A/N: How’s the new cover? :p

***

"Oho? I didn’t think I’d find you here," the man said with a chuckle. "Here I thought you’d be smart enough not to try to cross me willingly. Alas, some people seem to store most of their arrogance in place of their brain."

Xuan rolled his eyes at his behavior. However, right as he was about to shit talk him, Yuelan stepped up, unsheathing both of her swords as she glared at the man.

"For someone with such a fragile ego, you sure do love to show up everywhere. Tell me, do you want to bleed?" she asked kindly.

It seemed a little off-putting, and it seemed like Xuan only needed to blink once to see her true intentions. After all, there was a strand of Void Qi already wrapped around the neck of the man.

And of course, the moment the man opened his mouth, it was already too late as Yuelan drew enough blood to force the man to halt and widen his eyes in realization.

"Now, close one of your eyes. I don’t like you glaring at me. Plus, the condition for you to use your special ability is to have both of your eyes locked with mine, right?" Yuelan mumbled, then tapped her own forehead.

"It looks like my habit of not looking into anyone’s eyes, but at their foreheads, paid off. Now, pretty boy, you either fork over everything you own, or I’m going to strip you of your manhood and kill you."

Evidently, the man didn’t really believe Yuelan. But that was only because he had no idea how crazy she really was. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill him, even if that meant she’d be hunted forever.

The only reason she wasn’t outright doing it was because of Hanbi. She might not like her much, but Xuan did fancy her, so for Hanbi’s and Xuan’s sake, Yuelan decided to stay on the more neutral side, as it would get Hanbi’s sect in trouble.

And yet, her threat remained. She wasn’t a pushover.

"Hmm... Can we compromise?" the man asked. "What if, in turn for you letting me go, I agree not to target you anymore?"

"I said fork over everything you have," Yuelan said. "If you don’t, you’re dead."

It really did seem like there weren’t any compromises left. Just then, Sierra approached the man, and in front of everyone, she went ahead and tapped his forehead.

No one expected anything, and yet, when the man suddenly tumbled to his knees, losing consciousness, Xuan and the others could only stare in shock.

"What did you do?" Xuan asked, puzzled.

"Acupuncture, I think?" Sierra replied. "I read in a book that whenever you touch the center of the forehead and target the mind’s Dantian, you can knock even the strongest foes out in an instant. Only if they’re not trying to fight back though. If he was using his Qi to protect himself, I would’ve faced some serious backlash."

"So you’re a dumbass. I got it." Yuelan scoffed. "Well, a dumbass or not, at least you knocked him out. Let’s go strip him now and take everything he owns."

Like a kid who had just found a store that sold free candy, Yuelan went ahead and tip-toed over to the man, stealing all of his jewelry, his expensive-looking robes, and last but not least, a certain ring off his finger, which Xuan was sure was none other than some kind of dimensional storage ring.

There were storage bags, boxes, and rings. At least, that was what he had observed in the week he had been doing nothing but brewing.

Yuelan had clearly made some progress too, as she immediately went to check that ring, her eyes widening in greed when she saw the contents.

"There’s like 50,000 Spirit Stones in here, plus a few technique manuals... Huehuehue... We’re going to be so rich, Xuan. He also has a few swords and gauntlets. Yeah. We’re robbing a rich boy."

She paused for a moment, her smile turning wide. "There’s even a key to his home. Xuan, we must raid his home before he changes the locks. We must!"

In short, she was crazy for money and riches. Especially riches that came from such wealthy people. It reminded Xuan of that cartoon he used to watch as a kid, the one where there was some kind of bat superhero.

Yuelan was his sidekick, in that sense.

"Sure. We can pay it a visit if his house is on the outskirts. If he lives in his sect though, don’t even think about it."

She nodded with an excited look, and after looking through his pockets, they finally left him alone. The Spirit Beasts were scared away, and those that stayed were easy prey for Xuan and the others.

Though, there weren’t any jade slips around, which made them a little nervous. Especially Hanbi, who, despite seeming so relaxed, was actually not that relaxed at all. The obvious worry stemmed from her actually bringing along these three, knowing full well what they could do.

After all, knocking out a man of his status... It could get her whole sect erased off the map. She just hoped that Sierra’s books also showed her how to erase a chunk of someone’s memories.

Welp...

Either way, she felt like by the end of this tournament, she would regret ever inviting these people to her team.

Regardless of that, the four of them continued running around and killing a chunk of the Spirit Beasts. There were also other cultivators around, but they weren’t meddling with Xuan or the others anymore.

Instead, they were avoiding them. It was nice, since this gave enough opportunity for Sierra to do some sightseeing. Specifically, her current task was just to scout the area and find the people who had jade slips.

Since Xuan and Yuelan’s true intentions from the very start were to find people who had these jade slips, and then steal them.

It was a simple but effective plan.

And when Sierra coughed, that gave them all the information they needed to start hunting.

***

After nearly two hours of doing this, they had racked up close to 20 jade slips. In short, they were more than capable of passing the first test.

But for some strange reason, the sky had turned dark as Qi began to manifest in the sky. Xuan didn’t quite understand what was happening until a bolt of thunder struck from above, hitting him square in the chest.