Condemning the Heavens

Elder Zhang smiled when he heard what He Ji said, and nodded his head approvingly.

"You will become a great soldier for the Chaos Vulture Tribe in the future!" he exclaimed as he stepped forward and placed a hand on He Ji's shoulder.

He found a few items that he gave the stunned young man. "Take this as a reward for the tribe!" the elder said, and handed it over to He Ji, surprising everyone present.

When they looked at what it was, jealousy was evident in the eyes of everyone present.

"This is… those are medicinal pills!" someone exclaimed, and even Xue Wei and Hei Gou were curious.

Medicinal pills were common in the center of the continent, but they were increasingly rare here in the outskirts. In fact, they were so rare that the only pills that Xue Wei had seen were those of very low purity.

Low purity pills were not very useful, as consumption of them, while providing you with an increase in strength, would infuse you with all of the impurities left over inside from the poorly done refining process. It was like ingesting poison for a boost in strength, which was temporary at most.

In the end, the medicinal properties would not make up for the impurities incurred from eating low purity medicinal pills.

The pills in He Ji's palm were not low purity pills. In fact, it seemed as if they were at around fifty percent purity.

Although this might not sound like a lot, it was still considered a rare treasure in the Flowing Blood Prairie. In the Kingdom of Heping, there might not even be more than ten such pills totally in circulation at any given time.

Xue Wei frowned. He was curious about the pills because he had only seen low purity pills before, but that did in no way mean he would consume pills of fifty percent purity himself.

Even though half of it consisted of medicinal properties that benefited one’s cultivation, there were still impurities in the pills that would linger in the body if one did not have a way to expunge them.

Medicinal herbs could decrease the amount of impurities one had in the body, and one could also to a certain degree cleanse one's body with Qi.

But these methods only got you so far, and eventually the impurities would stack up.

The more impurities in the body, the less pure one's Qi would become. At the same time, it would also affect your constitution.

The more impurities there were in one's body, the longer it took to refine Qi. Also, if these impurities stacked up, one's body would become weaker and weaker to the point that it would become unsuitable for cultivation.

Someone like Xue Wei, who had a very pure Qi, could consume a lot of medicinal pills before it would become as irreparably grave as that, but he also knew that if he started consuming these low purity pills, then his high purity Qi would become ordinary in no time.

Since this was the case, Xue Wei did not envy He Ji for having been gifted those pills. Even the slightest impurity would significantly lessen the purity - and by proxy the advantage - of Xue Wei’s Qi.

The experts of the Chaos Vulture Tribe all had Qi with slight impurities. To them it was not a big problem to consume pills, as they would need to consume a vast amount to have their Qi tainted with enough impurities to make it unstable.

He Ji would be capable of breaking into the Sky Warrior rank by relying on the pills he had been given, and this was something that made him ecstatic.

The eyes of the Sky Warriors narrowed. There was great competition between the cultivators of the Chaos Vulture Tribe, and to have another expert becoming a Sky Warrior meant one more competitor for their positions and their privileges in being prioritized first for the distribution of medicinal herbs and plants to the tribe members.

In the Chaos Vulture Tribe, the strong were revered. The stronger one was, the more resources one could enjoy.

Xue Wei went next to Hei Gou and Elder Zhang. His clothes were messy, and strands of hair had gotten loose from the bun of hair he had on top of his head. He looked rather attractive in a very disheveled manner. Many of the girls present felt their hearts sway.

However, when he stood next to Hei Gou, his attractiveness was quickly overshadowed. This primordial beast was truly too handsome!

"Well done," Hei Gou grinned at Xue Wei and nodded his head, "but now it is my turn!"

He stepped forward, and a savage aura spread from his body. He retrieved a set of claws from his robes and attached them to his hands.

"Who wishes to spar with me? I would suggest only the strongest of the Sky Warriors to step up! Or does this crappy tribe not contain any true experts? It would be so embarrassing for you all if I ended up wiping the table clean with your most outstanding geniuses!" he called out. The Sky Warriors frowned. This challenge was really too brazen.

“What? Are you unconvinced? Well then bite me, a small tribe like yours wishes to have this young master taking you seriously? Be honest, you just want to wash away the shame from Xue Wei beating your Earth Warriors and now you want to take it out on me! But tough luck, I am not just going to let you stomp all over me. In fact, I am going to stomp all over you!”

Although what Hei Gou said was rather outrageous, no one dared to look down on him. They had seen Xue Wei's abnormal display of power, so what would they do if this person was as monstrous, if not more?

Xue Wei hid his face in his hands. He had been rather condescending when he was fighting for the sake of rousing the opponents, and now it seemed as if Hei Gou was doing the same, except he was taking it to a completely new level.

It was not only him who seemed to think so. The Elders that were present all looked ugly, their faces were a sight to behold, but neither of them dared act. These two were guests of Elder Zhang and they respected him, but even so they felt that Hei Gou had gone over the line.

Even Xue Wei felt that Hei Gou had gone over the line. The tribe had treated them kindly ever since they came to their tribe. Xue Wei had done some slight insulting of the younger generation to rouse their battle intent and allow him to thoroughly test his abilities, but it seemed as if Hei Gou was insulting them just for the sake of insulting them. As to why Xue Wei was rather puzzled, but for now he would trust his friend and not question him. He felt as if Hei Gou had a reason to act as he did.

Finally, someone stepped forward. He was a second layer Sky Warrior, and his eyes were narrowed slightly.

"I would like to exchange a few pointers with you," he said as he cupped his fists and bowed to Hei Gou.

Hei Gou snickered and glanced at Xue Wei. "Seems like you intimidated even the Sky Warriors," he said, laughing. His words were arrogant and did not show any respect to the expert that had stepped forward.

Hei Gou had grown up in a very different environment than these Chaos Vulture Tribesmen and Xue Wei. He did not know much about how to behave in a group of people, and Xue Wei could not help but shake his head in disbelief.

"Go battle," he said in an exhausted way as he looked at Hei Gou. It was clear that the faces of all present had turned hostile; even Elder Zhang’s face was rather unsightly. If Hei Gou had not looked like his Little Lao, it was likely that he would already have stepped up to teach this noisy child a lesson.

Xue Wei was eager to observe Hei Gou spar. So far, he had only seen him overwhelm his opponents and kill them in cold blood, or when they were sparring together, in which he was holding back.

When Xue Wei and Hei Gou sparred, he never even used his claws. But now that he was up against genuine Sky Warriors, he was going to be using his weapons, and eagerness could be seen in his eyes as he stepped towards the enraged expert from the Chaos Vulture Tribe.

This expert had displayed respect, yet Hei Gou had displayed a complete lack of respect in return. It was only natural that this Sky Warrior from the Chaos Vulture Tribe was furious.

Xue Wei was the kind of person that would show respect to others if they showed respect to him, but Hei Gou was different. He did not care at all about other people. Especially not humans; humans were after all of a different race than his own, and he knew that if they were aware of his real identity, none of them would hesitate to attack and kill him.

Being aware of this, Xue Wei made no gesture to disagree with him. The damage had already been done, and even if Hei Gou apologized, it would be too late to do anything about their unfavorable impression of him.

Hei Gou took a stance in front of the human expert that had stepped up to his challenge, and a snicker appeared on his lips. He had not been able to fight with all his strength before, but now he felt that he had a chance to show off his strength and really enjoy a battle to his heart's content.

The two experts looked at one another. One was devilishly handsome, with a smirk on his face, and the other had a face contorted with anger and shame.

The moment Hei Gou took a stance could be considered the moment that their spar began. Without wasting even a second, the human cultivator rushed at him with a sword in his hands. He raised it high above his head and slashed it down with all his might.

It was clear that this expert intended to cleave him in two to wash away the shame he had experienced.

This was a simple spar, but the young tribesman had attacked viciously, so both Hei Gou and Xue Wei's eyes suddenly turned cold. It made sense that they were angry after being insulted as much as Hei Gou had insulted them, but to try and take revenge by killing him was enough to make both Xue Wei and Hei Gou unhappy.

A ferocious killing intent exploded forth from Hei Gou, causing the expressions of many of the people present to turn pale.

This ferociousness was only found in beasts and people who had climbed out from mountains made from corpses. The question that rung in the mind of everyone present was how many people had this young man killed to be able to acquire such a killing intent?

The expert who was descending through the air was the prime target for the killing intent. His body trembled and his eyes showed traces of fear.

His face went pale, and he wanted nothing more than to cancel the attack he had initiated. Unfortunately, he had gathered too much momentum, and trying to stop now would only injure him. All he could do was hope that Hei Gou showed him mercy.

Hei Gou's trademark smile had turned chilly. He lifted his arms, swept his claws out and struck the sword head-on.

The Sky Warrior had used a martial arts technique, but Hei Gou had a far superior body. He already had a strong body because he was a Primordial Beast, and a beast's body was many times stronger than a human’s, but undergoing a mutation pushed the strength of his body even further beyond.

The powerful swipe that Hei Gou unleashed was enough to completely tear apart the sword attack of the human cultivator, and the rebound attack sent him flying back in a sorry state.

Hei Gou had strength equivalent to a Sky Warrior, but he himself actually didn’t know which layer of the human system he was equivalent to.

It was hard to determine which layer a Primordial Beast was equivalent to due to many of them having a physical strength above the layer of their Qi.

Some beasts had a superior physical strength that could rival a ninth layer Sky Warrior, while their capacity of Qi might not even be able to rival a third layer Sky Warrior.

Hei Gou had a body that could rival a ninth layer Sky Warrior after the mutation, only a step away from having a physical strength equivalent to a Heavenly Warrior.

His Qi, on the other hand, was only equivalent to a person at the second layer of the Sky Warrior rank. Furthermore, when someone with a high cultivation looked at him, they would see a second layer Sky Warrior.

It was not only beasts that could have a physical strength that was higher than their Qi. Human cultivators could be cultivating a body-enhancing martial arts technique, or they could have consumed medicinal plants or herbs that increased their physical condition.

Hei Gou had a physical strength equivalent to a ninth layer Sky Warrior, but although he could use his physical body to completely overwhelm the weaker layers in the Sky Warrior rank, it was impossible for him to face up against a ninth layer Sky Warrior based on his strength alone. His Qi was simply too weak to support the rest.

"Seems like he is invincible in the lower layers of the Sky Warrior rank," Xue Wei muttered to himself, impressed with Hei Gou's display.

“I told you already, this tribe might be something in the Flowing Blood Prairie, but my brother and I have our eyes set on something much bigger than this! This is nothing but the beginning of our journey, and you are bound to be defeated by us if you are from the same generation!”

The faces of everyone present was turning ugly. Hei Gou had insulted their tribe, but when they saw how easily he dispatched his opponent, they found it hard to retaliate. In this world, strength was what allowed someone to be arrogant.