Chapter Eleven: Mountain Stronghold Trial

  In a certain room of Heifeng Village, Xia Man stood in front of a painting, lost in thought.

  In the picture, there is a woman. Her hair is combed back and her eyebrows are slightly raised, with a hint of spring in her eyes. Her skin is as smooth as warm jade, soft and lustrous like silk. Her small cherry mouth is not painted red, but it's already rosy and charming. Two strands of hair on her cheeks gently brush against her face, adding to her alluring charm, just like a bright and beautiful fairy.

  In short, no matter how you look at it, the current Xia Man is in a Beauty and the Beast rhythm.

  Deep in thought, suddenly, Xia Man's mind moved, and she walked out of the bedroom. In the distance, an old servant was walking quickly towards her.

  "What's going on?" Xia Man asked calmly.

  The old servant saw Xia Man just coming out, and was shocked in his heart. Afterwards, he admired the owner of the village even more, bowing down to him with extreme respect. The owner of the village had actually been able to know in advance that he would come; wasn't this a skill that only those great masters possessed?

  Little did he know, his hurried footsteps had already given him away.

  "Master, young master, has injured several other Xia family disciples." The old servant said with some sweat on his forehead.

  "Huh?" Xia Man's eyebrows rose in surprise, no way, just a little while ago she had decided to keep the things that Lin'er could cultivate hidden from him, and now he had already found out?

  "Who are they? Come on, let's go take a look." Xia Man made a gesture and was about to head out.

  "It's Xia Dan and a few others." The old servant said hastily.

  Xia Man stopped and turned back to look at the old servant, somewhat shocked: "Xia Dan? If I'm not mistaken, although he's not very talented, he should have at least three layers of tempered body strength."

  "Yes, they were beaten up badly by the young master together. It's said that the young master already has the strength of fourfold tempering." The old servant continued to say respectfully.

  Xia Man's face didn't change color, but in her heart she was extremely shocked, her body trembling violently!

  Others may not be aware of it, but he is very clear about it. When Lin Er was just starting to cultivate, he had already found him once and made the decision to slowly nurture Xia Lin at that time.

  Unexpectedly, in just one month's time, Xia Lin had actually reached Body Tempering Fourth Realm.

  One month, spanning across four weeks!

  This is absolutely crazy progress!

  Apart from the direct disciples of those major sects, Xia Man had never heard of anyone making such progress. Having cultivated to the fourth level of Body Tempering, he already possessed enough strength to protect himself, no wonder Lin Er would burst forth with his power.

  "Is it going to be a case of 'accumulating thickly and bursting forth thinly'?"

  Xia Man thought for a moment before instructing, "Go and inform Ying Xiao, before the trial in the mountain stronghold, secretly protect Lin Er. Anyone who attempts to harm Lin Er will be killed without pardon! Even if it's a Xia family disciple, kill them without hesitation!"

  "Yes."

  The village master, as tyrannical as ever. The old servant secretly trembled with fear in his heart, and then retreated after receiving the murderous order.

  Watching the old servant retreat, Xia Man's mood suddenly improved a lot.

  Back in the room, looking at the woman who was as beautiful as a fairy in the painting, it seemed like she was saying something.

  ……

  "Lü'er, how much do you know about the Mountain Stronghold's trial by fire?"

  "Huh?" Lü'er's little head shook and her eyes blinked: "Young Master is planning to participate in the Mountain Stronghold Trial?"

  "That's natural." Xia Lin said calmly, "Now that the physical problem is solved, how can they be allowed to take over my position as Xia Lin?"

  "Alright."

  Lu'er softly responded with an "en".

  Xia Lin said it very domineeringly, she didn't refute. All these years, only she knew how this young master had come to be like this. The pain that made him want to die every deep night was heart-wrenching for her.

  What kind of perseverance allows a six-year-old child to go through that kind of suffering every day and end up like this today.

  She is slightly older than the young master, but not much. When she was a child, she was also very naughty. It wasn't until she grew up that she realized what kind of suffering the young master had endured. Fortunately, she has finally made it through now.

  Xia Lin, who was wholeheartedly devoted to martial arts, had only a vague understanding of the counterfeit trial.

  Lu'er thought of this and explained the details of the mountain trial in detail.

  Xia Lin's eyes sparkled with delight after hearing this, and she thought to herself, "So that's how it is."

  Hei Feng Village's trial is actually very simple.

  Hei Feng Zhai is for robbery!

  So if you want to become the successor of Heifeng Village, it naturally depends on whether you can rob or not.

  So, the trial of Hei Feng Zhai is actually a competition among several young members of Xia's family who are qualified to compete. Each leads 100 disciples of Hei Feng Zhai to go out and plunder. In the end, whoever plunders the most valuable things will naturally become the heir of Hei Feng Zhai.

  What looks like a simple trial is actually filled with blood and carnage.

  Because of this, the mountain stronghold trial of Heifeng Village, such a large-scale action, will people in Linjiang City and its surrounding areas not know about it? They do know, so at this time, ordinary merchant families and those who are not very anxious families will not go out for these few days. And those who stay behind, naturally, are the merchant teams that have confidence in their own strength.

  And the several trial-takers of Heifeng Village, what they have to face are these merchant troops who know clearly that they come to rob them but still remain extremely confident. Therefore, this time's robbery will necessarily be a tragic one.

  There is also one point, that is, the trial of Heifeng Village has only one rigid rule, which does not allow killing its own people, and there are no other rules besides this.

  This seemingly mild regulation actually implies that if you can't kill it, then you can rob it.

  So in the early stage it was a competition of robbery against outsiders, while in the later stage of trial, more importantly, it was a battle of snatching among several trial-takers.

  The king wins and the villain loses, the superior triumphs over the inferior!

  This is the survival rule of Heifeng Village, and also the survival rule of the entire Divine Continent!

  If you want to control the entire Black Wind Stockade in the future, if you can't even pass the trial of the Black Wind Stockade's mountain stronghold, and don't even have this bit of courage, how can you lead the Black Wind Stockade to continue growing?

  "So it seems, this is going to be a very interesting trial." Xia Lin smiled slightly.

  It's just that Green was a bit worried: "Will the two young masters play any tricks? I always feel like they're not good people."

  "Haha, it's not that they're not good, but rather they were never anything good to begin with." Xia Lin burst out laughing and then said: "As for causing trouble, you can rest assured, my father is here, he won't dare!"

  Lu'er's eyes lit up, thinking of the village chief, and she felt at ease. Although she didn't know the village chief's strength, since he was the chief, he must be stronger than the second-in-command, that shouldn't be wrong, right?

  Xia Lin looked at her dazed expression, couldn't help but rub her head, and smiled: "Alright, Lu'er, the young master is going to practice his skills, you should also go rest early. Next time someone bullies you again, just fight back directly, if anything happens, the young master will take responsibility for you."

  "En." Lǜ ér responded, sneaking a glance at Xià Lín.

  From the beginning, she was the young master's playmate and grew up together. Later, watching the young master lose and suffer, her heart ached to death, so she always stood by the young master's side, treating him as someone she would take seriously for life.

  However, with the recent young master's several sudden outbursts. The gentle and carefree treatment of the second young master, the overbearing and majestic self-defense, Lu'er suddenly discovered that this young master she had always pitied and wanted to protect, suddenly had some inexplicable charm, seemingly...

  Goodness gracious, what was I thinking? This is still the young master's room! Lu'er suddenly came to her senses and saw the slightly stunned young master. Her face flushed red as she hastily retreated.

  Xia Lin looked at the departing Lu'er with a dazed expression, then suddenly smiled: "This little girl still knows how to be shy."

  Lu'er left, and Xia Lin also withdrew his playful mood. Although he seemed to be nonchalant, in fact, he also knew that this trial wouldn't be so easy.

  Xia Cheng's appearance seemed to be tempered seven times, but he currently had the strength of tempering five times. Adding the suppression of his skills, he might still be able to barely withstand it. However, he knew that all of this was just theoretical.

  Will Xia Cheng be able to maintain his sevenfold physique? No!

  Even if he snatched the Yuanshencao, Xia Ye would still think of other ways to enhance Xia Cheng's strength. So at that time, Xia Lin will face an absolutely at least eightfold stronger Xia Cheng!

  At this point, his tempered body was fivefold, and the gap was quite large. To deal with Xia Cheng, he still needed to take it a step further.

  Thinking of this, Xia Lin's gaze fell on the table.