บท 9: Soul Flame
Three people suddenly keeled over and passed out, whilst more than half of the crowd held their groin area; even some female couldn't help but squint in horror.
However, what shook them the most was the soft echo of a cracking egg that lingered around the martial arena a moment too long.
Mu Cheng who originally had an expression of beaming confidence and arrogance now looked like someone suffering from acute diarrhea.
His facial complexion already was half a shade red and another half purple a purple. Veins were bulging all over his body as buckets of sweat covered him from head to toe.
His pants suddenly grew wet as his body continued to quake like he was stifling an orgasm.
Min Hong's kick had landed so viciously fast, that his nerves at shot the pain he was feeling into his brain at a speed so fast that his brain had yet to recover and turn on his locomotion.
However, just because he couldn't move due to the pain didn't mean Min Hong couldn't, and the latter took his time to approach, with a sadistic but horrifying smile plastered on his handsome face.
Min Hong grabbed his opponent by the hair and muttered softly; "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this."
Hearing this, the crowd's face drained of all rosiness, as their hearts shuddered a couple of times.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four heavy stomps and kicks was all Min Hong dished out; however, what really horrified the crowd were the sound of cracking bones that came in-between each hit.
Min Hong completed his actions in an extremely refreshing manner; they were short, focused and precise with no unnecessary added movements.
Mu Cheng who had had both his Fore arms and foreleg's stomped to breakage was now sporting a face covered in blood as well.
He had long passed out and it was completely evident from his eyes which had rolled over to the back of his head, and further reaffirmed by his chest which was still heaving ever so slightly and slowly.
A pin-drop silence pervaded the entire martial arena as a heavy aura of absolute shock invaded the atmosphere and weighed down on the crowd.
There was no way any one of them would have ever expected a strong person wielding a 3 Star Skin Refining Stage cultivation to be so swiftly and utterly crushed by a trash who couldn't even directly absorb Qi, talk less of having a way to store any.
Moreover, he had done it in the crudest, most barbaric and most efficient of ways. His actions and its evident result was like a solid slap planted firmly on the faces of those who had ridiculed him earlier.
Even the two maidens observing in the distance didn't know how to feel. On the one hand, they were totally in awe of Min Hong's vicious decisiveness; on the other hand, they couldn't help but have a baseless opinion that his method was a bit too underhanded, or underfooted in this case.
But when they realized the fact that, though weak, Mu Cheng was still the same as them, while Min Hong didn't have any shred of Qi in his body, they had no choice but to admit the fact that there was little to no other method he could have used.
Furthermore, the fact that he had been able to defeat a martial artist with the ordinary strength of a weak mortal was a feat that made them shoot their opinion of him in their hearts up another notch.
"Min Hong wins." The voice of the duel overseer snapped the crowd out of their daze.
Min Hong however was trying his hardest to suppress his roiling gut; it is only by sheer willpower that he was keeping his killing intent from taking over his rationality. However, he knew this wasn't the right time to kill anyone, and thus, was able to rein in his seething fury and boiling killing intent.
He had simply been oppressed for such a long time, that he was finding it extremely difficult to hold himself back now that he finally had an avenue to vent a little.
To the rest of the onlookers though, Min Hong's trembling and panting appeared to be a form of weakness and lack of grit.
Min Hong however, simply walked off the stage and headed for the overseer to claim his rewards and his stake as soon as possible. It seems being around such a crowd and the unconscious Mu Cheng was making it even more difficult to grab a hold of himself.
The elderly overseer returned the sword Min Hong had placed as his stake, before adding a gold card containing seven thousand gold coins along with it.
The stated rules of the life and death arena was for both parties to hand over their stake in order to uphold their integrity and prevent either party from backing out during battle or renegading their promise.
After receiving the martial sword, Min Hong directly handed it over to Long Feng before placing the gold card into his robes.
A part of him grew excited upon stowing away the gold card, and that helped him with keeping his fury and killing intent in check a little further.
Although seven thousand gold coins wasn't a lot, the fact that it was much more than what his family had in their coffers and could go a long way to relieve their currently dire financial straits was more than enough for him to be excited about.
It had been very long since they last received any stipend from the tribe, and recently, that has only drove his Min Family to the point where they couldn't barely even afford to eat any decent food.
Under the attentive gazes of countless people, the Min Hong and Long Feng casually walked out of the arena.
The two maidens at the corner of the arena watched Min Hong and his friend leave, and when they were no longer in sight, they also disappeared immediately afterward.
The news of Min Hong crushing Mu Cheng quickly spread like a wildfire in a dry forest. In just a short time, no one in the entire Desert Flame Tribe was oblivious to the news.
Surely, the news puzzled countless people to stupor; most of them were still finding it hard to wrap their heads around the fact that a trash who couldn't practice martial arts had actually become someone so difficult to deal with.
In fact, despite the availability of so many personal witnesses, and the sight of Mu Cheng being stretched back to his household, it still seemed like a story straight out of the legends to quite a number of people.
Min Hong had wanted to split his gains with Long Feng, but the latter was totally unwilling. In the end, he quickly made an excuse that he had things to do before leaving as fast as he arrived, not even bothering to ask how Min Hong had suddenly obtained the ability to defend himself.
Adding the favor to the list in his heart, Min Hong directly went to the Desert Herb Market. Entering into the bustling market, Min Hong requested a catalog of their medicinal herbs.
On it were very clear list and description of the various herbs, including their names, properties and prices.
Min Hong saw the majority of the herbs required to concoct the potion he needed to begin cultivating the Jade Primal Dragon Body, and it was quite fortunate that most of them were not particularly uncommon.
However, upon looking at the price, Min Hong's heart practically dripped blood. The gold coins he had been excited about owning were barely enough to purchase three batches of the herbs he needed.
However, he also understood that he couldn't spend all the money he had on buying the herbs since he still needed to buy a unique type of wooden bath that could handle the potent medicinal energy contained within the potion he was about to concoct.
Realizing the stark contrast between what he had and the amount he ideally needed to complete the preparatory phase of the Jade Primal Dragon Body, Min Hong realized that his actions were akin to a person trying to quench a burning cart with a cup of water.
Nonetheless, since buying less than he needed was also unacceptable, Min Hong had no choice but to steel his heart and spend two thousand gold coins to buy the cheapest bath he could afford.
He also bought one batch of the herbs he needed to concoct the potion he needed as well as well as a large number of the herbs needed to concoct a portion of Qi Restoring Potion.
By the time Min Hong left the Desert Herb Market, the amount on his gold card had dwindled down to only five hundred gold coins.
Upon returning home, Min Hong went straight to his own room, and after firmly securing the door, he told Qing he was not to be disturbed, and ordered her to ensure that no one else did either.
He was pretty sure that his mother would hear the news that he had once again gone to compete in the martial arena, especially when a single error from either party could end up taking the life of the other.
Worried that the loving woman might overthink herself to death, he specifically told Qing to cook up a story that would ease her worries and prevent her from forcing her way through.
In any case, nothing had happened to him, so he believed his mother wouldn't be too concerned.
Right now, he had to seize every second of every minute to quickly increase his strength. He was sure that the current Min family's predicament was not as simple as it seemed on the surface, and he was already smelling the scent of a brewing storm heading their way.
The Soul Qi in Min Hong's body started moving, and after concentrating for a while, his pupils once again flickered with a purple halo, and just a few seconds later, a wisp of purple flame flickered into existence atop his index finger.
This was a the soul flame of an Alchemist, and when he saw the tiny wisp, Min Hong didn't even know whether to laugh or cry; the flame, though mysterious and unique, was simply far too weak.
The flame was formed from an alchemists soul qi which through special methods was finally condensed into a soul flame.
However, while the wisp currently dancing above his index finger was very low in temperature, Min Hong had no clue as to what it truly was, not even the slightest clue asides the fact that it was a soul flame; regardless, his instincts kept telling him there was a world of information within the flame that he would eventually need to comprehend.
In addition to that, Min Hong also realized that the size and weakness of the flame was most likely due to the fact that he had no Qi to support and amplify the flame.
From his first estimation, he felt he would only be able to keep the wisp alive for about a quarter of an hour at most.
However, whilst this was more than enough to achieve his aim this time, he was certain it wouldn't do him much good the further he cultivated the Jade Primal Dragon Body, especially when he needed to concoct more complex potion or even refine unique pills.
Min Hong eventually laughed lightly. He had for some mysterious reasons made a backup plan for this problem and that was the Qi Restoring Potion he had planned to concoct before he began concocting his target potion.
Since a cauldron was out of reach of what the Desert Flame Tribe could get their hands on, and even if they had, he had no means to purchase, Min Hong had no choice but to settle for using the good old wok.
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