Chapter 83: Evolve
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Chirp! Chirp!"
In the open sky, the Iron-tailed Black Eagle flew higher and higher, and finally became a small black dot.
"Keke!"
The Flower Fox Ferret waved its paws around. Its progress of recovery was halfway, and it seemed excited.
"Don't worry! Nobody can take advantage of us! I will take revenge for you!"
Fang Yuan comforted the Flower Fox Ferret, smiling.
The trouble that Old Crane brought to him could not be paid back by just a mouthful of blood!
Furthermore, he was worried that the other party did not know his true strength, and they attempted to fight their way in with martial artists.
"The brothers who have broken through the Death Gate are still just on par with the Flower Fox Ferret, and both Hu Yuxu and Zhang Sheng, who have broken through the 4 Heavenly Gates, are no match for me... The Iron-tailed Black Eagle can deal with the rest!"
Fang Yuan's battle plan was simple, or even too plain, but it didn't matter!
With the flying spiritual beast, He could fight and, escape whenever he wanted to and could always be on the top of things!
Zhou Wenwu was a local of Qingye City. Even though he could not match against any of these enemies, he could stalk and get information about them within the city as easy as the snap of his fingers.
"The party did not stop at Qingye City, and went straight back to Cangshui County?"
With this information, Fang Yuan's smile widened. "Even though they were cautious, they still underestimated my abilities and think that they could get away?"
"Chirp! Chirp!"
The Iron-tailed Black Eagle seemed to know what he meant, and with a long chirp, he increased his speed.
...
Two World Mountain.
This was the separation between Qinghe County and Cangshui County. The mountainous ridge was continuous, hilly and was like a dragon, separating the two sectors.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
The Iron-tailed Black Eagle possessed an astonishing eyesight; it noticed a trail of what seemed to be a campsite and immediately descended.
"Who would've known that they could make it this far, they are really quick!"
Fang Yuan examined the surroundings and it was full of fire pits, tents etc. His expression suddenly changed. "Something's not right!"
He went up and noticed cuts on the tents, flipped pots and bowls, and the blood stains on the ground. He became interested. "Internal conflict?"
At this point, he had no other doubts, and he opened the tent flaps.
"Whoosh!"
A pungent smell of rot filled the air, and in the tent laid two people. They were the martial artists who came that day to look for trouble, but both of them had no signs of life.
"Dead... Poisoned?!"
Fang Yuan looked at the weird smile that both corpses had, and looked at the embers in the fire pit. He remained speechless.
"Who would've known... Someone accomplished what I set out to do!"
He scavenged the tent and found even more corpse within the tent. Accompanying the morning peace in the forest, this was a scene filled with fear.
"Seeing how it is, it seems that most of them did not see it coming and died in their dreams and the remaining ones who found out what was happening tried to retaliate..."
Fang Yuan came to the boundaries of the campsite and found even more martial artists corpses, and their cause of death, being stabbed by a weapon. There were slash marks on the neighbouring trees as well, evidence of a fight.
He closed his eyes, and it was as though he could witness the scene last night. "Only one person has the ability to poison so many on such a large scale, and that is... Old Crane!!!"
Only this doctor would know of such colourless and odourless quick-acting poison, and he would not draw suspicion to himself because of his status.
"But... Why did he do it?"
Fang Yuan was confused. "Just to cover up for his failure? Not to this extent, right?"
He only took it as a possibility; after all, anything could happen when one becomes crazy.
It seems that the rational madman could only do so much.
Following the tracks forward, Fang Yuan's eyelid twitched.
"One skilled martial artist escaped... This is retaliation!"
In front of him was two corpses with their heads split open. The wounds were inflicted by a sword.
"Zhang Sheng's Tumultuous Nine Sword Technique?!"
Fang Yuan twitched his eyebrow. "Did Old Crane go crazy? To the extent of harming Zhang Sheng? Or was he forced to?"
He understood everything once he noticed the imprint on a tree trunk; it was that of a palm.
"Iron-tailed Black Eagle!"
He called for it and quickly leapt on its back. "Follow this trace, and search the campsite for clues! Don't give up anything suspicious!"
...
"Nine dragons strike!"
In the woods, Zhang Sheng was pale. His clothes were tattered, and the sword in his hands swung about; the only thing that was visible was nine streaks of flashes, as though the galaxy was upside down and flowing down.
"Puff!"
He was fighting the two brothers who broke through the Death Gate, Ah Da and Ah Er. Witnessing his attack, both of them went pale and tried their best to fend off the attacks.
"Whoosh whoosh!"
Two distinct sword slices were heard. Both of them were in disbelief and fell to the ground. Each of them had a cut half an inch on their forehead.
"Puff!"
Zhang Sheng kept his sword. He looked uncomfortable, and suddenly spat out a mouth of black blood.
At this moment, a sneaky shadow pounced towards Zhang Sheng, and a claw landed on his abdomen.
"Pang!"
A loud sound was heard and Zhang Sheng flew backwards, not knowing how many ribs he had broken.
"Hehe... Zhang Sheng, your 'Hunting Dragon Technique' is indeed impressive and can surely reach the Wu Zong level. To be able to withstand until now even though you were poisoned is a testament to the ability of your technique, and you can even kill Ah Da and Ah Er, I respect you for that!"
The assailant had a decent look, with evil in his eyes; it was Hu Yuxu, the one who was scared away by Fang Yuan.
"You gave him a claw on his abdomen, and therefore he is useless now!"
A voice came from the side, and Old Crane slowly appeared. Looking at Ah Da and Ah Er's corpse, he frowned. "Why didn't you attack earlier? I took a lot of effort to train these two subordinates!"
"This person's sword technique is too powerful at first. If I did not take advantage of his negligence for defence while fighting, I wouldn't have confidence to hit him in one strike!"
Hu Yuxu became surprised.
This was because Zhang Sheng wielded his sword and stood right back up!
Even though his condition looked bad, his legs shivering, he still stood up straight like a javelin!
"Why?"
He looked at Old Crane and forced those words out. Every single word he said took a tremendous amount of effort.
"My fellow friends and I look up to you, which was the reason why I agreed to help you. So what if we lost? Do you need to come to this point, to mix around with these kinds of despicable people?"
Zhang Sheng could not believe what he saw, and stared at Hu Yuxu, as though he wanted to kill and torture him.
The Three Heroes of Cangshan, the Guo Brothers, and the Flowery Sword... Every good soul in the team, all their smiles seemed to appear in front of him.
"Why? Haha... You martial artists act like you listen to my uncle but disobey him behind his back, and caused his setback. Don't you think that is a huge crime on its own?"
Hu Yuxu snickered and continued. "Not just the few of you! Don't forget about that Fang Yuan and everyone else who was in the secluded valley that day! I will not let a single one of you off!"
"You guys did not die here, but died in the hands of Fang Yuan at the secluded valley, and all of you were also being ambushed by the Spirit Returning Sect!"
"Everyone in the secluded valley cannot run away!"
Hu Yuxu treated Zhang Sheng as though he was dead, and rattled on casually, letting out more information.
Old Crane frowned but did not say anything.
"Un... Uncle?!"
Zhang Sheng's eyes widened, then shook his head. "So this is the relationship between the two of you... It seems that you, Old Crane, are aware of his wrongdoings and act like nothing happened, is that right? Who would've known that the both of you would be in cahoots? To think that I thought Doctor Fang was wrongly insinuating you that you have no ethics, and now it is clear that you are the lunatic!"
"Say whatever you wish to say!"
Hu Yuxu smiled and said. "After today, you will become a ... dead person! Furthermore, based on my uncle's reputation, who do you think they would believe?"
"You thief!"
Zhang Sheng was furious. "I will haunt you as a ghost!"
"Ah... Zhang Sheng, I initially did not want to bring you into this!"
Old Crane finally spoke.
His face was full of pity. "All because you did not want to follow instructions like Ah Da and Ah Er, and also that you knew too much of our secrets. If you live on, it would be my biggest worry..."
"Old thief!"
Zhang Sheng lashed out. "Was I blind at the beginning..."
"Carry on! Carry on!"
Hu Yuxu focused his inner force onto his palms and went forward. "I didn't like you from the start, and now I shall send you to Heaven!"
Zhang Sheng struggled and wanted to retaliate but to no avail. He was poisoned, and was tired from the many fights, and was subsequently ambushed. He was like a burnt-out match and was standing there with his last breath.
Even if Hu Yuxu didn't kill him, he was unlikely to survive through the night; he couldn't even move a finger now.
"Pa! Pa!"
At this moment, a distinct clapping sound travelled from the woods.
"Who's that?"
Hu Yuxu retreated and was on high alert. He had the look of death, as though he was not going to let anyone off alive.
"Remarkable! Remarkable indeed!"
Fang Yuan slowly appeared from the dense woods, and he jokingly said. "Who would've known that I could witness all these just by casually strolling through..."
"It's you!"
Old Crane was shocked and shortly after, he turned fierce. "Fang Yuan from the secluded valley!!!"
From his tone one could tell that he had extreme hate for Fang Yuan and wanted to boil him alive; even Fang Yuan was confused himself as to when their hatred for each other escalated to such a level.
"Haha... You could have survived, but you chose death by coming here!"
Seeing that Fang Yuan was alone, Hu Yuxu was shocked, then started laughing maniacally. "Tell me, how would you like to die?"
"Why do some people think that they are too compassionate?"
Fang Yuan waved his hands and a white flash appeared from the forest. "Flower Fox Ferret, this is for you!"
"Keke!"
Seeing its enemy, it was raging.
Seeing that the person who injured him was just in front, the Flower Fox Ferret turned into lightning and pounced on him.
"You beast!"
Hu Yuxu shrieked and knew that it was powerful as he had fought the Flower Fox Ferret previously. He took out a jade sword from his hips and defended himself.
"Alright, Old Crane. Don't we have a score to settle for ourselves?"
Fang Yuan looked at Old Crane mockingly.