Chapter 333 - 256: Missing

Chapter 333: Chapter 256: Missing

He looked up to see Hu Jiu returning with the Extraordinary Giant Bear.

The Extraordinary Giant Bear landed on the ground, trembling like a leaf.

It lay prostrate on all fours, its head buried in the cold dirt, too terrified to look up.

The shock of being caught by Hu Jiu had been too much for it.

"Stop pretending. I’m not going to kill you. I just need your cooperation for my Cultivation."

The giant bear raised its head, blinking its small, bean-like eyes in confusion.

Dark Power flowed out from Tang Wen, enveloping the giant bear. With a surge of strength in his arms, he forcefully lifted it into the air.

The giant bear was very cooperative, stretching its limbs out stiffly as if it were a plank of wood.

Tang Wen, his hands feeling as if they were holding up a mountain, took a sudden step forward.

SWISH. His body swayed, and the Instant Step failed.

The Extraordinary Giant Bear was over twenty feet long and would tower more than thirty feet tall if it stood on its hind legs.

It was taller than most trees.

With a frame like that, its weight had to be dozens of tons.

Tang Wen didn’t try to brute-force it. He increased the output of his Spiritual Power, letting it bear more of the weight.

Then, he tried again.

WHOOSH!

Man and bear appeared in the forest a hundred meters away.

The giant bear was startled and thrashed about, falling from his hands and crushing several trees.

[Visualization Martial Arts, Instant Step, Mastery → Expert (0/6000)]

He broke through!

It was as if countless new images had flooded Tang Wen’s mind.

He beckoned to the giant bear, and it was once again lifted into his hands.

"Go!"

Tang Wen let out a low shout, bent his knees slightly, and leaped violently into the air.

SWISH.

Holding the giant bear aloft, he appeared more than ten meters up in the sky.

Now that his Instant Step had reached the Expert Level, he could walk on air.

STEP, STEP.

He continued to step through the air while holding the giant bear, as if climbing an invisible staircase.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

With each step, his figure rose higher and higher.

After a while, he returned to the ground and let the giant bear go.

For such a massive bear, it managed to run off with the air of someone tiptoeing away.

Tang Wen activated his Stealth Technique and used Instant Step again, his movements completely silent.

Without making a sound, he arrived a thousand meters in the sky.

"Let’s go! We’re heading back to the city!" Tang Wen couldn’t hide his excitement, shouting down to those below.

Hu Qi and Hu Jiu had long since grown bored of waiting.

Hearing his words, they immediately soared into the air.

Hu Qi moved to carry him, but Tang Wen shook his head. "This is a good chance to test my endurance."

The two White Tigers looked at each other, speechless.

They were a full thousand li from Ganshan City. He wasn’t even Fifth Grade, was he really planning to use Instant Step all the way back?

’Get a grip! Instant Step is for ambushes and escapes, not for long-distance travel!’

Tang Wen began walking through the sky. With an unobstructed view, he fixed his gaze on a point in the far distance, treating it as his destination.

WHOOSH!

A single step covered two thousand meters.

The two White Tigers were stunned!

"Your Instant Step can cover that much distance?"

"Of course, uh, let me try."

SWISH!

Hu Qi vanished and reappeared a thousand meters away.

Hu Jiu also flickered, materializing a hundred meters behind Hu Qi.

The two tigers stared at each other and spoke their recent catchphrase in unison: "This kid is a real monster!"

Hu Jiu sighed. "It’s a good thing we came to Ganshan City. Otherwise, we would have missed out on Elder Tang Wen!"

Hu Qi nodded. ’Thankfully, Tang Wen is already an Elder of the Tiger Race.’

「Time passed unknowingly.」

Sweat poured off Tang Wen like rain, dripping constantly from his clothes.

A watery mist drifted above him, making it look as though steam was rising from his head.

A black dot appeared on the horizon.

His spirits lifted. From experience, he knew it was either a city or a camp.

He forced himself through a few more difficult steps, and the distance closed rapidly.

The city below gave him a sense of familiarity.

Ganshan City. He had finally arrived.

"HAAH..." Exhaling a puff of white mist, Tang Wen swayed in the air, on the verge of falling.

On the way back, his physical strength had been the first to give out.

He had used his Spiritual Power to forcibly wring out more stamina, continuing his journey through the air.

Later, his Spiritual Power couldn’t hold out either, and the distance of each Instant Step grew shorter and shorter.

So he pushed on with sheer Willpower.

By now, his eyelids were fighting to stay open, and he felt like he could collapse and fall asleep at any moment.

"Sister Qi, I’m going to push my Spiritual Power to its absolute limit. When I do, I’ll probably pass out. I’m counting on you."

Hu Qi was surprisingly nervous and quickly agreed.

After a few more steps, Tang Wen, as expected, could no longer hold on and began to fall straight down.

Just as Hu Qi was about to intervene...

Tang Wen made a motion like walking down stairs, his legs alternating a few times before he landed on the ground.

Only when his feet touched the solid earth and a sense of security washed over him did his body go limp.

Hu Qi scooped him up and flew into the city.

In his hazy state, he heard the surprised cries of Li Zi, Shu Mei, Liang Yu, and the others.

「A night and a day passed.」

Tang Wen opened his eyes.

"The Young Master is awake! The Young Master is awake!"

Liang Yu shouted, and the wooden door was immediately thrown open.

Li Zi burst in like a whirlwind.

From outside the door came Shu Mei’s familiar voice, "Quick, tell the kitchen to prepare a meal!"

Tang Wen was just about to say that he wanted to take a bath first.

But as he lifted his hand, he caught the faint scent of soap and realized his whole body felt comfortable and clean.

Li Zi leaned in. "We gave you a medicinal bath while you were asleep."

Shu Mei brought over a bowl of ginseng soup that had been warming on the stove. "Miss Bai came, and she also invited the city’s most famous doctor and Elder Liu. They confirmed that your exhaustion was due to overexertion from Martial Arts Training, and then they left. Also..."

The evening sun slanted through the window. Tang Wen squinted, drank the soup, and chewed and swallowed the ginseng before asking, "Also what?"

Li Zi and Shu Mei glanced at each other, the golden sunset casting a blush across their faces like the evening clouds.

"Elder Liu said your body is too strong and your vitality is too vigorous, even stronger than a typical Peak of Sixth Grade expert. So... so you need a daily ’release.’"

Tang Wen’s eyes lit up. He threw off the covers, revealing himself, and grinned. "Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get to releasing!"

"Hmph!"

Li Zi huffed. She wasn’t that familiar with Liang Yu, at least not familiar enough to be so brazen in broad daylight.

But Liang Yu, the beautiful woman, saw nothing wrong with it.

Her dewy eyes were fixed on Tang Wen, her gaze smoldering with desire.

"Yu’Er~"

The handsome, not-yet-eighteen-year-old boy gave a wicked smile as he looked at the beautiful woman in her early thirties.

He had called out her pet name.

Liang Yu pressed her legs together as a tremor ran through her heart.

"Come... come to my arms!"

Liang Yu’s face instantly flushed crimson, the blush spreading down her neck and to the tips of her ears.

Li Zi’s mouth fell open. "You... you’ve been called that too?"

She stopped abruptly, realizing she’d let it slip, and turned to run out of the room.

But a rope of dense darkness had, at some point, wrapped around her slender waist and was pulling her back...

「The moon hung high in the sky.」

Tang Wen’s mind, which had been stretched to its limit, was once again relaxed.

Feeling refreshed and invigorated, he walked out of the room and into the dining hall. A table full of fragrant delicacies was laid out, and a beautiful woman in white was warming wine.

"Senior Sister!"

Tang Wen felt he could go another round all night long.

Shui Yun sensed the danger. "Let’s eat first. I have important matters to discuss with you after."

"Oh? Then why not tell me now?"

"If I tell you now, I’m afraid you’ll lose your appetite!"

Her slender, jade-like hands poured a cup of wine and brought it to his lips.

The aroma of wine wafted through the air as the beautiful woman by his side eagerly sought to please him.

The meal lasted a full two hours.

Shui Yun’s lipstick was all gone, and her clothes were completely wrinkled.

After eating and drinking his fill, Tang Wen finally remembered the matter of the Bai Family entering the city.

He mentioned it casually, but Shui Yun’s expression turned serious.

"What is it?"

"What I have to tell you is about the Bai Family."

She frowned. "Just the day before yesterday, the Boat Gang and the Huang Family suddenly announced that they have formed an alliance with the Bai Family of Sanlian City."

"What?" Tang Wen thought he had misheard.

The Huang Family and the Boat Gang... how did they end up with the Bai Family?

The Bai Family members had come to the city because of his own exploration team.

He asked in a low voice, "An alliance can’t be declared unilaterally. Did people from the Sanlian City Bai Family arrive?"

If Bai Shuo and Bai You Ruo had truly allied with the Huang Family, he really wouldn’t know what to do.

"They came. Three people: two at the Fifth Grade, and one Female Extraordinary. The Female Extraordinary is a Miss Bai!"

"What’s her name?" Tang Wen asked urgently.

Shui Yun looked at him. "Bai Ningbing."

"Bai Ningbing?" Tang Wen was taken aback. "Not Bai You Ruo?"

Shui Yun’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Not the Miss Bai that Junior Brother knows?"

"No." Tang Wen thought for a few seconds before looking up. "Before this, did anything unusual happen in the city? For example, any fighting in the Boat Gang’s territory?"

"Actually, yes! The Elder on night watch reported that the commotion from the fight wasn’t huge, but it was short, intense, and nearly reached the Fifth Grade level. The Boat Gang just explained it away as their own experts sparring."

Shui Yun shook her head, clearly not believing it.

It was easy to tell the difference between sparring and a real battle.

Tang Wen felt a sense of unease. While continuing to talk with Shui Yun, he summoned a Blood Crow.

The Blood Crow led the way, and the two of them, now invisible, arrived at the inn where the Bai Family members had been staying. It was empty.

They questioned the inn’s Shopkeeper and learned that they hadn’t checked out. The Silver Coins they had paid as a deposit were enough for another month’s stay.

In other words, Bai You Ruo and her group had planned to stay for a long time.

The Blood Crow flew to the contact point outside the city. A day passed, but no one appeared.

Bai Shuo was at the Peak of Sixth Grade, but if he fought with his life on the line, he had the combat power of a Fifth Grade expert.

And after he entered the city, a commotion caused by Fifth Grade experts fighting just so happened to occur in the Boat Gang’s territory. The two events matched up.

Could it be that something terrible had really happened to the Bai Family?

His expression grew as dark as water. He found it hard to accept.