Book 2 - Fame Spreads

Chapter 18.2

Xie Mingsan and the rest also arrived, but their reaction was unlike Xie Mingjin’s. As soon as they appeared, they immediately encircled the father-son duo, arranging themselves in a rudimentary battle formation. However, as their vision fell upon the two raccoons, which were halfway through into the ground, especially the four severed arms, their expressions changed vividly.

Severing the arms of renowned long-armed raccoons, such a feat had already stepped beyond their imagination.

In their minds, although the light sword of their second lord was quite formidable, if the latter wished to accomplish this feat, it would be merely a wishful fantasy.

Subsequently, the eyes of the seven attendants simultaneously shifted onto the four-meter long, thick, bulky, and unimaginably large weapon. Looking at their second lord’s pale complexion, then looking at He Yiming’s mighty appearance, even a fool could guess the killer of the two long-armed raccoons which lay on the ground.

Xie Grace let out sigh of relief, feeling ashamed inwardly. His face regained some color as he said, “Esteemed brother He, are you…..alright?”

Xie Mingjin’s and the rest immediately had their eyes opened wide, feeling skeptical whether they had heard correct, ‘Second lord is using honorifics?’

Even in the family, he conversed in this manner only before his great uncle, who resided at the tenth layer’s peak and had already been living in seclusion for many years.

However, as they looked again at the spiritual beasts, which lay in the pool of their own blood, they felt this didn’t seem too unreasonable.

He Yiming candidly smiled and twisted his wrist a few times. The huge broadsword immediately split in three parts. However, every one of these parts was by itself more than one meter long. Even in its first form, just the long blade was enough to make it a stand alone, tyrannical weapon.

“Mr. Xie, be at ease, I’m completely fine,” He patted his chest and casually said, “We will follow our previous agreement.”

Xie Grace faintly started and asked, “What agreement?”

He Yiming’s complexion slightly sank as he said, “We agreed to divide the two beasts each between our sides, and thus, the harvests would also be one for each.”

Xie Grace revealed a slight astonishment before he repeatedly nodded and said, “Since brother He is so generous, this surnamed Xie conveys his sincere gratitude.”

Although these two beasts had first been discovered by the Xie family, in the forest, one has to abide the law of the forest- weak are for the strong to prey upon. Since these two beasts had been killed by He Yiming, Xie Grace never thought of stealing a tiger’s prey. However, now that the other side had complied with the previous verbal agreement, the surprise and joy he was feeling at this moment didn’t need to be mentioned.

He Yiming stretched his hand and pulled out the two spiritual beasts from the ground.

However, after observing the beasts for some time, He Yiming felt himself at a loss. He’d absolutely no clue how to deal with this situation.

Xie Grace thought for a moment before stepping forward, “Is brother He worrying about how to deal with these beasts?”

“That’s right,” He Yiming unhesitatingly said, “I wish to extract its inner core and refine it into gold cores. However, I don’t know how to do it.” (Tl: pellet —-> core)

Xie Grace cordially said, “Our Xie family started out by concocting pills. With a legacy of millenniums, we have some knowledge in this field. If you are willing to take a leap of faith, allow our family to deal with this long-armed raccoon. Within a month at most, we can complete the process and hand over the gold cores, fur, skin, and other items to you.”

He Yiming was faintly astonished inwardly, “Mr. Xie, your family can refine gold cores ?”

Xie Grace’s voice brimmed with confidence as he said, “I can guarantee you that in Fire Crow country, our Xie family is the most accomplished in refining gold cores.”

He Yiming hesitated inwardly. However, after thinking for while, he made his decision.

From his grandfather, he already knew that an inner core couldn’t be consumed directly. It must be first refined into golden cores, only then would it benefit a cultivator in breaking through a bottleneck.

However, refining gold cores was no easy task. Previously, in order to refine the gold-crowned python’s inner core, they had to spend half a year merely to prepare the supplementary ingredients. Even after that, in his grandfather’s words, it was the gates of fortune smiling on their He family that made the refining process a success.

Hereby, it could be seen that the process of refining gold cores didn’t have a high success rate, whereas the cost of the process was extremely high.

However, the words that came out of Xie Grace’s mouth told a different story. He could complete the refining process within a month and even felt quite certain about it. This made He Yiming feel quite amazed and even moved.

“Mr. Xie, if your noble family can truly refine gold cores, this surnamed He is willing to divide half of them with you. Moreover, the long-armed raccoon’s other parts are also not needed.”

Xie Grace chuckled and said, “Brother He is too courteous. Since your esteemed self has already gifted one of the two long-armed raccoons to our family, if we can’t even do this much for you, will there be anything left of our face as one of the Fire Crow country’s four big influential families?”

With a wave of his hand, the attendants stepped forward. However, they didn’t disembowel the beasts immediately. Instead, they collected the corpses. The four severed arms were further collected by them with extreme caution.

At this point, Xie Grace seemed to have remembered something. He turned his head and asked, “Mingjin, didn’t you leave? Why are you back here?”

Xie Mingjin was immediately tongue-tied. He fumbled about, not uttering a word.

Xie Mingsan stepped forward and said, “Second lord, after going halfway through, elder young master had to return to help you at all costs. We lowly people couldn’t stop the young master. Please grant our punishment.”

Xie Mingjin and the other attendants lowered their heads, not uttering a word.

Xie Grace turned his head back and said, “Brother He, I wish to take a look at these two beast’s lair. Then, we will immediately return to refine your golden cores. What do you say?”

He Yiming naturally had no objections.

Xie Grace continued, “Mingjin, you all wait here. We will return soon.”

Xie Mingjin and the rest obviously respectfully agreed. Since the two long-armed raccoons didn’t exist here, no other creature would be able to pose a threat to Xie Grace with his strength.

Xie Grace was evidently a notch above He Yiming in terms of agility. Of course, this was also related to He Yiming carrying a three hundred and sixty jin heavy weapon.

At this point, Xie Grace’s heart had somewhat calmed down. If he couldn’t beat this youngster in his strongest aspect, agility, his martial heart truly might have crumbled apart.

He Yiming curiously asked, “Mr. Xie, is something not to your liking?”

Xie Grace shook his head and said, “I sure have disgraced myself before brother He. I am merely concerned about that child Mingjin.”

“Brother Mingjin?” He Yiming astoundedly asked, “Brother Mingjin is so kind and righteous - not willing to escape leaving you behind. Why are you still concerned about him?”

Xie Grace bitterly smiled, “Brother He, Mingjin is too impulsive. He clearly knew that his presence here would only increase our troubles, but he still came back. Although currently, it does seem that he values comradeship a lot, if he were to take the lead of Xie family in the future, I’m afraid our family’s legacy of thousands of years will be cut at his hands.”

He Yiming blinked his eyes. Although he didn’t agree with Xie Grace completely, he’d acknowledged his meaning inwardly.

This kind of nature from the perspective of running a knight’s errand seemed fine, but from the perspective of inheriting a big clan, it was not too good.

Unwittingly, He Yiming’s impression of Xie Mingjin turned quite favourable. However, he failed to notice that after turning his head back, a peculiar glint flickered in Xie Grace’s eyes.