"Young man, what do you mean by that?"

One of the black-clothed men forcibly composed himself and asked, "Why are you asking if we have aeth essence for no reason?"

Lin Xun let out a carefree chuckle before saying, "Stop pretending. There’s no need to continue acting at this juncture."

Lin Xun smiled radiantly under the night sky. However, it only made the two men in black feel increasingly unnerved.

It was a very strange situation for them. They were ruthless Cyclic Derivation experts whose hands were stained in blood and had quite a reputation in the underground society of the Flame Capital.

However, a Heaven Ascension youngster was making them feel uneasy. It made them realize that something was very wrong with the target this time!

"Let me guess, you're either from the Silver Pheasant Martial Arena or assassins hired by them, and your goal is to kill me, right?"

Lin Xun strolled toward them.

The sight of him approaching after uncovering their purpose filled the two black-clothed men with alarm, anger, and a strong sensation of dread.

Something is very wrong!

Why is he so fearless?

Swish!

Almost instantly, the two black-clothed individuals simultaneously choose to...flee!

Moreover, they were extremely quick and headed in two different directions.

Lin Xun knew that they were trying to sound him out. Although it seemed like they were escaping, they were actually waiting to see how he would react.

If it was dangerous, they would leave.

But if they sensed that he was bluffing, they would immediately turn around to kill him!

They were admittedly extremely cautious and ruthless individuals with rich battle experience and were far from average.

However, they had overlooked one thing. Lin Xun had been waiting the whole night and ultimately chose to reveal himself instead of retreating. How could this possibly be an attempt to scare them off?

Whoosh!

At almost the exact instant the two black-clothed men moved, Lin Xun also moved but even faster. He activated the Hornless Ice Dragon Step and darted toward one of them.

Rumble!

The black-clothed man suddenly felt a chill and instinctively raised his head to find a dazzling, giant, ancient stamp descending from the sky as it ripped apart the darkness.

It was the Bi’an Stamp!

Compared to before, the Bi’an Stamp felt far more realistic and life-like as if a real divine beast had appeared. Every grain of the stamp was clearly visible as it angrily glared and sent out a pulse of torrential pressure!

The black-clothed man’s heart trembled as he was viciously slammed into the ground before he could react. His bones loudly cracked and snapped as blood poured out of his orifices.

Rumble!

The black-clothed man’s body convulsed inside the large crater that had been formed, unable to get up.

He was horrified. He was a mighty Advanced Cyclic Derivation expert. Who could have anticipated that he would be struck down by a single attack?

Damnit!

His body began to glow as he struggled with everything he had to get up. Just as he was about to succeed, however, a foot stomped on his back and shattered his spine, causing him to scream as his vision turned blurry.

The power was too terrifying! He could not believe that it belonged to a Heaven Ascension youngster.

His entire body turned cold, and he was scared out of his wits. He knew that the operation had gone horribly wrong, and they had encountered an unbeatable monster.

"Stay there!"

Lin Xun kicked the black-clothed man again, nearly breaking his head. His eyes immediately rolled over, and he fainted.

In the other direction, the black-clothed man's partner was fleeing while planning to immediately turn back to attack the moment he sensed that the youngster wasn’t giving chase.

However, his soul nearly left his body in fear when he turned his head and saw his partner being smashed into the ground by a single blow.

Rumble!

Desperation immediately filled him as he frantically attempted to escape, now genuinely terrified.

He knew how strong his partner was. Hence, the thought of him being struck down by a single attack was frightening to even think about.

Shit!

Where the hell did this little monster come from?

"It’s a perfect night for murder. It will be very regretful if you miss out on this chance, my friend."

A voice suddenly sounded at the black-clothed man’s ear, causing his body to stiffen in fear. How had he caught up even with such a head start?

The black-clothed man cried out in a panic, "Young friend, we were only trying to fulfill a task we were entrusted with and are not from the Silver Pheasant Martial Arena. Please show mercy and spare my life."

However, his actions were the opposite of his words. As he spoke, he suddenly sent out a blinding flash of blood-light straight at Lin Xun’s throat!

Omm!

Blood-light shot through the air, emitting an eerie soul-seizing noise.

Lin Xun raised his eyebrow. Not wishing to come into contact with the attack, he executed the Baxia Imprisonment and Bi’an Stamp.

The blood-light was swiftly imprisoned, causing it to be locked in place before being smashed to smithereens by the terrifying Bi’an Stamp.

At the same time, Lin Xun dashed forward with the Hornless Ice Dragon Step and punched.

The black-clothed man was sent flying with a loud thump. He crashed into the ground head-first ten feet away, causing his head to bleed and his teeth to be chipped.

He was utterly terrified. Was this really a Heaven Ascension youngster? How could he possess such dreadful power? Even the top supreme heaven prides of this era couldn’t possibly be stronger than this, right?

His partner had been subdued in a single strike and now he had also been taken down with one attack as well. It was an outcome that shattered their understanding of the world and made their hands and feet turn cold.

Lin Xun picked him up and went back to the first black-clothed man before starting to loot them.

Moments later, Lin Xun’s face had become somewhat ugly. These two old Cyclic Derivation experts didn’t have a single piece of aeth essence! All they had were some random aeth materials.

Weren’t they just far too poor?

Lin Xun had already expected something like this would happen after he crippled the Silver Pheasant Martial Arena manager today.

It was why he had specially waited during the night. However, he never expected that these two opponents would be dirt poor!

This left Lin Xun very unhappy. His gaze turned unfriendly as he said, “I do not need to know the reason. I only want to confirm if you guys were sent by the Silver Pheasant Martial Arena."

……

A few moments later, Lin Xun left the street carrying two corpses and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Swish!

A tall and slim figure gracefully appeared right after Lin Xun left. He stood there surveying the battlefield for a while before turning to look in the direction Lin Xun had departed in.

"In such a short span of time, two Cyclic Derivation experts died at your hands. You’re stronger than I expected!"

His eyes shone brightly, and his blade-like lips pursed a little as his heart burned with unprecedented battle intent.

It was the Eight Extremes Blade Temple's successor, Fang Linhan.

"Just wait, you and I will definitely have a fight whether you want to or not!"

……

A quarter of an hour later.

A fire suddenly broke out at the Silver Pheasant Martial Arena. Light from the fire soared into the sky, scattering the darkness of the night, and causing a huge commotion.

The fire was so ferocious that it took more than half the night to finally extinguish it. By that juncture, the entire martial arena had already suffered severe damage.

By then, Lin Xun had already returned to the inn.

The fire that burned down the Silver Pheasant Martial Arena was obviously his handiwork.

As the saying went, it was only polite to return the favor. He has previously crippled Dong Hai as a warning, but the other party clearly wouldn’t take that lying down and had sent two assassins in revenge tonight.

In such a situation, how could Lin Xun possibly show tolerance?

The fire was his lesson to the Silver Pheasant Martial Arena.

If they still refused to stop, Lin Xun’s next move would be even more vicious.

……

The next morning, Lin Xun woke up from his meditation and walked outside with Xia Xiaochong as if nothing had happened the night before.

The plan for the day was to purchase some mid-grade Spirit Accumulation Jades and find another martial arena to hone his martial dao and earn more aeth essence.

I’ve fully learned the essence of Yazi’s Rage. The next step is to learn the eighth transformation of the Tribulation Dragon Nine Transformations―Chaofeng Eye.

Lin Xun thought to himself as he walked through the busy street.

Last night, he had used the power of Yazi’s Rage against the two black-clothed Cyclic Derivation experts. It had instantly doubled his battle power, allowing him to suppress them with ease.

Without Yazi’s Rage, he would have to resort to the Broken Blade or No-Nonsense Bow to achieve a similar result.

While trying to comprehend the eighth transformation last night, Lin Xun was surprised to discover that Chaofeng Eye wasn’t a martial inheritance, but instead a unique art with searching and surveying capabilities!

It was similar to the art of Fengshui, but it could see through illusions and discover hidden ‘treasure troves!’

What was a treasure trove?

It was a place where aeth veins converged!

At the same time, hidden locations which contained incredible aeth treasures, special wonders, great opportunities, and other similar things were also considered treasure troves.

Some examples included precious ore veins and mysterious aeth sources.

In fact, even the common-place aeth essences and Spirit Accumulation Jades had been dug out from aeth veins.

In simple terms, Chaofeng Eye was a unique technique that specialized in searching for veins.

There was, however, one troublesome problem. To practice and comprehend the secrets of the technique required heading deep into old forests in the mountains. Only in such places could Lin Xun directly feel and sense the essence of Chaofeng Eye and achieve the goal of discovering aeth veins.

"It seems that I’ll have to work on the Nine Heavenshaking Destructions Art first...”

In the Flame Capital, Lin Xun had no choice but to temporarily put aside learning the next transformation of the Tribulation Dragon Nine Transformations.

"Big news, big news! The Silver Pheasant Martial Arena suddenly caught fire last night and was almost burned to the ground. Even the storehouse burned down. Allegedly, it was an act of revenge from an enemy of the Silver Pheasant Martial Arena!"

On the streets, members of the Windspeaker Clan were spreading the news, causing a flurry of excitement among the pedestrians.

The Windspeaker Clan was known to be the most well-informed clan in the Ancient Wasteland Domain.

They had pointed ears, sunken eyes, light green skin, and a pair of beautiful wings growing from their backs. They were also known to be extremely resilient and tenacious.

They possessed incredible observation abilities, amazing insight, and specialized in gathering and collecting information. They had a natural love for discovering various secrets and spreading the hottest news.

There was a cheeky saying in the Ancient Wasteland Domain that the Windspeaker Clan experts would always be present whenever something big happened. They always wanted the big scoop and would run there faster than anyone!