Legend of the Heavenly Fruit
Eps. 70 — Hooded Group
Zhou Yuan came to eat after two Linxia brothers offered him roast chicken. After breakfast, they continue on their way back, this time the goal is to find Mei and Ran's group.
Zhou Yuan didn't say much when the two girls joined him on his journey, Mei and Ran had a jovial nature, unsuitable for Zhou Yuan who tended to be private and talkative.
On the other hand Zhou Yuan felt a little strange to Linxia, the girl looked like she had deliberately avoided eye contact with him.
Even this morning there was no chat between the two even though before there were at least one or two words that were usually already intertwined.
Zhou Yuan did not know that Linxia's thoughts were still being reflected in the sleep incident last night, he hoped that Zhou Yuan would not remember the event let alone discuss it.
"So you split up at this location?" Asked Linxia who the two girls immediately embraced.
After several hours of moving, the four finally arrived at the location where Mei and Ran split up with his group.
Linxia turned his head to the surroundings to see if there were any clues their search reference could use, Zhou Yuan also acted similarly.
It took a while until what was sought finally met, a footprint that was not too long created and the footprint like not coming from one person but several people.
Linxia made sure that the trail came from his younger sibling group let alone Mei saying that he recognized one of the traces.
"If the direction is right then your group may go west, we will move there until..."
Linxia wanted to finish his words when Zhou Yuan suddenly told him to be quiet with a hand gesture.
Linxia's expression became wary seeing Zhou Yuan who suddenly put on a serious face, obviously the man was realizing something from afar. Mei and Ran also reacted similarly.
Linxia has sharper eyesight and hearing, but he does not see or hear anything around him, even though the current atmosphere is quiet.
Zhou Yuan on the other hand was actually hearing something from one direction, his sense of hearing which from the beginning was sensitive to the surroundings could hear better than anyone else.
"There's someone coming over here, I'll see him for a second, you guys wait here..." After Zhou Yuan said so he immediately left, not letting Linxia answer him.
***
"It... Why did they know I was here?!"
Zhou Yuan leaped onto the tallest tree for his gaze to be wide. From a great distance, he now saw a group of 18 people heading towards him.
Zhou Yuan knew the group as participants wearing hoods before, initially they numbered twenty but Zhou Yuan killed two of them during the boar incident.
At that time someone managed to escape but no one should know now that he is here.
Zhou Yuan had already interrogated one of the ones he had killed earlier regarding the information regarding the group. They are clearly not ordinary participants.
As far as Zhou Yuan was concerned, the group were people from an undercover organization, not knowing what their purpose was to infiltrate here but Zhou Yuan speculated that this was related to the growth of the Moon Orchid.
Their group were all Gold Realm warriors, ten of them at the Early stage, eight at the Intermediate Stage, and three at the Peak Stage.
Zhou Yuan bit his lips before turning around and returning to where Linxia was, without wanting to hide it Zhou Yuan told him everything.
The girl was aware, against the three Golden Realms alone she was already desperate let alone eighteen people. Mei and Ran also did not hide her anxiety, not expecting to meet a situation like this.
"The explanation could be next time but you don't worry about this..." Zhou Yuan had no intention of telling more details, he asked Linxia and his two younger brothers to leave while he would distract them.
"Are you crazy, you're gonna die at their hands." Linxia was surprised by Zhou Yuan's plan and rejected it.
"From the beginning their real purpose was me for killing two of their comrades. If you continue with me you will be carried away by this matter..."
Linxia bit his lips, actually he could not do anything even though he rejected Zhou Yuan's idea but still he did not want the man to do an action that was not much different from suicide.
"Just relax, I have a decent running speed, if they chase me I'll make sure they regret it." Zhou Yuan could guess Linxia's anxiety.
Linxia looked at Zhou Yuan for a while, he actually wanted to come with the man but was afraid of being a burden let alone he had to bring Mei and Ran safely.
Linxia then removed the necklace around his neck, a gold-colored necklace with a hanging red jade. "Then get this necklace, you can look for me if you drain the power in the necklace."
Zhou Yuan had no time to think, he accepted the necklace and kept it under a cloak.
Before leaving Linxia had said something to Zhou Yuan. "Don't die, I'll wait for news from you..."
After Linxia, Mei and Ran left Zhou Yuan, the man looked at the backs of the three girls from a distance before finally disappearing.
Before long Linxia went the hooded group was finally up. They found Zhou Yuan who was already staring at them as if he was waiting for his arrival.
"So you killed my sister?!" Said one of them, his strength is highest compared to the others and he is the leader of the hooded group.
Zhou Yuan raised an eyebrow. "I don't know which one is your sister, but you're right I killed two of your men..."
"You... How dare you kill my sister?!" The leader became furious, his face flushed red.
The younger brother in question was the one Zhou Yuan was chasing after as they were about to escape, but he did not survive because Zhou Yuan had enough speed to chase after him.
"Hm, why are you angry..." Zhou Yuan put on an innocent face. "He's going to kill me and I'm just gonna have to shut up, which is right..."
The leader of the group clenched his hands hard, furious and annoyed with the words of the teenager.
"This kid can really talk without having any manners." The leader turned his head towards his subordinates, giving instructions. "Catch her..."
In an instant his subordinates immediately moved towards Zhou Yuan by emitting a strong killing appetite.
Zhou Yuan wasn't naive, with his current strength he couldn't possibly fight against 18 people of the Golden Realm at once let alone some of them having power levels far above him.
Even so Zhou Yuan had his own way of escaping them.
Zhou Yuan took a deep breath before exerting a deep force in his mouth and turned it into energy. Zhou Yuan then spouted a sea of fire in his mouth that was quite large and spacious.
"Elemental Fire — Breath Fire!"