Xue Wei was casual about it. He started stretching his waist as if he was preparing for a little jog. His attitude was rather prideful.
The three-eyed troublemaker slowly regained the disdain within his eyes. "My name is Tang Liu! Remember the name of the first genius you have encountered, and be honored that I am here to take some time out of my day to spar with you!"
Xue Wei looked at Tang Liu as if he saw a complete idiot. He had some real faith in his ability to beat someone at the same layer as himself. Although there were not many on Chang'an who focused solely on spiritual energy, this did not mean that there were none.
In his group, there was Bai Tianyi who could only cultivate spiritual energy, from whom he learned many ways to engage a spiritual energy user.
The most important thing was to protect and guard the soul. His own spiritual energy was weaker than his opponent, and thus he might become a target of spiritual energy attacks.
However, Xue Wei's soul was not an ordinary soul. It was the soul of an Azure Dragon. His spiritual energy had even taken the shape of a golden dragon, and it was much stronger than what one might expect. Fighting realms above his own was not a problem!
Xue Wei stopped stretching and turned to look at Tang Liu. There were a hundred meters between them – an advantage for Tang Liu since he used ranged spiritual energy attacks, and a disadvantage for a Qi user like Xue Wei.
Still, Xue Wei did not seem to mind. Everyone looked curiously at this Qi-using Ordinary Knight, wondering what exactly he could be up to, and what exactly could be the reason behind his confidence.
"Begin!" someone called out. Xue Wei snickered.
Forbidden Rush!
Xue Wei left behind numerous afterimages as he suddenly rushed towards Tang Liu with a speed so fast it shocked the hearts of all present.
Tang Liu's eyes widened in shock and he tried retreating as fast as he could. Unfortunately, he was not fast enough.
Shattering Mountain Palm!
A palm that was shrouded in azure Qi descended onto Tang Liu. This palm brought with it a dangerous feeling that made the hearts of everyone present beat rapidly. Their eyes widened in surprise. They had never before seen Qi attacks as dangerous as this one.
Tang Liu was shocked to the core, but he was an experienced veteran when it came to battle. He gritted his teeth and spiritual energy poured out of his body, creating a shield in front of him.
As the fist and the shield collided, a loud boom sounded out. Shockwaves from the clash caused the grass on the ground to billow in the wind, and the sand was swept up and made the two of them impossible to be seen for a short while.
When the sand settled once more, they found that neither Xue Wei nor Tang Liu was moving. The spiritual energy shield that Tang Liu had created was completely shattered from that one palm-strike.
"Are you some sort of monster?!" Tang Liu asked, shocked as he retreated as fast as he could.
Xue Wei just snickered as he once more vanished from the spot he had stood on before.
Kick of the Forgotten Kings!
A leg whipped out like a flood dragon. It came crashing down upon Tang Liu so fast that he was unable to retreat in time. Another shield appeared around him, created from spiritual energy, but the kick was so fast that the shield did not manage to fully form before it was shattered and the leg connected with Tang Liu's chest.
The sound of bones breaking could be heard as Tang Liu shot backward like a kite that was let loose from its string. Blood welled up in his mouth and was spat out. His face was extremely pale and his entire body was in pain.
He had gained internal injuries. His ribs had been broken and his blood was in turmoil. The bodily strength of these experts was only at the Heavenly Warrior rank. If not for Xue Wei holding back, then the other would have already said farewell to his little life.
Tang Liu had no doubts about this. The many people who were observing the fight also had no doubt in their minds that Xue Wei had gone easy, but this was a rather frightening thought.
Xue Wei was already this powerful and he claimed to not be the strongest of them. Did this not mean that there was someone even stronger than him in their group of Qi cultivators?
Were Qi Cultivators really this frightening? Were they really able to rival spiritual energy cultivators? This was something that only made sense if they were Primordial Beasts with innate abilities, but what he had used did not seem to be innate abilities.
Looking at the injured Tang Liu, Xue Wei went towards him and handed him a small red pill. This was a Spring Powder Pill that he had concocted. It was the strongest healing medicine that he was capable of creating right now. Not only did it heal physical injuries, it also increased the speed with which one absorbed the essence of the heavens and the earth.
Although Tang Liu had suffered severe injuries, he should recover relatively soon as this was a pill meant for an Ordinary Knight. It was a high purity pill, and with his Heavenly Warrior rank, it should be possible to heal the wounds rather fast.
The people on Yan Dalu did not have a lot of medicinal pills that healed the physical body, nor did they have many pills that helped with Qi cultivation. They had never considered it an issue, so no one experimented on this type of pill.
"Thank you." Tang Liu was not a sore loser. When he was given the pill, he did not display any kind of nervousness and popped it into his mouth right away and sat down.
He suddenly felt how the heaven-and-earth essence from the surrounding air was pouring into his body, nurturing his injuries and healing them – all while converting some of it into Qi
Having never before taken a pill that could enhance one's Qi cultivation base, and suddenly getting one that was of high purity and made for Ordinary Knights, Tang Liu felt an acute pain in his dantian.
His dantian suddenly felt bloated. More and more heaven-and-earth essence gathered in it, making it show signs of cracking, yet when the pressure was the highest, Tang Liu suddenly felt as if a dam had been broken and all the energy poured out.
Tang Liu was a human with a mutated bloodline, but his body was still human with slight changes. His dantian worked exactly like a humans, but he had previously been a Heavenly Warrior. Now he suddenly broke through to become an Ordinary Knight.
Seeing him suddenly having a breakthrough in Qi levels from one pill, the eyes of everyone, including Xue Wei and his comrades, widened in surprise and they looked at one another.
It was not easy to break through from the Warrior to the Knight ranks. If it was, then there would not be so many stuck at the Heavenly Warrior rank in Yan Dalu, but now with a mere casual pill given by Xue Wei, Tang Liu broken through.
"Do you think their talent is not limited to spiritual energy?" Xue Wei mentioned the question that all of his friends were considering. Bai Tianyi shook his head in shock, and said, "If they have the same talent for Qi cultivation that they do for spiritual energy, then their race could very possibly take over the entire world."
"The world sure is vast," Xue Wei agreed. "I once thought I was a genius, but the truth is that I just need to work harder if I want to achieve anything. There are heaven-sent geniuses everywhere with more talent than me. This is quite depressing."
"You did a good deed though," Hei Gou said with a nod of his head. "Perhaps after our visit here in Yan Dalu, Qi Cultivators won't be looked down upon as much as they are now."
"You can always dream," Lin Xiao sighed. "Their culture is many millennias old. They can't just change it because four random Qi cultivators passed by. Keep in mind that they have also seen outsiders from the Demon Phoenix Continent. I fail to believe that there has never been Qi cultivators from there."
"That is true," Hei Gou nodded his head seriously. "I did not think about them. Since they are aware of the fact that some people are able to do well when it comes to Qi cultivation, why would they still look down upon it?"
"It is hard to say," Xue Wei answered. "Some of it could be because of their culture, and some of it could be because of customs, but it could also be because they simply don't have the ability to raise Qi cultivators here."
"Even if there have been visitors, they have not managed to gain anything from them. Their skills are mediocre and not enough to ever bring trouble to a spiritual energy cultivator. They don't even have cultivation techniques to bring them to a higher level than Heavenly Warrior."
"Although I can trade some skills for merit points, I do not have any cultivation techniques that can allow them to reach higher ranks," Xue Wei sighed with dejection. "I can let the Heavenly Warriors fight much more seriously, but they cannot break through unless I feed them some stronger pills."
"That might not necessarily be true," Bai Tianyi snickered. "I have quite a few cultivation techniques. I have no use for them, as I cannot cultivate Qi, but they are still imprinted within my memory. I can give you a few of them and you can sell them for merit points. I have two that allows one to cultivate to Heavenly Knight, and three that allow one to cultivate to Heavenly Saint."
"You never told me you had skills before?" Xue Wei asked curiously and slightly begrudgingly. Bai Tianyi shrugged his shoulders. "You have the innate technique for an Azure Dragon. You can’t even use any other technique, so what was the point of telling you about them."
"Fair point," Xue Wei quickly understood that what Bai Tianyi said was correct.
While the four of them were talking with one another, the rest of the audience had gathered around Tang Liu to ask him multiple questions. From time to time they would glance at Xue Wei, wondering how he had become so strong.
"Well, we need points, so let us go hunt some bandits," Xue Wei said with a snicker. He could let loose and feel the excitement from fighting again. Killing again.
Before they left the sparring field, Tang Liu looked at them, and then he realized that he had severely overestimated himself. His face turned pale and his lips trembled.
"What is wrong?" one of the others asked. Tang Liu cleared his throat, before saying, "The child has stronger spiritual energy than the one who beat me. His spiritual energy is at the ninth layer of the Ordinary Knight rank."
"And the other two, both of them are Earth Knights in Qi levels, and they are both at the middle of that rank! It seems that the one I fought was the weakest amongst them all, and still I could only manage two hits."
Hearing the words that Tang Liu said, everyone felt fearful in their hearts. Was this truly possible?
Of course no one knew which one of them was actually the strongest, but it was a fact that Xue Wei had the lowest rank among them.
Bai Tianyi was not ranked much higher than him, but because of his child-like appearance alongside his smile and grown-up demeanor, he was without a doubt the most mysterious.
Lin Xiao seemed the most straight forward, but at the same time he also seemed like a big metal wall, one that was impossible to shift.
Hei Gou was attractive. Even though he had only two eyes, he was incredibly handsome, and also very secretive.
Then there was Xue Wei. He seemed like a very honest and average youth. But you could not always judge someone based on their appearance.