26 - Afraid

Time passed by quickly as everyone quickly got back on track to continue their journey, with not a single person speaking of what had happened.

Xiao Wei and Yue Ning couldn't remember what happened, while Xia Yue and the guards didn't dare to talk about what had happened.

As for Xu Xin, he didn't say anything since he was the one with the lowest cultivation present, and if he said something, it would be extremely extremely suspicious.

little did he know that Xia Yue had already figured out that he knew something since he had glanced at his hand for a brief moment, which he wouldn't do if he didn't remember what happened.

Xu Xin was extremely perceptive, but he hadn't noticed Xia Yue's suspicion towards him.

However, she was no longer worried about him even if he was Xiao Xin, so she didn't care.

If he was Xiao Xin, it would explain how he was able to remember, because he was known to have an extremely tough mind and he could remember every single thing that happened even if he got knocked out and concussed.

And as for the danger of him being Xiao Xin, it was nonexistent based on what the high blood priestess had said, meaning the only one that was really a threat at this moment was Xiao Wei.

Xiao Xin was a terrifying opponent, but someone who could even trick Xiao Xin was an even more dangerous opponent, because nobody had ever succeeded in deceiving him before and nobody had ever managed to beat him in any aspect.

Little did she know that it was merely luck that allowed Xiao Wei to get rid of Xu Xin and that he wasn't really much of a threat at all. Instead, he was an impulsive asshole who relied too much upon his family.

...

Time passed slowly as another four days passed without incident.

Xia Yue had managed to help the royal guard get the arrow out of their chest and help them recover, but there were only two royal guards left now, which meant that they weren't able to stop her if she wanted to kill them.

She was stronger than the guards, and with one of them very badly injured and only one other, they weren't her match in a fight.

Xu Xin didn't know that this whole incident would help him in the future, in a way that he couldn't even imagine. He didn't even realize that he had gained Xia Yue's trust this day.

...

Time passed by slowly, and during this time, Xu Xin quietly cultivated in the carriage, not sleeping and only barely eating.

During this time, he also spent a little bit of time trying to refine his body with his body strengthening technique, but didn't make much progress.

Without realizing it, another week had passed, and they were getting close to the core city.

On this night, as everyone was sleeping, Xu Xin was compressing every little bit of inner energy in his body into his dantian, making it unstable and turbulent, like an ocean in a storm.

As he compressed it, he felt it get unstable again and again, and it only barely didn't burst out of his dantian. He realized that breaking through was much more dangerous and unstable than it used to be.

However, thirty minutes later, he succeeded in doing so and felt his dantian and inner energy evolve and get stronger as he broke through to the third stage of the martial arts path.

However, he once again felt it absolutely filled with inner energy, to the point where it felt like it was going to burst. He knew that he had to go and use some of it, otherwise it would be extremely bad for his health.

As he felt the pain coming from his dantian, he was just about to stand up, but suddenly, he felt something soft touch him, and he looked down only to see that Yue Ning had grabbed his leg in her sleep, and she seemed to be having a nightmare.

He realized that she was uncomfortable, and she was reaching out out of instinct, so he simply woke her up.

He didn't care that she instinctually reached out, but he didn't even entertain the thought of anything beyond that, because he had already had his heart shattered, and he would never recover.

As she woke up, seeing that she had grabbed him, she instantly pulled her hand back in embarrassment as her face turned redder than an apple.

However, looking at his face, she realized that he didn't even seem to care, and the only emotion on his face was a slight sadness.

Even though the expression was extremely soft and faint, as she saw the look in his eyes, she realized that there was a sadness that she couldn't see the depth of contained within his eyes.

He then silently stood up, opened the door, and headed outside, leaving her confused.

She didn't even realize the change in his aura that indicated he had broken through, hence why she was confused.

As he went outside, he shook his head a little and wiped away the sadness he felt before going into the woods silently. Xia Yue and the two guards noticed him but didn't bother him.

Xia Yue noticed that he had broken through, and though she was confused as to why he had broken through in the middle of the night when he should be sleeping, she didn't say anything since this was obviously the reason he was going into the woods.

Though all this time had passed, nobody knew that he didn't sleep almost at all since everyone just thought that he went to sleep late and woke up early.

As he went into the woods, he went about a hundred yards into the woods before stopping in front of a big tree.

Then, expressionlessly, he punched out, and he instantly formed a barrier over his fist and arm with his icy inner energy, and when his punch connected with the tree, a fist print was left in the tree, and when he pulled back his hand, he saw that it was covered in a thick layer of aquamarine frost.

He then punched again with his other fist, putting as much weight as he possibly could into it, and he left another deep fist print in the tree, also covered in a layer of aquamarine frost.

He then continually punched the tree, again and again, over and over, seemingly endlessly, while his mind didn't seem to be in his body.

He stood there, endlessly punching the tree, and without even realizing it, his hands hand begun to get red and even had tiny bits of skin missing.

Time passed by slowly, and his hands were soon bleeding, but he didn't seem to notice.

In his mind, he was once again going through the trauma of that day, thinking about how the one he loved had been brutally murdered right in front of him, and how he even held her in his arms as she took her last breath.

The look in her eyes as she died was still fresh in his mind, and it brought turmoil to his usually-still heart.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he punched the tree even harder, his knuckles cracking and seeming to be on the verge of breaking as his icy inner energy melted into the watery inner energy and flowed through his body like a river of tears.

Without even realizing it, he had stopped punching the tree and was now just leaning against it, tears rolling down his face as he felt a sadness that couldn't be described with words.

He didn't even realize that nearby, Yue Ning was hiding, watching him.

She had been curious as to what had made him so sad in the carriage, and seeing him standing there, seemingly defeated by life, she felt it impossible to describe how she felt.

For someone to be so defeated, she knew that it was nearly impossible, and it had to be an event that changed the course of his life forever, and he seemed to be broken from it.

She was about to get a little bit closer when she suddenly stepped on a stick, and hearing the sound, Xu Xin instantly stopped what he was doing and looked around, wiping the tears from his face as he seemed to instantly control his emotions.

Very soon, he managed to see her, and he walked over, with an expression of anger covering his face.

"Why are you here?" His tone was angry. It was obvious that he was angry at her for 'spying' on him.

He liked his privacy, and if he couldn't have even something as simple as that, then what was the point of going all the way out here?

He had even somewhat forgotten that the whole point of him coming out here was to stabilize the unnatural amount of inner energy in his dantian so that he could continue to cultivate. He had unintentionally fallen into his emotions.

Yue Ning didn't know how to react as she felt her face go red with shame. It was only now that she realized that she had gotten involved in his personal business.

He was about to say something else before he stopped himself and calmed down. He had almost lost himself in his emotions again.

Seeing him calm down, Yue Ning calmed down a little bit as well, but she was still nervous.

"Just leave," He said with a serious expression. "If I see that you followed me again, I won't be as kind as this time."

After hearing this, she knew that he was taking a step back, so she instantly turned around and left, trying to hide the shame on her face.

She felt like she had seen something that she wasn't supposed to: his softer, emotionally broken side.

Suddenly, she was reminded of the first time they had met, when he mocked her brutally and without restraint, and how he seemed so different now compared to then.

It was only now that she realized that only his coldness had remained constant, not his behavior.

As she thought about it further, she started to realize just how much manipulation he had done to get where he was now, messing with so many people's emotions to get the result he wanted, and what had just happened was the only exception she had noticed so far.

She also realized that he had never shown his true abilities before, because as far as she was aware, in every fight he had been in so far, even the ones with her, he had held back a dramatic amount of strength and skill.

If he hadn't, it was clear that everyone who had fought him would be dead, because he had killed a girl his own age without the slightest bit of hesitation or remorse, all because she had tried to attack him with a sneak-attack.

Thinking even further, her master had warned her that Xu Xin was extremely dangerous, even though he might not have high cultivation.

At the time, she thought that this warning was just because she was arrogant, but without even realizing it, just being near Xu Xin, her arrogance had taken a step way back, and it was almost nonexistent now.

It was as if she really feared him, like how people would unintentionally become much more respectful in front of someone stronger than them, even if they didn't choose to.

After realizing this, she was surprised, because that natural reaction wasn't something that mere experience could cause, and it was clear that her subconscious regarded Xu Xin as terrifying.

However, she didn't know that this wasn't just her. Everyone who met him had this same subconscious reaction.

Everyone who met him... was afraid of him.