Tainted will

"I have comprehended 80% of the drifting step movement art. After my next visit to the scripture hall, I will have comprehended this movement art completely. Hmm, status."

____

[𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚜]

[𝙽𝚊𝚖𝚎: 𝙱𝚊𝚒 𝙼𝚒𝚗𝚐]

[𝙲𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝚃𝚒𝚎𝚛 6 𝙱𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚖 ]

[𝚂𝚙𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚝 𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚝: 𝚂𝚞𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚎 +]

[𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚑𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗: 4 +]

[𝚂𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚎: 5 +]

[𝚂𝚔𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚜: 0/2000]

____

"This!? Sword path aptitude!" Bai Ming was slightly startled, his eyes narrowed. He quickly went through the panel guide in his mind. But to his surprise, there was nothing mentioned about it.

"This sword aptitude should be the reason why I was able to learn Primeval sword art so quickly and its figure is quite high. Hehe, quite the surprise. Let's see how many points I need to upgrade it."

[𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚎 2500 𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚞𝚙𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝚜𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚎? ]

[ 𝚈𝚎𝚜/𝙽𝚘 ]

"I expected it to be at least that much. Upgrading a superior grade spirit root to extreme grade also requires 1500 spirit stones. Similarly, upgrading comprehension also requires 1500 points. For the time being, I am helpless in this matter, I should just focus on cultivation."

The sky was getting gloomy, dark clouds began to cover the sliver moon. Seemingly signifying the coming storm.

Bai Ming just reached home. His stomach was growling in hunger, he decided to eat something. But before that, he went to look for his grandfather in the hall.

Bai Ming slowly opened the door, But there was no one there. He quickly scanned the room when his crimson pupils caught something. Bai Ming unhurriedly strode across the room.

He sat down, slightly bent over the desk as he began to read the letter on the desk.

Once he began reading it, Bai Ming's heart immediately shook and a wave of anguish surged through his heart.

He tried his best to calm down, but he was unable to do so.

After a long time, the anxiousness and pain in his heart turned into a cruel loneliness.

His eyes gazed at the letter aimlessly. The hole in his heart was expanding rapidly. Time continued to pass, Bai Ming was still lifeless.

Pitter-patter.

Heavy rain started pouring down, and snake-like lighting danced in the sky randomly. Sounds of thunder rumbling could be heard constantly.

Time quietly slipped by. Soon, midnight had arrived. The heavy rain slowly turned milder.

Bai Ming's vacant eyes gradually became life-like. He unhurriedly grabbed the Broadsword which was placed on the desk.

This wasn't an ordinary sword, it was a low-grade spirit treasure. The number of people who owned spirit treasure in the Ye clan was probably lower than fifteen.

The hilt was blood red with ancient golden patterns written on it, The double-edged blade was sharp and shone with a cold light. This was a weapon of slaughter.

Bai Ming placed the sword in his storage bag, then he stood up and went to the storeroom. After getting what he wanted, he went to the kitchen and grabbed a wine jar. He opened the wine jar and drank a mouthful of wine and spilled some over himself.

'There is no need for these anymore, hah' Bai Ming stared at the wine jar and broke out in laughter, but his crazed laughter didn't contain a hint of joy. Only bitterness could be felt from it.

Instead of staying home at this late hour, he held a jar of wine and walked towards the outskirts of the village.

The dark clouds obscured the starlight, the mountain breeze blew from time to time. The streets were vacant. The houses along the road showed a dim light.

The further he walked out of the village, the lesser the houses beside the road. In front of him, it was even darker now.

Bai Ming's pace did not slow down as he walked out of the huge village entrance and out into the vast darkness.

...

Days passed. It was already the day of the mid-term hunting exam.

The dense woods lightly unfold their dense green leaves and branches in the free wind. The Xuan mountain's foliage was dense, filled with grass, trees, thistles, and thorns. Its trees were very thick and dense which allowed for adequate places to hide. It was also a small heaven for ferocious wild beasts.

Bai Ming stepped onto the green grass, quietly approaching a pack of hell wolves.

Hell wolves had deep red fur all over their body except their abdomen which had yellow fur. These wolves had two tails and their claws shone with a black metallic luster. They were bloodthirsty and aggressive in nature.

Right now in Bai Ming's vision, there were three wolves with their head buried in the corpse of a boar, having a feast. While the fourth hell wolf was vigilantly observing its surroundings. The moment it found something suspicious it would alert the other wolves.

Bai Ming wasn't worried there were only mid-grade tier 1 wolves in this pack. But if he could kill without any risks he would definitely do so. If one wants to survive in this dangerous world one had to be cautious. Only individuals with great patience, tenacity, and a cautious nature might hope to achieve something.

Bai Ming crept slowly from behind the wolves, killing intent surging in his heart. But when he was nearly 20 steps away from it, the guarding hell wolf's sharp upright ears quickly trembled a few times. It immediately tried to turn around and growl. Bai Ming was not surprised by this. A wild animal was not like a domestic one, they were all very alert. They had an acute sense of smell. Even if this hell wolf did not hear any noises, when Bai Ming neared around 20 steps from it, it would be able to smell his body odor and will still be able to sense Bai Ming's presence.

"D𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱𝘴" he spoke mentally, Bai Ming dashed forward almost instantly. Even without any movement techniques, he was just slightly slower than mid-grade wolves but when he used drifting steps he could contest equally with a high-grade tier 1 beast in speed. Even though he had already broken through the 7th layer, demon beasts had better raw physical capabilities than human cultivators.

The instant the Hell wolf turned its body, Bai Ming was already standing behind it, his sword made a whistling sound as it broke the air and directly pierced the Hell Wolf's throat mercilessly, Killing it.

Next, he swiftly withdrew his sword and used the 2nd layer of the primeval sword art. An eerie green spiritual energy covered the sword.

Shua!

Sword light flashed, as he slashed vertically at one of the wolves. The green sword light flew out, the pale sword light was only a meter long, The hell wolf which he targeted pounced at the sword light trying to resist it with its steel-like claws. Unfortunately, it was only able to make the sword light slow down a little before the hell wolf was sliced from top to bottom into two halves. A breath later its lifeless body fell with a 'plop'.

The remaining two wolves saw their partner getting killed instantly, making them lose any will to fight. The hell wolves immediately began to escape.

Bai Ming snorted coldly before giving chase. After a dozen breaths both the hell wolves were killed by him.

Bai Ming then dug out their cores, he couldn't store them in his storage bag. He highly doubted that people were watching from the shadows, he didn't dare expose his treasure. The longsword he used was also a normal sword. The treasure sword was placed in the storage bag.

His doubts indeed turned out to be true. These outdoor combats to most students, it was really their first time. Thus, there was danger and the clan naturally has plans. Of course, their main priorities were Su Ming and other high-grade talents. Dozens of peak elemental realm Masters were concealed in the forests, controlling the safety of this entire examination. At the same time, some clan elders (core formation realm experts) were staying here to anticipate sudden accidents.

After collecting their cores he moved to a certain sport, once he arrived he first glanced around before digging into the ground to retrieve a bag, inside was a large number of demon beast cores. These were his spoils of victory. Carrying the bag around while fighting was restricting his movements hence he hid it there. As for why he didn't collect the wolf corpses; first of all burying corpses would waste much of his time. Secondly, he could not exchange wolf corpses for spirit stones in the exam, he could only sell them at the market price which was quite low, it was not worth it. He would rather hunt for cores and earn more.

"I have killed 18 low-grade, eleven mid-grade, and two high-grade demon beasts. There are still two hours for the exam to finish. I have only suffered minor injuries while fighting high-grade demon beasts. Life and death fights are indeed the best way to get comfortable with a sword."

"The 1st layer of primeval sword art focuses on piercing attacks whereas the 2nd layer of primeval sword art is a long-distance attacking method. It has decent speed but excels in strength. It allows me an extra output of 2500jin of strength."

"And I have initial mastery over drifting steps, once I achieve complete mastery over it there will be at least another 40% increase in speed." Bai Ming thought as he began searching for hell Wolves. He didn't dare go much deeper into the forest, the deeper one went the more dangerous the environment.

After wandering around for nearly twenty minutes, he heard the sounds of fighting. From the sounds, one could make out it was a large group of people fighting. A cold light flashed across Bai Ming's eyes as he moved toward the source of the sound with wind-like steps. He clearly wanted to benefit at someone else's cost.