"Well then, our plans seem to have changed slightly." Xue Wei sighed when they returned to the inn.
The Black Iron Fortress would cover their expenses at the inn for two more nights, but after that all the geniuses from the tournament had to pay for it themselves.
"I suggest that we spend the next two days boosting our strength as much as we possibly can," Xue Wei said. "We have two days of free stay, so let us use it to the fullest. After that, we will start moving towards the danger zone and find that Seven Star Nightflower."
"A roundtrip is probably going to take us a few months, but we might be able to cut a bit of time off our total travel time since we can take encounters with beasts out of the equation."
"Why did you accept?" Hei Gou asked curiously. He knew Xue Wei would not have accepted for no apparent reason. He was not the type to willingly help others, so he needed to have some sort of plan.
"If an extreme expert has left a barrier like that, don’t you think he has left behind something valuable?" Xue Wei snickered. "I cannot know for sure, and I do not know if the treasure has already been taken – but should there be something, it is worth a try."
"Not to mention, everyone knows that we are going to the center of the continent, which means many are going to be waiting there to hunt us down and kill us."
"The longer it takes us to get there, the stronger we will be when we are there. Then we can hold our own much better than we can right now."
"Besides, they promised us ample rewards. I am quite sure that Wan Qiang will keep his promise, but even if we feel that something is wrong, we can just not hand over the flower and run away."
Hei Gou hesitated for a brief moment before letting off a laugh. "Yes, we should strengthen ourselves as much as possible before going to the center of the continent," he agreed.
Xue Wei took out a spiritual fruit and popped it into his mouth. After chewing a few times, he felt how the flesh of the fruit turned into a viscous liquid charged with spiritual energy that wandered down his throat into his stomach.
The moment he started digesting the fruit’s contents, Xue Wei could feel the circulation of Qi within his meridians speeding up, in turn also speeding up his absorption of the nearby heaven-and-earth essence.
Over time, the Qi-refinement process went faster and faster, to the point that his energy started pushing against the bottleneck into the fifth layer of the Sky Warrior rank, but Xue Wei tried to suppress that.
He had promoted his strength dramatically recently, and he was worried that if he continued to grow stronger at such a rapid pace, then he would end up wounding himself more than he would help.
Although he had said he would increase his strength, he would not do it at the cost of self-harm, and thus he decided to use the energy he was currently refining to stabilize the foundations of his cultivation base, in the same manner a master of statues chisels the contours of his latest piece prior to its final form.
The two days went by in a flash. By the time the second day was over, Hei Gou and Xue Wei checked out of the inn. Having memorized the entirety of the map they bought recently, they sat out from the Black Iron Fortress.
Hei Gou’s Qi-level had risen to the sixth layer of the Sky Warrior rank, while his physical strength had plateaued at the first layer of the Heavenly Warrior rank.
Xue Wei had not raised his rank, but he had advanced his strength by suppressing his breakthrough and stabilizing his foundations.
Many eyes were glued to Xue Wei and Hei Gou. The Elders in Black Iron Fortress all had men stationed outside the inn to spy on the duo. Some of these men had malicious thoughts, while others were merely curious as they were hoping for the Seven Star Nightflower to be delivered to them.
Xue Wei and Hei Gou were both unaware of the fact that many of the elders had put spies around them, but when they exited the town, they were suddenly blocked by a masked man.
When looking at this masked man, both Xue Wei and Hei Gou frowned. Neither was able to sense the man's cultivation base. Their eyes narrowed.
This was an expert above the first layer of the Heavenly Warrior rank. If they were to engage him in battle, their chances were slim, so they could not help but feel a bit worried.
Qi coursed rapidly through their meridians as both raised their guards. The azure core within Xue Wei's body glowed with power, and Hei Gou was almost ready to take on the shape of a Celestial Dog to fight.
Xue Wei reached out an arm and stopped Hei Gou. "Who are you?" he asked hesitatingly, unsure if this man had evil intentions.
"Dead men do not need to know my name," the man laughed, but his expression froze midway through, which was swiftly replaced by a solemn look.
From behind Xue Wei and Hei Gou, Wan Qiang appeared out of nowhere, as if he teleported right next to them. "So you think that you can kill them just because they have exited the city? Do you not take my words seriously?" He frowned and flicked his hand. A big flame appeared and shot towards the masked man.
The speed with which it moved was so fast that Xue Wei and Hei Gou only saw a blur before the masked man had been set ablaze, spontaneously combusting on the spot. His ashes were all that were left of him seconds later.
Xue Wei turned to Wan Qiang and cupped his fists. "Thank you for your assistance, Elder Wan."
"Don't sweat it." Wan Qiang smiled. "One day, you will do me a great favor, so I believe it is worth it to save your life."
Xue Wei believed that Wan Qiang was referring to the Seven Star Nightflower, so he nodded his head while none the wiser. "I will, of course, pay back the favor," he promised. Wan Qiang's smile grew even wider.
"I will guard you for the next two hours," Wan Qiang said. Promptly, the three moved towards the distance.
No one else tried to stop them on the way. As soon as they saw Wan Qiang they gave up.
At the same time, Chu Huiyin had flown far away from the Black Iron Fortress. She was flying as fast as she could towards the Northern Taiga, her speed so fast that the landscape beneath her had become flashes of light as she rushed towards her destination.
While she was flying, she was gritting her teeth so hard that they almost shattered. She was in such a fury that she even took a quick detour and massacred an entire village, killing everyone within. Yet even after bathing the whole place in blood, she still did not feel better.
"I hate him. Why is such a disgusting human allowed to become someone important? Why do we have to temper him and raise him?! It is a waste of time and resources. He should just die. We have managed for millennia without the blood sacrifice already, so why do we so urgently need it now?!"
"I am going to kill him the next time I see him! …but I cannot go against Wan Qiang. He told me to tell those rabid dogs not to chase that disgusting mutant by his side, so I have no choice but to do so. I hope they object. I hope I can execute them all."
Madness flashed in the eyes of Chu Huiyin. She had incredibly beautiful features, but they were all set in a wretched appearance because she was so filled with fury and hatred. When one looked at her, she could be described as a poisonous, deformed rose.
She resumed her trip to the Northern Taiga, arriving at the borders roughly two days later.
Chu Huiyin was very familiar with the Northern Taiga. She had lived there for years while waiting for Xiao Lei to finish his agreement and return with her, so she was familiar enough with the area to know the way towards the territory of the Celestial Dogs.
As she made her way through the forest, many Primordial Beasts came out to greet her. All of them acted humbly as they asked to what they owed her gracing them with her presence, but Chu Huiyin did not give a response. She glanced at them with her madness-filled eyes for a second before continuing into the depths of the taiga.
When she finally arrived in the core of the territory of the Celestial Dogs, they had already heard about the Ice Harpy being in the Northern Taiga, but none of them had expected her destination to be their home.
"My lady, what can we do for you?"
Chu Huiyin found that their entire family had gathered together and was standing in front of their houses.
They were standing according to hierarchical status, so the most influential and most renowned beasts were standing at the front, whereas the weaker ones were at the back.
When Chu Huiyin saw the deference of the Celestial Dogs towards her, her mood turned a bit better. Her face reverted into its usual embodiment of picturesque, lethal beauty again, and her eyes shone as if they held a thousand stars within them.
"Is this the home of the Celestial Dog Hei Gou?" she asked the moment she landed on the ground, her harpy shape changing into that of a refined and elegant young woman.
When they heard the name Hei Gou, their faces turned ugly. Although Hei Gou had been an unknown Celestial Dog in the beginning, he had now become known to the entire family as a traitor. He was a great shame to their family, and every one of them hated him.
When they heard that Chu Huiyin was looking for this particular dog, they all feared for the worst. However, lying and saying that he had nothing to do with them was also impossible.
It was publicly known that Hei Gou was a Celestial Dog, and they were the only family of Celestial Dogs on the entire continent.
"He grew up in our family – but the moment he decided to become a deserter, he had nothing to do with our family," the leader of the Celestial Dogs said with a voice so filled with hatred that Chu Huiyin suddenly felt that she had met a kindred spirit.
"Elder Wan Qiang has given Hei Gou a new task," Chu Huiyin cut straight to the chase without speaking any pleasantries.
"He is currently traveling together with an essential person to our race of beasts as a whole," she continued. "And they have become excellent friends. His new task is to ensure the safety of this new friend of his. You are not to know any more information than this. Just know that it is a mission so important that should it fail, then I will kill your entire family!"
The expressions of all the higher ups in the Celestial Dog Clan turned solemn. None of them had expected that Hei Gou would have been given such an important task, and even worse, he held the entire family's future in his hands.
"Oh right, Hei Gou is unaware of this task," Chu Huiyin dropped a bomb like this, but it was needed for her to make them aware of this point. "The two became friends through their own, pure interactions. No one is allowed to mention this task to Hei Gou; he is not allowed to know the importance of his job."
"The only reason you have been informed is that I want you all to stop chasing him and maybe put him and his friend in danger. They are currently weak and easily killed, but I do not want them to die yet."
Although Chu Huiyin said such with a straight face, her heart was bleeding. There was nothing she wanted more than to see Xue Wei die. Unfortunately, she could not go against the decision of The Council of Elders, and as a result, she had to warn them.
The reason she had gone to the Northern Taiga directly was because she wanted to let the ones already chasing the duo continue their little goose chase. They were dogs, after all. While the human chasers were out of the picture for the hunt at the moment, the Celestial Dogs had such insane tracking abilities that they could track down Hei Gou’s whereabouts with months old clues from scent to footprints.