“Moo!” cried the male rhino. It had just regained consciousness when it saw its partner skewered and turned into a cold body. They had been together for most of their lives and now they were forever separated. Tears of blood came rolling out of its eyes. It let out a cry of agony and charged at Wun Fan.
“Lethality: The Forbidden Red,” said Hung Yu Fei as she unleashed her power. She had been lying in wait for a long time. A red and fragrant projectile shot into the mouth of the rhino, instantly shredding its throat to pieces, before exploding inside its body. The powerful soul energy immediately destroyed its body.
The rhino hacked and coughed as it collapsed to the ground. The red flower had completely destroyed its throat and vocal cords. Even crying in pain was an impossible task. It threw out chunks of flesh and organs from within its body. Its eyes were filled with hatred and anger. It stared fixedly at Wun Fan’s back, wondering what they had done to make an enemy out of this person.
Hung Yu Fei slid in front of Wun Fan with her gliding steps. She flashed a smile and said in a tone asking to be praised, “How was it? I did good, didn’t I?”
“If you hadn’t tried to show off and insisted you could finish things off by yourself, it would have been much better,” said Wun Fan coldly as he rolled his eyes. Hung Yu Fei immediately got upset. She stomped her feet as she whined, “Stupid Wun Fan! Stupid boy! I talk to you nicely and you’re so mean to me. You’re dead! You’re so dead!”
Fung Chign casually walked past the two of them. He was starting to get used to Hung Yu Fei’s behavior and was no longer surprised or shocked by it. Either way, he was happy to see Hung Yu Fei lose in an argument. Anyone in the capital would probably pay to see something like that.
After all, it was rare that someone could put a stop to the ‘demon lord’ of the capital. Perhaps, in the future, they might…
Wun Fan stepped in front of the rhino. He looked at its wounds and pity showed in his eyes. He had no excuse for his killing an innocent creature for his own benefit. However, the least he could do was minimize their suffering.
“I’m sorry,” said Wun Fan. He put his palm on the rhino. Soul energy surged into the beast, corroding its heart with death aura. Its chest stopped moving completely after just eight seconds. Wun Fan absorbed the death aura from the body before standing up. He shot a mean look at Hung Yu Fei and said, “Stupid girl, if you cause any trouble, I’ll send you back to Green Sea Town without a second word.”
Just now, he had a perfect chance of killing both rhinos instantly with Fung Ching’s help. However, a certain girl had the brilliant idea of taking on both rhinos alone. She attacked out of nowhere with a Brisk Wind’s Flying Leaves Dance. Her attack was completely useless against the rhinos’ thick carapace. Instead, it alerted the two rhinos and scared them away.
And that explained the scene earlier.
In Wun Fan’s words, this girl was a useless failure.
“Please don’t!” said Hung Yu Fei. After all these days travelling with Wun Fan, she was certain that her decision to go along with him was correct. At the very least, her life had become much more interesting and exciting, while also not being all that dangerous. It was exactly what she had been looking for.
“Idiot Hung,” said Wun Fan in English. After giving her the horrible nickname, he started dissecting the rhinos to retrieve their inner cores. He then put the bodies away in his storage ring.
“Hmph! As if I want to follow you around that much!” said Hung Yu Fei. She might not know what idiot meant, but she had been around Wun Fan long enough. Wun Fan would say something weird sometimes and judging from the tone he used this time, it was clear that it was nothing good.
Hung Yu Fei wanted to talk back to Wun Fan and throw an insult his way too, but she was also worried that she might say the wrong thing and Wun Fan would actually just abandon her in the woods. In the end, she settled for a weak rebuttal.
“Then leave,” said Wun Fan. He never held back when it came to being mean. He looked to the side with his eyes, before turning and walking away.
“You!” said Hung Yu Fei through clenched teeth. Her impulse to tie up Wun Fan and give him a good beating grew even stronger. She really wanted to see how tough Wun Fan would be after she taught him a proper lesson!
Of course, if it came down to a fight, Hung Yu Fei wasn’t sure who would win. This made her very dejected. They were both Martial Vassals, so why did he seem so much more powerful than her?
She had witnessed with her own eyes how Wun Fan rose quickly from a Martial Mortal to an intermediate Martial Vassal in just two weeks. He was only one step away from advanced Martial Vassal realm now. With even more time, he would leave her behind.
It seemed like she had to start working harder as well.
Fung Ching suddenly said, “Wun Fan, why don’t we leave the forest for now?”
“Mm?” said Wun Fan. In his eyes, Fung Ching had always been the complete opposite of Hung Yu Fei. He never said anything useless and always had a clear objective in mind. Wun Fan stopped in his tracks to listen to what he had to say.
“We have collected quite a lot of inner cores these two weeks. There’s probably over three hundred of them now,” said Fung Ching. He looked at Wun Fan gratefully. He knew things wouldn’t have gone so smoothly without this boy’s help. He continued in a serious tone, “However, the collection of inner cores is not a simple matter. Without proper storage and left in the ring, aether will slowly seep out of low-class inner cores. With enough time, they will lose the majority of their aether and become useless.”
“If we don’t bring them to the Martial Artist Guild for verification and processing, all of our results will have been for nothing,” said Fung Ching. He seemed to know what he was talking about, so Wun Fan asked in his own mind, “OId Lei, is this true? Why didn’t you tell me about it?”
“It’s true. You never asked me, so I never bothered to tell you,” said Old Lei lazily. Wun Fan had to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down before he replied, “Would it kill you to give me a reminder?”
“It wouldn’t,” said Old Lei nonchalantly, “But I didn’t want you to develop bad habits. If I’m always telling you what to do, then what’s the point of coming out here for training?”
“You…” said Wun Fan as he gritted his teeth. Truly, there was always someone out there who could put you in your place. He had just provoked such a reaction out of Hung Yu Fei earlier and now it was his turn to be bullied by Old Lei. Wun Fan had very limited knowledge about this world and martial arts. As his teacher, shouldn’t it be Old Lei’s responsibility to tell him about these things?
“Humans have to make mistakes to learn,” said Old Lei patiently, “Even if others tell you what to do, the knowledge will just end up in the back of your mind. Only the mistakes that you suffer personally will be etched into your bones. You might continue to make mistakes, but at least you will learn to accept them.”
Old Lei’s words seemed wise, but Wun Fan was still upset at him. However, he couldn’t show it on his face. He had no choice but to say to Fung Ching calmly, “Alright then.”
“Honestly, I have never tried staying in the Green Sea Forest for more than two weeks myself. The longest I have ever stayed here consecutively was seven days,” said Fung Ching as he recalled his past experience. He had not been as extreme as Wun Fan. He was still in awe and shock at Wun Fan’s ridiculous growth rate. He finally understood what people meant when they said there will always be someone better than you. He could hardly feel proud of himself for reaching intermediate Martial Scholar realm at sixteen years old.
Humans could only really improve while they remained humble.
In truth, Wun Fan had planned to stay in the Green Sea Forest for several months at least. That was why he had such a dramatic farewell with Wun Ching Yeung. Now that he thought about it, he truly had not been well-prepared enough for this adventure.
If Chan Chi Yuet had not prepared everything for him, he would have had a difficult time even just staying out here for a week. It seemed like Old Lei was right. He had to make the mistakes on his own to do better next time.
He was still too much of an impulsive person.
“Mm, Siu Lan, Chi Yuet,” muttered Wun Fan to himself as he placed a hand on his chin. He was feeling a little tired. This was his first time out on a venture. Two weeks was quite enough, wasn’t it?
Hung Yu Fei walked up to the female rhino and picked out its inner core. She channelled her soul energy and shook off the blood on the core. She raised it against the sunlight to take a better look. The core was crystal clear. Hung Yu Fei sensed the faint flow of aether within it and seemed to have an epiphany. She sighed and said, “In the end, having power is the most important thing. Otherwise, you might just die without ever knowing what happened.”
Fung Ching approached the rhinos as well and quickly got to work. He dealt with the body swiftly, chopping up and disposing of the useless parts of the body. He almost looked like an experienced chef with how he moved his knife. There was no need to bother about the discarded flesh. The Green Sea Forest had its own ecosystem. Some animal or plant would naturally feed on the flesh and return it to nature.
Wun Fan placed his hands behind his back and he walked around. He did not immediately interrupt when he heard Hung Yu Fei’s words. Instead, he simply said, “You’re incorrect.”
“Incorrect?” said Hung Yu Fei. It was rare for Wun Fan to speak so gently to her, so she wasn’t in a hurry to argue with him either. Sometimes, the young boy had an unusual charm to him when he discussed a topic seriously. Even just two lines of poetry from him would often contain so much wisdom.
“To have is but an illusion, because you will always be worried about when you will lose what you have,” said Wun Fan as he looked at his palms. He had nothing he could call his own just a few weeks ago. Now that his power had grown so much, he couldn’t help but feel an odd sense of melancholy. It all felt like a dream. He finished his thought, “Loss is the most real thing you can ever feel, because whatever you lose will forever be lost.”
“Wun Fan,” said Hung Yu Fei. She felt something tug at her heartstrings. She could empathize deeply with the shadow deep in Wun Fan’s heart. She could feel the sorrow he felt as if it were her own, see the darkness behind his back. This was the first time she so strongly wanted to pull someone into a hug and care for them, assure them that they were safe and warm their heart.
What had Wun Fan experienced before this?
“To gain is fortune, to lose is tragedy. We were born with nothing in our hands, so why do we go around picking up strings?” said Wun Fan with a chuckle. He walked away, leaving Hung Yu Fei alone on the spot.108Please respect copyright.PENANAU4pQU5chC6