The Mountains

A month later.

Lin Zexu had a pretty good grasp of the land he was on. The strongest beast he had seen was at the middle stage of the Awakened realm, while the rest of the creatures were around Earth realm. At this time, Lin Zexu had broken to the beginning stage of the Earth realm but had reached a bottleneck.

---

In a cave.

"Sigh. It can't be helped. Looks like I'll have to get out of this mountain range somehow. I should be in the outer region, so it shouldn't be too hard." contemplated Lin Zexu.

Lin Zexu had just finished his daily training. Thanks to his peerless techniques, he was able to refine his body to perfection, making complete use of his cultivation realm and innate talents. He had made some crude clothing out of the fur of some animals he had killed. The current him looked like a barbaric yet refined handsome teenager. He exuded an invisible aura of dominance due to the level of his state of existence.

Lin Zexu stepped out of the cave with a makeshift bag by his side. The cave was nearly empty aside from a bed, a campfire, and a tanning rack he had forged out of some nearby tree branches.

"In order for me to refine pills and create inscriptions I'll need a refined spiritual stone chisel. A good furnace and usable inscriptions can't be done with a crude spearhead. However, I can't create one without white crystal ore." sighed Lin Zexu.

During the 1 month stay, he had looked around but wasn't able to find any white crystal ore. Left with no options and slow progression in his cultivation, Lin Zexu's only option is to find a nearby city and hope for the best.

Lin Zexu closed his eyes as he looked for a city with his divine sense. A few seconds later, Lin Zexu opened his eyes and walked towards the city he saw. Divine sense is an ability channeled through forbidden laws only used by entities of higher existence. Lin Zexu, with his existence being at the psuedo true divinity stage could naturally use it. However, his current cultivation limited how long he could use it.

"It should take me an hour to get there if I run." muttered Lin Zexu as he turned into a blur and sped to the city.

Half an hour later.

"Hehe. Young miss, you can't run forever. Why don't you be content as young master Zhao Feng's concubine?" yelled a group of men who were running around looking.

Lin Zexu knew who they were talking about as she had passed him earlier while he was running.

Some of the group of men stopped and paused as they looked at Lin Zexu. "Interesting, what's a brat who's wet behind the ears doing here?" laughed the men as they walked up to Lin Zexu.

"Boy! Tell us truthfully, have you seen a young girl around here?" asked the men.

"Why? Who is she?" replied Lin Zexu.

"You shouldn't reply with a question kid, but we'll look past it. She is Xiao Chao-xing, a runaway concubine of young master Zhao Feng. We're here to find her and return her to her rightful place. Now answer the question." snorted the men.

Lin Zexu's answer was obvious.

"I have not." replied Lin Zexu as he began running again.

One of the men blocked Lin Zexu's path as he snorted with discontent.

"Brat. you've been rude to us. Hand over that bag and we'll let you go." smirked the man.

"And if I don't?" questioned Lin Zexu.

"Hahahaha! A beginner Earth realm practitioner dares to play with us?" laughed one of the other men as he walked up to Lin Zexu cracking his fists.

From a distance.

Xiao Chao-xing looked at the boy with sympathy in her eyes.

"If it wasn't for me he wouldn't be in this situation." she sighed.

She was about to turn herself in to prevent the boy from getting harmed, but what happened left her surprised.

Lin Zexu handed over his bag with no hesitation. "It has nothing anyways." he thought. One of the men snatched the bag and looked at its contents and snorted. "Such a poor fool. Wasting our time." he snarled.

Lin Zexu was about to leave before he heard a female scream.

"Young miss, you should be worried about yourself instead of some random stranger." chuckled one of the men.

Xiao Chao-xing pausing was a fatal mistake that got her caught. She bit her lips and tried to fight back, but it was useless. The man knocked her out and began tying her up.

Lin Zexu paused. An unwilling girl was right before him, being captured and most likely to be kept as a slave for the rest of her life. Should he help her? "Life cannot be so easily dismissed." he contemplated as his eyes shined. "I will deal with the consequences." he muttered.

The men in front of him were confused. Was this beginner stage Earth realm fool going to face off against all 12 of them, a group of trained warriors in the completion stage Earth realm?

Lin Zexu turned into a blur as he went forward and shot out his palm. A dull thud could be heard as the man in front of him instantly shot backwards like an arrow, going through a row of trees before finally falling down as a corpse with a deep palm imprint on his chest. The 11 other men sprang into action and didn't dare to underestimate Lin Zexu. To kill a completion stage Earth realm warrior with a single palm strike? They didn't dare to imagine how strong that had to be.

Lin Zexu dodged all their weapons and moved through them like water. He sent out a roundhouse kick and instantly smashed one of the warrior's skull in. A sword came towards him, but he moved gracefully, evading it by an inch. Going in, Lin Zexu grabbed the man by the head and smashed him into the ground, leaving behind a deep crater and sending dust everywhere.

The remaining 9 men immediately retreated as the leader immediately ordered, "GET INTO PINCER FORMATION!" However, Lin Zexu was too fast as he appeared between two of the men and swiftly beheaded them with a knife-hand chop. The leader hurriedly grabbed a talisman out of his spatial bag and pointed it towards LIn Zexu. "Suppress!" yelled the leader as the talisman in his hand glowed brightly. Lin Zexu felt as if the gravity around him had increased by a hundred-fold, but to him it wasn't enough.

Lin Zexu dashed towards the leader but to his surprise the men had regrouped and surrounded him already. "So, it wasn't just a simple gravity talisman? he said. As the men attacked, Lin Zexu appeared to have grown 2 pairs of golden arms on his back. His limbs shot out and the men's brains were crushed to pieces. The arms disappeared as he looked at the leader confidently.

"So. Tell me more about the situation." he spoke as he looked at the team leader and the dazed young girl.

The team leader fell to his knees in shock. "T-those arms... and that aura. Don't tell me you are the reincarnation of a supreme deva?!" he shouted. Reincarnations of high-class beings were not unheard of, and were told in legends, but to meet one himself, bullets of sweat dripped down his back.

"What is going on with this young lady? What is the situation?" interrogated Lin Zexu, however he got no response. "As expected, practitioners with a low state of existence cannot handle the energy cannot handle the energy of one with a high state of existence." lamented Lin Zexu as he shook his head. Lin Zexu walked forward and grabbed the team leader's head and a devilish energy seeped out of his palm. Eventually, the team leader's entire body was shriveled up and devoid of life.

Scouring through the team leader's memories, he found out that the lesser Xiao family was trying to establish a marriage with the Zhao family, one of the top 4 families in Fengdao city. However, the maiden of the Xiao family was unwilling to become a concubine of Zhao Feng, a notorious womanizer and playboy. She had fled the city and after her were one of the battle teams of the Zhao family.

"The matter was kept under wraps so I shouldn't have any problems in the city. However, what to do with her..." he muttered, and he shifted his gaze towards Xiao Chao-xing.

The unconscious girl's eyes began to flutter as she slowly regained her consciousness.

"Ngh..." she groaned as she slowly stood up. "What... happened?" she questioned as she looked around and saw the corpses.

"I took action. This may be abrupt, but you have two choices. Come with me to Xuanggong city or go your own path." declared Lin Zexu. Truth be told, he would have just left her if it wasn't for the fact that she reminded him of a certain someone.

"Mmm... benefactor, I am but a frail young lady. I would not last very long in these mountains anyways. If it is not too much, please take me with you." sighed Xiao Chao-xing. To have helped her out, he couldn't be a bad person, right?

"Very well" replied Lin Zexu. Xuanggong was another city in the area, taking Xiao Chao-xing with him over there wouldn't cause too much of a problem. According to the team leader's memories, Xuanggong city and Fengdao city didn't have much influence in each other's turf.

"Benefactor, may I have your name?" asked Xiao Chao-xing timidly.

"Lin Zexu." he replied.