Leaving the Sect

The following day, Ling Xu woke up early to meet up with the group he had agreed to do the mission with.

Arriving at the entrance of the outer sect, he saw Xie Jian, the person that asked him to join the group.

"Junior brother Xu, it's good you came early. Let me introduce you to the rest of the group." Xie Jian said, showing to him the rest of his teammates.

"Uh?" Xie Lan had a surprised expression seeing who his older brother had asked to join the mission.

"That's why I felt familiar when he told me his name." Ling Xu thought, realizing that Xie Lan and Xie Jian were members from the same family.

"I didn't expect it to be you." he said with surprise, recalling that Ling Xu's level was in the seventh stage of Blood Qi just a month ago.

"You actually know him?"

"This…"

"We met at Lesser Crimson Town briefly, that's why he recognized me." he interrupted him and explained what happened without going much into detail.

Seeing Ling Xu take the initiative to forget that incident, Xie Lan felt relieved. "As expected of the person I have set my eyes on, he is more than meets the eye."

"So that's why. Then let me present him to you again just in case, he is Ling Xu, the last member of the group I choose for the mission."

Ling Xu then looked at the other two members and saw another familiar face.

"Greetings, brother Dong." he looked at him indifferent of what happened back when he was a menial worker as if it hadn't happened just a few weeks ago that they sparred together in the combat square.

"Bro… brother Xu, greetings!" he said nervously as he still remembered the day that he was defeated by him. Having a hard time to meet his eyes after trying to make it hard for him.

"You two also know each other?" Xie Lan and Xie Jian said in confusion, noticing Ma Dongpil's shy attitude towards him.

 "We also met briefly, when we were menial workers."

Understanding what it implied, Xie Lan looked at Ma Dongpil with a meaningful face, knowing what this brute man was capable of. He had already experienced a bit of Ling Xu's strength so he already knew what had happened.

Focusing on the last member of the group, Ling Xu saw Yu Wenqian, the young lady from the Yu Family that he had seen and heard about the day they took the test to become a disciple.

"Greetings, brother Ling. I'm Yu Wenqian and I've just become an outer disciple, I guess it's the same for you?" she saluted and introduced herself.

"That's right, I became an outer disciple a week ago."

"How can it be? You were just in the seventh stage of Blood Qi last time we fought!" Ma Dongpil jumped in confusion, astonished that Ling Xu had become an outer disciple before him.

"What?!" except from Xie Lan who already knew his level before entering the sect, Xie Jian and Yu Wenqian were astonished by what he said.

"If this is true…" Xie Jian had a complicated face as his eyes changed color.

…

After coming out from the outer sect, the group traveled through the outer layer of the sect's mountain range.

They didn't dare to go deeper since the beasts they would find then would get significantly stronger, reaching the higher stages of Qi Refining.

There were even beasts that were in the Foundation Building Realm, having a small territory of their own where the other beasts didn't dare to enter.

"Senior brother, where is the snake recovering its injuries?" Ma Dongpil was the first to ask, showing that he didn't have much patience.

"It's hiding in a cave, but don't worry I will tell you when the time comes. After all, we still have half a day of journey before reaching the place."

Afterwards they continued their journey to the cave where they would be able to find their target.

Meanwhile, Ling Xu got to know more about the people in the group since he found out that Xie Lan and Xie Jian were brothers and that the latter was the oldest one. Having entered five years ago, he has been an outer disciple for the last three years.

Although he entered way before Xie Lan, he already knew that he would be surpassed by his younger brother since he was fully aware of their difference in cultivation talent.

…

"This is the place."

After eight long hours of traveling through the dense forest, Xie Jian showed them the cave that was hidden naturally behind a curtain of dense foliage.

"It's so well camouflaged that I would have found out if you didn't show us where it was."

"That's right, I was very fortunate and stayed while it returned to its hideout or else I wouldn't have found the place even if I knew the general location."

"Then, how should we do?" Xie Lan asked to his older brother who had already experienced several missions outside of the sect.

"I will first enter the cave and try to make the snake leave the cave so we can all attack it at the same time. While I'm going against it, you tire it out as much as you can."

"Got it!" the three said in unison at Xie Jian's instructions.

"Remember to be careful. Although it's greatly injured and I will be getting its attention, if it tries to attack you it won't have a problem to kill you, so you have to avoid it at all costs." he said with a serious look as the people that were on his group were none other than his brother and fellow brothers that came from the same town as him.

"Don't worry brother, although this is our first mission outside of the sect we won't pull you down." Xie Lan said confidently, puffing his chest out.

After entering directly as an outer disciple, he had a smooth journey since he received a few resources from his brother that allowed him to cultivate without problem for the last month.

While learning his cultivation technique, he had also managed to breakthrough the second stage of Qi Refining, showing an incredible speed compared to his older brother who took three years to go from the first stage all the way to the sixth.

"Then, I'm going."

Seeing Xie Jian enter carefully and trying to make the least sound he could, they became a little nervous since they didn't know what was going on inside the cave.

"Is he coming out?" after just a few minutes, Ma Dongpil was the first to ask again.

Boom!

As if answering his question, a violent sound of explosion came from the cave and several more accompanied as it got closer and closer.

Coming out of it, Xie Jian could be seen with a few bruises on his body as he was retreating extremely fast with his feet surrounded in fire energy. It was obvious that he cultivated the Bursting Fire Breathing cultivation technique.

A few seconds after he left the cave, a five meter long snake came out with eyes full of murderous intent towards him.

It had an incredibly tough appearance and was extremely violent since it had been interrupted while recovering.

"There it is!" Yu Wenqian said, gulping down her saliva as she sensed its aura which surpassed her by sixth stages pressuring against her chest.

"I don't think I would be able to win against it." Ling Xu thought, wondering if he would be able to kill it if it was fully recovered as he sensed that its aura was already the limit of what he could manage with his current strength.

Fortunately, it was injured as it lessened the pressure a bit, with a noticeable injury in its belly.

"Support me if you can." Xie Jian said as he pressed forward once again, taking the full aggression from it.

From the side, Xie Lan, Ma Dongpil and Yu Wenqian were prepared in their respective positions. Ling Xu was also ready as he was the one behind Xie Jian, ready to strike whenever he got the chance.

Seeing the senior disciple exchanging attacks with the snake, Ling Xu took note as he noticed a few things he did while fighting against it.

"Scorching Strike Sword!"

"Hissss!" the snake screamed in pain as it received a full strike from Xie Jian's middle grade treasure sword, which was surrounded by a fierce fire that worsened its injury even more.

"Now is the time!" he yelled to the group as they came along, seeing that the momentum from the snake had decreased compared to before.

The other three tried to injure it as much as possible but apart from Xie Lan, who had a month to learn his sword technique, the rest didn't even have the means to leave even a dent.

Xie Lan was the only that managed to leave a scratch in it with a bit of blood coming out since he was using a low grade treasure sword that his brother had given him, plus his sword technique which used his wooden qi like the thorns from a vine.

"Then it's my turn now." Ling Xu advanced forward and circulated his formless qi while using the Flowing Stream Sword. His sword moved, flowing like an endless strike as it carried a very destructive power.

Boom!

The sound from the attack shocked everyone since it carried the strength from someone who wasn't in the first stage of Qi Refining but much higher.

Before he could continue to impress them, his moves continued, shocking the snake which was trying to avoid being hit by Xie Jian's sword.

Ling Xu's sword was carrying the weight from an entire stream in his sword, overlapping the weight one strike after the other as it was increasing its power after every swing he made.

The snake screamed once again as it looked at the injury that Ling Xu's sword made with the accumulated pressure from his sword technique. Fortunately, it was only superficial so it didn't give it much attention.

"Very well, junior brother!"

Even though it was brief the time it looked apart, it was the perfect opportunity since Xie Jian used all his fire qi to strike at the snake. His sword showed an incandescent light as it became even fiercer than before.

When the snake reacted, it was too late since his sword had already reached it.

Boom!

Because of the characteristics of the sword technique that Xie Jian used, which was the same that Ling Xu almost decided to learn, the injury in the belly of the snake couldn't heal at all.

The snake struggled to move but with the size of its injury which had been reopened and looked even worse than the first time, it gave up as it died on the spot.

"We did it!" Ma Dongpil was the first to celebrate as he came to the corpse of the snake where Xie Jian was searching for the venom gland.

Looking towards Ling Xu's direction, Xie Lan and Yu Wenqian observed his figure, amazed by what he did there.

"Before, I thought that we could be on par, when he resisted the pressure from my blood qi. I didn't expect that in such a short time he would manage to surpass me, showing a level of strength several times higher than me." he thought as he gave up on the idea of considering a rival, after all he had already been surpassed even though his cultivation stage was one stage higher than him.

"With the emotion I ended up showing more than what I wanted." Ling Xu thought, realizing that he wasn't very smart on how much strength to show and how much to hide.

"At least I only showed until the completion of small success of my sword technique, or else they wouldn't be able to believe that I reached great success after just one week of entering the outer sect."

…

Having taken the venom gland and the important parts of the corpse from the snake, the group returned.

"It's getting late, let's sleep here before we continue." Xie Jian said, seeing that the sun was about to completely hide and that they still had a few hours before arriving at the sect.

"We will do as you say, senior brother."

"Then let's make a fire first and then we will take turns to guard the night. I can be the first to go and then you can all divide the rest of the time between yourselves."

The fire was done very fast since Xie Jian and Ma Dongpil had their qi of the fire element.

They only needed to get enough wood as the one who had already experienced several missions on the outside took out from his spatial ring a few pieces of wood that would burn for the entire night.

Apart from Xie Jian, the rest of the group was sleeping since they had traveled the whole day and after the fight they were a little tired. Although their bodies had already become extremely strong compared to mortal humans, their minds were almost the same and the still needed to sleep at night a few hours.

With the special dark wood burning, a subtle sound could be heard as Xie Jian was fidgeting with his sword while looking at Ling Xu's sleeping figure with a dark expression.