As Lian walked out of the water, a bright flash of light boomed from the distance, causing the nearby trees to shake violently and prompting surrounding beasts to flee.
Lian quickly threw on his clothes and jumped atop a nearby tree to hide.
"Damn, these people look like they are masters…" he thought, concealing himself deeper within the leaves.
"Come on now, Huǒ Yànhuā, let's have a taste." A large brute spoke. His body was twice the size of a normal person. A massive grin split his face, and a single scar crossed his cheek. He was drooling from his mouth. In his hand, he hefted a large axe-sword, its silver head glimmering high in the air.
"Shame on you all," a feminine voice responded. It belonged to a girl around Lian's age, with pink hair and pale skin. Her orange robes lay perfectly across her curvy body.
"How dare you betray my family after everything we have done for you?" the girl, Huǒ Yànhuā, demanded. She drew the sword from her waist; its hilt was made of gold, and a simple carving of a flame was embedded in it. The blade pulsed with a vibrant red flame. She swung the blade, intending to strike the man before her, but from the distance, an arrow came flying through, knocking the sword away from her hand.
"Hahaha… come on now, Princess, why are you making this hard for yourself?" The brutish man spoke, striking Huǒ Yànhuā down. He then laughed out maniacally.
"Finally, I will take back everything that the Huǒ family has taken from me! If I get the Ten Thousand Year Fire Essence, I can break through the Jīn Hé stage, and while I'm at it, I get to enjoy this princess!" He spoke, licking his lips.
"Wait… Lu Yan—you said we would sell the fire essence for essence stones, didn't you!?" The archer spoke, stepping into view. He was a thin-looking man wearing a sharp hat, his face resembling a rodent, and his wispy beard like whiskers. One of his eyes was covered by an eye patch, and his bow hung on his back.
"Hahaha… of course we will sell! I never go back on my word…" the large brute replied, a huge grin stretching across his face. His words said one thing while his body showed another.
"Huu… this is truly dangerous, but the Fire Essence might help me greatly. I could sell it for some decent cultivation techniques and still have money left to buy cultivation stones." Lian thought this as he tried to readjust his stance.
Shhhh!
The trees rustled as Lian shifted his position.
"Oh… it seems we have a rat here," Xianshun, the archer, spoke, drawing his bow and shooting an arrow straight towards Lian.
"Damn, they found me," Lian mumbled as he jumped off the tree, narrowly evading the arrow. He fell to the ground on his feet and watched the tree behind him instantly disintegrate.
"Hey… Hey! I'm no threat!" he spoke, raising his hands high.
"Too bad for you. The fact that you are here is the reason why you will die. Blame yourself for being in the wrong place at the wrong time... ahahaha!" The brute, Lu Yan, spoke, throwing a slash with his axe-sword. A blue light flew from the blade, whistling through the air. It scorched the ground as it headed straight for Lian.
But it did not hit him. Lian used the movement technique he had learned while running through the trees and swiftly evaded the attack, moving to the side.
"Wooo! I guess you have some skill, ha! It will take some effort to try and get rid of you," Lu Yan spoke, tossing another attack, which Lian evaded as well, before turning and beginning to run away.
"Xianshun! Go after him! If word gets out what happened here, we will be in trouble!" Lu Yan commanded.
Xianshun instantly ran after Lian.
Lu Yan turned back to Huǒ Yànhuā. "Now, Princess, let—" But before he could finish, he realised the princess had escaped during that brief interaction with Lian.
"Damn it! Damn it!" Lu Yan roared as he quickly went after the girl.