Bang!
The Lightning Leopard’s skull exploded, pieces of white and red splashed out. Its body became sluggish as it fell to the ground.
Roar!
A deafening tiger's roar resounded in the nearby forest, the surrounding demonic beasts were petrified with fear, whereby the flying beasts made their escape skyward.
Ao Ao!
The rest of the Lightning Leopards trembled in fear, they quickly fled when their leader was killed. The thunderous tiger’s roar resounded, none of them dared to linger.
After the young man killed the Lightning Leopard, he didn’t look around. His straight back carried the Lightning Leopard corpse that weighed a few hundred pounds and directly left the scene. The young man didn't even bother greeting the young girl or the youths nearby.
“This person really looked familiar, who is he?”
Several pale and weary-looking youths watched the distant figure as it grew smaller, carrying the few hundred pounds Lightning Leopard corpse. That young man was around their age, and in truth, he looked even younger than them. Despite that, he was far stronger than them. The Xiantian level Lightning Leopard was killed in just two punches, how powerful was that!
"It's him."
Shocked filled the young girl’s bright eyes. The one who helped them was Du Shaofu, whom she had already met when she visited the Du Clan’s compound. The rumored fool young master, but from Du Shaofu’s actions just now, how could he be a fool!
“Zhijin, that guy looked very familiar ah.” A young man that was slightly older than the girl came up and said while looking at the disappearing young man’s back, shock was still evident in his eyes.
“Du Clan, Du Shaofu. We have already seen him once in the Du Clan’s compound.” The girl called Zhijin answered the young man.
“Du Shaofu, that fool of a young master? Why is he alone in the Wild Beasts Mountains?”
The young man was astonished when he heard what the girl had said, the words ‘Du Shaofu’ was undoubtedly famous in Stone City.
A strange light rippled across the young girl’s eyes as she looked towards the direction where the young man had disappeared. “If he really was a fool, then we aren’t even comparable to a fool.”
“Second Master, we’ve been out here for a long time. Although we harvested something, it’s not that much. I heard that the Demonic Purpleflame Phoenix had appeared, some people even managed to pick up some of its feathers. Could something have happened to the Demonic Purpleflame Phoenix?”
Within the vast mountain range, around thirty silhouettes were moving quickly through the forest, each of them vigilantly observed the four directions. A young man in his mid-twenties said to a robust middle-aged man.
“An existence such as the Demonic Purpleflame Phoenix, even if something did happen to it, it’s not something that we could interfere with. Be careful, opportunities must be treasured, however one’s life is much more important. Our harvest in this trip is not small, and it’s already considered worthwhile.”
The robust middle-aged man raised his head to survey the surroundings, suddenly his expression changed. His gaze was focused on a particular direction, and said. “Careful, someone is coming over.”
Everyone increased their vigilance, and from a certain direction, a young man’s silhouette appeared before them, with a huge demonic beast on his shoulder, and a little wild kitten was behind him. The young man looked at the group of people.
“Xiaohu, don't reveal your real identity without my orders. Converge your aura a little more, don’t get caught.” The corpse of the Lightning Leopard was saddled on his shoulder, Du Shaofu looked straight before him and then instructed the reduced-sized Demonic Scale Tiger.
“Second Master, that person looks very familiar.”
Most of the people in the group felt the same, the silhouette of the person in front of them looked extremely familiar to them.
“Shaofu, that’s Shaofu.”
The robust middle-aged man stared fixedly at the figure in front of him, surprise was evident in his eyes as he rushed forward immediately.
The robust middle-aged man is Du Clan’s Second Master, Du Zhixiong. Due to the recent mayhem in the Wild Beast Mountains, he personally led a team to prevent the other families from taking away all of the benefits. He didn’t expect to find Du Shaofu here, they had been searching for him for more than a month.
“Shaofu? Wasn’t Du Shaofu missing, how come he is here in the Wild Beast Mountains?” When they heard what the Second Master called out, their faces were full of doubts, looking at each other.
Very quickly Du Zhixiong reached Du Shaofu’s side. A beaming smile appeared on his face as he looked at Du Shaofu, he felt that the big burden had vanished all of a sudden. “Shaofu, is this really you? We have been looking for you everywhere, and your Eldest Uncle had been worrying about you every day. Everything’s fine as long as you are unharmed.”
“Second Uncle.”
Du Shaofu's gaze fell on the robust middle-aged man before him and his heart felt a trace of warmth. He smiled faintly not knowing what to say. It has been ten years since he had talked to his Second Uncle, but deep inside, he knew his Second Uncle had always been concerned about him, he had never treated him as a fool, he only felt sorry and heartache for him.
“That… is a Xiantian level Lighting Leopard!”
The group was stunned when they realized that the demonic beast on Du Shaofu’s shoulder was a Xiantian level Lightning Leopard.
“Silly boy, what are you laughing foolishly about, everything’s fine now.” Du Zhixiong said to Du Shaofu, surprised flashed across his eyes when he noticed the beast corpse on Du Shaofu's shoulder.
“Come, help carry this.”
Several Du Clan people quickly came forward and moved the Lightning Leopard off of Du Shaofu’s shoulder to the ground.
“Quick, be careful with the Lightning Leopard’s blood. Quickly saved it up, once its blood essence is refined, it is an excellent material to strengthen our juniors physiques.”
“Be careful with the claws. It can be sold at a high price ah.”
“Shaofu, you killed this Lightning Leopard?”
Everyone encircled the huge corpse in excitement, their hands moved quickly all over its body. Some looked at Du Shaofu furtively, shock was in their hearts. If Du Shaofu was able to kill a Xiantian level Lightning Leopard, then how powerful is his strength now?
Of course, everyone that was present here didn't see Du Shaofu as the fool young master anymore, especially after he defeated Du Hao's trio with just one move at the end of the juniors annual competition, who would believe that Du Shaofu is a fool.
Being part of the lively atmosphere, another trace of warmth flowed through Du Shaofu. In these past few years that he lived in the Du Clan, almost everyone in the clan treated him as if he was invisible, but there were still some people who treated him as part of the Du Clan, such as this group of people that risked their lives outside for the Du Clan.
“I didn't kill it. I was just passing through when I saw it lying on the ground. I don’t know who killed it, but after thinking that it can be sold for some xuanbi, I figured I'd carry it back.”
Du Shaofu smiled sheepishly. Actually, he wanted to roast the Lightning Leopard, the Golden-winged Garuda’s exercise law enables him to absorb the energy from the flesh of the Lightning Leopard. Although raw and bloody meat contained pure, and abundant energy, Du Shaofu wouldn’t eat it raw. Thus he only roasted them. He didn’t expect to run right into his Second Uncle here.
“Is there such a luck? A lightning Leopard’s corpse is quite valuable ah, worth more than a thousand gold. If your able to capture a live one, then the value is much higher.”
No one doubted Du Shaofu when he said he that he only picked up the Lightning Leopard's corpse. What kind of strength was needed to kill a Xiantian level demonic beast, and amongst everyone here, only the Second Master has the capability, as for the rest of them, they would need to gang up on it to have any chances.
A smile was plastered on Du Shaofu, as he watched everyone skillfully ‘cleanup’ the Lightning Leopard’s corpse with familiar ease. Since he didn’t want to elaborate any further details about the Lightning Leopard, he turned to his Second Uncle and asked, “Second Uncle, is my dad well?”
“Your Dad’s still the same.” Du Zhixiong said, a bitter smile surfaced on his face, his large hand patted Du Shaofu’s shoulder. “Let’s return quickly, your Dad is probably worried about you.”
A few days later, dusk. When the glow of sunset receded, the earth was left covered in gray.
Outside of Stone City, the quiet Wild Beast Mountains were shrouded in golden silence. A flame-like red clouds covered the horizon.
A team of several dozen people sauntered towards the Du Clan’s main entrance. They had a big harvest this trip and brought back many elixirs and beast blood essence for the Du Clan juniors, enough for the Clan to nurture the juniors for some time.
“Second Master has returned.”
“Isn’t that Du Shaofu? How come he’s with Second Master?”
“Du Shaofu also brought back a wild cat.”
Outside of the Du Clan’s main entrance, many juniors crowded the area to welcome the Second Master’s return, and of course his harvest. Their eyes were filled with excitement and anticipation, and when they noticed that Du Shaofu was within the group, their expression turned complicated.
Ignoring the looks directed at him, Du Shaofu headed straight to his courtyard.
When Du Shaofu entered the courtyard, he saw his drunkard father drinking in the yard, holding his wine jug.
“Gu Gu!” When drinking, his drunkard father was really noisy. Everyone usually drinks slowly, sip by sip but Du Shaofu knew that his drunkard father would just gush the wine down his throat.
Seeing Du Shaofu return, his father only tilted his head slightly, put the wine jug down and said, “Back already.”
“Back already.” Du Shaofu said, and then he added. “Don’t drink so much. I’ll go and get some snacks to go with your wine, okay?”
“Great. Come back and drink with me.” He said quietly.
Du Shaofu was a little surprised, he nodded and left the yard. Sometimes he accompanied his father to drink some wine but usually it is on the fifteenth of the eighth month[1].
When he was small, Du Shaofu didn’t know what day the fifteenth of the eighth month was, later, when he grew older he found out that the fifteenth of the eighth month is when the family reunites during Mid-Autumn Festival. Every year, on this particular day, his drunkard father would drag him to drink together.
After Du Shaofu left the yard, Du Tingxuan’s hazy eyes fell upon the kitten-sized Demonic Scale Tiger that Du Shaofu brought back.
Not knowing the reason, the Demonic Scale Tiger shivered when that pair of eyes fell on its body, involuntarily, it retreated a few steps back; this person should not be provoked
Note:
1. Chinese calendar.