Feeling disgusted, Yawen turned away from the commotion and headed towards another table. He didn't want to get involved in these kinds of situations, especially after his past experiences during his time on the run.
Little did he know that his brief interaction with the waitress would bring trouble his way. As he turned towards the other table, he felt a sudden gust of wind behind him. Instinctively, Yawen dodged to the side and spun around, elbowing his attacker in the back and knocking him to the ground.
Upon seeing it, Yawending realized that it was the leader of the group who had attacked him. Although he didn't understand why the man had ambushed him, he knew that trouble was coming and that he couldn't avoid it.
Sure enough, the man's companions turned pale when they saw their leader lying on the ground, knocked down by Yawending. One of them exclaimed, "Wow, he's actually pretty good! No wonder he dared to disturb us while we were having fun. Brothers, let's kill this guy who doesn't know any better!"
Yawending was silently aggrieved. When did he ever disturb them?
But regardless of his grievances, when he saw seven or eight people taking out small sharp knives and looking like they really wanted to kill him, he couldn't help but unleash the pent-up killing intent in his heart. With a low shout, he extended his hands and curved his five fingers like tiger claws. With lightning-fast movements, he charged towards the menacing group.
The big men didn't know that their death was imminent, and they still called out to Yawending recklessly. As expected, their size and large numbers in the past were no match for Yawending, who had been battle-hardened. Yawending's sharp claws took out the big men one by one.
Yawending's claws were unstoppable, and the big men were no match for him. Once Yawending's claws touched them, their legs were broken and their arms were shattered. Before they could catch their breath ten times, the fight was over. Including the leader, all of them were rendered combat ineffective by Yawending's strikes.
Fortunately, Yawending showed mercy and didn't cause any major trouble. He only broke their hands and feet, but even that was enough to make onlookers shiver, because Yawending's decisive and efficient methods during the fight, and his indifferent expression after the fight, showed that breaking these people's hands and feet was no different for him than pulling out weeds.
In the end, the owner of the Qingbi Inn stepped forward and paid for a doctor to treat the injuries of the group of people, and then sent them away, finally ending the farce. As for Yawen, she was naturally treated as a benefactor and VIP by the owner and was allowed to stay in the hotel rooms behind the inn for free.
Initially, Yawen did not want to stay, but later on, due to the sincere and earnest attitude of the owner's insistence, she decided to stay. At least that was how others saw it.
Yawen leaned against the window and secretly yawned as she overheard the table opposite discussing her situation from half a month ago. This was already the umpteenth time she had heard someone talking about her in the past half month.
In the eyes of others, Yawen stayed because of the sincerity of the owner, but the real reason was known only to herself. Yawen did stay because of the owner, but not to make him feel grateful as outsiders thought. The main reason was that the owner had aroused her curiosity.
Generally speaking, if it were an ordinary shop owner, they would want troublemakers to leave as soon as possible, and the farther away the better. But the owner of the Qingbi Inn was the opposite. Not only did he ask Yawen to stay, but he also provided her with a free seat on the third floor of the inn, and free food and drink every day, as if he was proud to announce to the world that Yawen was still in his inn. Wasn't he afraid of those big guys coming for revenge?
This was a big contradiction with the principle of being kind and courteous to customers to make money.
Yawen was very curious about this and didn't know what kind of medicine the owner was selling. Thus, she followed his lead and stayed. Moreover, after observing in secret for these few days, Yawen found that the owner was also observing her, and she also discovered that the owner was a martial artist with remarkable skills, and his cultivation level was not weak.
After spending half a month together, Yawen realized that the boss did not seem to harbor any hostility towards him, so he stopped secretly investigating him. Although it seemed like a waste of time for Yawen to spend half a month in this tavern with a stranger who had no ill intentions towards him, he gained two things.
The first was that Yawen realized that this tavern, with its mix of people and snakes, was actually a great place to gather information. Under the influence of alcohol, many things that are usually unsaid or cannot be said are all spoken out. With unintentional words and attentive listeners, Yawen unexpectedly learned a lot of information, which made up for his detachment from many things in the continent during his two years of hiding.
The other thing was that he finally confirmed that even if he returned to the kingdom now, no one would recognize him as Yawen Stark unless he revealed his identity. On the bulletin board next to him, there was a wanted poster with a reward, but no one associated him with the Stark family, who were at the top of the wanted list. This made him very relieved.
These two reasons were why he came to sit here every day for the past half month. However, today he thought it was time to leave. Just as he was about to call for the service to invite the boss to say goodbye, he saw a person with a body twice the size of an ordinary person walking towards him. It was none other than the owner of Qingbi Tavern, Xiangchuan Dian!
As the saying goes, nothing happens without cause. Xiangchuan rarely appeared in the tavern at this time, and it seemed that he was coming towards Yawen. Yawen frowned, feeling a bit of a bad premonition.
Xiangchuan walked up to Yawen's table and sat down in front of him, laughing, "Lao Yawen, I wonder if you have been satisfied with the service at our tavern for the past half month?"
Yawen smirked and said, "Boss Dian, you came at just the right time. I wanted to say goodbye to you."
Xiangchuan was taken aback and asked, "Why do you want to leave now? Is there something you're not satisfied with? Please tell me what it is, and I will make sure to improve it."
Yawen shook her head and said, "Boss, you got it wrong. Your hospitality made me feel at home, and it's definitely not what you think. It's just that I have been staying here for half a month, and if I continue to stay, I will feel embarrassed. Besides, I have things to take care of, and I have to leave. I thank you for your hospitality."
Xiangchuan chuckled and said, "That's good then."
Yawen smiled slightly and asked, "Boss Di'an, is there something you want to tell me since you came to find me?"
Hearing this, Xiangchuan's smile disappeared, and he lowered his voice, pretending to be mysterious, "Well, there's something I wanted to tell you, but since you're leaving, it probably won't affect you."
Yawen was curious about Xiangchuan's mysterious attitude and asked, "Boss, please tell me what it is."
Xiangchuan whispered, "Here's the thing. I received news that the group of people you injured half a month ago belongs to a third-rate gang in this town. The leader of the group is the third in command of the gang. After they were injured by you, they went back and complained, and the boss and the second in command of the gang vowed to avenge you. I don't know why it was delayed, but I received news that they will retaliate against you in the next few days."
"Since this matter started because of our store and concerns your safety, I rushed to inform you."
Yawen was surprised, but then she smiled and said, "Boss, don't worry. I'm leaving tomorrow, and I may or may not come back in the future. They won't be able to find me, so there won't be any trouble. But what about your store? Will you have any trouble after I leave?"
Xiangchuan laughed and said, "To be honest, our small store has survived for over a hundred years in this environment, so we have some ability to protect ourselves. You don't have to worry."
With a smile on her face, Yawen was about to say something when suddenly a loud and chaotic noise came from outside the window. It was clear that many people were shouting and screaming.
Yawen and Xiangchuan were taken aback and turned to look out the window. They saw that the tavern was surrounded by nearly a hundred people dressed in blue clothes, but they didn't know when this had happened.
Xiangchuan panicked and said, "Oh no, I didn't expect them to move so quickly. Brother, you go out from the back, and I'll try to stall for time."
Although his words were urgent, Yawen could see a hint of amusement in Xiangchuan's eyes, as if he was looking forward to watching a good show. Of course, Xiangchuan disguised it well, but Yawen could tell from his experienced eyes.
Yawen said playfully, "Boss, don't worry. Since they have come to us, it would be impolite for me to just leave like this. Let me go down and talk to them."
Xiangchuan was stunned. He didn't expect Yawen to say something like that.
In front of them, there were hundreds of people surrounding the tavern, and even if Yawen was powerful, he would still have a hard time fighting against four hands with two fists. Why was he so confident? Moreover, when Yawen said he wanted to talk to them, Xiangchuan felt a chill on his back for some reason.
Suddenly, a man in his thirties, with a face full of flesh and a burly figure, walked out of the crowd outside the window. He had a loud voice and said, "The Qingyi Gang has some business to attend to here. Please leave, my friends, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused."
After he finished speaking, he bowed to the surrounding area. When people heard what he said, most of the timid guests fled in a hurry, but a few brave ones stood around to watch the show.
The man named Dage didn't pay attention to them and continued in a loud voice, "Yawen Long, I'm here today to thank you for your care for my third brother a few days ago. Please come out and talk to me."
Hearing Dage call his name, Yawen shrugged and said, "It's my turn to go on stage."
After saying that, he ignored Xiangchuan, called his partner, the Greedy Wolf Star, and both of them went downstairs. As they passed through the first and second floors, Yawen noticed that almost everyone had fled, but there were still three people wearing black cloaks sitting by the window on the second floor, watching the scene below.
As Yaping came down from the third floor, one of the people in the middle nodded to him. Although Yaping was a bit confused, he still returned the greeting as a way of saying hello. Yaping then walked out of the tavern and stood five meters away from Geda.
When Geda saw Yaping, his strange cow-like eyes rolled over and he looked Yaping up and down. He said in a rough voice, "You're Yaping Long, the one who broke my third brother's right leg?"
Yaping shrugged and nodded in response.
Geda shook his head disdainfully and said, "Just based on you, a skinny guy who looks like he's starving?"
Indeed, at 180 cm tall, Yaping's skinny and tall physique looked very small compared to Geda's nearly two-meter tall, bull-like muscular body. From appearances alone, it was hard to believe that Yaping could take down Geda's third brother who was of the same size and stature as Geda himself.
Geda turned around and shouted, "Someone come out and try him!"
Immediately, a young man of about the same height as Yaping, around thirty years old, stepped forward from the group surrounding Yaping. He brandished his long ruler-like machete and said, "Boss, let me, Ug, try his skills?"
Geda nodded and said, "Kid, let's see how many moves you can make against our seventh strongest, Ug."
Before Yaping could speak, Geda stepped back and Ug swung his machete without hesitation, slashing towards Yaping's chest.
Yaping sighed inwardly. Ug's attack was full of flaws and his strength was unstable. In a life-or-death battle, Yaping had at least twenty ways to kill him with one blow. However, this was not a real fight, and Yaping did not want to draw blood right away. He was momentarily unsure how to proceed, so he simply took a step back to avoid Ug's attack for the time being.
Seeing Yaping retreat, the onlookers cheered. Ug became even more excited and swung his machete even harder. However, after twenty or so slashes, Ug's machete failed to hit Yaping even once, and couldn't even touch a single hair on Yaping's body.
At this point, even the most shortsighted person could tell that Yaping was only holding back and not retaliating, but it didn't mean he lacked the strength to do so. Otherwise, how could Ug's intricate and fast machete movements (at least in the eyes of others) not even touch a single hair on Yaping's body?
Yaping dodged Ug's thirty-first strike, seized the opportunity, and stretched out his right hand to take away Ug's machete.
Ug, now disarmed, was stunned. Just a second ago, he was using his machete to force Yaping to dodge left and right, but now, in the blink of an eye, his machete was gone and in Yaping's hand?
Utterly bewildered, Ug stood motionless in front of Yaping, not knowing whether to fight back or not.
Upon seeing this, Dage stepped forward and shouted, "Why are you still standing there? Do you want to die standing up?"
Wugao, as if just waking from a dream, awkwardly retreated back into the crowd.
Dage glared at Yabin and said in a harsh voice, "I didn't expect you to hide your true self."
As he spoke, Dage made a strange gesture with his hands, which were burdened by the scars he had suffered. In the crowd, a thin man saw this gesture and immediately pulled out a delicate crossbow from his pocket, aiming it at Yabin. The three ten-centimeter short arrows on the crossbow emitted a strange green glow, indicating that they were coated with deadly poison.
The man flicked his finger, and the crossbow's spring moved, ready to shoot the arrows. However, he forgot one thing, one thing that would cause him to suffer.
Just as he aimed the crossbow at Yabin and pulled the trigger, he heard a low growl beside him.
In an instant, the man felt a sharp pain in his wrist holding the crossbow, and the weapon fell to the ground. The three short arrows he had shot hit his own thigh, causing excruciating pain.
Then, a silver shadow flashed, and he felt a severe pain and a powerful force. He was lifted off the ground and landed between Yabin and Dage. At that moment, he finally saw a giant silver wolf biting his right shoulder. The man vaguely remembered that this silver wolf was the same one that had walked out of the tavern with Yabin.
The intense pain made him scream uncontrollably, "Help me, boss!"
Yabin had intended to find a peaceful resolution with Dage, but suddenly, a person was bitten by the Silver Wolf Star. Yabin, with his sharp eyesight, immediately noticed that the man had three green short arrows on his thigh. Combined with the mental connection with the Silver Wolf Star, Yabin knew that something had happened.
In his heart, he secretly rejoiced that he habitually assigned the Greedy Wolf Star as his alert, and did not underestimate the opponent just because they were a group of street ruffians, thus avoiding this disaster.
On the other hand, Dage's despicable means aroused Yaping's anger, just because he used such means to try to kill someone in a conflict.
The killing intent that had been silent for a year began to ignite in Yaping's heart again.
Seeing Dage exposed, he was secretly surprised. He really didn't expect that this silver giant wolf could be so supernatural and could expose his plan. At this point, there was nothing left to say. He waved his hand and shouted, "Brothers, attack and dismember this guy."
Many people yelled "Armored Transformation" at the same time. Among the nearly 100 people on the scene, half of them had special combat beast phantom armors, especially Dage himself, who had a Canter (ox) series phantom beast armor based on the intermediate fifth-order earth attribute.
The first step was to ambush and use hidden weapons to poison, and the second step was to bury the opponent with a large number of people. These two steps had indeed helped him defeat many real masters in the past, but now they didn't work on Yaping.
Just as Dage and the others were about to rush up, suddenly, everyone seemed to feel a chill, causing everyone to involuntarily stop moving.
At this moment, Yaping, who had been looking down to check the attacker, suddenly looked up at Dage.
Seeing Yaping's appearance, even Dage, who was fearless, couldn't help taking a deep breath.
I saw Yaping's eyes shining with a golden and silver light, left gold and right silver. A extremely cold and suffocating aura emanated from Yaping's body, causing everyone present to involuntarily take a step back.
At this time, among the three black-clad men on the second floor looking down, the one who had greeted Yaping couldn't see the demonic eyes shining in Yaping's eyes due to the angle, but he couldn't help but shiver and muttered, "Such a heavy killing intent! Who is this white-haired young man? These fools have really hit the iron plate this time."
At this moment, a high-pitched and mournful howl suddenly came from the scene, continuous and endless.
The black-clad men shuddered again and looked down.
Beside Ya Fang, the originally huge but gentle Greedy Wolf Star sensed Ya Fang's killing intent. Its giant head lifted up, and it let out a chilling howl that made all the silver fur on its body stand up on end without any wind, looking extremely eerie.
In the moonlight and the light of the lamps, everyone could see clearly that Greedy Wolf Star's two fangs slowly extended from its mouth, growing to nearly ten centimeters in length. Its four limbs each had four sharp claws that were over ten centimeters long, and a thin, long horn over thirty centimeters in length, as thick as a thumb, protruded from its forehead.
Everyone couldn't help but be shocked and frightened. The white and sharp light emitted from the horns, teeth, and claws of the Greedy Wolf Star was enough to deter anyone from approaching it.
Moreover, Ya Fang beside it was now emitting a faint golden light. His snow-white hair, which was originally tied behind his head, had somehow broken free from the hairband and was now flying freely behind him without any wind. Together with his golden and silver-colored demonic eyes, he looked incredibly bizarre.
The astonishing transformation of Ya Fang and Greedy Wolf Star made nearly half of the people who surrounded them tremble with fear, and they could not summon the courage to attack them.
However, standing before them was Ya Fang, a person who adhered to the belief of "once an enemy, kill without mercy" in battle. Even if they regretted it now, facing Ya Fang's provoked killing intent, it was already too late.
Ya Fang revealed a smile that was not really a smile, and his killing intent surged, "You're seeking death." His simple words made everyone involuntarily shiver.
But it also reminded Dage, who roared, "Everyone, attack!"
Everyone woke up from their trance and shouted, as if cheering themselves on.
Ya Fang sneered and he and Greedy Wolf Star rushed into the crowd, one golden and one silver light.