Zhuo Fan and Xue Ningxiang were searching through bushes in Allbeast Mountain Range. Xue Ningxiang was unsettled, not knowing where he was going with this.

Zhuo Fan suddenly shouted in glee and held out something dirty, “Found it!”

Xue Ningxiang blinked in curiosity at the thing, “What is it? What does it do?”

“Sweet potato!”

Zhuo Fan gave a vague smile and continued, “The one thing that 1st level spiritual beast Burrowing Mouse likes the most!”

Xue Ningxiang’s eyes flashed and yelled, “Great plan, you want to use a Burrowing Mouse to make a tunnel and steal the Diamond Sand!”

The Burrowing Mouse didn’t know how to fight and even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could capture it easily. But its burrowing skill was second to none.

Just one of these critters could dig through a thousand-mile long mountain range in an hour!

Zhuo Fan didn’t reply and showed a faint smile. Xue Ningxiang felt even more suspicious now. No one seemed to be able to unravel the insidious mind of Zhuo Fan.

A moment later, Zhuo Fan took Xue Ningxiang far away from the Golden Spring Pool and made a fire in which he threw the sweet potato.

Soon, a sweet aroma wafted for a hundred miles!

Many spiritual beasts raised their heads and began searching for the source. Zhuo Fan took Xue Ningxiang to lay in ambush close by, their eyes fixed on the fire.

The bushes rustled and many spiritual beasts, big and small, approached the fire. They prodded the black lumps in the fire, wanting to find out from where the sweet smell came from, to no avail.

Zhuo Fan secretly laughed and smiled at Xue Ningxiang.

In fact, the two took the cooked sweet potato long ago, they only left it inside enough to release its sweet smell and attract the Burrowing Mouse. If not, the other spiritual beasts would’ve taken it away and ruined their plan.

More and more spiritual beasts came and searched, but found nothing.

However, the soil next to the fire moved as it bulged outwards to no more than a fist in size. Zhuo Fan stood up slowly and got ready.

Suddenly, the bulge of dirt broke away. A creature with a black mouth on its tiny head came out. It roamed around the fire a few times and sniffed.

[Now!]

Zhuo Fan screamed in his mind as he shot for the fire. The spiritual beasts, which gathered around the fire, were only at 1st and 2nd level, ran away at the sudden noise.

Only the Burrowing Mouse was oblivious to what was happening, but its intuition as a spiritual beast gave it a bit of insight that danger was looming. It immediately started moving its claw, wanting to burrow.

But it was too late. Zhuo Fan already flashed before it and grabbed its tail.

The Burrowing Mouse struggled for its life in panic. But there was no escape from the demonic palm of Zhuo Fan.

“He-he-he, buddy, you wanna run?” With a manic grin, Zhuo Fan grabbed the critter’s frail body and squeezed. It screeched in pain and flailed its claws.

Xue Ningxiang couldn’t take it anymore and took the poor thing close to her chest. She patted it and threw Zhuo Fan an evil eye, “How can you be so cruel? What if you hurt it?”

“Humph, spiritual beasts don’t get bruised easily!” Zhuo Fan snorted, “We need to hurry and tame it or we won’t get another chance!”

“But you don’t need to be such a boor about it! My clan had raised some small spiritual beasts before and even if they were wild they still listened to me!”

Xue Ningxiang comforted the poor critter with a sweet smile, “Isn’t that right, little one?”

The Burrowing Mouse seemed to understand and nodded, then glared at Zhuo Fan.

[Curses, buddy you’re pushing it here!]

Zhuo Fan raged inside, itching to get his hand on the prick. But it was impossible, not with Xue Ningxiang guarding it like a tigress.

But then an idea struck him and his manic grin returned.

The Burrowing Mouse shivered at the sight of him and hid in Xue Ningxiang’s chest.

“What are you trying to do?” Xue Ningxiang warned Zhuo Fan as she stepped back.

His face flipped to a gentle smile as a gourd appeared on his palm, “It’s alright. I won’t harm the little one. I only want it to swallow something.”

Then he took out a blood-red worm from the gourd.

It was the demonic creature he had raised with great care, Frigid Pool Bloodworm! Any creature that ingested it would have no choice but to listen to his commands or the Blood Curse would claim their lives.

If not for time being an issue, he wouldn’t have wanted to waste a Bloodworm on a 1st level spiritual beast!

“What is that? So disgusting!” Xue Ningxiang frowned and took another step back. The Burrowing Mouse also sensed the danger and hid in her chest.

Zhuo Fan was dead serious, “We have two ways we can tame the little guy fast. Either let me train it for a day, or he eats this.”

Xue Ningxiang saw Zhuo Fan’s face and she knew if she refused, he’d use force.

Helpless, Xue Ningxiang took the Burrowing Mouse out and patted its head, “Little one, it’s better if you eat it. Although its a tad disgusting, it’s better than landing in that guy’s hands!”

Xue Ningxiang said as she walked towards Zhuo Fan.

With a sinister smile, Zhuo Fan inched the bloodworm close to the Burrowing Mouse’s mouth. The critter struggled but it was of no use. The bloodworm was about to enter its mouth.

At that moment, however, a whoosh was heard.

Zhuo Fan pushed Xue Ningxiang away as he moved back himself, “Watch out!”

A cold light passed between them. The freezing ray almost touched Zhuo Fan’s fingers as it cut the wiggling bloodworm clean in half. He was aware of the killing intent the ray contained.

Zhuo Fan turned to see a tall youth not ten meters away. He looked to be 20 years old and had a handsome visage. His eyes flashed with coldness, like a pair of sharp blades, at the two of them.

The Burrowing Mouse shrieked a few times and ran from Xue Ningxiang’s hands and climbed up his body to his shoulder.

[It… has a master?] Zhuo Fan scowled.

The youth snorted at the two, “You both got some nerve eying my spirit animal!”

“Uh, sorry, it wasn’t on purpose…”

Zhuo Fan stopped Xue Ningxiang’s explanation with a wave and pushed her behind him, “It doesn’t matter if it has a master or not. We need it today!”

“Ha-ha-ha, big words!”

The youth sneered, “One insect is in the 5th layer of Qi Condensation, while the other in the 4th. Yet you still want to tame what is mine? Fine, guess I will have to end you!”

“Humph, we will see about that!”

Sneering, Zhuo Fan rushed at the youth as Savage Moon flashed in his hand.

“3rd-grade demonic treasure?”

Raising an eyebrow, the youth lost the contempt he had before. This demonic treasure was a threat to his life, and in all his teachings he received, one needed to go all out regardless of the enemy!

His eyes gleamed as he dashed at Zhuo Fan, his hand flashed and it now held a longsword.

In an instant, the world seemed to freeze over. The sky and the earth seemed to vanish as flickering lights spewed from the sword!

“Empty Net!”

Whoosh!

Zhuo Fan suddenly slowed down amid his charge. Even his surroundings were sluggish while the only thing unaffected was the longsword.

“Profound ranked martial art, 7th layer of Bone Tempering Stage, and 4th-grade spiritual weapon!”

Squinting, Zhuo Fan started to take this seriously.

This youth wasn’t average. It was hard enough reaching such cultivation at his age, but he had also grasped a profound ranked martial art and used a 4th-grade spiritual weapon!

In the Tianyu Empire, rare were those like him even in the Seven Noble Houses!

And exactly that was the answer. This man could be a core disciple of the Seven Noble Houses, perhaps even an inheritor. Today Zhuo Fan offended him and tomorrow trouble would come knocking. The only choice was to kill him!

In an instant, Zhuo Fan’s eyes exploded with killing intent.

The youth was startled!

[Am I not the one holding the advantage? Why is this kid releasing such thick killing intent? Does he think he can actually kill me?]

The next moment, however, Zhuo Fan’s action left him pale.

Despite knowing that he was slowed down, Zhuo Fan only took a step and turned into five images of himself!

Sneering, the youth grinned, [Think you can act tough with such a base level killing move?]

The youth’s sword turned into five and struck each figure down. But at that moment, Zhuo Fan’s voice came from behind him.

“Nice sword skill! Too bad you met me!”

The youth jumped in fright, [When did he get behind me?] In this moment of imminent danger, he stabbed backwards.

The sword art’s aim was perfect, targetting Zhuo Fan’s chest!

Zhuo Fan looked down calmly, with slight praise in his heart, [Too bad it’s over!]

Whoosh!

Zhuo Fan ignored the sword going for his chest and slashed at the youth’s waist. If this continued it would end with Zhuo Fan being gravely wounded and the youth dead!

[A wound for a kill, worth it…]