As soon as they left Tianyuan City, Elder Han transmitted a message: "Xin Ci, four people have been following you secretly from behind."
Even if Elder Han hadn't said it, Xin Ci had already noticed.
However, Xin Ci didn't feel surprised; instead, a cold smile appeared on his lips.
These people had been secretly monitoring him for several days, but they didn't dare to show themselves due to the academy's rules.
Now that they were outside the Four Symbols Academy, they became unrestrained, even their killing intent towards him could not help but leak out.
"Three at the mid-stage of the Profound Realm, one at the late-stage of the Profound Realm."
Xin Ci released his soul power and preliminarily estimated the spiritual power realms of the four people behind him.
Then, he deliberately led them into a mountain forest.
In an instant, the sound of arrows piercing through leaves came from behind.
Xin Ci quickly turned around and dodged to the left, avoiding the flying arrow.
The arrow directly pierced a large hole through the tree, which was about the size of two people embracing, behind him.
And the arrow didn't stop, continuing to pierce several more large trees.
Xin Ci's expression became slightly solemn; ordinary arrows wouldn't have such power.
It seemed that someone among the four was using a bow and arrow spirit artifact.
A sharp gust of wind whistled by.
Four students wearing the Azure Dragon Academy uniform stood on the large trees to the southeast, northwest, and north of Xin Ci.
They seemed to want to surround him, leaving him no room to escape.
"Xin Ci, surrender! This is not the Four Symbols Academy; no one will know even if we kill you," said a person with an aquiline nose and hawk-like eyes on the tree in front, grinning proudly.
"I didn't expect that to deal with a mere Yellow Realm freshman like me, Nalan Wuxia would send four senior brothers at the Profound Realm. You truly think highly of me," Xin Ci said with great interest, without any panic.
For some reason, after Xin Ci spoke, the four of them suddenly became angry and ashamed.
This was because originally, the Profound Realm experts deployed to deal with him were more than four. Six others had been severely injured by a woman ten days ago and couldn't come.
Among them were even two students from the Earth Rankings.
If they hadn't monitored Xin Ci for several days and confirmed that the mysterious woman was not by his side, they wouldn't have dared to attack Xin Ci.
"Shut up! How dare you call Senior Brother Nalan's name directly?!" shouted the archer behind Xin Ci.
"In front of us, you are a weak and incompetent prey, and prey should behave like prey."
"That is, to be hunted and killed by us!"
The four Profound Realm experts clamored simultaneously, as if the victory was already in their hands.
Little did they know that Xin Ci had already acted in secret.
While they were talking, four cross-shaped locks climbed up the trees like cobras.
They quietly appeared behind them.
Zhou Teng, being the only late-stage Profound Realm expert among the four, had naturally sharper perception than the other three.
At the moment the arrows of the cross-shaped locks were about to pierce their hearts from behind.
The four of them simultaneously felt a bone-chilling coldness from behind.
Unfortunately, only Zhou Teng managed to dodge in time, but his cheek was still grazed, drawing blood.
The other three mid-stage Profound Realm experts had their hearts pierced by the cross-shaped locks and died on the spot.
"You despicable scoundrel!"
Zhou Teng stared fiercely at Xin Ci, his teeth clattering with anger.
Despicable scoundrel?
Ridiculous!
You came to assassinate me, yet you blame me for being despicable.
However, Xin Ci was slightly surprised. The power of the cross-shaped locks, upgraded to a high-grade spirit artifact, was indeed astonishing.
This greatly boosted his confidence; with the cross-shaped locks and his Earth-grade high-level martial skill, he could face an ordinary late-stage Profound Realm expert head-on.
Of course, this was on the premise that the opponent did not have a high-grade spirit artifact.
Zhou Teng also did not expect Xin Ci to possess a high-grade spirit artifact, and his greed was openly revealed in his eyes.
He seemed to regard the cross-shaped locks as his own property.
"A high-grade spirit artifact given to a brat like you is a waste. Let this lord keep it for you!"
Zhou Teng, not realizing the situation, reached out to grab Xin Ci's cross-shaped locks.
However, under Xin Ci's control, the trajectory of the cross-shaped locks changed unpredictably.
In the blink of an eye, five chains lunged at him from different directions.
Zhou Teng's hands were unable to resist attacks from five directions, so he was forced to erect a spiritual energy shield.
Relying on the thickness of his spiritual energy cultivation, even the high-grade spirit artifact's cross-shaped locks couldn't break through his spiritual energy shield in a short time.
Thus, Zhou Teng quickly became arrogant again: "Although your chain attack method is hard to predict, I am, after all, the thirty-second ranked student on the Earth Rankings."
"How could I lose to a freshman like you!"
This was Xin Ci's first time fighting against an Earth Rankings student, and Zhou Teng's ranking was only thirty-second, yet he was already at the late-stage Profound Realm.
How powerful must the top ten on the Earth Rankings, or even Nalan Wuxia, who was on the Heaven Rankings, be?
However, dealing with Zhou Teng was the priority right now.
Five chains shot out simultaneously, emitting a chilling silver glow and stabbing towards Zhou Teng.
Zhou Teng did not back down and immediately unleashed his mid-grade spirit artifact, the Profound Iron Shield.
A dark-colored shield floated out from his storage ring and circled around him.
Although its grade was inferior to the cross-shaped locks, it could still block the chain attacks for a short period.
Zhou Teng charged forward like a wild bull, and Xin Ci's chains were all sent flying.
The distance between the two was rapidly closing.
Zhou Teng believed that as long as he got close to Xin Ci, he could easily win.
Unexpectedly, Xin Ci had already seen through his intentions and made no defensive moves, allowing him to approach him step by step.
Zhou Teng thought Xin Ci was just a weakling who relied on his high-grade spirit artifact and was too scared to move when he got close.
He condensed his spiritual energy for a punch aimed at Xin Ci's face, but found that he could no longer move forward.
Shocked, he quickly looked down.
Two chains had emerged from the ground and were wrapped around his feet!
"Seven... seven chains?!"
"No, it's ten!"
As Zhou Teng was stunned, three more cross-shaped locks wrapped around his feet and neck.
Xin Ci tightened the cross-shaped locks and pulled hard. Zhou Teng felt his limbs and neck were about to be crushed by the chains.
The suffocating sensation intensified, and the area above his neck began to turn red and purple.
Zhou Teng could only see Xin Ci becoming blurrier and blurrier, and he painfully reached out his hand, his eyes filled with regret.
He clearly knew from Nalan Wuchang that Xin Ci only had five chains.
But when did these chains increase to ten?
The Profound Iron Shield also could no longer withstand the continuous bombardment of the other five chains and was directly knocked away.
The luster on the shield became dull and colorless.
Finally, Zhou Teng collapsed due to suffocation.
Xin Ci retracted the cross-shaped locks expressionlessly.
In the consciousness space, Mu Qingqing looked at Xin Ci with admiration, exclaiming, "Wow, as expected of the male protagonist, defeating a late-stage Profound Realm expert at the half-step Profound Realm."
But Xin Ci didn't think so; he only won because of the advantage of the cross-shaped locks.
If Zhou Teng had a high-grade spirit artifact, or if he had managed to get close to Xin Ci, it was likely Xin Ci who would have lost.