Chapter 220: Darkness
Without even waiting for anyone to declare him the winner, Xue Wei left the cage, not looking back at the corpse on the ground in the cell ever again.
As he exited, the audience unconsciously made a path for him and he quickly grouped up with his companions.
"Let’s go," Xue Wei said. Neither Hei Gou nor Bai Tianyi cared about staying as they had already had their share of fun, so they nodded their heads and left the cave together with him.
"We got to be careful," Bai Tianyi said after a while. "Those Tiger Triplet brothers might have given up on the outside, but I fear that they will not have given up in their hearts."
"I know," Xue Wei said, annoyed, "they are right behind us." Bai Tianyi snickered. "So even you could sense them?" he joked, but Xue Wei ignored him.
Usually, it would be hard for Xue Wei to pinpoint someone of a stronger cultivation base than himself with his spiritual energy, but he had recognized it right away since he had already memorized their auras in their previous encounter.
"The brute is not much of a problem," Xue Wei said casually while looking at the dark sky above him. They had left the underground battle area early so it was still night time.
"We can overpower him and kill him should it come to that, but the other one is difficult to deal with. I have no idea what he is thinking, nor do I have any idea what his exact plans are," Bai Tianyi added agreeingly while rubbing his chin.
"We need to keep in mind that Xue Wei and I can’t really take on our original shapes," Hei Gou cut in. "Although we are in the lawless part of the city, the Diviners were here earlier. We do not want to attract those guys, now do we?"
"Not only the Diviners, but everyone else will also go after us if they see our original shape."
Xue Wei pondered what Hei Gou had said for a moment. "That’s not wrong," he conceded dejectedly. "We are three and they are two, but the fact remains that those two Tiger Triplets are stronger than us even if we have the advantage in numbers. Both of them are Ordinary Knights and only Tianyi is an Ordinary Knight on our side."
"It is fine," Bai Tianyi said, laughing out loud. He grinned. "I might be a few layers beneath them in strength, but the truth is that I am not some average cultivator."
"I am an immortal spirit. I have lived at the apex of the world. No one could threaten me, no one could challenge me. Two simple Ordinary Knights might be able to cause me a bit of trouble, but since I am undying I can just keep going until they die!"
Xue Wei shook his head when he heard this and laughed slightly. Bai Tianyi sounded arrogant and self-confident, but Xue Wei was aware that this attitude was not the whole truth.
Although he was undying, he could still be injured. The more injured he became, the more his strength would be lowered. If he was injured too much, his soul would enter a hibernation period until he manages to absorb enough soul power from the surrounding air to recover.
"So what do we do now?" Xue Wei ignored Bai Tianyi’s bragging and looked at them.
"Should we enter a small alleyway where no one can see us and fight them hoping to win, or should we just return to the hotel and ignore them for now?"
"I kinda hate the feeling of having someone behind me," Hei Gou said while starting to swing his arm to warm up his body and prepare for battle.
"I said I can deal with them. You two just look at my brilliant display of strength," Bai Tianyi said with a snicker. While hesitant at first, eventually Xue Wei could only chuckle and shake his head.
Was there even a choice? These two battle maniacs by his side were smiling wildly while stretching their arms as they moved into one of the nearby alleyways that were a part of the lawless area.
The people living in the houses on the two sides of the alleyway could be the eyes of the underworld, like a den of flies on the wall.
"I can’t sense the Diviners anywhere near us," Xue Wei said, glancing around. "Nah, they left this area a while ago," Bai Tianyi answered casually. "I followed their energy signatures when they left."
"Well, then we have nothing holding us back!" Hei Gou laughed madly. Xue Wei grinned too.
"How long do the three of you plan on laughing like this?" a voice said from behind them. Xue Wei’s trio turned around to look at the two remaining brothers of the Tiger Triplets.
"Oh, you are here already?" Bai Tianyi sent back casually, though he was far from relaxed in reality.
There was a serious gleam in his eyes. He was clearly tense, and he was actively circulating his spiritual energy through his body while watching them carefully.
Xue Wei and Hei Gou were equally alert. They too were circulating their energy. In Xue Wei, thousands of dragons were vigorously flowing through the channels in his body. All of them were roaring out loud, but Xue Wei was the only one who could hear it.
The roaring dragons made Xue Wei’s killing intent spike. It started leaking out of him in the same way air leaks out of a broken balloon.
The temperature started to drop drastically. Xue Wei’s eyes turned slightly red, and the smile on his face grew bigger and bigger.
This fight was nothing like a cage battle. Although the cage fights were interesting and thrilling, they were impossible for Xue Wei to lose since he held so many advantages against another expert of the same rank.
This was, however, different. This was a battle against two experts of strength much higher than his own, at a realm he had yet to reach.
This was truly thrilling!
Xue Wei instinctively knew that this was the most dangerous battle he had ever encountered. Although the opponents were fewer in numbers than when he fought in the siege outside Golden Crow City, the quality of these two experts was much higher.
Hei Gou, Xue Wei, and Bai Tianyi were all aware that they would be in for a bitter struggle, but it was still impossible for them to hide the smiles on their faces.
"Leave the cheeky one to me," Bai Tianyi said as his body once more turned child-like. "You two, team up and fight the berserker. He should be the easiest of the two, and considering I’m the only Ordinary Knight, I am quite sure that’s the best option for us."
Xue Wei and Hei Gou did not object. They were both aware that, right now, Bai Tianyi was indeed the strongest among them. Leaving the strongest enemy to him would be wise.
The berserker also heard what was said so his focus changed to Xue Wei and Hei Gou. He felt a slight pressure coming from the two, but he could not help but snort. They were both Heavenly Warriors, not even Ordinary Knights, so how could they possibly put up a fight against him?
"Are you sure that the Diviners have left?" Hei Gou asked again, just to be completely sure. Bai Tianyi shrugged his shoulders. "I can’t say for sure," he said honestly, while his eyes never once left the cheeky and silent one of the two brothers.
"Well, who cares?" Xue Wei finally said, laughing. "If the Diviners really are watching us, then it’s just our bad luck!"
"I guess you are right!" Hei Gou chuckled too. Then suddenly his body expanded; black fur grew from his skin and his entire being was changed from a human’s shape to a massive black dog with a pair of crow wings on his back.
His entire body was pitch black and his eyes were silver like the moon. The strength of his body was so overwhelming that the ground underneath his paws had already cracked and was starting to collapse.
The eyes of the two remaining Tiger Triplets widened in surprise, but they soon calmed down again when they saw that neither Xue Wei nor Bai Tianyi turned into beasts.
"You have a contracted Primordial Beast?" the berserker asked while licking his lips with greed. "I will not kill it, but I will take it from you. It will be the new member of the Tiger Triplets and make us a fortune with its strength as a Primordial Beast!"
"You want to enslave my brother?" Xue Wei started laughing out loud, but there was a cold gleam in his eyes. A second after, he vanished from where he was standing.
Forbidden Rush!
Inner Might: Sword Style!
Xue Wei slashed out as soon as the sword had appeared in his hand. A thin sword light could be seen as the berserker withdrew in shock. The speed Xue Wei displayed was many times faster than the speed he had revealed in the cage battles.
His speed could rival an expert at the Ordinary Warrior rank! The ability that he was using was without a doubt not inferior to a superior martial arts technique!
On realizing that this youngster owned a superior martial art technique, the greed in the eyes of the berserker grew significantly.
Unfortunately, he dared not go too close to Xue Wei. The sword that the youngster was swinging was very sharp, so sharp that he had never encountered anything like it before.
The berserker was unaware of the fact that Xue Wei was using Inner Might to create a sword. He had not been able to really catch sight of the sword yet so all he thought was that it was a sharp, real weapon.
"You are an annoying little fly!" the berserker yelled out as he lifted his arm and made an axe appear in the palm of his hand.
"My turn!" Hei Gou, who had taken the shape of a Celestial Dog, had waited for this moment. It was still night. The only thing that illuminated the area was the moon, but suddenly Hei Gou’s wings flapped and lifted him up into the air.
He did not fly far, just a few meters, but then he opened his mouth. "Let us devour the moon!"
He did not actually devour the moon, but he did devour the moonlight that shone down upon them. A diameter of a hundred meters had suddenly turned into Hei Gou’s domain where everything had been steeped in a pitch black darkness that robbed you of your ability to see.
But it was not impossible for Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi to continue fighting. Bai Tianyi had such high level spiritual energy that everything around him was as clear as day. So he continued his bout against his opponent, who was now forced on the defensive.
Xue Wei could also use his spiritual energy to see, but more than that, he had the eyes of an Azure Dragon. The eyes of a dragon could see through even complete darkness.
"Let us fight side by side!" Hei Gou’s voice sounded next to Xue Wei, after which the oversized dog lunged at the berserker with its sharp claws and razor-like teeth. Because of his moon-devouring domain’s overwhelming effectiveness in immobilizing their foes, Hei Gou managed to inflict some serious damage to the berserker after a couple swipes and bites that could rip apart and shatter even concrete.