Chapter 285: Those that Cross my Path

Sensing that the group of experts was not being intimidated by their sheer numbers, the Baili experts steeled themselves for battle.

Xue Wei had been waiting for this. His lips curled into a grin, and his eyes shone with light. Bai Tianyi, Hei Gou, and Lin Xiao were also rather eager to battle as none of them had had a real fight since the time they had encountered the bandits before they arrived at the academy. Now they finally had an excuse to start stretching their legs.

The only one who was unsure of what was happening was Luoluo. She was, after all, a child in mentality, and Xue Wei wanted her to grow up as a free spirit. He wanted to protect her naivety, but at the same time, he also knew that it was highly unlikely that she had no blood on her hands, considering her real age was similar to the old monster, Bai Tianyi.

Inner Might: Qi Sword!

Wasting no time, Xue Wei instantly used his skill to create a sword out of Qi, which he then started flourishing in his hand, the grin on his face widening in anticipation.

Hei Gou readied a similar stance, the claws having already been withdrawn from his storage treasure and placed on his hands. Bai Tianyi had started circulating the spiritual energy within his body while Lin Xiao had found his staff, ready to attack the group that was coming towards them.

“What… what are you guys doing?!” the leader of the Baili team asked when he saw that these people had not an ounce of fright, but instead seemed to be preparing—or even seemed eager—to fight!

“What are we doing?” Xue Wei pretended to ponder for a moment, and then he flashed a brilliant, toothy smile and answered, “We are obviously doing you!”

The leader turned pale, but he did not withdraw. He had faith in his team, and worst case scenario—they would be badly bruised. Although he was aware of Xue Wei having already completely annihilated the previous group he came across, he had completely forgotten about this point.

Forbidden Rush!

Arcane Fist!

Windwolf Sword Slash!

Xue Wei did not hesitate at all. After speaking, he rushed forward with the Forbidden Rush movement technique, and at the same time, he launched two attacks simultaneously.

One was the fist attack, Arcane Fist, which created an illusion of thousands of fist imprints in the air, all of which were created with Qi, and all of them raining down on the body of the expert he had targeted.

At the same time, he unleashed a Windwolf Sword Slash with the Qi sword. The slash was fast, precise and sharp. Both the fist attack and the sword attack came raining down on the same person; a person who was rather weak amongst the opponents as he was merely a third layer Earth Warrior—a rank equal to Xue Wei, so there was no way he would be able to protect himself.

First, the fist attack landed, sending him reeling backward, blood flowing from his mouth. Afterward, the sword slash landed on his chest, slicing open his garments and gouging a deep wound in his chest, which immediately started spewing blood.

“Aren’t you being too violent?!” the person in charge of the Baili group yelled, as his eyes widened in surprise and horror upon seeing Xue Wei’s unbridled attack. It was as if they did not care about the consequences at all!

“Use your brain,” Xue Wei snickered as he ran forward and released another Windwolf Sword Slash, beheading the person who he had injured before. “We are already like oil and water with the Baili family. Why allow them even more people to chase us?”

Hearing Xue Wei speak so casually while killing a person sent shivers down the back of everyone present.

Yan Dalu was a calm continent. It was a place where, although ten people vanished a day, there were very rarely any murder, bandits, or blood spilled. Even when there were schemes against the different families, they rarely resorted to killing one another, even when they devolved into fights.

Yet now they had seen someone being killed right in front of them, and so casually as well. It was as if life was completely meaningless in Xue Wei’s eyes. Even as he killed, he did not blink; blood sprayed from the executed man’s severed neck, yet Xue Wei still held a grin on his face.

Not only the Baili family but everyone present suddenly felt a cold shiver run down their spine, and their eyes widened in horror.

The display of callousness was something they had never seen before, and the majority of the students had not even seen someone being killed; only those who had been out on missions like the bandit attack knew what it would be like to kill someone, or see someone being killed in front of them.

These Baili family minions had no idea of what it meant to kill. They had never truly thought about it, but now when they stood in a fight that was either kill or be killed, they suddenly felt their knees grow weak and horror filling their hearts.

“You cannot kill us!” the leader exclaimed, his voice rising a few octaves and breaking as his horror and disbelief got the better of him. He failed to sound very authoritative when his voice remained high as he continued to plead, “We are from the Baili family! Killing us is a crime against humanity; we are the protectors of Yan Dalu!”

“We are foreigners,” Xue Wei reminded him. “No one has taught us what it means to be a protector of Yan Dalu, and is there really a law that states that you cannot kill someone when it comes to legal self-defense? Look how many you are; look how few we are. It is logical that we are frightened silly, and that we have no other option than to retaliate.”

The man was tongue-tied. He had never expected that Xue Wei would give a reasonable response while being shrouded in such a dense murderous aura.

There was, in fact, a law that stated that you could not kill in Yan Dalu. However, the law did not count if the act was in self-defense.

Right now it could be argued, if one was very thick-skinned, that the Baili family had brought a mob to cause problems, making it so the attack was in self-defense, yet everyone who was watching the scene felt that this was not self-defense at all, instead, it was clearly murder.

Xue Wei was not the only one being brutal; the others had also acted similarly. Bai Tianyi had not been holding back at all. He had formed thousands of swords around him from his spiritual energy and thrust them relentlessly towards his foes. Many of them were easily blocked, but the sheer number was enough to overwhelm multiple experts at once.

Lin Xiao was also facing against two at the same time. “I am sorry, I am a monk, and I should not be beating people,” he said with a sigh as if to excuse himself. “But then again, I am no longer much of a monk, and you guys are seriously an eyesore, so saving everyone else from having to look at you could also be considered a good deed,” he mused to himself. His words caused his opponents to feel so livid with anger that they almost coughed up more blood than they already had after being beaten black and blue by his staff.

On the other hand, Hei Gou was not speaking a word to his foes. He felt that these people were not worthy of his words, and instead, he had transformed his black wings and used them to swoop like a breeze through the experts, the claws never resting as they cut through one after the other.

In less than a minute, the entire group had fallen into a perilous situation, and they were all feeling dread towards Xue Wei and his friends, causing them to start panicking.

More and more of them were being killed; they dropped to the ground as soon as the pressure got to them, and they no longer had the chance to protect themselves.

In fact, although this was a life and death battle, Xue Wei and the others were not taking it too seriously. None of them had fully transformed, nor they had not used their strongest abilities either; they were more like a bunch of cats toying with a handful of mice.

They purposefully avoided the leader, leaving him unscathed. He was rushing forth and back in an attempt to attack in a pair with some of the others, and then tried to launch sneak attacks in an attempt to disrupt the group of people who were now bathed in blood, but he met with no success.

The only thing he noticed was that his heart was growing more and more uncomfortable. He was fearing for his own life, but he was unwilling to leave his comrades. He understood that the Baili family had looked after him, and if he betrayed them, he would be worse than a dog.

Since this was the case, his only option was to fight it out. In the beginning, he had arrived with great hopes of capturing Xue Wei and his friends. Afterward, he had been hoping that they could kill Xue Wei and his friends. Then he had hoped that they could just kill one of Xue Wei’s entourage, but by now, he was just hoping to draw a drop of blood so that their death would not be totally in vain.

“You are quite loyal,” Xue Wei said with admiration as he set his sights on the leader, who by now, was the only man standing. He lifted his head and looked at Xue Wei with hatred burning in his eyes.

“The Baili family will get what they want,” he said with determination. “Even if you have the backing of the Gu and Yuan families, even if you have the abilities of fearsome Qi cultivators, none of it matters,” he began laughing hysterically.

“The Baili family has always been superior, not just because of their family’s overwhelming power, but also because they have recruited many geniuses.

“The Baili family is not as simple as you might think!” The leader was proud to be a member of the Baili family, despite feeling that Xue Wei was looking down upon them. If he could trade his life for respect, then it would be worth it.

“So you're telling me that the Baili family not only consists of the Baili family but that they also have hired hidden experts? That is great information, thank you,” Xue Wei grinned.

He knew a bit about the Baili family, but all his information came from the Gu and Yuan families, so hearing about them straight from the horse’s mouth was much more informative.

“Well, you are actually the kind of person I respect,” Xue Wei said as he looked at the person in front of him before continuing, “but you came to capture me, perhaps even kill me, so I cannot let you go. Why don’t I allow you to commit suicide to correct your wrongs?”

The man was stumped when he heard Xue Wei’s words. At first, he had a growing hope that he might survive, but when he heard his only alternative, he could not help but laugh helplessly.

“I do not have the courage,” the man said honestly. “Death is a scary thing to me, and I have never encountered someone as ruthless as you or who can kill as easily as you do.

“In fact, I doubt that creatures like you even exist here on Yan Dalu. Bloodthirsty fiends, who kill without blinking. It would be best if you never appeared on our peaceful continent.”

“Don’t be too sure,” Xue Wei answered, not taking his words too seriously. “Where do you think the ten missing people go?” he asked, “they don’t just leave the continent, so someone is as murderous as I am—in fact much more, as I might kill, but I don’t go after innocent citizens. I only aim for those that cross my path.”