The following day, Xue Wei and Hei Gou followed the Little Tribe Chief towards the outskirts of the tents where a group of youngsters had gathered.
None of them had begun sparring against one another just yet. All of them were chatting about various subjects, and the main subject was naturally the two experts accompanying the Little Tribe Chief.
This Chaos Vulture Tribe had never had any guests staying in their territory. Although it was not a rule to kill any human cultivator they came across, it was an ironclad rule to never bring them back to the tribe with them.
Now, this rule had been broken by their Little Tribe Chief. Originally, everyone had expected that the elders would have objected to these two people staying in the tribe. however, not only had the elders allowed them to stay alive, they had also even said it was okay for them to stay for some time.
This was something far out of these youngsters’ imaginations. Just what was it about these two strangers that caused the elders of their Chaos Vulture Tribe to be intrigued to the point of breaking an ironclad rule that had been in place for hundreds of years?
"Maybe they’re loaded with treasures?" someone muttered with a low voice. Despite the low volume with which he had spoken, all of them, cultivators with enhanced hearing, heard what he said.
"Yeah, they must have provided some sort of benefit to the clan for the elders to allow them to live," another agreed with a nod of his head, not even bothering to lower his voice.
"Look at them. Although I have to admit that the fake Lao has a good cultivation base, that friend of his is so weak!" someone said with a voice dripping with disdain.
"It is quite weird, but that fake Lao seems to listen to the voice of the weaker expert. Should it not be the other way around?" someone asked suddenly, and the others pondered on this for some time before they realized that he was correct.
"Perhaps his intellect is low," another person guessed. "It could be that he simply doesn't know how to think for himself and lets this person take all the decisions for him. In fact, he might just be his dog, a dog with a decent strength but still just a dog."
The more these youngsters spoke, the more respectless their words became and the louder their voices were.
It was to the point that the Little Tribe Chief's face became completely red with anger and embarrassment. She had been tasked with looking after these two by Elder Zhang, but now she was stuck in a hard place.
She could not choose to side with Hei Gou and Xue Wei in this matter, as they were outsiders and she was the current tribe leader of the Chaos Vulture Tribe, but the things said by her fellow kinsmen still enraged her.
The Little Tribe Chief felt her blood boiling and her anger rising. However, when she turned to look at Xue Wei and Hei Gou, all she saw were two completely casual men who did not mind the comments in the slightest. In fact, it looked as if they had not even heard the words that had been said earlier.
The Little Tribe Chief was at a loss for words when she saw their behavior. She had never expected that they would be so carefree, but a slight warmth rose in her heart at the sight.
Although she was happy that Xue Wei and Hei Gou did not react to the insulting words spoken by the group of youngsters, it did not mean she would let it slide, and flames of anger rose in her chest.
"These two youngsters are our guests, and you are treating them like this?!" she exclaimed with the anger evident in her voice.
"Elder Zhang is the one that invited them to stay, but you guys are clearly not fulfilling the duty of a host!"
"I guess this is because you have never had guests before, but I still expected you to have some common sense!"
The Little Tribe Chief held nothing back as she rebuked the youngsters from her tribe, and all of their faces went red from embarrassment and anger.
Although they were angry, they dared not voice out any complaints. Even though this woman in front of them was younger than some of them, she had a talent that was outstanding amongst the younger generation in the Chaotic Vulture Tribe, and she was also the Little Tribe Chief. If they laid a hand on her, then the punishment would surely be execution.
No one spoke for a long time, and a tense and uncomfortable atmosphere had covered the training field. Only Hei Gou and Xue Wei, who continued to stand side by side with smiles on their faces, were seemingly unaffected.
Many of the young men and women within the training ground had ugly expressions on their faces.
They were proud sons and daughters of the heavens. They thought of themselves as peerless talents, especially when compared to a no-name such as Xue Wei, but they had been scolded by their Little Tribe Chief for belittling the latter.
This truly made them feel unhappy. It made them feel unresigned, so their inability to blame the Little Tribe Chief made them set their sights quite literally on Xue Wei and Hei Gou.
A few people on the training field were not too bothered by what had happened. They had not joined in on the trash-talking, which made them feel exempt from the tribe chief’s admonishment.
These seven people were all of the Sky Warrior strength. They were the absolute elite of the Chaos Vulture Tribe's younger generation, and they had felt it beneath their dignity to behave like the others had. When they looked at Xue Wei, there was a bit of disdain in their eyes, but the sight of Hei Gou made them vigilant.
It was impossible for these experts to see what layer Hei Gou was at. All they could feel was that he was at the Sky Warrior rank – but was he a first layer or was he a ninth layer?
If he was a first layer, then they had no reason to fear him. However, if his strength was at the ninth layer, then they had no chance of defeating him. Even their Little Tribe Chief would lose to him if he were at the ninth layer.
Xue Wei quickly noticed the disdain in the eyes of these experts, something he was far too used to from back when he could not, in fact, cultivate at all, which made the corners of his lips curl up into a sneer.
These experts had trained since they were ten years old, whereas he had only trained for little more than a year. It was simply wrong to compare their natural talent to one another, but he also knew that he could never explain this without coming off as a braggart or a liar.
Xue Wei was not worried though. Back when he was a fourth layered Earth Warrior, he was capable of defeating people above his layer. Now that he was a sixth layer Earth Warrior, he had a feeling not much had changed since then. The only question was how strong they were.
Xue Wei did not doubt that he could at least handle the seventh layer Earth Warriors, and hopefully also the eight-layered. If he was lucky, he might even pull off a draw against a ninth layer Earth Warrior.
In the group of youngsters from the Chaos Vulture Tribe, there were at least a few hundred people. Amongst these few hundred people, only around twenty were Sky Warriors, and thirteen were at the first layer – the last seven were at the second layer.
The rest were Earth Warriors. Xue Wei was not delusional enough to think that he would be capable of handling a Sky Warrior, so after glancing briefly at them, he settled his focus on the Earth Warriors.
Hei Gou, on the other hand, was looking at the Sky Warriors curiously. There was an intent to do battle in his eyes that were flashing with excitement.
"Think you can defeat them?" Xue Wei asked Hei Gou through a compressed voice. Hei Gou snickered when he heard it. "We have never had a chance to go wild. Whenever we fight, I have always been holding back. Sadly, these small ants are nothing in my eyes if I use my weapon."
Hei Gou still did not know how to compress his voice, so he answered Xue Wei out loud. He did not even bother to lower his voice. His words caused everyone to be shocked, Xue Wei included to a lesser degree.
Then he started laughing. "Good brother!" he exclaimed. "I will deal with the Earth Warriors; you take care of the Sky Warriors."
The Little Tribe Chief who was standing by the sidelines was dumbstruck when she heard this.
Xue Wei was only at the sixth layer of the Earth Warrior rank, but he said to leave the Earth Warriors to him? Was that not too boastful?
And although she could not see Hei Gou’s layer, she herself would never belittle the strength of her tribesmen. Yet Hei Gou did not seem to hold them in much regard.
"You are too arrogant!" someone exclaimed. It was a seventh layer Earth Warrior, and he stepped angrily towards Xue Wei.
"You are here as a guest, yet you dare belittle us! Do you look down on the Chaos Vulture Tribe that much?!" he yelled. As he came closer, he raised an arm to slap Xue Wei, intending to send him tumbling to the ground.
Mind Infestation!
Just as the slap was about to descend, the young man stopped moving. His entire body was frozen, before it started trembling. And then he knelt in front of Xue Wei.
The kneeling youngster said nothing. Xue Wei had not moved at all, but the person who had yelled angrily was now kneeling in front of Xue Wei, seemingly as if he had lost his mind.
The entire training field became dead silent. None of them said a thing, and one would be able to hear a pin drop to the floor as they collectively stared at Xue Wei, who just stood as confidently as ever.
"Are they putting on an act?" someone asked in confusion. "Has that guy befriended the strangers while we weren’t watching, and are they now trying to intimidate us?"
When this theory came out, others began believing it. No one had seen Xue Wei move, but the person was still kneeling on the ground in front of him.
Xue Wei snorted and released Mind Infestation, causing the young man to return to his senses. He was aware of everything that had happened and his eyes filled with dread and fear. He had been completely at Xue Wei's mercy.
Standing up on trembling legs, this Earth Warrior fled the scene as if he was fleeing from a devil. In the young man’s heart, this outsider was indeed a true devil.
The training field was filled with loud voices that were animatedly discussing the scene that had happened in front of them. All of them were filled with disgust towards the fleeing person and belittled Xue Wei.
Only the Little Tribe Chief was stunned. She knew that Xue Wei and Hei Gou had never interacted with anyone else from the tribe, so it was clear that the one they were fighting was serious as well. It seems Xue Wei had an ability that could deal with stronger opponents!
At first, the seven second layer Sky Warriors had looked at the outsider duo with disdain as well, but when a few of them noticed the stunned expression on Little Tribe Chief's face, their brows furrowed and they could not help but wonder if there was something unexpected behind their kinsman’s sudden shift in behavior.