The Hidden Secret

Xueming cried out in agony, and the power inside the body became chaotic that he could no longer control the hot Qi that he used for healing wounds. Cold sweat flowed all over his back. His whole body trembled ceaselessly. Xueming's consciousness started to fade. However, strangely, he could not close his left eye, no matter how hard he tried. It was still completely and uncontrollably open. But then, suddenly, the scalding heat disappeared. The eye that was once completely black instantly turned bright red like those of a ferocious beast. Above the corpse of the assassin lying in front of him, there appeared strange energy floating upward before Xueming's left eye would absorb that strange white energy ball into it.

... Xueming was now losing his consciousness. The image in front of him turned blurry. Everything in sight turned completely white. Immediately, the beam of light from the Heaven's End Sword flashed at Xueming that he could not avoid. Xueming could clearly see every movement of the swordplay. Even though the swordplay was waving so gorgeously and profoundly, its user had a youthful and beautiful face, like an angel in disguise. When seeing the face of the sword user clearly, Xueming became so stunned that he did not even dare to breathe.

But then, when the sword reached Xueming's body, the shadows of the angel in disguise and the sword disappeared completely. After that, everything became darkened again. Then, he felt as if falling from a high place. The surrounding temperature dropped rapidly. Xueming's eyes could see again, but this time, he woke up in a strange place that looked like an endless universe. Xueming saw a masked man with a tall and valiant figure walking toward him. However, when Xueming saw the man up close, he was amazed by its strange skin color because it was not the color of human skin but matt gray like a stone brick. When the masked man appeared standing in front of him, his right hand reached toward Xueming before going through his body. Then everything went completely dark again.

After that, the beam of light did not appear anymore but he could sense the changes in his surrounding atmosphere. The echo of the hurrying footsteps and the sound of the heartbeat—thump thump—gradually increased and intensely stirred up until he could hear them clearly. Strangely, however, such sounds came from within Xueming’s own body.

Despite having witnessed everything ever since his strange left eye had absorbed some energy from the assassin's corpse. Xueming was unable to control anything at all. The only thing he could do was look at what had just happened ... After a moment, Xueming decided to shake off his confusion and turn to regain his concentration and focus on the details of what had been happening around him to memorize them.

Now the sound of heartbeat subsided. Finally, a dim light appeared in the foreground. Xueming's gaze was fixed on a pitch-black ark that stood on the high altar on both sides of which there were gigantic human statues. Feelings of joy, excitement, and rage erupted tightly in Xueming's chest. At this time, Xueming did not know why this fluctuating mood arose. Despite not understanding what came to mind, Xueming could guess that what was in the pitch-black ark must be some extraordinary magic items. And when the ark was opened, some energy slammed into Xueming's Yintang spot (the midpoint between the eyebrows). An excruciating pain rushed into Xueming's brain until he unconsciously jumped up and found himself still lying on the floor of the rental room. His whole body was now full of sweat that drenched his whole body.

After regaining his consciousness, Xueming hurriedly raised his left hand and carefully touched the left eye. He found that it remained intact as usual, with no scorching heat or even the slightest pain remaining. A wide smile appeared on his face, and he panted with excitement because he already knew what was inside that ark. It was so precious that he could not restrain his body that was trembling with uncontrollable glee.

Everything happened very quickly ... Xueming decided to put everything into the dimensional bag before walking past the assassin's lifeless body out of the motel room. During his stroll through the hallway, he glanced around to observe and found that the people in this inn were still asleep and no one died. Everyone was still breathing as if they were under anesthesia. Xueming did not bother to search further and chose to silently walk out of the motel heading for the Beast Forest.

... I have almost a month before the Black Wood Tower auction begins. If I kept staying in the Purple Jade City, I would definitely face another assassination. Right now, I’m not strong enough to protect myself. Hiding out is probably the best choice for now.

After that night, Xueming disappeared from the Purple Jade City without a trace. Both Zi Hui and Li Biao tried to find out his whereabouts but returned with empty hands. The next morning, no one ever saw Xueming in the Purple Jade City again ... until the auction day of the Black Wood Tower arrived.

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After the other assassin who remained alive returned to his hideout, he then got angry and frantic about the information received from the employer. Because this assassination mission was using two cultivators with the third level of the basic Qi and also expertise in assassination and poisoning, but the result was having one killed and the other fleeing recklessly. Who would believe that the mission had failed this time because they failed to assassinate a fifteen-year-old country boy with only the second level of the basic Qi?

If news like this became publicly known, the assassin would have to disappear through the ground to escape from the shame. However, he did not blame himself for having poor skills but for the misinformation about Xueming that he received from the employer. This young man could withstand the lethal poison. Plus, with a single attack, he could seriously injure his fellow assassin. This made him estimate that Xueming was probably at the fourth level of the basic Qi, despite being curious about Xueming's light fist weight. Yet, he did not mention this to anyone, since the more he claimed that the enemy was stronger, the more his disheartened mind felt relieved.

As soon as the hitmen’s failure was reported to Li Biao, the Young Master was furious and frustrated at once because the failed assassination was bad enough. Having to admit that the scum he disgusted had cultivation power equivalent to his, despite being two years younger, was unacceptable. And in order to confirm the assassin's claim that Jian Chen brought to him, Li Biao did not care about how much money he must pay more. He immediately hired both hitmen and stalkers to keep track of Xueming and find out more information about him.

However, because Xueming decided to escape from the Purple Jade City so quickly, they failed to locate him and assumed that he was now under the protection of Zi Hui, meaning that Xueming might be hiding in the mansion of this young master of the Zi family. Realizing this, three days later Li Biao canceled all the missions he had ordered earlier and just told his people that if anyone saw Xueming, they must urgently report the news to him. The first person who told him first would be rewarded greatly.

As for Zi Hui’s side, after parting from Xueming the last time they met, he ordered a spy to stalk this new friend and check out Xueming’s past like Li Biao had ordered. This caused Zi Hui to know about the conflict between Xueming and Li Biao which was caused by a girl named ... Mu Jinlan.

But the story did not end there, because his spy continued to follow and protect Xueming according to Zi Hui's order and saw the two assassins during their killing attempt. However, before he could intervene to help, he found that one of the two killers was already fleeing through the window of Xueming's room. When the noise of the fight subsided, the spy stealthily looked inside Xueming's room and found Xueming asleep with consistent breath. Then, when he saw the corpse of another killer lying dead on the ground, he left and went straight to report the matter to Zi Hui first. But before Zi Hui woke up, time passed by until the morning of the next day. When all of them rushed to Xueming's motel, they found that the room was completely empty. There wasn't even a shadow of Xueming, and the corpse of the assassin disappeared as well.

Although Zi Hui was still concerned about Xueming's safety when he received the report on Li Biao's movement that he had hired someone to track down Xueming, causing Zi Hui to feel relieved because if Xueming had already been murdered, Li Biao wouldn't have used someone to search for him like this. After connecting the dots, Zi Hui assumed that Xueming's ability was higher than the Qi level he had expressed. This made Zi Hui believe that Xueming had as much potential as one of the most talented fighters under his control. If he could have another strong companion by his side, it would be beneficial to himself in the future.

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After Xueming escaped from the Purple Jade City, he went straight into the Beast Forest again without even thinking of taking a single break on the way. When inside the forest, Xueming went on a search until discovering a deserted cave to use as a refuge and a training place. Then, he went hunting for wild animals and provisions to have enough supplies to stay for more than one month. When everything was ready, he closed the entrance of the cave with a huge stone before starting to review the technique obtained from the mysterious black ark.

…The Divine Body Cultivation Technique.