Library of Heaven’s Path

Who do you think you are insulting?” Zhao Ya immediately stood up and spoke with an utterly cold voice.

She could still overlook it if the other party had insulted her, but she would never allow anyone to insult her teacher!

“You should know very well who I am talking about!” Wu Xiaoxiao spoke with a voice filled with contempt. “If you are weak, you should have the sense to stay put and not run about. Otherwise, you’ll only be troubling us to save you when you run into danger!”

“Enough!” Mo Yuan bellowed furiously.

“Teacher…” Wu Xiaoxiao turned to look at Mo Yuan indignantly.

“Look at how you are behaving! Is this how a student of the Twilight Academy should conduct herself?” Mo Yuan berated.

After that, he turned to Zhang Xuan and said, “Please don’t take it to heart. Xiaoxiao is still young, so she’s still a little lacking in etiquette. Do forgive her if she has said anything that has offended you.”

“It’s fine,” Zhang Xuan replied calmly.

Given everything he had been through in the Master Teacher Continent and the Azure, there was no way he would lose his temper over the mere words spoken by a young lady.

After resolving this conflict, Mo Yuan brought the Windgale Fox to one side and interrogated it using his special means. Following that, he left the group discreetly for roughly two hours before returning with a deep furrow on his forehead.

It seemed like he had noticed that something was amiss as well, but he didn’t manage to find anything in the end.

He was a little perplexed by the outcome, but he didn’t really turn his suspicions toward Zhang Xuan. Considering how even a beast as swift as the Windgale Fox wasn’t able to capture the Greenbeast Ancient Grass, it was practically impossible for Zhang Xuan to obtain it, assuming that he was even able to see through its disguise in the very first place.

The night proceeded on without words.

At the first crack of dawn, the group began packing up before returning back to Twilight City.

Mo Yuan was glad that he was able to fulfill the task which Elder Yang Xuan had tasked him without compromising his students’ mission. Even though it was regretful that he didn’t manage to obtain the Greenbeast Ancient Grass, on the whole, it had still been a fruitful trip.

As they were returning via the same path they came by, Mo Yuan and his students were extremely familiar with the directions. Perhaps it was due to the receding of the spiritual energy, most of the divine beasts in the mountain had already fled the area, so they didn’t encounter any major threat on their way back.

Just like that, they traveled for three days straight.

With Mo Yuan, a middle-tier God, traveling along with them, hunting down beasts and securing ample food was not an issue for the group at all. With each sumptuous meal, Zhang Xuan was able to gradually replenish his Heaven’s Path zhenqi, which in turn allowed him to swiftly heal from his injuries.

He was still a far way off from making a breakthrough, but at the very least, he wasn’t as frail as when he first arrived in the Firmament anymore.

“We should be able to get out of the mountain range by today,” Mo Yuan said. “However, it’s still too early to lower our guard yet. There are quite a few powerful bandits in the vicinity of the Grand Spirit Mountain. Those fellows are tenacious fools who would stop at nothing!”

The receding of spiritual energy had happened so quickly that many cultivators suddenly found themselves in a position where even they had trouble making a living. As a result, many of them ended up resorting to plundering merchants or travelers passing by the area.

The City Lord Manor had launched numerous operations in order to get rid of the bandits, but it barely made a difference at all. With their survival at stake, it was unlikely that the bandits would stop out of fear of the City Lord Manor.

As long as the root of the problem remained unsolved, more and more cultivators would eventually turn to plunder for survival over time.

Hearing that there were bandits in the area, the faces of the crowd turned grim.

Dealing with humans was often much more dangerous than dealing with beasts. It was very likely that the trip from the mountain range back to Twilight City was the most dangerous part of the entire mission.

“All of you have heard it, right? Make sure not to run about as you please. Also, we aren’t necessarily able to protect you in the face of bandits either, so you’ll need to buck up and pull your own weight!” Wu Xiaoxiao looked at Zhang Xuan and the others and harrumphed coldly.

That being said, none of Zhang Xuan and his direct disciples paid her any heed.

From the very start, they had never intended to count on them for protection.

“Zhao Ya, you should stay by my side in case we encounter bandits. I’ll make sure to protect you with my life,” Shen Cheng walked over and said confidently.

“There’s no need for that,” Zhao Ya replied curtly as she headed over to her teacher’s side without any hesitation. “This…” Shen Cheng was left standing awkwardly on the spot after being rejected so bluntly.

Behind him, Wu Xiaoxiao gritted her teeth in fury.

In order to prevent any mishaps, the group hastened their footsteps and flitted ahead.

“Teacher, why don’t we rest for a while? We’re only four hours away from Twilight City anyway, so I think it should be fine for us to slow down our pacing a little…” Wu Xiaoxiao proposed with a weary tone.

Having rushed their way throughout the night, all of Mo Yuan’s students were showing signs of extreme exhaustion.

Surprisingly, Zhao Ya and the rest of Zhang Xuan’s direct disciples hadn’t shown any signs of fatigue despite their weaker cultivation yet, and they were able to catch up without pulling down the group’s pacing.

Mo Yuan was a little hesitant to stop here, but seeing that it would be difficult for his students to push on in their current state, he eventually nodded and gave his approval.

The crowd quickly found an obscurely located ditch and got in. They lit up a bonfire and gathered around it to warm themselves up.

Heaving a sigh of relief, they were just about to take a break when the galloping of horses sounded in the distance. The ground trembled ceaselessly, foreboding a catastrophe.

“Damn it!” Mo Yuan cursed lividly.

He didn’t think that they would be so unlucky as to be attacked barely when they had just settled down to rest. With a wave of his hand, he swiftly put out the bonfire before carefully rising up to check out the situation.

Neighhhhh!

The galloping finally came to a halt. A group of thirteen figures riding atop tall and powerful steeds had gathered around the ditch they were in, encircling them rightly.

Amidst the group, a middle-aged man wielding a crescent saber was escorted by two guards by his sides. From the looks of it, it would appear that he was the leader of this pack of bandits.

Despite his clean facial features, a portion of his fringe was dyed grey, forming a stark contrast with his relatively young appearance.

“Streak of Grey?” Mo Yuan’s eyes quivered at that sight.

There were many bandits around Twilight City, but most of them wouldn’t pose much of a threat to them… However, y was particularly notorious around Twilight City for wielding the greatest strength amongst the bandits!

No one knew the real name of this bandit, and they only remembered him by the streak of grey hair at his fringe. That was also how his alias, ‘Streak of Grey’, came around. Not only was he vicious, he also had the strength to go along with it, making him a widely feared individual by those living in the vicinity of Twilight City.

It was said that his cultivation had already reached middle-tier God realm pinnacle.

“It seems like I am still quite well-known here,” Streak of Grey chuckled playfully.

“Of course, who wouldn’t recognize our boss?”

“Since you know us, you should know the rules. Cut the crap and hand over everything you have. Don’t let your bravado cost you your life!”

The bandits by the side laughed heartily.

It was clear that Mo Yuan was a little intimidated through his tightly-clenched fists. Nevertheless, knowing that everyone else was relying on him, he forced himself to step forward and say, “I am a teacher from the Twilight Academy, Mo Yuan. My students and I have left the city to carry out a mission, so we didn’t bring much wealth with us. I beseech you to let us off this once…”

“Mission?” Streak of Grey frowned in disappointment. With a dismissive wave of his hand, he continued, “Since that’s the case, I’ll make do with just your weapons and that Windgale Fox in your hands then!”

This time around, Mo Yuan didn’t respond right away.

And this moment of silence opened a gap for Wu Xiaoxiao to interject in, “Why should we give you the Windgale Fox that we hunted with great difficulty? You better scram right now, or else I’ll have my father capture all of you once we return to the city!”

“Your father?”

“That’s right! My father is the city lord of Twilight City, Wu Fangqing! You should be well aware that he’s a powerful Celestial God, so I advise you to stop this foolishness. How out of your minds must you be to even dare to rob me? Just touch a single hair of mine, and you can be sure that he’ll lop off all of your heads!” Wu Xiaoxiao spoke proudly.

It was one thing for a bunch of Semi-Divinity realm lasses to steal her crush away from her, but these bandits actually dared to eye the Windgale Fox that they had hunted with great difficulty! They must really be tired of living!

“You are the daughter of the city lord?” Streak of Grey was surprised for a moment before he roared in laughter, as if he had heard the funniest thing in his life.

He looked at his band around him and asked, “Lads, tell her! Have we ever feared that city lord before?”

“Fear? Hahaha! If we were scared of that city lord, we would have never chosen such a life!”

“You sure did us a huge service! Aren’t you curious to see how much your darling daddy would be willing to fork out in order to save you?”

“That city lord has left us tight on our toes over the past few years. We can finally return the favor to him now so as to show him that we aren’t to be trifled with!”

The bandits cheered excitedly.

“What are you all trying to do?”

Wu Xiaoxiao thought that these pesky bandits would surely flee in fear after hearing her identity, but instead, her words seemed to have furthered their determination. Completely taken aback by such a turn of events, her voice quivered in fear, betraying her uncertainty.

One must know that her father was a Celestial God, such that no one in Twilight City would dare to defy him. Yet, this bunch of lowlifes actually didn’t fear her father at all… Were they really not afraid of death?

“What are we trying to do?” Streak of Grey laughed. “We were thinking of robbing a bunch of poor students, but it appears that there’s a big fish hidden amongst them. Lads, make sure that not even a single one of them escapes. If we succeed, you can be sure that every single one of you will be handsomely rewarded!”

“Roger that, boss!”

The bandits laughed sinisterly as they tightened the encirclement.

Seeing such a sight, Mo Yuan shook his head with a deep sigh before whispering to Shen Cheng discreetly, “I’ll buy some time. Find a way to break out of their encirclement with everyone else!”

Then, he charged right at Streak of Grey without any hesitation.

In his view, the only way they could turn the tables around was to quickly defeat Streak of Grey and persuade the other bandits to surrender through that.

Hula!

Without any hesitation, he released a burst of sword qi in Streak of Grey’s direction, causing the latter to narrow his eyes.

Middle-tier Gods were still considered to be in the lower echelons of the Firmament, but without a doubt, their stren抑 and agility far surpassed that of low-tier Gods. Furthermore, as a teacher, Mo Yuan_s maneuvers exceptionally polished, making a potential threat to Streak of Grey.

“You are courting death!”

Streak of Grey knew that it would eventually come down to this, so he raised his crescent saber and pulled it down upon Mo Yuan.

It was a terribly simple move, but the sheer might behind the attack made it difficult to deal with.

Mo Yuan was forced to quickly pull his sword in to defend against the blow.

Kacha!

As overwhelming might crushed down on him, Mo Yuan’s sword trembled endlessly. He felt a sharp pain stabbing the webbing between his thumb and his forefinger, and crimson blood flowed down his palm. The sheer force caused his knee to cave him, causing him to kneel to the ground.

Through his superior strength and the height advantage from being on horseback, Streak of Grey was able to subdue Mo Yuan in a single strike.

“True strength conquers all obstacles…” Zhang Xuan remarked softly.

He knew that the situation was going to turn awry when he heard Wu Xiaoxiao reporting her background. The city lord might be a powerful cultivator, but his sphere of influence wasn’t so great as to extend beyond the city walls.

Furthermore, those men standing before them were bandits. Bandits!

Telling them ‘I am the daughter of the city lord’ was as good as saying ‘My family is loaded so suck me dry’!

It was one thing for this young lady to be spoiled, but her lack of worldly experience made that even more fatal. It was the perfect recipe for someone to dive recklessly into oblivion.

But again, it was not like it really made much of a difference anyway. The bandits wouldn’t let them go either way.

In the first place, those who could get into the Twilight Academy were the top-notch geniuses of Twilight City, and most of them had illustrious backgrounds. To rob such people and let them walk away alive, that was as good as setting up a time bomb for themselves.

As someone who was able to make his name as a bandit, there was no way Streak of Grey would show mercy to them just because they were students.

The only reason why the other party claimed that he was only going to take the weapons and the Windgale Fox was so as to numb everyone, making it easier for them to take down the group.

It was because they had seen through this that neither Zhang Xuan nor Mo Yuan stopped Wu Xiaoxiao when she went on her ‘Big Missy Tantrum1.

Peng!

While such thoughts were passing through Zhang Xuan’s mind, Streak of Grey abruptly retracted his crescent saber and swung it down on Mo Yuan once more with greater force.

This strike sent Mo Yuan slamming onto the walls of the ditch, and his body slid to the ground before slumping forward weakly. He hadn’t passed down yet, but it would be hard for him to move in his current condition.

“Tie him up!”

Huala!

Two of the bandits quickly galloped forward with ropes and tied Mo Yuan up tightly.

“So, what are the rest of you planning to do? Are you going to try fighting back?”

After knocking out the most powerful Mo Yuan in two blows, Streak of Grey turned to look at the remaining members of the group with a haughty look in his eyes.

“This…”

Shen Cheng, Wu Xiaoxiao, and the others subconsciously took a step back as they looked at the bandits with quivering eyes.

They thought that their teacher would at least be able to fend off the bandits for a moment, buying some time for them to escape. Yet, contrary to their expectations, their teacher was defeated within two blows…

Their teacher was the only one amongst them who was a middle-tier God. If even he was no match for the bandits, how could the rest of them stand a chance at all?

Just as everyone was at a loss as to what to do, Zhang Xuan suddenly walked forward with a weirdly relaxed look on his face.