Condemning the Heavens

"Now that all of you have taken the oath, allow me to explain what we are doing right now." Elder Sun grinned as he looked at the four experts next to him.

"A lot of nomads live in these grasslands, but in the last two years, a group of bandits appeared here in the grasslands. They started attacking the tribes at first, but as time went on they also started to exit the grasslands and strike the roads outside cities."

"The group of bandits is quite strong, and it consists of at least thousand if not ten thousand people."

"We had previously sent cultivators to eradicate them. However, everyone we sent ended up dead, or joining the bandits instead."

Xue Wei frowned when he heard this. "They could betray the academy even after taking an oath? Does this not mean that they should have died on the spot?"

"You are smart." Elder Sun nodded his head with seriousness and sighed. "Those who joined the bandits were all people who had been forced to go on the mission by the academy. Since they were forced to participate, the academy had already let them down and thus they would not get punished for their betrayal."

"Of course this is only for the oath itself. When we encounter them, we will kill them like any other bandit that we encounter," Elder Sun continued in a straightforward way.

Xue Wei nodded his head. Everyone made their own decisions in life, and they had to bear the consequences of these decisions.

Betraying their academy was definitely an act punishable with death if they were caught. No one could blame those experts for joining the bandits if they had been forced into going, but equally, no one could blame the academy for doing the same and killing them when they had the chance.

It was very similar to Hei Gou's situation. He had betrayed his family because they had forced him to throw his life away. He had chosen to abandon his family and his name and instead strive to survive, but he understood that this decision meant that his family would want to kill him should they see him again.

Although they had not done so, he had accepted it as a fact. These experts who had joined the bandits had also acknowledged this fact.

"The mission we give now is to hunt down every bandit scouring our grasslands. You will get this wristband which is infused with spiritual energy. When a person dies around you, the bracelet will calculate the strength of the person and the merits will be recorded by the bracelet."

"These wristbands should be worn at all times, as they will calculate all your merits and later they will be transferred to your student tag."

"Remember, merits are everything for you." He grinned as he handed over four black wristbands. They seemed as if they had been made from leather, but a small round bead was attached to it. In the middle of this small bead was swirling grey mist, clearly spiritual energy.

Xue Wei looked at it curiously and poured his energy into it, but he sensed nothing. It was as if he was walking in a fog, unable to sense anything.

After experiencing this loss of all senses, Xue Wei placed it on his wrist. The other three copied his actions. None of them saw anything wrong with this item, so they did not hesitate to wear it.

As they wore the wristbands, they felt no different. All they could feel was something cool on their wrists, so they were quite curious as to how this small item would be capable of recording their kills.

This continent was much different from the continent of Chang'an. Yan Dalu had almost no Qi martial art techniques, as they focused on spiritual energy. The few Qi martial art techniques that had managed to survive through time and the splitting of the continent were all low or middle-ranked. Only a few high-ranked skills had survived, but superior and profound skills did not exist on this continent.

This was because only a few people cultivated their Qi. The majority of Qi cultivators on the continent were Primordial Beasts, and these beasts had innate abilities, which made them incapable of learning martial art techniques.

The local two-eyes could cultivate their Qi, but they could never reach further than the Heavenly Warrior rank, and their fighting ability would be greatly looked down upon because their martial art techniques were as poor as they were.

It was simply a continent where spiritual energy thrived and Qi cultivation was greatly inferior.

Xue Wei looked at Elder Sun and started pondering. He had purchased quite a few Qi martial art techniques back in Golden Crow City, all of which were superior and profound.

If he could exchange these skills for merit points, would that not be ideal? He had already gotten his Heritage Ring back, so those abilities were not that useful to him as they had been before. Merits were much more important.

Although there were few who cultivated Qi as their specialization, no one would say no to having a few more, and stronger, abilities. Every cultivator with multiple eyes would also be able to enhance their strength by adding a few Qi attacks to their list of abilities.

But Xue Wei was not dumb, he understood that his Qi techniques were likely to be looked down upon even if he were to bring them out. The amount of merits he could get would therefore also be limited. Still, it was worth a try as he could easily make a copy of the skills. There was no loss for him to give some of his less used abilities away.

Elder Sun looked at the contemplating Xue Wei. There was no one interrupting him. Elder Sun could see that he was in deep thought about how to conjure up a huge amount of merits.

"Well, for now, let us just kill all the bandits that come at us," Xue Wei said after a bit of thinking. Exchanging his abilities for merit points could always wait.

"So how do I know what is a bandit and what is a normal person?" Xue Wei asked the most crucial question he had. If they could just wantonly kill, then there was no problem, but if they accidentally killed someone who was from the academy, then it would be rather troublesome.

"The bracelets," Elder Sun snickered. "The bracelets are wonderful. They only work on the experts that have taken the heavenly oath. As such no one can hide their affiliation."

"Well, what about civilians?" Bai Tianyi asked. Although they could easily kill people who did not have the bracelets, they could not very well go around slaughtering all the civilians again.

"Oh, they have been evacuated. Anyone who stays are fair game. No one will blame you for killing civilians if they’ve refused to leave. Also many of the bandits will disguise themselves as civilians so let no one without a bracelet go!"

"This place surely is different," Hei Gou muttered, but a huge smirk was adorning his lips.

It was time to hunt!

"Let us get going," Xue Wei agreed. They had been given a lot of information from Elder Sun. He had been incredibly friendly and helped them in every way he possibly could.

Xue Wei knew that no one was that friendly without having some ulterior motives, but he had had the impression, on an instinctive level, that those ulterior motives were not harmful to them.

The four of them exited the tent and walked through the camp. Many experts with three and a few with four eyes looked at them with the same disdain as before, but there was also curiosity in their eyes.

The curious gazes increased when they saw the black wristbands. They were only given to academy students, but to become a student of the academy one needed a superior talent. Generally speaking, one needed a minimum of three eyes or to be a Primordial Beast, but these four all had two eyes. Were all four of them Primordial Beasts?

But although Primordial Beasts were acknowledged as powerhouses, they were also quite rare. It was simply impossible for four to appear at the same time, so some of them had to be humans. But why would two-eyed humans be accepted in the academy?

Xue Wei and the others ignored the many glances and headed out of the camp, only to suddenly be stopped by a young man.

He seemed to be around Xue Wei's age, seventeen years old, and his face had a wide smile on it. This smile, however, did not seem to be genuine.

"New students?" he asked. Xue Wei, who had stopped in his tracks, looked at the young man. "Yes," he answered with a neutral tone.

"Why don't you show us why you were allowed to join this academy? Your Qi level seems rather high. I cannot even fathom it, so it must be above the Heavenly Warrior rank, but your spiritual energy is only at the sixth layer of the Ordinary Knight rank, and your friends have an even worse achievement than you."

"To be honest, I am quite amazed by your ability to cultivate Qi to this level. Tell me honestly, are you a Primordial Beast?"

"I am not," Xue Wei said casually. It was no lie; he was half Sovereign Beast and half human. No part of his bloodline belonged to a Primordial Beast - at least from what he was aware of.

"Ohh, you are not? Tell me, who is the strongest in your group?" the young man continued. Xue Wei looked at Lin Xiao and Hei Gou. When one considered their ranks, they were indeed the strongest in the group.

"Well, the strongest in our groups are a bit older than you," Xue Wei said casually. "Why don't I spar with you?"

Xue Wei was not dumb. He knew that this person wanted to cause problems as soon as possible. Accepting a spar was a way to calm them down.

Elder Sun had been lurking in the shadows, ready to step in to defuse the situation at any moment, but he quickly found that Xue Wei showed no fear of this person in front of him.

"I am an eight layer Ordinary Warrior ranked three-eyed cultivator!" he said proudly. "I am able to wipe the floor with a mere Qi cultivator." He grinned, but Xue Wei just curled his lips into a slight smile.

Did this man really think that he could walk all over Xue Wei? Did he think that all Qi cultivators were weak? It was time to teach him a lesson.

Seeing the fearless eyes of Xue Wei, the three-eyed challenger frowned. Why would he be so confident in his own strength?

Still, when riding the back of a tiger, it was impossible to get off. He understood that he had started this conflict, so now he had to see it through to the end.

"This way," he said as he led them towards a temporary sparring field that had been set up by the academy.

Many had heard what was going on and were curious about what had given this young man such courage when his spiritual energy cultivation was weaker than the other’s.

Could Qi cultivation really count for something? Especially when they considered that he said he was not a Primordial Beast. If he was no Primordial Beast, how could he have strong Qi attacks?

Reaching the sparring field, which was actually just a fenced square, Xue Wei entered the field casually. The three-eyed troublemaker was feeling slightly nervous, but after considering the situation, he calmed down.

"You are just mystifying things for the sake of helping yourself," the troublemaker said to himself and then shook his head and took a deep breath.

"There should never be a day where I am fearing a Qi cultivator!"