Chapter 416 (1/2)

811'>

Wait, is everyone in the Skeleton Gang here? Who exactly is this kid? Scorching Blood Monarch cried out inwardly. He then called out to his men, ”Retreat for now. We will settle this another time.”

The group he had brought was enough to deal with Xiang Shaoyun and Earth Skeleton, but with Celestial Skeleton and the others present, they stood no chance. If he did not leave now and allowed Celestial Skeleton and the others to surround him, it would be too late.

”Stay if you have the guts. I will kill you all!” Celestial Skeleton shouted.

Scorching Blood Monarch and the others started fleeing even faster, but Celestial Skeleton's group did not bother giving chase. Rather, they converged around Xiang Shaoyun and guarded him as they returned to their headquarters.

The people in the area witnessed everything that had happened. None of them had expected that a tiny organization like the Skeleton Gang would be related to Xiang Shaoyun. After all, the Skeleton Gang had a terrible reputation while Xiang Shaoyun himself was a Super King who also looked like a proper gentleman. He shouldn't have any relations.h.i.+p with the likes of them.

Now that they saw him getting mixed up with those nasty criminals, they started wondering if Xiang Shaoyun was merely a hypocrite pretending to be a gentleman.

If Xiang Shaoyun knew what those people were thinking, he would probably cry out furiously, saying something like ”I am a handsome, graceful, honest, and pure young man. How can I be a hypocrite? You must all be blind!”

With Celestial Skeleton, Earth Skeleton, and the others escorting him, Xiang Shaoyun quickly returned to the Skeleton Gang's headquarters. There, he immediately entered seclusion to recuperate from his injuries. The 10 battles had exhausted him in both body and mind. His energy exhaustion was rather large as well.

After completing one major energy circulation and absorbing over 10,000 mid-grade spirit crystals, he found that his nine stars now had more energy within. He was also no longer an early third-stage King. Instead, he had advanced to the mid third-stage Skysoar Realm.

At the King Realm, a ma.s.sive acc.u.mulation of energy was required for any advancement. Xiang Shaoyun had been in the third stage for about half a year, but he had been consolidating his foundations all this while. Today, his cultivation base had finally advanced yet again.

He had been advancing slowly not because he had a slow energy absorption rate but because he had nine stars within him that he had to simultaneously fill with energy. His energy requirement for any advancement was far higher than an ordinary King's. One should not overlook this slight growth in his cultivation base, as it had pushed his combat prowess to an even higher height.

Three days later, Xiang Shaoyun was back to his peak form. His injuries had more or less healed. He laughed and said, ”Fighting is indeed the fastest way to grow. No wonder Devouring Ghost insisted I come here. But this is still not fast enough. I need to reach the fourth stage in two months. For now, I will meditate on the 10 battles I have just experienced. It will help me reduce the injuries I could possibly get when challenging the fifth arena.”

He utilized his gift of visualization and started replaying the 10 battles in his mind over and over again. What he did right, what he did wrong, he a.n.a.lyzed everything. He also studied the techniques used by the various races, preparing himself to better face their attacks if he were to encounter them again in the future. Through studying these techniques, even when encountering opponents with similar combat prowess to him, he would be able to better predict his opponents' attacks.

At this point, Xiang Shaoyun seemed to have a sort of inspiration. If he could predict his opponent's moves to counter their incoming attack, he would also be able to steal the initiative and kill them before they could attack. At that thought, he grew excited.

Accomplis.h.i.+ng this would be equivalent to creating his very own battle technique, something completely new. Historically, every battle technique in existence was something created by a genius and eventually pa.s.sed down to the later generations.