Tainted will

It was already winter.

The entire Xuan mountain was covered by a layer of snow coat, and many of the trees had naked branches, without a single leaf.

A group of six people ran in the snow. Running on the snow, the chilly winter winds were even more intense.

Ji wushang took the lead. Besides him and the gentle middle-aged man from the last time, there were also two men and one female, their facial expressions solemn. They were all peak elemental realm experts.

As they ran, Ji wushang's group started to display the graceful bearing of being one of the three strongest groups.

Bai Ming had chosen to join this group, not only because he knew Ji wushang and the gentle middle-aged man from the mortal village incident, but because Ji wushang was a member of the Ji family, the only alchemist family in the Ye clan, even though they only specialized in concocting medicinal pills. Since Bai Ming had to join a team he decided this was his best choice.

Bai Ming's face was originally very white, and now that the snow shone on it, it appeared even paler.

What was different than before was that Bai Ming had changed his clothes. This was a light green-colored battle attire. The attire had long sleeves and long pants and bamboo shoes adorned his feet. On his chest was a sword pattern, This battle attire when worn by Bai Ming with his cold expression, showed the atmosphere of a calm and collected individual.

This was a Ye clans formal battle attire, showing Bai Ming's status. The youngsters had to stay in the academy and graduate before they were allowed to wear this attire.

When the group of six reached the mountain foot, with one hand gesture from Ji wushang, the group swiftly stopped in their tracks.

"We will be nearing the beast tide down there. Bai Ming come towards the middle of the team." Ji wushang looked at the mountain forest before him as he spoke.

Bai Ming flashed him a slight smile, even though this Ji wushang looked cold and emotionless, he was a nice person. The middle of a group is often the safest spot.

Even though Bai Ming did not spend much time with them, he had some understanding towards these individuals.

Even though Ji wushang was the leader of this group, but after interacting with them Bai Ming was able to tell that Ji wushang was the leader only in name, but the true cornerstone of this team was the middle-aged man, unsurprisingly the middle-aged man was also a member of the Ji clan, his name was Ji yang. He gave Bai Ming some advice for the incoming battles and made sure Bai Ming wasn't feeling out of place.

The sky had already become completely dark, and the black clouds were in layers, causing the accumulated snow to also become dark and gloomy.

Ji wushang's group had already changed their group formation. Their speed dropped greatly as they ran slowly through the complicated terrain of the mountain forest.

Ji wushang was still in the lead, Bai Ming was in the middle of the group, on his right was Ji yang, while on the left was a plain-looking young man. Behind them were a green-haired young man and a beautiful tanned woman.

As they entered deeper into the mountain forest, their surroundings started to show wild beasts violently running about wildly.

Suddenly wushang opened his mouth and spoke, "Before us, thirteen 2nd tier high grade and four mid-grade beasts have appeared. Shall we engage?"

"Let's engage," Ji Yang said.

Hearing this the remaining members also nodded their heads, Bai Ming was silent.

"Fine, let's engage. Bai Ming, you handle the four mid-tier beasts." Ji wushang spoke in his usual cold tone.

"Okay"

Everyone moved through the jungle in the darkness, heading towards a low-lying land.

A pack of wolves appeared in their vision.

"Charge" Ji wushang spoke calmly.

Except for Bai Ming all the other members engaged with the high-grade tier 2 wolves, Bai Ming also unsheathed his sword as he attracted the mid-grad beasts it's attention.

Kill!

Bai Ming shouted inwardly, he took the initiative to attack, his foot pushed the ground as he pounced towards a hell wolf on his right side.

This hell wolf immediately shrunk back a step, but then its vicious personality was stimulated, it made a powerful jump and attacked Bai Ming.

It opened its mouth in the air, revealing the many of its sharp wolf teeths that filled its mouth.

Bai Ming's spiritual energy erupted as he laughed loudly, he didn't evade but just swung the treasure sword with incomparable might.

2nd layer of primeval sword art.

Whoosh!

An eerie green sword ray flew horizontally through the air and struck the hell wolf's open mouth.

There was only a ripping noise, this unfortunate hell wolf was instantly cut apart into two – from its mouth to tail – by this heartless sword ray.

Boiling blood spurted out and poured like a rain of blood.

Bai Ming's whole body was coated in pale green spiritual energy as he charged through the blood rain and brutally fought these Hell Wolf.

The hell wolves reacted, they attacked him from three sides. They opened their mouths and tore at him but Bai Ming nimbly dogged them using his low-grade movement art.

Their claws were also of no use, as he used his low-grade sword to block them off.

Bai Ming then punched using the tyrant fist technique, and the hell wolves were sent flying under his enormous strength. Two of the hell wolves had their skulls directly smashed and died on the spot. Bai Ming grasped the upper hand in this battle, next he used the 1st layer of primeval sword art to pierce the last hell wolf's brain, killing it swiftly.

Hoooowl!

Bai Ming cast his gaze at his comrades, most of the high-grade wolves were killed. The beauty ruthlessly slashed her sword as she beheaded the last hell wolf, as fresh blood splashed on her face. She looked extremely indifferent about it.

Bai Ming paid attention to their battle the entire time, he was assessing them.

Ji wushang was the strongest among these five, followed by Ji yang, the plain-looking youth, then the green-haired youth, and finally the dark-skinned beauty.

"Good job! You truly are this year's champion." Ji Yang looked at Bai Ming, smiling and praising before instructing "Now let's quickly take the spoils of the battle!"

Bai Ming surrounded the hell wolf's corpse and quickly began to dissect the corpse, taking the valuables.

Ten minutes later.

Hoooooowl!!

The group of six were running through the forest when they heard the blood-curdling screeching of a wolf.

"That way" Ji wushang spoke as he quickly changed their direction of travel.

After a dozen breaths later, Ji Yang spoke with a slight frown "I can sense a 2nd tier beast, it is probably a 2nd tier wolf king, there are also two cultivators who are fighting it, but their aura is getting weaker."

Everyone's expression changed.

"Doesn't matter with our group's strength as long as we are careful, we can save them." Ji wushang spoke calmly.

"Yeah, let's save them" the plain-looking youth spoke with resolve.

The ye clansman had great unity among themselves, if they could save one of their clansman they would definitely do it.

"Wolf king.." Bai Ming's heart stirred, his gaze shone with an eerie light, 'this is my shot'

just seconds later they entered the battlefield.

There were two gravely injured elemental realm experts surrounding the wolf king, engaging in a desperate battle. Barely managing to keep their lives.

In the center, the wolf king which was twice the size of a normal tier 2 hell wolf stood glaring with its bloodthirsty eyes, it held a severed human head between its sharp teeth.

The two cultivators sensed Bai Ming and gang's presence, one of them turned around and saw Ji wushang, he was overjoyed at once "It's Lord wushang! we are saved. Lord, please help us!"

Ji wushang and gang expect for the beauty and Bai Ming quickly surrounded the wolf king, the beauty was assigned to help the injured martial artists, before joining the fight.

As for Bai Ming, he was only a 6th-layer elemental realm martial artist, Ji wushang instructed him to keep a distance and wait for his orders. Bai Ming gladly agreed to this.

"The wolf king is still in good shape, there are only slight injuries on it. There are a total of eight cultivators here, one is dead, and two of them are fatally injured they don't have much threat, as for the remaining...I should let them fight with the wolf king, even though the wolf king is strong but against one of the three strongest small teams, death is inevitable." Bai Ming scanned his surroundings, as he began circling around the battlefield.

"Primeval sword art - 3rd layer" Ji wushang spoke loudly.

Swoosh!

Three solid sword Phantoms made of spiritual energy flew through the air at frightening speed aiming at the wolf king's face.

At the same time, the rest of the members slashed forward, each sending out a ray of sword light toward the wolf king.

The wolf king felt threatened by the three sword phantoms, it first placed its attention on it. It opened its mouth revealing its razor-sharp teeth, as it howled at the sword phantom.

Hoooowl!!

A terrifying sound wave was released from its mouth, the destructive sound wave and the fierce sword phantoms collided.

Bam bam bam!

The three sword phantoms under the force of the mighty sound wave exploded, producing an intense explosion. A huge pit appeared on the spot of the explosion.

After the collision, the strength of the sound waves also diminished, Ji wushang quickly sidestepped it.

But the wolf king wasn't able to completely defend against the sword rays, it blocked few with its demonic claws. While two of them landed on its tough body, creating two more wounds on its body, although the injuries weren't too serious but after a period of accumulation, it could lead to its demise.

The battle continued for a few more minutes, There were even more injuries on the Wolf's body now, the boiling wolf blood had dyed the snow red.

"Ye kai, take out the metallic web now!" Ji yang instructed quickly, "everyone, strike now!"

Except for the green-haired youth and the beauty, everyone else sent a sword ray at the wolf king, the wolf king had already gone berserk from the fear of death. It tried its best but was still slightly injured again.

At this time both the beauty and Ye kai appeared behind the wolf king while dragging the shining web and threw it at the wolf king.

The wolf king was covered by the special web, It had predicted that its death was impending, and struggled even more fiercely.

Both the beauty and ye kai breathed out in relief at this.

Even though this net wasn't an ordinary item, it could only make the wolf king stay down for a second or two.

But in a battle every single second was extremely important, it could be the deciding factor of the battle.

swish! swish! swish!

Ji wushang, Ji yang, and the plain-looking youth quickly dashed forward at their top speed, they all used the 1st layer of primeval sword art, as they tried to pierce the skull of the wolf king.

They were just inches away from victory!

"Let me help you guys!" At this time, Bai Ming shouted.

Swish!!

An eerie sword ray swept forward, but instead of being aimed at the wolf king. It flew towards the plain-looking youth who was just in front of the wolf king. Everyone's eyes bulged in surprise, especially the plain-looking youth's, he had never expected a sword ray to come flying at him out of nowhere.

But he managed to dodge it somehow. But at that instant, the wolf king escaped from the net. It quickly attacked the youth, the youth's heart sank. He could only pray to the Gods.

But thankfully, Ji yang managed to block the wolf with his sword. The impact sent him flying backwards, but Ji wushang managed to support him in mid-air.

At once the battlefield went silent.

But Bai Ming quickly broke the silence, speaking sincerely "Oh No, it seems...I have made a mistake."

Anger surged in his veins, as the plain-looking youth yelled "Have you gone crazy!? Who the fuck told you to interfere!!"

"I am s-sorry, I just wanted to help" Bai Ming replied softly with a guilty expression.

"Fuck you, Motherfucker! I would have been a corpse because of your generosity, fucking bastard!" the youth screamed furiously, he really wanted to beat the shit out of Bai Ming.

"Sorry.." Bai Ming's voice got even weaker, his head bent even lower, But he was laughing coldly in his heart, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦.

"Zhou hai, calm down! Now isn't the time to bicker among ourselves. Bai Ming, don't interfere. Stay back for now, we will talk later." Ji yang shouted, even though the pressure increased, he was able to keep his cool.

Zhou hai finally cooled down a little, but his heart was still burning in rage.

"Wushang, use your Trump card. We will protect you." Ji yang spoke again.

Ji wushang nodded slightly, next he raised the sword above his head, pointing towards the heavens. All the remaining spiritual qi in his Dantian was disappearing rapidly as a tall sword phantom was being formed behind him.

"Oh, the 4th layer is it" Bai Ming watched silently as he thought.

The fourth layer of the primeval sword art had much requirement on spiritual energy consumption, of course, if it was a core formation realm expert using this sword art, he could instantly display this sword art, it wasn't only because core formation realm experts had more spiritual energy, but because they could release energy quickly.

The wolf king felt immense danger from this sword phantom, madness had taken over it. It tried to escape but would this group of martial artists allow that, they quickly restrained it. Seeing that it could not escape it aggressively charged toward Wushang.

Ji wushang wasn't able to move during the activation of the technique, but his teammates quickly came to his help, blocking the wolf king. The wolf king tried again and again but it was unable to get close to Ji wushang.

After a dozen seconds, Ji wushang had finished preparing. Behind him was a ten-meter-long sword phantom, a sword essence Wave that swept over the surroundings rapidly, Making the people around it feel a chill in their hearts.

A sharp light flashed in Ji wushang's eyes as he nonchalantly pointed his sword at the wolf king, following his gesture the mighty sword phantom flew towards the wolf king, a swoosh sound was heard as it cut through the air.

Boom!!

An intense explosion sounded out as the sword phantom crashed against the wolf king, the mighty wolf king was smashed apart, blood splattered like water.

"Huff, Huff, Huff" Ji wushang breathed roughly as he stared at the mutilated corpse of the wolf king "I don't have a drop of spiritual essence in my body right now."

"brother Wushang, amazing as always." the beauty praised.

"Bai Ming, quickly collect the beast core." Ji yang spoke.

"Yes, but I feel like someone is watching us" Bai Ming spoke nervously.

hearing this, Ji yang and the rest quickly spread out their divine sense to scan the surroundings.

"There is no one here, it's just your imagination. Stop wasting time and quickly collect the beast core, if we stay too long another wolf pack may arrive." Ji yang spoke plainly, he wanted to have a long chat with Bai Ming, but now wasn't the time.

Bai Ming heard this and let out a breath of relief, he spoke unhurriedly "Ohh, since that is the case... all of you can die now."