Condemning the Heavens

Chapter 34: Departing Tiankong City

"My father cannot sense your presence, so you are clearly above the Heavenly Warrior rank," Li Jian said, feeling slightly annoyed by the laughter. He could feel that she was not laughing with him, but at him.

"Since you are stronger than the Heavenly Warrior realm, you should easily be able to deal with Xiao Lei. Is there any reason for you to laugh so much about it?"

"Xiao Lei was my hero, but he never looked at me. He never even glanced my way, yet some piece of trash was able to get all of Xiao Lei's attention."

Li Jian's hands trembled, and an ugly expression appeared on his face.

"So, to sum it up, you want me to assist you in killing Xue Wei and Xiao Lei?" the woman chuckled as she slowly sat down on the chair where Li Fang had sat earlier.

"Yes!" Li Jian nodded his head. "That other Heavenly Warrior too, Manager Su!"

"Once Manager Su and Xiao Lei are gone, my father can take over the position as City Lord and I will become the new young master of Tiankong City. One day, I will take over his position and become the City Lord of the city, and all will listen to my orders!"

The more Li Jian spoke, the wider the smile on the silver-haired woman's face grew.

"I will help you," the woman said. "I cannot act directly, but when you are traveling towards the army, I promise to make sure that a great surprise will appear!"

Hearing this, Li Jian was somewhat disappointed. "You sounded as if you would help me, but you are telling me to wait a couple of months?! And that you cannot even act on your own? Then what use are you?!"

"I need to be certain that Xue Wei dies! He has to be completely dead – and preferably suffer before he dies!"

"I know," the woman laughed slightly. "I promise that only one of you will survive the trip. I can give you my word, in which I will step in and do the deed myself if my plan does not work."

"But you should want my help to be as subtle as possible," the woman said with a mysterious smile on her face. "If I act, then more chaos will ensue; and I can promise you that your father will realize that you have made a deal with me if Xue Wei drops dead all of a sudden with no explanation."

Li Jian frowned, but after considering it for some time, he nodded his head. Although he wanted his vengeance, he did not want to get crippled or expelled from the family. If she could use some other means to get rid of Xue Wei, then all he had to do was wait a few months to see what would happen.

"Well then, thank you for your cooperation," the woman laughed again. Her voice became distant as she spoke, her figure vanishing into the shadows. It was as if she had melted into the shadows and the last thing that Li Jian heard was the pearl-like laughter of the woman who had vanished entirely.

Like this, rumors started to spread through Tiankong City of a mysterious stranger visiting the Li family mansion at night. However, no one knew anything about the purpose of this visit, so assumptions were as many as stars in the sky.

Some thought that Li Fang had found a backer that would assist him to become the new City Lord.

Others thought that it was a master thief that had come to steal everything the Li family had gathered over the years.

A group of people thought that it was an expert that had decided to settle down in the Li family mansion without telling Li Fang, causing him to yell the way he had when he noticed the expert.

There were many rumors, but neither Shen Bingwen nor Li Fang said the truth to anyone, causing the rumors to be just that, rumors.

The only ones who knew what had happened were the two Heavenly Warriors, and after a bit of time, Manager Su and Xue Wei.

At first, neither Shen Bingwen nor Li Fang had planned on telling Manager Su or Xue Wei about what had happened. But after careful consideration, they agreed on it being for the best to tell these two about it, as it seemed as though Li Jian was a potential target for the strange voice.

Where Manager Su's eyes turned dark, Xue Wei was completely carefree. He understood that if this powerful expert was truly aiming for his life, he had no way of protecting it. If the expert could sneak into the Li mansion without even Li Fang's notice, that person was stronger than Manager Su, Shen Bingwen, and Li Fang.

Even if they went together against the enemy, no one was able to say who would emerge victoriously.

Xue Wei knew too little about the realms above Heavenly Warrior rank, but he could imagine that it was a completely different realm; a realm where strength would multiply many times and thus the Heavenly Warriors could not bar this expert if their choice was to kill him.

On the other hand, he could not help but feel strange. Why would such an esteemed expert try to contact Li Jian and the Li family, trying to tempt them? It made no sense.

Did the Li family have something unusual that the esteemed expert wanted, or did the expert just want to see chaos and disaster wherever it passed? Tempting commoners and trying to make them fall to their heart demons?

Xue Wei shook his head. He was not going to spend his time wondering about something he had no power to change. Instead, he decided to spend the time cultivating, spending as much time as he could to increase his combat power and getting familiar with his techniques.

Although he was decent with his techniques, he was still far from being able to grasp the true meaning behind them fully. As a result, he needed to train more to gain the thorough understanding of the abilities.

He followed the same pattern as before. He would spend five days to a week absorbing the herbal concoction followed by a week of training his abilities and normal cultivation. He could feel how his body was growing stronger for every single day that passed, and that he was gaining more and more Qi within his pearl-like dantian that started to shine with a stronger azure shine.

Soon, the time had come for Xue Wei to depart for the army. The last couple of months had passed fast to him, and he had not encountered any problems. Li Jian and his friends were doing their best to avoid him whenever they were in town.

No one wished to be crippled, and he had already crippled two of them when he was weaker. Since then, he had grown much stronger, so strong that everyone assumed that he was the strongest within the Ordinary Warrior rank within Tiankong City.

A few weeks before the departure, Xue Wei had finally broken through into the ninth layer of the Ordinary Warrior rank. Although he was only in the initial stages, he was certain in his strength.

In Tiankong City, there were no strength measuring stones, so Xue Wei did not know how much his power surpassed the strength of an average ninth layered Ordinary Warrior; yet when he's lifting things that he knew the weight of, he felt that he could lift at least five hundred kilograms more than he should, which is a significant amount.

Clenching his fist, Xue Wei felt how he had managed to perfect the Forbidden Rush for his level.

There was only so much he could comprehend while being at the Ordinary Warrior rank, but to have comprehended as much as he could, Xue Wei was able to flutter in the wind while being weightless. He could jump around two hundred meters in the air, but it was still impossible for him to be able to fly or walk on air.

The closest he could get would be to merge with the wind and allow the wind to blow him around, but this was not very convenient as he could not control his destination this way.

Xue Wei was deep in thought about the Forbidden Rush technique when Manager Su appeared behind him and cleared his throat. "Young Master," he said, "it is time for you to depart."

"Here is a bag. It contains a canteen, some rations, gold, clothes, and so on. It should be enough for you on your way to the army. When you are in the army, you will be given some clothes, armor, and be fed by the army dining hall."

Manager Su had taken great care to pack the large bag for Xue Wei. He had packed everything that he thought Xue Wei might need, and he had packed a whole lot of gold, enough gold to make it possible for Xue Wei to live comfortably for a few decades, even when using the herbal concoction.

The bag was heavy, but to someone like Xue Wei who was a ninth layered Ordinary Warrior, it was simple to bear.

"Well then, Manager Su, look well after the mansion until I return," he said with a smile on his face, and Manager Su nodded his head seriously.

"Be careful," he warned. "We don't know what Li Jian is up to. Hopefully, he listened to his father and did not do anything silly, but who knows."

"You will be in the army for a decade. After this decade, you will be able to return to Tiankong City. I believe that you will have become a great figure by then."

"Of course, you can also choose to stay in the army and make a career for yourself, or you can be like your uncle, Xiao Lei, and become a Primordial Beast Hunter."

"I will come back as soon as I finish my military service," Xue Wei promised. "I will become a Primordial Beast Hunter like my uncle, and kill many Primordial Beasts to make him proud."

"Well then, take care," Manager Su said nothing more than this and smiled as he nodded his head. "I will always be waiting here for you and your uncle."

At the start, Manager Su had not disliked Xue Wei, but he had not liked him either. Now, things had changed, and Manager Su felt almost as if it was his grandchild that was leaving to explore the vast world of the Heping army.

He would be fighting against hordes of Fierce Beasts; he could even encounter Primordial Beasts. He would be in danger repeatedly, but no matter how worried Manager Su was, he said nothing about it. He felt that Xue Wei needed to do his best and step out onto a broader stage.

He had already become a genius of Tiankong City. Although Tiankong was a large city within the Kingdom of Heping, the world was vast. It was clear that Xue Wei would one day explore the rest of the countries much like Xiao Lei did from time to time.

Xue Wei said his goodbye and got ready to leave. He headed towards the outskirts of town where other experts were present, waiting for the group to set out.

Although the group of experts from Tiankong City was split into two groups, Xue Wei knew that when they were going towards the army, all of them would go together. They would have a group of guards with them, all at the Earth Warrior rank that would guard them all the way to the army.

Everyone kept a cordial and proper relationship during this trip. No one knew who they would be sat in a group with when they reached the army, and thus many gave up on being split into factions in the next decade where they had to trust their comrades with their backs.