Austin had heard from Fanny that her grandfather was an array expert, but he hadn't expected the old
man to be proficient in martial refinement as well. According to the violent attack he was facing,
Fanny's grandfather must be no less powerful than Theon, the head of Sun Sect.
Terrified and scrambling to combat the attack, Austin began to call up the Golden Sun Scripture. Soon,
his golden vital energy circulated in his body.
To his surprise, the luminous sphere inside his elixir field trembled slightly. Just in a trice, the sphere
shone bright as if it was irritated by the attack from Fanny's grandfather. Before Austin could react, the
luminous sphere released a large amount of pure and stolid power which flowed into Austin's
meridians.
It seemed that the luminous sphere acted automatically to help Austin when he was in the face of
danger!
This mysterious sphere had absorbed a lot of vital energy in the past during Austin's martial refinement.
And now, it had returned purified vital energy to Austin.
After gaining this additional support, Austin was surprised to find that he was eased dramatically from
the huge palm-shaped vital energy that Fanny's grandfather had created.
He quickly bounced on his tiptoes to jump ten meters backwards and break free from the perimeter
created by the huge palm.
"What? It seems that you are learning an extraordinary cultivation method."
With those words, the huge palm made of vital energy vanished into thin air, and simultaneously, the
speaker of these words, appeared next to Fanny. It was a bony old man in a grey robe. He revealed no
emotion on his solemn face, but astonishment flashed in his eyes as he stared at Austin.
"Grandpa! I was dying to see you!"
Fanny rushed into her grandfather's arms and grew excited like a little girl.
"Really? I think you are actually unwilling to see me. Otherwise, why did you leave home when I was
unaware? Your fellow apprentice and I have looked for you for two whole months!"
Her grandfather said in a stern voice, but his joy and relief of seeing Fanny safe obviously outweighed
his anger. He eventually stretched his hand and stroked his granddaughter's hair with tenderness.
"I'm sorry, grandpa. I promise that it won't happen a second time!"
Fanny said as she stuck out her tongue playfully. Her grandfather always doted on her, so she never
worried when she made mistakes.
"Grandpa, he is my friend, Austin. He saved me when I was chased by several bad guys some days
ago. Don't inconvenience him."
Fanny explained to her grandfather as she pointed at Austin.
"Fanny, don't trust others so easily! You don't even know where he's from!"
The young man coming with Fanny's grandfather said. He was envious of Fanny's kindness to Austin.
"Sean, don't be rude to Fanny's friend."
Fanny's grandfather reproached his disciple for his impolite comment. He was well aware of what was
going on in the young man's mind.
At that moment, Austin walked up to the old man and bowed to him with cupped hands. "I've heard
about you from Fanny, sir. I'm Austin, a disciple of the Sun Sect."
Fanny's grandfather was a powerful cultivator of Mysterious Realm, the same level as Theon. Austin
dared not show any disrespect in front of this old man because he didn't want to offend such a powerful
person.
"Austin, right? Thanks for saving my granddaughter."
The old man turned to Austin and nodded to him.
"I didn't mean to hurt you by that attack. I just wanted to see how good your martial refinement was.
You are only level nine of the Energy Gathering Realm, but your cultivation method is quite a good
one."
The old man praised Austin for his cultivation method but didn't mention anything about the Sun Sect.
"I'm extremely grateful to you for saving my granddaughter. Please accept this array flag of the Four-
sided and Eight Trigrams Array as the token of my gratitude."
With that, he waved his hand and threw a small bag at Austin. The latter caught it with a surprised look.
"This array isn't very useful to me, but it might help you in some circumstances. Most cultivators under
the middle stage of the Earth Realm can't break this array, while a cultivator at premium stage of the
Earth Realm will still have to spend some time before he frees himself."
The old man explained nonchalantly. He had made this array flag at whim in his spare time. It wasn't
important to him, so he gave it to Austin as a gift.
"Thank you for your gift, sir!"
Austin felt satisfied after hearing his explanation. He could employ this array flag to arrange a powerful
array, and it would become one of his trump cards.
"Fanny, it's time to go home now. It's been two whole months and my patience is on the wane. Do not
anger me and follow my words."
Fanny's grandfather turned to her and commanded in a severe tone.
Fanny pouted but still nodded reluctantly. She knew it was her fault for leaving home without taking her
grandfather's permission.
Despite her yearning for the outside world, she decided not to disobey her grandfather.
"Goodbye, Violet, Austin. Remember to visit me when you travel to the Grand Dragon Empire!"
Fanny waved to Violet and Austin before leaving with her grandfather.
'The Grand Dragon Empire?
She is from the Grand Dragon Empire?'
Austin was left dumbfounded.
The region of Sun Sect was one part of the Violet Orchid Empire, while the latter was subordinate to a
larger and more powerful empire—the Grand Dragon Empire. In fact, as a gesture of obeisance, his
empire had to pay tribute to the Grand Dragon Empire every year. . . . .
Some days later, in an area of the Outer Grand Desolation Mountain where level-four diabolic beasts
and demonic beasts lived, a person was fleeing at full speed. Behind him was a huge leopard
surrounding with purple flames.
"Shit! This brute has chased after me for eight hours, and it doesn't intend to stop!"
The person who was chased by the beast shouted with anger.
He was Austin, who was practicing in the Outer Grand Desolation Mountain.
After Fanny left with her grandfather, Austin continued to travel alone in the mountains. Aside from
fighting different beasts to strengthen himself, he spent most of his time on learning the Wind-
commanding Skill.
He was now learning the third section of the pamphlet, Using the Wind.
Austin had grasped the first two sections, Feeling the Wind and Knowing the Wind. As for the third
section, he felt increasingly confused about its content during his practice.
Feeling the Wind and Knowing the Wind were the basic parts of this bodily movement skill. The rest
three sections were the key to employ this skill perfectly.
After over ten days' practice, Austin had achieved new progress in his Wind-commanding Skill and
could move faster. He could move twenty meters by one step now.
With his outstanding moving speed, his newly gained power at level nine of Energy Gathering Realm,
and his mighty weapon, the Twin Shadow Blades, Austin found no challenge in the living area of level-
three beasts and easily killed dozens of them.
He finally came to the living area of level-four beasts on a whim. Soon, he felt great pressure when
facing those beasts there and realized that he was still weak compared with grade-four beasts.
Still, the fact that most cultivators of Earth Realm had to avoid those beasts balanced his frustration.
After all, he was only level nine of the Energy Gathering Realm!
Austin managed to kill two demonic beasts of level four by exerting all his power and employing the
Grand Pagoda Summoning Skill, but he also got slightly wounded.
After that, he was very unlucky to bump into a violent level-four beast—a purple flaming
leopard.
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda