Chapter 114: Zhou Mercenaries
Everyone in the Flame mercenaries had thought that Jian Chen’s strength was of the Saint level. Even his mercenary badge had declared him to be a D ranked mercenary, and the most important factor was that Jian Chen was so young as well. On the Tian Yuan Continent, if a 20 year old was able to become a Saint, then their strength was bright and their potential was unimaginable. For a seemingly 20 year old like Jian Chen who was capable of killing a Class 2 Magical Beast, even if it was injured, no one in the proximity would have been able to believe it if they hadn’t seen it. However, aside from Captain Kendall, no one saw the faint hazy outline of the sword, or how Jian Chen had killed the Black Tiger.
Kendall’s eyes wavered on the slender sword of Jian Chen’s for a moment before growing calm once more and laughed, “If you guys don’t believe it, then go ask Jian Chen yourself.”. There was a smile on his face as he said this, but how could he not be happy? There was one more expert in his group now.
Xiao Dao was the first to give in. Running up to Jian Chen while looking at him from up to down, his eyes finally settled onto the blood free Light Wind Sword, “Jian Chen, please tell me honestly, did you kill the Black Tiger?”
Seeing the look of disbelief on Xiao Dao’s face, Jian Chen nodded his head and said, “That’s correct, I killed it.” From the very beginning, Jian Chen hadn’t planned on hiding his strength with lies, so he was very straightforward and honest with Xiao Dao.
“Wow, no way!” Xiao Dao’s eyes widened in surprise. In disbelief, Xiao Dao looked at the calm Jian Chen and spoke, “This fierce Class 2 Magical Beast was really killed by you? How did you do that and how come I didn’t see how you did it?”
Hearing Xiao Dao ask these questions, everyone but Kendall stared at Jian Chen attentively. Whatever method Jian Chen had used to kill the Class 2 Magical Beast, it was natural for them all to be curious. To them, all they saw was Jian Chen suddenly move to the side while using his thin and slender sword in a strange way to kill the Black Tiger, but none of them had figured out how or what method was used.
In the midst of everyone, there was only one person who looked at Jian Chen differently. It was Kabolds who stared at Jian Chen in a way that looked as if to say to himself, “It was as just as I thought”
Jian Chen let a grim smile take hold of his lips as he raised his Light Wind Sword. “I used my Saint Weapon to kill the beast, if you guys didn’t see it, it’s because my movements were too fast to catch.”
Hearing what Jian Chen said, Captain Kendall thought back to the flash of silver he had just seen and couldn’t help but be afraid. This was because he had no choice but to admit that Jian Chen’s sword was just far too quick and he could only see the faint afterimage of the sword. At this moment, Capital Kendall couldn’t help but think, if he were to battle an opponent who possessed such speed, would he be able to dodge their attacks?
Chang Ning Feng looked at the corpse of the Black Tiger below and kicked it. The body of the Black Tiger flipped over by his kick before he bent down to grab the Black Tiger’s head to reveal the cut on its neck
As everyone saw the fatal blow on the Black Tigers neck, even Captain Kendall couldn’t help but take in a sharp breath because the wound was way too deep. Just looking at the neck one could see that two thirds of it had been completely cut off. Only one third of the skin was attached to the rest of the body making it seem as if the head of the Black Tiger was about to snap off at any moment.
What was even more unimaginable was that the Black Tiger had clearly leapt toward him so fast that it looked as if it was gliding. For Jian Chen to accurately deliver a fatal blow to its throat, this was an act of skill no one else in the group could match.
Deere took in a deep breath of air to calm his beating heart as he looked at Jian Chen. With a smile, he said, “Jian Chen, before we had only thought that you were a Saint, but it seems like your strength was far beyond our imagination. You really did keep us in the dark.”
Hu Po walked on over to Jian Chen and extended his hand onto Jian Chen’s shoulder, “Jian Chen, you are far too mean! Be honest with me. How strong are you? You can’t be even more amazing than our captain, right?”
Hearing what Hu Po said, Jian Chen could only laugh helplessly, “Brother Hu Po, I’m nowhere as amazing as you say. My strength isn’t too far away from yours, I am a Middle Great Saint.”
“That’s not right, how could a Middle Great Saint kill a Class 2 Magical Beast so easily?” Hu Po said with surprise, but instead of asking Jian Chen, he turned around to talk to everyone else, “First, let’s take care of the body of the Black Tiger before we continue talking about this.”
Even as they obeyed Hu Po’s command, everyone was still doubtful. However, they didn’t say anything and started to prepare the Black Tiger.
“This Black Tiger was quite amazing. Even though it had the strength of a Class 2 Magical Beast, it was faster than a Class 3 Magical Beast. After taking the Monster Core, put the rest of the body within a Space Belt so we can sell it for a great amount of money.” Kendall said.
On the Tian Yuan Continent, with regards to the type of meat consumed, other than regular beef, most of them came from magical beasts. Magical Beast meat was not only tender, but it even smelled good too. Another good benefit was that eating it would also help reinforce the body, thus Magical Beast meat were considered a hot selling item. When it came to high leveled magical beasts, the supply could never meet the demand.
Jian Chen absorbed the Light Wind Sword back into his body and watched as the mercenaries stored away the body of the Black Tiger. He didn’t care that it was a Class 2 Magical Beast since he could easily kill a Class 3 Magical Beast at any time. In the hands of Jian Chen, the magical beasts had no way of escaping The Flame Mercenaries were different, they had only 1 Saint Master, even with their strengths combined, they couldn’t be compared to Jian Chen. Killing a Peak Class 2 Magical Beast had been difficult for them, and if it weren’t for the fact that Jian Chen had blocked the Black Tiger, they wouldn’t have been able to catch up to it. These magical beasts could be said to be like fish in water; different from humans, their movements wouldn’t be restricted by the lush forest environment.
Jian Chen’s ears trembled once more and he turned his head to the side. As his eyes landed on top of a few bushes that started to shake violently, a group of 20 mercenaries wearing steel helmets and full body armor walked into their line of sight.
Just as the fully armed mercenaries walked into their sights, everyone in the Flame Mercenaries immediately stopped what they were doing and watched the 20 mercenaries with a tense expression.
The leader of the 20 mercenaries looked at the Flame Mercenaries with a cold glare and then at the halfway stored Black Tiger. With a wave of his hands, he barked out, “Onward!”, commanding the rest of the mercenaries to walk past the Flame Mercenaries without looking back before finally melting out of sight. In the group’s eyes, the Flame Mercenaries weren’t even worth a glance.
“Those were the Zhou Mercenaries, I didn’t think we’d come across them here.” After the iron clad mercenaries left, Hu Po let out a breath of air.
“Brother Hu Po, are the Zhou Mercenaries that well known?” Jian Chen asked.
Hu Po nodded his head in response, “While the Zhou Mercenaries aren’t considered the strongest in Wake City, the residents of Wake City will say that the Zhou Mercenaries are for sure within the top 10. Their group has around 50 people with their leader at the Peak Saint Master level. Under his direct command are 6 Middle Saint Masters with around 20 Great Saints. Their strength is so enormous that our Flame Mercenaries definitely cannot provoke them. Plus, the Zhou Mercenaries have the backing of one of the strongest clans in Wake City – the Zhou Clan. With this, there aren’t many in Wake City that could challenge them.”
“Oh!” Jian Chen looked to where the Zhou Mercenaries disappeared to, their image not disappearing from his mind.
“Jian Chen, if you come across such a person or group in the Magical Beast Mountain Range in the future, please be careful. The Magical Beast Mountain Range is a common place for people to be killed over their items; there are even some people who are mercenaries, but their actions place them on the same level as a bandit.” Kendall warned Jian Chen with a serious and grave face.
Seeing how serious Kendall was, Jian Chen nodded his head, “I’ll be careful.”
After that, the Black Tiger’s corpse had been properly stored within a Space Belt. “Right now we are in an area where Class 2 Magical Beasts roam, any deeper and Class 3 Magical Beasts will be found. So for our sake, let’s start to wander around here.”
Soon after, Kendall and Deere began to address their wounds which were thankfully not very deep and wouldn’t affect their fighting strength by too much. With a little preparation, the two were ready to get back on the road while staying vigilant of their surroundings.
After traveling a short distance, Jian Chen had detected the footprints of another magical beast, but this time it was just like the magical beast before the Black Tiger. This magical beast was using the cover of the forest to hide 10 meters away from the mercenaries before silently retreating.
Jian Chen’s eyebrows furrowed together as he tried to understand just what was happening. On the road, aside from killing that one Class 2 Magical Beast Black Tiger, he had detected the presence of at least 10 different magical beasts, but none of them had been like the Black Tiger and attacked them.
“Could it be that it’s because there are too many people that the magical beasts are afraid to attack us?” Jian Chen asked himself. However, this thought was immediately dismissed for it made no sense at all.