Chapter 402: Setting Out!

  "Well, Xiao Yan, feeling fident for this duel now?"

  Xiao Yan's current state, Yao Lao’s eyes reflected a look of satisfa.

  "Teacher, I feel more fident than ever!"

  Xiao Yan replied excitedly, then slowly stood up. With a sudden stomp of his foot, his body moved with lightning speed, appearing about two meters to the left. His fist, carrying a powerful energy that could take one's breath away, smmed fiercely into a massive pilr before him.

  "Boom!"

  A loud noise echoed as wood splinters flew everywhere. Xiao Yan g his fist, which had goraight through the pilr, and gave a slight smile. He slowly withdrew his arm, leaving a hole and several deep cracks in the pilr.

  Curling his fingers slightly, Xiao Yan’s fiips gathered a faint red glow. Moments ter, with a light flick of his fihe red energy shot out like an arrow, hitting a vase oable with a bang and shattering it into pieces.

  "Releasing dou energy externally!"

  Seeing the shattered vase, Xiao Ya a surge of joy. At the level of Dou Grandmaster, dou energy could finally be released outside the body, no longer fined or restricted.

  "Xiao Yan, this little room ’t handle your testing anymore. If you want to practice, head outside!" Yao Lao said with a grin.

  "You're right!"

  Xiao Yan replied, then gnced outside the window, pausing in surprise. It had grown dark again; night had clearly fallen once more.

  "How is it night again?" Xiao Yan murmured.

  "If you had broken through any ter, you’d have missed today's duel! There's only about two hours left until dawn!" Yao Lao expined.

  "So this breakthrough took almost a full day and night... I’d better set off immediately a used to my strength along the way!" Xiao Yan mused.

  "Let’s go. Hopefully, all will go well."

  With a soft sigh, Yao Lao collected the bck cauldron areated into the bck ring on Xiao Yan’s finger.

  Meanwhile, Xiao Yan slowly removed the face mask he had been wearing and stored it in his ste ring. From this moment, he no longer o hide uhe alias of Yan Xiu.

  He also took off the night suit he was wearing, repg it with a close-fitting bck robe adorned with golden patterns. Afterward, he spshed some cool water on his face to refresh himself.

  With two hours remaining before dawn, Xiao Yan wao avoid drawing too much attention, so he slipped out of the inn through the window.

  At this hour, the streets of the Jia Ma Empire's capital were still deserted, with most people still deep in slumber. Xiao Yan walked at an unhurried pace, following the streets aually leaving through the massive city gates.

  Before long, he found himself on a high slope outside the capital, from where he could faintly see a t, snow-white mountain peak in the distance.

  "This will do. I’m only a few miles from the Yun La here. I’ll get used to my Dou Grandmaster power first, then go meet Nan Yanran!" he murmured to himself. Reag out his right hand, his ste ring glowed, and a massive bck ruler as tall as Xiao Yan himself appeared with a fsh.

  Grasping the handle of the ruler, he swung it, stirring up a powerful gust of wind that surged around him.

  "Boom!"

  With a resounding boom, the two-meter-tall boulder before Xiao Yan was deeply cracked by his bck ruler, sending fragments of stone flying in all dires. As he lifted the ruler, the crack slowly spread, eventually causing the entire boulder to split apart.

  "Bang!"

  On this small hillside, Xiao Yan joyfully unleashed the newfound power of a Dou Grandmaster, striking nearby boulders and trees with various teiques. This venting sted a full half-hour before he finally stopped, and the aura that had overflowed from his ret breakthrough gradually reabsorbed bato his body.

  "Xiao Yan, it’s time to set off… Remember, because of your cultivatiohod, you’re not suited for prolonged battles. In the uping duel, you must rely on your bat teiques to end the fight quickly!" Yao Lao's aged voice echoed in Xiao Yan's mind as he stopped.

  "Uood!"

  Xiao Yan hen took out a green pill and quickly swallowed it. With this pill, the dou energy depleted from his earlier exertions began to replenish rapidly. This quick-recovery pill was one of three that Yao Lao had specially refined for Xiao Yan the day before, in anticipation that his low-grade cultivatiohod might cause his energy to drain too quickly during intense bat.

  As the sun rose over the horizon, breaking free from the earth’s embrace, Xiao Yan stopped again, standing on a slope and gazing at the massive mountain base in the distahere, a sprawling military camp stretched across the ft grassnd. Through the rows of white tents, he could vaguely make out soldiers practig drills.

  "Just as they say, the Jia Ma royal family has stationed ae army at the base of Yun Lan Mountain!"

  Shaking his head, Xiao Yan desded the slope, following the main road toward the mountain’s base.

  Though the military camp was heavily guarded, the soldiers did not interfere with those asding the mountain. Xiao Yan passed through effortlessly, only receiving casual gnces from the soldiers on duty as he made his way along the path up to the mountain base.

  As lush greenery began to appear oher side, the sounds of soldier training gradually faded. Looking ahead, Xiao Yan found himself before an a stoaircase that stretched to the limits of his sight, like a path to the heavens.

  Standing at the foot of the mountain, Xiao Yan raised his head, his gaze fixed ooeps that had likely stood there for tless ages. Closing his eyes, he seemed to hear a faint, sharp sound like a sword hum ing from the far end of the steps. The sound echoed subtly through the forest, like a bell ringing, captivating his spirit.

  After a long moment of silence, Xiao Yan opened his eyes, gently patted the Heavy Xuan Ruler on his back, and stepped firmly onto the slightly damp stoeps.

  As his foot fell, Xiao Ya a weight lift from his soul, as if he had just exhaled a breath of air that had been stifled within him for three years.

  "Nan Yanran, I, Xiao Yan, have e. The shame yht to the Xiao family three years ago—I will make you pay for it doubly today!"

  With a low growl in his heart, Xiao Yan tio pce his feet steadily, oep at a time, on the a stoaircase.

  (End of Chapter)

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