The wolf howled unwillingly as it ceaselessly tried throwing Xiang Shaoyun off. It was not willing to let another human tame it since it already had a master before. Tamed demonic beasts were generally much harder to tame. They would often choose death over yielding to a second human.
"Shut up already!" Xiang Shaoyun said as the presence of dragon and tiger roiled out of him. The power of the tiger's roar was mixed within his voice, and it enveloped the red wolf in a terrifying pressure that caused it to tremble in fear.
Xiang Shaoyun punched the wolf's head, knocking it down. He then jumped off the wolf, lifted it, and ruthlessly slammed it into a nearby boulder.
Bang!
The red wolf wailed miserably. Finally, Xiang Shaoyun rushed toward the wolf and stepped on its neck before asking, "Do you yield?"
As he asked the question, a presence similar to the presence of a tiger king started emanating out of his eyes, causing the wolf to be in even more fear. Among demonic beasts, the stronger a beast was, the more likely it was for other beasts to yield to it. The feeling Xiang Shaoyun was emanating gave the red wolf a sensation that Xiang Shaoyun was in fact a tiger king in human form. Thus, it finally howled its surrender.
"Howl! Howl!"
Xiang Shaoyun let the wolf howl for a bit, and he waited until the wolf completely withdrew its demonic aura and no longer showed any sign of resistance. He then removed his foot from its neck. The red wolf stood up and lowered its proud head before Xiang Shaoyun and licked his leg, expressing that it was yielding.
Xiang Shaoyun then stroked the wolf's head and said, "If you'd done this earlier, you wouldn't have needed to suffer all that. Ok, eat this."
As Xiang Shaoyun said that, a spirit medicine appeared in his palm, causing the wolf's eyes to light up brightly. That was a mid-grade spirit medicine known as a red spirit cactus. It was a spirit medicine that would be very beneficial for a red wolf, and this red wolf longed greatly for it.
The red wolf quickly swallowed the red spirit cactus. Immediately, its demonic aura started surging.
"Huh? Breakthrough just like that?" Xiang Shaoyun was astonished. He had only given the red wolf a red spirit cactus so it could recover quickly. Surprisingly, it had actually broken through from that one medicine.
Xiang Shaoyun gave the wolf some space to break through and instead went to go loot the battlefield. He only took the bandits' severed heads and their money off them. Everything else was left alone. Even king-grade items could hardly pique his interest, much less these weapons that were of much lesser quality.
"After destroying the Redwolf Bandits, I’ll have to find a way to clear the stuff in my astral cosmos sea. Otherwise, it will be very troublesome if I have more things I need to store in the future," Xiang Shaoyun muttered.
He currently had a lot of items stored in his astral cosmos sea, with the gold lunar liquid and vicious tiger gold lotus occupying the largest amount of space. The astral cosmos sea had long been stuffed to the brim.
That was what Xiang Shaoyun was fretting over as of late. Waiting for the astral cosmos sea to slowly expand wasn’t a reliable plan. It wasn't easy to expand the astral cosmos sea unless he actually broke through into a new cultivation level. But he was still quite far away from the third stage.
More importantly, his recent breakthroughs had been too fast. He had been suppressing his cultivation so as to stabilize his foundation and get used to his new strength. He was finally done with consolidating his new cultivation level, and it was now time to grow again. That was why he had decided to attack the Redwolf Bandits.
After a long while, howls of the red wolf reverberated in the air, telling Xiang Shaoyun that the wolf was done with its breakthrough. When Xiang Shaoyun walked over, he found that the red wolf was much larger than before. It also looked even more heroic, and the wounds on its body had been completely healed.
"Not bad at all. You finally look somewhat like how a demonic beast should look," Xiang Shaoyun praised.
The red wolf stepped over and licked Xiang Shaoyun's leg, thanking him for the spirit medicine. The red wolf was a demonic beast with a common bloodline. Thus, they would only be able to speak human language after reaching the Great Demon level.
"Let's go." Xiang Shaoyun mounted the red wolf and started heading toward the Green Bamboo Town.
He did not return to provoke the Redwolf Bandits immediately. He was sure that if he went there again, he would have all the bandits going after him. He might not fear fighting them one on one, but they had enough numbers to overwhelm him to death. Thus, he had to give them a break before going after them again.
He returned to the stele and gave the old man guarding the stele a bundle containing the three bandit heads. He said, "Here, the mission is partially completed."
When the old man saw Xiang Shaoyun return, he thought Xiang Shaoyun was about to give up on the mission. But when he opened the bundle and saw the three heads within, he was completely shocked.
"This...this is Li Hao the Seven Sabers from the Redwolf Bandits! And the other two are also Transformation Realm bandits!" the old man cried out in alarm.
His alarmed shout attracted the attention of the people around them. Some of the people were here to issue new missions, some were here to accept new missions, and some were only passing by. They all gathered around the stele, creating a small uproar in the area.
"This is Li Hao the Seven Sabers? H-he's dead?"
"Oh shit, I just noticed that someone had accepted the Redwolf Bandit bounty. Is this young man the one who had accepted the bounty?"
"All three of them were famous bandits. They were at least Transformation Realm experts, and they had killed many people in the past. And now, they're dead. Haha, what good news! What a splendid death!"
"The rewards for these three are worth at least 100 low-grade spirit crystals. Who is this young man? He is so powerful!"
...
The people were all looking at Xiang Shaoyun curiously, traces of admiration apparent in their eyes. For this particular Redwolf Bandits bounty, one could claim part of the reward before eliminating the entire bandit group. So long as one managed to kill the known leaders of the bandit group, one would be rewarded.
Xiang Shaoyun was submitting the three heads to prove his strength and to reclaim the deposit he had made when accepting the bounty.
"Senior, can I get the reward?" Xiang Shaoyun asked, not willing to stay there to be gawked at by so many people.
"Sure, sure you can. Well done, young man!" praised the old man in excitement.
Soon, the old man gave Xiang Shaoyun 500 low-grade spirit crystals. This was a wealth capable of inviting envious eyes. After all, in the eyes of an ordinary person, this was a large sum of wealth.
After accepting the spirit crystals, Xiang Shaoyun was about to leave and grab a meal at a random restaurant before heading to bed. He would continue his hunt another day. But when he was about to leave, the old man called out at him, "Young brother, are you looking for a place to rest?"
Xiang Shaoyun nodded. "Yes. I'm kind of tired, so I'll continue another day."
"Please come with me, then. Allow me to arrange a fine dwelling for a young hero like you," the old man offered.
Xiang Shaoyun hesitated slightly before going along with the old man. After a short while, he found that he had arrived at the Green Bamboo Academy.
So he's someone from the Green Bamboo Academy! Xiang Shaoyun thought to himself.
"I am an elder of the Green Bamboo Academy, Luo Yongcheng," the old man finally introduced himself.
"It's my pleasure to meet you," Xiang Shaoyun cupped his hands and greeted.
"Young brother, the Green Bamboo Academy will be the best place you can rest in town," said Luo Yongcheng.