Translated by Rachel of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
The DuanMu family?
You XiaoMo had a huge question mark in his mind. He hadn’t heard of this family before, but that was a given since it was his first time on the Tong Tian Continent. Judging from the youth's tone, this DuanMu family could most likely be one of the powers of Bei Dong.
Before he could even reply to what the youth had said, the people who were after their lives had caught up with them. The first to arrive was a middle aged man with a fully grown beard who had quite the presence. The thick, metallic smell of blood had yet to come off his skin. A clear justification of the numerous lives he took.
Behind him, there were more than ten people dressed in blue, each armed with a long sword. Their long swords were coated with blood that hadn’t fully dried, dripping down the length of their swords onto the red sand below. With blood on red sand, one could hardly tell where the drops had landed.
Seeing that three more people had popped up, the middle aged man casually looked at them without uttering a word. "Finish them all off. Spare no one." He ordered the people behind him in a cold, harsh tone.
You XiaoMo tsked. That middle aged man was the most unreasonable person he had ever met who didn’t even bother to speak to them. The least he could do was to ask them who they were. After the people in blue received their orders, they charged at them with killing intent without further ado.
These people were decent, power-wise. Each had a Spiritual level cultivation and the middle aged man himself was a six star Imperial Level. No wonder the youth and his two bodyguards couldn't defeat them.
Ling Xiao's aura was almost non-existent, so the middle aged man couldn’t assess his power. If he had known, he probably wouldn’t have said those words. Yet, even without Ling Xiao protecting him, You XiaoMo could deal with his enemies on his own. When more than ten people in blue charged towards them, he immediately released eight beams of soul power which were as fine as needles made from cow's hair. Without hesitation, he aimed those beams at eight of the blue shirt people who were at the forefront and pierced their souls.
Halfway through their charge, eight different pained voices cried out one after another. One by one, they fell to the ground and started rolling around in pain. Their faces had gone deathly pale and all of them broke out in a cold sweat. Having one's soul attacked all of a sudden was no joke, no one could expect to be fine after such a blow.
The remaining people in blue were frightened by the sudden turn in events.They quickly stopped moving and started to retreat one by one. The middle aged man's eyelids twitched as he cast a shocked gaze towards You XiaoMo.
"A level eight Mage?"
Just after he finished his sentence, the remaining people in blue suddenly cried out in agony. The weapons in their hands were gone and all of them were kneeling on the ground with faces twisted in pain. Thinking that this was yet another masterpiece by You XiaoMo, the middle aged man's face darkened.
At this moment, DaoYun started to giggle.
"Hehehe, what’s this? I thought you guys were powerful? Seems like you’re just so-so."
Everyone looked towards him. Below his feet was a heap of weapons that the people in blue had lost. Obviously, he was telling everybody that it was his work.
You XiaoMo had a lot of admiration for him. DaoYun was no doubt the disciple of the Thief God. To be able to take care of the remaining people in blue so quickly and steal their weapons without being noticed, that required some skills.
"Who are you people? How dare you interfere with the SiKong family matters !"
Knowing that he had messed with the wrong people, the middle aged man quickly brought up the family name to intimidate them. However, for people like You XiaoMo who knew nothing about the SiKong family, it was impossible to scare them off.
"Uncle, you’re very interesting." Dao Yun smiled as he said.
"Ain’t that right! A few moments ago you wanted to kill us and now you turn around and interrogate us? Hey uncle, are your brains fried from the sun?" You XiaoMo chimed in.
"I’m eighty percent sure." Dao Yun nodded with surety.
"You want to die?!" The middle aged man gritted out with a cold, intimidating look on his face. He couldn’t believe that even after using the SiKong family's name, they still had the nerve to insult him.
After he laid down his threat, the middle aged man suddenly vanished on the spot, only to reappear in close proximity to them. He raised his hand and planned to strike You XiaoMo with his palm. If You XiaoMo really got hit, he would be halfway dead even if he managed to survive.
You XiaoMo didn’t move a single step. Instead, he quickly performed Hand Seals with both of his hands. These were Hand Seals to attack the soul, something that he picked up later on. He had used his remaining points on his card to exchange for the Seals and even though they weren’t high level techniques, they could have unexpected outcomes.
Dao Yun watched in fear and trepidation as You XiaoMo was about to get hit. Just as he was going to warn him, a person immediately stood in between them and blocked the middle aged man before whacking him on the back of his head.
Bam!
The middle aged man heavily crashed into the sand with half his body buried. Either Ling Xiao used too much strength or for some other reasons, the middle aged man didn’t stand up immediately. The lower half of his body spasmed and after a while, his body became stiff.
The youth and his two bodyguards were completely shell shocked.
This group of people who forced them into a hopeless situation were so easily finished off!
Previously, while the youth had begged You XiaoMo and the rest for help, he didn’t have high hopes they would help him. But when he heard that man wanted to finish them all, he knew he was saved. However, he didn't think that those three would settle this so fast.
"Thank you, all three of you, for saving our lives!"
The youth quickly cupped one hand in another to show his gratitude. It didn’t matter if they only took action because they had no choice. The three of them had indeed saved the youth and his bodyguards and the three of them seemed stronger than the average person. No way was he going to let them just leave like that.
You XiaoMo didn’t turn him down and instead took the initiative to speak with the youth. Occasionally, he would try to obtain information from him.
The youth must have noticed, as he gave detailed answers to You XiaoMo's questions.
The DuanMu and SiKong families were two of the ten powerful families in Bei Dong, but they were at the bottom of the list in terms of ranking among the ten forces. The DuanMu and SiKong families were ranked nine and ten respectively. While this might be the case, the power and influence these two families had were not to be belittled.
In another two months, it would be Tian Xiang City's ranking competition that was organized once every ten years. The ten forces would participate, but the competition wasn’t restricted to the ten forces only. After the competition was over, they would reorder the ranking based on the top ten that emerged from the competition.
This kind of ranking competition posed a very precarious situation for the families that were ranked at the bottom. They could be eliminated easily by other clans or families who caught up with them. And once they were outed, not only would they lose their benefits of being in the top ten, they would lose their honor and glory.
In order to secure a place in the top ten, the SiKong family struck out at the DuanMu family. And the person representing the DuanMu family in the competition was the youth that You XiaoMo had saved.
The youth was called DuanMu Qing. He was the most talented one the DuanMu family ever had in the past few hundred years. Unlike the young master of the SiKong family who only knew how to party, DuanMu Qing could definitely get into the top ten if no accidents happened along the way.
As the SiKongs were the arch enemies of the DuanMus, they naturally couldn't stand to see the DuanMus better off. By killing DuanMu Qing, not only will the DuanMu family lose a gifted individual from the younger generation, they could also force them out of the top ten. It really was killing two birds with one stone.
Before You XiaoMo met DuanMu Qing, DuanMu Qing and his men were being ambushed by people from the SiKong family. They didn't expect the SiKongs to have the audacity to attack when they were already so near Tian Xiang City, but they did anyway. All he could do was flee with his two surviving bodyguards to where they were now.
"What's the use of this ranking competition?" You XiaoMo asked casually.
"Of course it has its use! This ranking competition is directly related to the benefits that the ten forces enjoy. One of them involves the issue of Dimensional Teleportation." Duan MuQing explained patiently.
"The Dimensional Teleportation portals were left behind by the people of the Light. BeiDong has ten of them in total but they differ in the distance they can teleport. For example for my family, we have an inferior Dimensional Teleportation portal compared to the others because we are ranked low. The teleportation range is short too."
Travelling by Dimensional Teleportation portals was a commonly used teleportation method across the Tong Tian Continent, whereas it was rare to see Teleportation Checkpoints like those on the Long Xiang Continent.
As the Tong Tian Continent was very vast, travelling via the Dimensional Teleportation portals could greatly reduce travelling time. Hence, its popularity. Despite being rather pricey, many still travelled using them.
The DuanMu family might not own the best Dimensional Teleportation Portal but they still profited quite a fair bit from it over the years. For this reason alone, they were even more unwilling to lose the chance at securing a Dimensional Teleportation Portal at the ranking competition.
"If we want to get from BeiDong to Southern Continent, can we just use the Dimensional Teleportation portal?" You XiaoMo asked.
"Of course you can. But BeiDong is quite a long distance away from Southern Continent. My family's Dimensional Teleportation Portal may not work." Duan MuQing thought for a while before he nodded.
"Why?"
"Because of the distance. Our Dimensional Teleportation Portal's range is only within BeiDong. If you want to teleport to Southern Continent directly, there's only one way. You have to use the biggest Dimensional Teleportation portal, but that is controlled by BeiDong's strongest force. If you want to use it, I'm afraid you have to go through them." Duan MuQing explained.
"Are you implying that it's difficult?" You XiaoMo asked, unconcerned.
"No, that's not it." Duan MuQing shook his head.
"The main reason is that it's too expensive to use Dimensional Teleportation Portals, especially for long distances like from BeiDong to Southern Continent. The expenses are beyond just expensive."
Oh, so it's the travel costs. You XiaoMo didn't find that a problem.
After a while, Duan MuQing's voice could be be heard, pleasantly surprised.
"We've reached Tian Xiang City!"
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
t/n: Bei Dong(北动) mean Northern Movement, and NanLu (南陆) literally translated as Southern Continent. You can get the sense of direction through the name.