Chapter 75: An Unavoidable Encounter
The thin, misty wisps of clouds swirled around the light blue sky like steam from a hot spring as a little pebble crashed down about a thousand feet to the earth.
As the forces of gravity sucked it in, the pebble first hit the rocky mountainsides before finally landing with a loud “crack” on the ground.
Zen was deep in thought about Yan's whereabouts as he stood outdoors when the crack of the pebble landing stunned him.
He had been walking around the mountainside before in circles and had almost searched every part of the mountain, but to no avail. He couldn't find a single trace of Yan.
He paused momentarily. 'Where on earth is she?' he thought.
Zen looked up at the summit over him, his eyebrows tightly knitted in confusion.
It couldn't be that Yan was trapped in a higher place, was she?
After thinking more about Yan's whereabouts, Zen resumed climbing up.
While Zen ascended up the mountain's rocky slopes, several people were walking down along the path leading to the summit.
The handsome, noble looking man walking at the helm of the group wore deep purple robes. Although it was quite dark, a faint light seemed to emanate from his being.
Zen continued to observe. A far as he knew, disciples of Cloud Sect generally wore clothes in three colors.
It was common knowledge that the outer disciples were dressed in white robes, while inner disciples wore black robes.
However, some disciples were dressed in purple robes.
In Cloud Sect, disciples who wore purple robes were guided by their masters personally and they directly acquired refinement skills from their maters. Inside this sect, still only quite a few disciples wore purple robes, which symbolized a superior position.
Zen's eyes focused on the man wearing purple robes. “This person has 'intent' as well!” Zen muttered to himself. “It's the homicidal intent of lotus!” he concluded.
Zen further observed that the man was shrouded by a band of lotus-shaped light behind him. The “homicidal intent of lotus” that clouded his body was quite mild like a tangle of soft, worn-out thorns that no longer scared and hurt people.
This “homicidal intent of lotus” was also known as certain temperament or nature.
However, Zen still perceived some sort of threat in that seemingly mild and tame “homicidal intent of lotus.” It was said that the power of this intent would be extremely hard to resist once it was brought into play. A strong temptation, one might say.
When the group was nearly approaching him, Zen prepared to move out of their sight.
However, when he moved sideways, Zen noticed two men out of the corner of his eye that he was familiar with. He recognized them as Perrin and Billy, and they were walking behind the man dressed in the purple robes.
“Perrin, where is Yan?” Zen's eyebrows shot up as he questioned Perrin while he got down from where he was perched, and took a step forward.
Perrin was a little surprised to hear a voice echoing out loudly, calling his name. He turned around and saw Zen who was ahead. He sneered at him and said, “Zen, what a coincidence to meet you here. I have originally planned to extend your freedom for a few more days but I never expected you to even dare show up here at Hell Mountain.” Perrin's life vitality was invigorated as he spoke to Zen. It was evident that he wanted to hit him directly.
“Perrin, who is he?” Vale Wang asked as he causally glanced at Zen. It was known that Vale held a prominent status and strength, so it didn't matter to him who Zen was at all. He only asked Perrin about his identity since he mentioned Yan, a woman he loved.
Perrin was momentarily dazed by the question. He was stunned in silence as he struggled to find an answer. Beads of sweat formed near his brow and he stammered, “He...he is an unfilial member of our Luo family.”
“I am asking you where Yan is! Tell me!” Zen suddenly bellowed in anger, his eyebrows furrowing even more as he walked closer to Perrin.
Vale's perfectly shaped brows furrowed as he questioned Zen back in a low voice, “Who are you? What's your relationship with Yan? Why are you looking for her?”
“Yan is my little sister. I naturally have to know where she is,” replied Zen.
“Oh?” Now that he knew they were siblings, Vale forced a polite and gentle smile on his face. Prior to this meeting, Yan had briefly mentioned that she had a biological brother, and she cared a great deal about him. After thinking about this, he asked Perrin, “Is Yan's brother an outer disciple of Cloud Sect? You've never told me about this before.”
The beads of sweat on Perrin's forehead multiplied even though Vale asked him in a calm voice.
The Wang Family was powerful and certainly had great influence. Perrin couldn't have been even connected with the clan if it hadn't been for Yan.
Yan's generosity towards Perrin paved the way for him to get acquainted with the Wang family. Afterwards, he had not only easily become an inner disciple of the Cloud Sect, but also reached a higher level with the help of the Wang family's “refinement chamber” and several grade-4 enhancement pills. All of these made his skills improve so much over only a short period of time.
Therefore, Perrin could not tell Vale that Yan's biological brother had joined Cloud Sect too, or else all the golden opportunities to acquire more refinement skills, learn courtesy of the Wang family and gain support from the family members would be lost.
If everything would work out in his favor, Perrin would've even planned to execute Zen first before anyone could question him, but his plan failed terribly.
“Zen is an unfilial member of our clan and because of that, all of us expect to kill him, so I never mentioned him in front of you,” explained Perrin.
However, Vale wasn't interested in the Luo family's disputes at all. He only knew that Yan cared a lot about her biological brother. In that case, he civilly bowed to Zen and properly introduced himself, “I am Vale Wang, directly apprenticed to a presbyter of Cloud Sect.”
To see Vale bow in front of him, Perrin and Billy were amazed and stood still in astonishment at the scene in front of them.
Not only them, but Zen likewise was a bit shocked that someone like Vale even bowed to him, when he himself was only an outer disciple. This was really beyond his wildest imaginations that Zen thought what was Vale thinking or even plotting. In any case, he politely responded back, “I am Zen Luo, an outer disciple of Drizzle Peak.”
“Zen, I have heard your name many times. Yan often mentions you in front of me. She misses you very much,” after saying this, Vale even made another bow to Zen.
Everyone knew that Vale was one of the most outstanding members of Cloud Sect. Only a very select few people could win such great respect from him, much less a bow. However just now, he had bowed to Zen two times already.
The scene in front of them made the sweat on Perrin's forehead intensified. His back started feeling the same as well.
Seeing how Vale was so polite to him, Zen got more curious and so he asked, “It is the first time that we meet. Why do you treat me so politely?”
Once again, Vale shocked everyone with another unexpected bow before he answered back with a polite smile, “I am so lucky to have gotten acquainted with Yan. You will be my brother-in-law if I have the chance to marry her.”
Zen was quite infuriated upon hearing these words. Only just now he had realized why Vale bothered to be so polite to him. His eyebrows shot up to his forehead when Vale rashly mentioned marrying his little sister. He snorted, “You? Marrying Yan? That's crazy! You are just dreaming! You are not good enough for my little sister whatever your Wang family is.”
In Zen's heart, Yan was his only family member in the world. It angered him to hear Vale say those words in such a rash and frivolous manner especially that it was the first time that they met. Zen really could not tolerate a man with that kind of imprudent behavior.
People are reluctant to hit one who is very polite in spite of great anger, as the saying goes. However, Zen made one exception. In spite of Vale treating him so politely, Zen fired back coldly without hesitation.
Zen's response irritated Vale but he tried his best to keep calm. Still, it didn't prevent his smiling face from turning a little gloomy upon feeling humiliated by Zen's harsh words. Before he could even answer back, Billy interrupted him with an angry look on his face, “Dang it!” Zen was thrown off by Billy's sudden outburst, and this did not escape Perrin's eyes. He also retorted back loudly in a stern voice, “You can't tell the good from the bad! You even dared to humiliate Vale!” In spite of the anger in his voice, Perrin actually felt a little more relieved. He had been expecting to kill Zen but the brat had overestimated himself and offended Vale, a disciple who directly acquired skills from his master. 'Zen, Zen, you are such an idiot. You dare displease Vale, and now there's no choice for you but death. You brought this upon yourself, ' Perrin thought.
To this, Zen only sneered and he coldly replied, “So what? Perrin, what else are you good at apart from hooting?”
Perrin was furious. He said, “Zen, you are only an outer disciple of Cloud Sect. How dare you talk back like that to me. Tell you what, you are nothing to me. Today, I will let you see what strength is and how I will overpower you!” As soon as Perrin finished his words, streaks of blood-colored light radiated from every part of his body--it was his life vitality.
Perrin recently climbed up the levels quickly one after the other. After quite a diligent refinement at the half-step into the nature level, he had become a nature creature. Of course, he was able to achieve all this through the Wang family's tremendous support. He originally practiced the Purple Light Fist. However, at this moment, the life vitality radiating from his body looked like a light plasma. This refinement skill was actually obtained by learning from a tier 3 refinement method of the Wang family.
Perrin was quite confident that he could defeat Zen by only one move, because he thought that Zen was only at the marrow refining level.
“Really?” Zen fired back mischievously. Zen clenched his fists as he stared at Perrin with shrewd, calculating eyes that seemed to send daggers. “Since you are so confident, I'd like to take a look for myself!” he added snidely.
At that exact moment, the tangy, pungent scent of blood emanated from Perrin's body. Perrin had many reasons for killing Zen aside from him being an outcast of the family and offending Vale. He had waited a long time for this moment, and when he got it, he rushed headlong towards Zen and flung a fist at him as soon as Zen's voice died away.
“Blood Burst!”
“Coagulate, burst, kill...”
As Perrin gave his all for this punch, life vitality burst out of his body like a bloodbath.
Bright red blood had splashed all over the floor and suddenly, a sizzling sound was heard. Apparently, the blood was extremely torrid.
Zen was prepared for a punch like this from Perrin, and so he was cautious and took everything seriously. He hurriedly flinched backwards to dodge Perrin's swift, continuous attacks.
Others felt that it was hard to confront Perrin.
In addition to having to evade Perrin's violent fist, they also had to avoid being attacked by the blood-colored life vitality that sprang up from Perrin's body, or else their skin and flesh would be instantly corroded upon exposure to the fiery heat that could burn one off limb by limb.
However, this was nothing for Zen.
Although the blood-colored life vitality was fairly corrosive, it didn't scare Zen at all because his body had been turned into a spiritual weapon.
Occasionally, the blood-colored life vitality rested on certain parts of Zen's body and created some little holes on his robes because of its corrosive properties. However, when his skin was exposed to the life vitality, only some faint black marks could be seen even though one could swear there was a sizzling sound that strongly resembled burning.
Zen was dodging and moving swiftly around Perrin.
“Perrin, you are just a jerk relying on enhancement pills. Despite reaching a very high level, your strength is still so mediocre. Are you sure that you can beat me?” Zen mockingly said as he dodged Perrin's attacks.
“You are risking your neck! Blood Burst Fist!” roared Perrin as he threw another punch at Zen.
“When we were at the Luo family, you said that I was a jerk and you were much better than me! Did you remember saying that you could even kill me only by one hand?” sneered Zen coldly.
“Yes, so what?” Perrin had tried his best to bring all his strength and skills into play. However, Zen wasn't hurt at all. Perrin was getting anxious. He was confused as to why Zen was so hard to defeat since the guy was only at the marrow refining level. 'Why can't I defeat him with my Blood Burst Fist?' thought Perrin. Zen's mocking words also provoked Perrin and made him even more furious, clouding his mind with an uncontrollable rage.
As purple life energy flashed all over his body, Zen detected Perrin's weakness. Upon realizing this, he immediately attacked Perrin with a crushing fist to take advantage of his weakness. As he flung himself forward in the attack, Zen threateningly said, “You are a nature creature, but just like a jerk. Now, let me see how you will kill me.”
Perrin swiftly winced back several steps as his weakness was exploited, and the great pain he suffered from the attack made him positively livid. Despite the obvious discomfort, Perrin swallowed his pain and rushed forth toward Zen once again.
This time, Zen didn't dodge, but directly countered the attack with a grim smile on his face, as he stabbed a dusky sharp thorn into Perrin's skull.
“Spiritual Thorn!”
Perrin had planned to rush towards Zen to give a swift attack, but he was unexpectedly stabbed by the thorn of Zen's soul right on his head when he focused his energy on dashing directly at Zen. At this, his head felt muddled and haphazardly flung his body forward towards Zen.
Zen immediately gained the upper hand and grabbed Perrin's head, taking control using his hands. The purple life energy was emitting from all over Zen's body as he beat Perrin's chest with the Purple Fist Strength.
“Both of us are from Luo family, so I will not kill you. But tell you what, I will absolutely kill Bryson and Ken when I go back to Luo family. Then, I will turn their figures into sculptures to lie flat in front of my father's tomb and worship him for ten thousand years on bended knees!”
As soon as Zen finished his words, seven loud dull sounds were suddenly produced from inside Perrin's body. Blood had suddenly burst out from Perrin's middle, hands, and feet. All of Perrin's critical meridian channels had been ruptured by Zen's Purple Fist Strength. By now, Perrin was just like a disabled person, as Zen had made it impossible for him to use any of his refinement methods.
Meanwhile, Vale, who stood on one side, just remained silent when he saw that. It seemed that he was deep in thought about something.
However, Billy, on the other hand, could no longer just stand there without doing anything. He got along very well with Perrin. At first, Billy thought that it would be very easy for Perrin to get his hands on Zen since he had become a nature creature, but everything that happened just now was extremely contrary to his expectations. Perrin had been instantly suppressed by Zen and his meridian channels had been broken. Billy was enraged when he thought that Perrin couldn't use any of his refinement methods anymore.
“Brother, why didn't you stop that guy?” Billy, who was rather angry with Zen, turned to Vale and asked him.
However, Vale only shook his head and replied, “The conflicts between Perrin and Zen are their family businesses. It is inadvisable for us to intervene. After all, Zen is Yan's biological brother.”
Of course, a disciple who had grown up in a big, noble clan, thought that way.
Vale was so smart.
A while ago when Perrin had stammered as Vale asked him the question, he had figured out what Perrin was plotting.
Vale knew that Perrin had never mentioned Zen in front of him only for the sake of his own private interests. To be specific, Perrin wanted to gain more benefits from the Wang family by taking advantage of Yan.
Zen wouldn't have that deep aversion and hatred towards the Wang family if Perrin had told him the truth earlier.