Chapter 129: Trouble at the Door
Looking at the sword piercing towards his heart with sluggish eyes, the middle aged man couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Being defeated by a brat barely past the age of 20 years old with a strength that wasn’t even at the Peak Great Saint level, was truly humiliating.
Because of the arrogant talk of the Tianxiong clan’s young master, his 50 years of cultivation had been laid to waste by a 20 year old youth; out in the middle of nowhere, his life was destroyed in a single moment. Just thinking about this fact made the man nearly cry out with grief. As his life essence slowly escaped from him, the man’s bright and clear eyes slowly clouded over and rolled back into his skull as his sturdy body fell to the ground.
Jian Chen slowly retracted his Light Wind Sword. Blood flowed down the blade as if it were alive; slowly gathering at the tip before falling to the ground, drop by drop. After a few battles, the uneven dirt ground had become wet with blood.
Jian Chen slowly caught his breath. Attacking two Primary Saint Masters and a Peak Saint Master consumed quite a bit of Jian Chen’s energy. Faced with three opponents whose strength all surpassed his own, Jian Chen had already made an all-out effort. If it weren’t for the fact that he had cultivated for a while, increasing his base strength as a Middle Great Saint by quite a bit, he most likely would’ve spent a much longer time on trying to kill these 3 Saint Masters.
However, after killing the three people, Jian Chen’s grief from the deaths of Captain Kendall and the others had abated quite a bit.
Jian Chen’s gaze indifferently swept across the three corpses, before finally falling onto their Space Belts. After some hesitation, he slowly advanced forward to retrieve the belts and examine their contents.
Because he had consumed over a hundred times more monster cores than the average person in his cultivation, Jian Chen required a great amount of them; moreover, Jian Chen clearly didn’t have enough money to purchase such an extensive amount of monster cores. That’s why the thing he wanted to acquire the most were monster cores. It was only possible for him to gain them by killing magical beasts or by taking them from corpses. Besides, taking items from a dead person was an extremely common occurrence in Tian Yuan Continent. After all, 30% or more of the fights that happened on Tian Yuan Continent were because people were seeking another party’s items.
After removing the 3 Space Belts, Jian Chen inspected their contents. Although these 3 were Saint Masters, it was clear that they weren’t wealthy. Aside from some everyday products and camping tools, they really didn’t have anything else. In the end, Jian Chen was only able to fish out some 10 Purple and Gold coins, 15 Class 2 Monster Cores, and 5 Class 3 Monster Cores.
Without any hesitation, Jian Chen stored the monster cores into his own Space Belt. His gaze shifted back to the 10 Purple and Gold coins and he hesitated for a bit before finally taking those as well. Although it wasn’t a large amount of money, to commoners it was still quite a bit of wealth. Just throwing it out here was a waste, and rather a pity.
After storing everything, Jian Chen tossed the 3 Space Belts to one side. Without bothering to clean up the corpses, he directly left the area.
By the time he had returned to Wake City, the sky had already darkened. After eating some food at the hotel, Jian Chen requested a room and went to sleep.
Because Jian Chen had only requested a normal room, its layout was extremely simple. It had a single wooden table, a few chairs, and a bed. Aside from these, there was nothing else present. However, the place was extremely neat and tidy; one could even say it was completely spotless.
That night, the shining full moon suspended high up in the sky emitted bright rays of silver moonlight, filling the entire pitch-black sky with a faint silver color. Even the scattered, thin clouds could be seen clearly.
Jian Chen moved his chair to the windowside and sat there with his head raised. He looked up at that round moon emitting a bright glow while deep in thought. Perhaps it was more appropriate to say that he was in a sluggish daze.
Jian Chen was constantly recalling the past 2 days in his mind. The Flame Mercenary Group had been hunted down by the Class 5 magical beast Golden Fur Tiger King, and eventually, the members had sacrificed their lives to hold the beast back, shielding Jian Chen so that he could flee. Although two days had already passed, and the grief from the deaths of the Flame Mercenaries had faded quite a bit, Jian Chen was still unable to forget the scene. That scenario had been branded deeply into the depths of his soul, and he would most likely never forget it for the rest of his life.
It could be said that he and the Flame Mercenaries were strangers that had come together by chance. Although during the past few days, everyone’s relationships had grown quite close, they had chosen to die for the sake of covering for Jian Chen and letting him flee. Although there were also some selfish motives for this, they all understood that faced by the pursuit of the Golden Fur Tiger King, they had absolutely no way of running away. Despite knowing this, their actions had still impacted Jian Chen’s heart by quite a lot.
“Captain Kendall, what is your greatest wish….”
“My greatest wish is to make the Flame Mercenary Group become the number one mercenary group in the continent….”
A scene appeared in Jian Chen’s mind as he sat next to the window. His originally lifeless eyes gradually recovered their vigor, tightly clenching his fists as he murmured, “Captain Kendall, you were the strongest one in the Flame Mercenary group. I had never imagined that back then, you’d be the first to depart.”
“During these past few days, you were always the one that had cared for me the most. Now that you’re gone, your life’s greatest wish can no longer become true. In that case, let me make your wish come true in your steed. I, Jian Chen, swear that I will spend my life trying my utmost to make the Flame Mercenary Group the number one mercenary group in the Tian Yuan Continent.” Jian Chen said resolutely.
Jian Chen untied the Space Belt that Captain Kendall had given him. He stared at the belt in his hand in a trance as the memories of the words that Kendall had imparted to him when handing him this belt replayed in his mind.
“Jian Chen, don’t refuse. If we can’t leave this forest alive, then our families will all be under your care. If we all die here, then their lives will become incomparably painful. Whether or not my parents, my wife, and even my one child will be able to live through the days after my death will all depend on you.”
Jian Chen let out a long breath. He suddenly felt extremely guilty; Captain Kendall had given this Space Belt to him before his death, entrusting Jian Chen with his family’s wellbeing. However, even now, Jian Chen still didn’t know what the names of those in Captain Kendall’s family were, or even where they lived. How was he supposed to act?
Just then, Jian Chen’s heart suddenly became filled with worry. If Captain Kendall had entrusted Jian Chen to take care of his family, Jian Chen guessed that Captain Kendall’s family was definitely extremely impoverished. After losing Captain Kendall, their pillar of support, how could his family possibly live the rest of their lives happily?
When thinking of how incomparably difficult Kendall’s family’s lives would be from now, Jian Chen’s heart fell into panic. He wanted to find Kendall’s family as soon as possible, and give them whatever Captain Kendall had entrusted Jian Chen with in order to bless them with happy lives.
Jian Chen sat by the window for the latter half of the night, before eventually returning to his bed to cultivate. Right now, Jian Chen needed to grow stronger, stronger, and even stronger.
The night was calm, and it quickly passed by without incident. The next morning, Jian Chen, who had been submerged in cultivation, suddenly opened his eyes. He didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt a bad premonition in his heart.
Jian Chen got out of bed and walked up to the window to look outside. After a single glance, Jian Chen’s expression abruptly darkened. The outside of the hotel had been surrounded by hundreds of people wearing white robes. Every single one of them were identically dressed. From this, it could be seen that they represented a single power. Jian Chen unexpectedly discovered that in the middle of the group of people was the young master of the Tianxiong clan that had escaped from him yesterday.