Xue Wei snickered when he heard Bai Tianyi refer to a Nightmare Stallion as a pony. He was not worried. He had complete faith in Hei Gou's abilities, and the fact that he had not fully transformed meant that he did not feel a need to do so yet. 

The wings gave him a speed that even Xue Wei could not rival, and he was able to quickly catch up with the fleeing Nightmare Stallion. The moment he did, he landed on the back of the horse, with the claws of both his front and hind legs digging into the flesh of the stallion. 

One front paw dragged down the claws, all the way from the neck and down the back, leaving deep gashes in the back of the stallion. Blood flowed unhindered and patches of flesh were attached to Hei Gou's claws.

Hei Gou's eyes were serious, but he was also slightly disappointed when he saw that the stallion did not stop to fight. Instead, it just bucked wildly and tried to throw him off his back while continuing to flee as fast as it could. 

They had already gotten rather far, and Hei Gou understood that his test of his strength was now over. He sliced the throat of the Nightmare Stallion and instantly killed it. Blood spurted out from its throat and coated the black fur on his paws. 

As the ma.s.sive stallion-beast collapsed, Hei Gou jumped off and had already begun changing back to his human shape. The blood which previously had been hidden by the black fur could now be seen. 

HIs clothes, which had been intact when the battle began, were now in tatters and wounds of varying degrees were riddled all over his body. 

Of the four of them, Hei Gou seemed as if he had had the hardest battle. He was the one with the most apparent injuries, at least. 

Lin Xiao was also rather injured, but what he had injured was not the body but the soul. His face was pale and his eyes slightly dim. 

Bai Tianyi was not much better. He had used too much sword energy so he was feeling incredibly feeble. While medicinal pills could heal Lin Xiao and Hei Gou, Bai Tianyi would not be able to partic.i.p.ate in a fight until he had restored enough sword energy. 

Xue Wei was the one in the best shape. Although his hand had been seriously wounded, it was already healing at a rapid speed, and his exhaustion from using the Sacrificial Stab was also being dealt with by the Azure Dragon Spirit. 

Xue Wei looked at his bracelet now that the three bandits were dead, and his eyes widened in surprise. 

"When we killed the other seven, we got seventeen merit points, but by killing this group our score has climbed all the way to eighty-nine."

The others looked at their bracelets, but their results were not as exaggerated as Xue Wei's. 

"Yours skyrocketed because you dealt with the four-eyed woman and gave her the killing blow," Bai Tianyi was the first to realize why his merits had jumped as much as they had. 

"Oh, so the rest of you have not gotten as many points as I have?" Xue Wei asked dejectedly. The others shook their heads.

"I am at eighteen merits," Bai Tianyi said casually. He did not care too much about merits. He was a sword spirit. He could always give up his physical body and return to the body of a sword, although if he did so he would have to recreate his body from spiritual energy, which would take him quite a long time. 

But this ability made sure that he could follow Xue Wei anywhere. Hei Gou and Lin Xiao did not have the same possibility, but Xue Wei was certain that they could gain enough merits for all four of them to be allowed to go aboard with the amba.s.sador that was going to the Demon Phoenix Continent. 

"For now, let us retreat to one of the more outer areas of the gra.s.slands," Xue Wei decided. "We need to heal our bodies and souls completely before we engage in more combat. The ones in this area are rather strong. One mistake and we will end up dead instead of the opponent. Risking our lives is one thing, but suicidal behavior is another." 

Bai Tianyi, Hei Gou, and Lin Xiao looked at one another. Although they had just ended a battle, they were not too tired. If they were really pushed, then they would be capable of fighting back, but they prefered fighting when they were at peak condition to take as few risks as possible. 

Since this was the case, they nodded their heads and moved back the way they had come. Xue Wei administered some pills he had in his storage treasure, pills he had created previously. 

All the pill recipes that Xue Wei had were the most common pills that were all over the market. He did not have any pill recipes that were rare, as they had all been prepared by Bai Tianyi, and he did not have the finances to invest in some rare recipes. 

Therefore, all the pills that Xue Wei took out were the most ordinary kind, but even so, they were of high purity and their effect was better than nothing. 

He gave four Blood Coagulating pills to Hei Gou and took four himself. Although pills could not be taken as candy, the high purity combined with the low medicinal strength of these pills enabled them to do this. 

Hei Gou saw that Xue Wei put all four pills into his mouth and chewed lightly. If he could handle it, then Hei Gou obviously could too, as his physical body was many times stronger than Xue Wei's. 

Xue Wei also handed another set of pills to Lin Xiao. These pills healed the soul. Although they took a longer time to work, they were able to draw Soul Power into the soul and help it mend and nurture the soul back to its original state. 

The only one he could not help with pills was Bai Tianyi, and he looked apologetically at his friend, but Bai Tianyi just waved his hand with a carefree expression on his face. 

Xue Wei was unaware of how long it would take before Bai Tianyi's sword energy would recover, but a look at his face told him that the paleness had already been replaced by a rosy complexion. It was clear that he was not as strained as before. 

On the return trip, they encountered neither friends nor foes. A few Fierce Beasts appeared and looked at Xue Wei with curiosity, but they did not dare move too close out of fear for the other three. 

"Let us rest for a bit here," Xue Wei said after they had traveled for a few hours. There was no one in sight and their current position gave them a clear view on all sides. 

Lin Xiao and Hei Gou were quiet as they instantly sat down and started cultivating. They started mending their body and soul while at the same time training the Soul Guard. 

Seeing them train, Xue Wei took the task of observing their surroundings. The pills he had taken were enough to heal him after a bit of time. HeE could watch their surroundings while cultivating to some degree, though it would not have the same effect as stationary meditation, but this was the best course of action now that they were in enemy territory.

Bai Tianyi sat down with his legs crossed, closed his eyes, and started emitting a pulsating, strange grey energy around him.

It went out of his body, rotated around him and returned to his body again in tact with his breathing. This was the sword energy that he controlled. It was clear that with each breath, the energy that moved grew in size. 

Xue Wei had been worried that the sword energy would take months to restore, but looking at Bai Tianyi's current state, it might not take all that long. 

Time went by slowly. Xue Wei was eager to get merits, but he was not silly enough to rush his team when they were healing and cultivating. 

Suddenly in the distance, Xue Wei noticed a group of experts that seemingly had noticed them as well. The group was heading towards them, but Xue Wei hesitated to wake up his comrades. 

If the arriving experts were from the academy, then they could continue their training, but if they were bandits, then they had to fight. 

Fortunately, it turned out that they were from the academy. Xue Wei went out to meet them so that they did not interrupt Bai Tianyi and the others.

When they noticed the black wristband on his hand, the academy students turned disappointed, and then they looked curiously at Xue Wei and the other three.

"Are you the newcomers from another continent?" the leader of the other group asked curiously. He had seen that all four had two eyes each and that they seemed to not have the distinct humbling behavior of a two-eyed expert from Yan Dalu. 

"That would be us," Xue Wei nodded his head.

He did not see any condescension in the eyes of these experts, nor did he see much disdain. He was surprised to see that they were all friendly and open towards him.

"You defeated Tang Liu and later helped him break through to the Ordinary Knight rank with his Qi levels. This piece of news, he is even bragging about it back in the camp," the leader said, laughing out loud. "Normally, a defeat is nothing to rejoice about, but because he managed to become an Ordinary Knight with his Qi levels, he was quite hard to get back down to earth. Everyone who has been in the camp already knows about it."

"We are also aware that you have some abilities which are highly ranked compared to the Qi skills here in Yan Dalu." 

Hearing this, Xue Wei was slightly alert. Were they interested in his techniques? He was not willing to give them away just like that. 

Seeing him tense up, the entire group smiled and shook their heads. "Don't worry, we are not so starved for Qi techniques that we will make enemies with you over it," the leader a.s.sured him. Xue Wei felt a bit calmer hearing this. 

"Well, we will continue our expedition," the group got ready to head out once more. Xue Wei said his farewell. He had already managed to get a bit of information from the leader of the group and he was quite happy that they were not bandits. 

When he returned to his friends' side, he quickly found that Hei Gou had awakened from his cultivation. 

His eyes were looking around him with a sharpness that had not been there before. There wasere a certainty and self-confidence emanating from Hei Gou that he did not have earlier. 

The experience from that battle had given him the confidence he needed. He had started to understand that, after two mutations, his body was now no longer that average Celestial Dog he had been when he met Xue Wei.

He was now an overlord amongst the Primordial Beasts. He was now a beast that had been granted a heaven-defying talent. He was someone who could be considered a supreme genius. Everything about him had been changed, and it had been changed for the better. 

But what race was he now? He himself had not even seen his full shape, but he understood that he could no longer be considered a Celestial Dog. He was now a completely new race of Primordial Beasts, a race that had never appeared before.