Unsheathing the high grade refined sword, Ling Xu's blood qi was slowly letting lose, increasing the circulation speed that was restrained.
Increasing it to a degree that he could still control it without letting his aura leak out from his body as he didn't want the python to get alerted.
He run at an unbelievable speed that no one in the eight stage of Blood Qi could rival, making it hard for He Xiaosheng to see him properly.
Appearing almost instantly behind the black python, Ling Xu slashed, trying to cut the body in half.
In the last moment, the beast noticed something and moved almost instinctively. Having survived for several years in a harsh environment, it had always kept alert about its surroundings.
Previously, it gave its back to them because it was confident that with its higher cultivation stage and strong scales which had the strongest defense in the forest, it wouldn't be in any danger.
But now it realized the mistake it had made, as it had now a deep wound that could already show a bit of its internal organs.
Fortunately it was in the lower half of its body, which wasn't the most vital one, allowing it to still have the ability to kill the human that dared to attack it.
It only took the corpse because it didn't have the need to kill someone else as it was about to advance into the Qi Refining and it didn't want to use its energy elsewhere.
It jumped straight at him, with its mouth wide open, showing its scary and big fangs that could easily pierce through someone in the Blood Qi Realm.
Moving his sword, Ling Xu parried the python's fangs making it fall backwards, which didn't stop its attack as the next moment he felt a fast movement coming from his left side.
He Xiao looked at the scene that was unfolding before him as he was surprised by his partner's strength, having previously said that Ling Xu's strength was on par with someone in the ninth stage of Blood Qi.
He thought that he could only face a beast like the one he had already killed, which was incomparable to this black python which was about to advance and start refining qi into the body.
Now he saw Ling Xu, instead of avoiding the beast's tail, slashing in a tricky angle which looked as if it was completely natural for him to do.
The snake had already thrown out of its mouth the corpse from the grey wolf as it was now hissing in pain, having its tail cut completely.
But it didn't have time to yell as it saw Ling Xu coming once again.
Once again, it opened its mouth showing its fangs as it jumped towards him, expecting him to try and repeat the same thing as before as the black python had already learned from his previous movement and thought of another way to counterattack.
To its surprise, Ling Xu didn't parry as before as he stopped and inclined backwards looking straight at the beast's eyes.
…
Seeing the corpse from the black beast that had a whole made from a sword from the lower part of the mouth all the way above the head, He Xiao was speechless.
He remained quiet for the rest of the turn as it didn't know what to say, after seeing Ling Xu's strength which was far above his.
Before, he had the idea of keeping in contact with him after he entered the outer sect, in hopes of having a reliable junior brother with whom he could do missions together.
Seeing his junior brother now, he didn't look like his senior brother at all, it seemed like the roles were reversed and he would have to wait and see if this senior brother of his would still remember him.
Although he was still two years older, age wasn't what defined status but strength, so now he was uncomfortable thinking about having to address his partner in a more respectful way.
After their turn ended, they brought the corpses from the three strongest beasts they hunted down excluding the black python which Ling Xu couldn't keep its body intact, making it impossible to be exchanged to points.
Two of them included the sharp clawed bear and the grey wolf, having the last one being another grey wolf which was in the sixth stage and looked a lot smaller than the one in the ninth stage of Blood Qi.
The other guards that were returning or already waiting I line were surprised as they couldn't believe that He Xiao and his new partner had managed to hunt down the ninth stage grey wolf and other beasts which looked very strong too.
Apart from them, there were only a handful of guards that were in the eight stage and there were even fewer in the ninth.
In the entire sect, there were almost five thousand unofficial disciples that were distributed around the entire periphery as everyone of them took different daily tasks.
The number of disciples that were currently acting as guards was around five hundred as they were divided into groups of a hundred, belonging to five different guarding centers each.
All of this was because of the huge size the sect's array covered, making it inefficient if a disciple guarding a side of the sect would need to return to the guarding post that was positioned in the other side.
So because of this, from the hundred disciples allocated in their guarding post, there were only two or three that had reached the ninth stage and a few more for the eight stage of Blood Qi.
In the line, there were none of the disciples in the ninth stage as only one in the eight saw the scene.
"Look senior brother, that grey wolf looks even stronger than the one we fought last week." with a face of shock, the new guard that was accompanying the one in the eight stage said.
"Shhh! Be quiet, don't you see how strong they must be if they managed to hunt down such a beast?"
"Is it that strong?" his junior looked at him in doubt.
"You must have seen me fight and kill a beast in the eight stage before, but you don't know that this one is one stage higher as your cultivation still isn't high enough to perceive its intense aura."
"What? But how were they able to kill such a beast if their levels are below, it's not like fighting two against one could change the gap in cultivation as it's not as simple as one plus one."
"That's why you must be careful around these people, only those who managed to undergo a blood exchange are able to challenge someone in a higher stage. Those kind of people aren't many even in the sect and with their stronger blood qi and body they are able to defeat several people in the same level."
"Hisss!" the junior shut down immediately, not daring to call any sort of attention to himself until he went back to his residence.
…
Already in the front, it was Ling Xu and He Xiao's turn.
The worker giving the points looked at the beasts they brought and was very shocked by their cultivation levels.
"Disciples, did you hunt them down yourself?"
"Responding to senior brother, it was us who hunted these beasts indeed."
The outer disciple had a thoughtful look as the disciple that helped him act as messenger and move the corpses came to his ear and said in a low voice.
"Is it possible that this is where…"
Before he could end, his senior moved his hand and made him stop as he asked the menial workers he had in front.
"Where did you find these beasts?"
He Xiao then responded, telling them the area they were responsible for guarding and patrolling while they found the beasts.
He had already thought that something was strange as he noticed that the ninth stage grey wolf and black python had appeared in the same place.
This probably meant that they were grouped together or were close by as if they had something that made them share the territory without fighting each other.
That is because, the stronger the beasts are the more they compete for their own territory.
"Could it be that the Qi Refining beast is in there…"
"I see you've already caught wind of the news. However, junior brother, it would be wise not to spread this around, as it may unsettle the other disciples." the worker said, interrupting He Xaio as he heard him thinking the same thing in a low voice.
"Yes senior!" he said respectfully and then he accepted the twenty-three points from the three corpses they brought.
Ling Xu remained in the sidelines as he let his senior who had more experience to handle the matter, and he also didn't care about the points.
Leaving to their respective residences, Ling Xu called He Xiao before he headed in a different direction.
"Senior Xiao, don't forget about the meat."
"Meat?" he looked at him wondering where he had taken the meat from the beasts as he saw that the corpses from the beasts they took were intact and he didn't even approach the other ones.
Ling Xu took out his spatial ring and took a piece of meat out of it.
"You have a spatial ring!" he was surprised seeing his junior brother have an item that only disciples from the outer sect where able to possess.
Taking his attention off it, he saw the meat and realized what he had done.
"So you took the meat from the black python and saved it to eat."
The piece of meat full of aura was in his hands as he looked at Ling Xu with a thankful face.
"Junior brother, I don't know what to say, I can't accept it."
"Don't worry, I saved another piece for myself. This is for you so it can help you advance to the ninth stage of Blood Qi faster, I noticed you aren't that far from it."
"Junior…"
Ling Xu then bade his farewell and returned to his residence through the same path he always took.
After several breaths, He Xiao was still looking at his back.
"I can't believe I doubted you." he said as he now understood Ling Xu's honest intentions. "It doesn't matter if you enter the outer sect before me, after I enter I will try my best to repay the favor."
…
After an incense stick of time, he had already arrived to his room as he was sitting in the lotus stance.
"It's time to break through to the ninth stage."
Ling Xu's blood qi continued the refinement of his bones that had taken place over the last week and a half.
He currently was just a breath away before completing the refinement as his blood qi had seeped into the bone marrow, increasing the efficiency of refining and quality of his bones to a whole new level.
This refinement continued for a few hours when suddenly he heard a cracking sound, signaling that his bones started absorbing the blood qi from the body.
After a few minutes of letting his blood qi being absorbed, Ling Xu felt the change as his bone density had increased to another level.
Recovering from the energy he spent, he also found out that his reserves of blood qi had increased, doubling in size once more.
"With my current strength I should be able to fight against someone in the Qi Refining Realm. After all I was already able to kill the black python without much difficulty as it didn't even make me use much of my energy."
He thought, trying to gauge which should be the difference between someone who was in the ninth stage of Blood Qi and someone who was in the first stage of Qi Refining.
"Even if I can't, I have just entered the ninth stage and still have room to grow. After all, there is still the peak of the ninth stage, which will bring a major transformation to my bones."