The leader of the Baili group sighed. He understood what Xue Wei meant, but he had a hard time accepting it as the truth.
“Well, that’s that,” the man resided, smiling sadly. When he had awoken this morning, he would never have expected that today would be his final day of life, and even less would he have expected this task to end like this.
Now, however, it seemed that it was his final moments, and although he felt some sour feelings in his heart, he was able to accept this ending.
He was proud of his life as a member of the Baili family. He had not let anyone down and even in death; he believed that he would be a ghost of the Baili family.
Such a person was impossible to hate, and he was someone who deserved respect. However, Xue Wei also understood that a person like this would be too dangerous to be left alive.
He simply could not afford to let the man go, and thus he lifted the Qi sword and gave it a firm swing, beheading the leader and giving him a quick, painless death.
There was no bloodlust or murderous aura at this moment; all that was left was a group of experts saying their final goodbye to a man that had garnered some respect.
Even Bai Tianyi took a pause before absorbing the soul power that was released after his death.
After killing the last of them, Xue Wei did not even glance at the corpses that were littered in the streets of the academy; instead, they just continued towards the restaurant.
“Were you scared?” Xue Wei asked Luoluo as he, once more, took her into his arms and carried her.
“Not scared,” Luoluo shook her head with a sweet smile on her face. “Big Brother and Uncle Lin Xiao will protect Luoluo, Luoluo is not at all scared when Big Brother and Uncle Lin Xiao are around.”
Xue Wei laughed when he noticed how she completely ignored ‘doggie’ Hei Gou and ‘brat’ Bai Tianyi.
On the other hand, the two ignored experts did not have any wish to draw attention to themselves.
Bai Tianyi was in a relatively great mood. He had just consumed the soul power of the entire group, and he could already feel how it was increasing his cultivation base slowly but surely.
Hei Gou was also quite happy after having sparred against Xue Wei in the morning, and now having fought a battle against a group of experts, even if it was more one-sided.
He had felt thrilled and excited, so he did not mind forgiving Luoluo for once. After all, Xue Wei really doted on the child, so even if he found her annoying, he had to cope with it.
The spectators were completely silent before a person suddenly started vomiting.
It was clear that these students had never before seen such a macabre scene as the one in front of them. Seeing these people with decapitated heads, amputated limbs, disemboweled intestines—everything they saw was just so gruesome that the sight of the bloodbathed corpses and fresh scent of death saturating the air was simply too much for some of them to stomach.
Rumors were spread through the academy within moments. They used their telepathy to converse with their friends and tell them everything they had just witnessed before their friends spread the news on further. Soon, a few turned to many, many quickly turned to hundreds, and hundreds spread to thousands within the city.
The Baili family were also amongst the first to be informed about the loss of their minions, and the domineering actions of Xue Wei’s group.
Inside the Baili family mansion, the elders gathered together.
“Do you think that this Xue Wei is so much stronger than others at the same rank, or is it true that spiritual energy cultivators are weak compared to the Qi cultivators?” one of the elders asked with a pondering expression on his face.
“I do not believe that Qi cultivators are more powerful in battle,” another said with disdain in his voice. “If they were, would the Primordial Beasts not be much more prominent and dangerous in a fight?”
“So this Xue Wei and his friends are special?” the first person asked with unconcealed uncertainty in his voice.
“They managed to wipe out eleven experts while only being four. It shows that their battle prowess is outstanding, and their ruthlessness cannot be matched by anyone in Yan Dalu.”
“They are too cocky,” an aged voice suddenly sounded. “They killed our men in front of so many witnesses—it is showing contempt for Yan Dalu’s law, and we can charge them with the crime of murdering citizens of our continent.”
“That will not work.” The speaker who responded was also an old man but who was seated in the most prominent position within the hall, and when he spoke, the rest listened with reverence.
“The witnesses saw that the Baili men were the ones who were aggressive and looking for trouble. If we truly drag them to court, we will not win as they will be seen as fighting in the name of self-defense.”
“We can bribe the jury and the judges.” The man who had spoken before was not willing to give up, and he tried to convince them that it was a possibility.
“No, we cannot allow for him to be taken away,” a fourth elder suddenly spoke up. “He comes from another continent, and he is filled with treasures. Just look how strong he has made the Yuan and the Gu families in such a short amount of time. We need to capture him and force out his secrets, make him submit to our family, and work for us.”
“Can we control him though?” The elder who wanted to put him behind bars was still not convinced, “He has already killed so many of our men and even a direct descendant of our Baili family! This is unacceptable!”
“Well, we will obviously have to punish him for what he did, but he will be a great benefit to our family if we capture him. Our family needs to remain the strongest amongst them all.”
“How are we going to capture him, now that it is proven that we cannot use students of the Earth rank? We need to at least use Sky Knight-ranked experts to deal with them,” the elder whom they all respected spoke up.
One of the elders who had been silent so far finally had something to add, “My son, Baili Guan is a brilliant young man. He has reached the second layer of the Sky Knight rank and should be capable of leading a group to bring the criminal back to our family so that we can slowly convince him that working with us is much better than working with the Gu and Yuan families.”
While the Baili family were busy discussing how best to apprehend and capture Xue Wei, the man in question was at the restaurant eating happily with his friends.
“Eat slower, it isn’t going anywhere,” Xue Wei laughed when he saw how Luoluo was gobbling up the food on her plate so fast as if she feared that it would spontaneously vanish at any moment.
“It tastes so good!” Luoluo grinned and stuffed another piece of braised Mirror Boar meat into her mouth, and immediately following it up by reaching and grabbing her favorite—the Ice Lotus Shrimp wontons.
Xue Wei smiled as he saw how messy she was when eating, reminding him of his own childhood from before his father died. He too had been a very active and positive child until the day he realized that he could not cultivate.
He found a napkin and gently wiped her mouth, but it only took a short while before the mouth was caked in grease again, and he could only shake his head in defeat.
As they finished eating—although, in Luoluo’s case, it was better described as a ruthless oral assault with no survivors—they returned to their house. On the way, they found that the area where they had fought earlier was closed off, and a lot of academy staff were going around cleaning the ground and disposing of the bodies.
“They will not give up just like that,” Xue Wei suddenly said as they regrouped at home, and once more waited for Gu Bing’er and Yuan Bailong to arrive.
As they arrived, the look on their faces were grim, they clearly knew about Xue Wei having killed the Baili family’s men, and the fact that they killed with no hesitation made both of the two citizens of Yan Dalu uncomfortable.
Fortunately, Xue Wei was a comrade of theirs, but they could not help but wonder what would have happened if they had been on the opposing side of Xue Wei and his friends. Would they have been mercilessly slaughtered too?
Gu Bing’er was the first to realize that they would have been fine as long as they had not caused problems for him. Xue Wei had not been antagonistic towards the Baili family before they started to try and force him to fight against the Gu and Yuan families, and side with the Baili family.
So since this was the case, then she could accept it. As long as he did not kill for pleasure and forget his humanity, she was able to understand and admonish actions.
Gu Bing’er was also much calmer than Yuan Bailong. She was also much more mature and ruthless when it came to scheming, so she understood things like this, which Yuan Bailong had a hard time accepting.
Yet after listening to his fiancé explaining her thoughts telepathically, Yuan Bailong was also feeling better, and his face softened, regaining a bit of its color.
Xue Wei could guess their thoughts from reading their expressions. Killing was something he too, had frowned upon back when he began his journey, but now that he had grown accustomed to it as time went by, he had learned that either he killed his enemies or his enemies killed him.
“So the Baili family are not likely to let us go. Before, they would probably not have left us be, and now they’re definitely coming for us,” Xue Wei began talking with unusual solemnity.
“Since they won’t let us be, why not let them capture me?” Xue Wei asked suddenly. “I will not be killed instantly as I don’t have much they’d want if I’m dead, and if they have me without another fight, they will let the rest of you go.
“I will make some formations and some pills, and after accepting these, you will go to to the Gu and Yuan families and prepare to overthrow the Baili family when you have advanced sufficiently.
“I can make a few Rainbow Pills if I get the materials needed,” Xue Wei continued, and while the expressions of his friends changed when they heard him say that he could make Rainbow Pills, the other two were just confused.
“Rainbow Pills?” they asked with uncertainty. The Rainbow Pills were the most outstanding pill on Chang’an, but it was not that well known on Yan Dalu.
“They are outstanding magical pills which either increase your Qi, your spiritual energy or enhance your physical strength,” Bai Tianyi said. “They will increase one of those three at random, but it will be a massive increase; at least one breakthrough should happen, if not two or three.”
“Such a wondrous thing exists?” Gu Bing’er was shocked when she heard it, but she quickly regained enough composure to accept a note from Xue Wei which contained the ingredients needed.
Looking at the ingredients, she frowned. She had always thought that pills only required herbs to be crafted, but these pills also required precious gems and ores.
Still, if one was able to achieve at least one breakthrough with each pill, then the excessive materials were worth it.
“We will have enough materials to make ten at least, and twenty at most,” she said. Xue Wei nodded his head; it was not likely for him to make much more than that, as it not only took a long time to make these pills but unlike other pills where he could make a batch at a time, he could only concoct one Rainbow Pill at a time.