With a powerful presence, one shall prosper. With a weak presence, one shall suffer.

Xiang Shaoyun's absolute kingly presence roiled out as he unleashed a heavy slash on the two before him. Two heads were separated from two bodies. After killing the two, his presence immediately weakened. His entire body turned limp, and he could only remain standing by propping himself up with the Overlord Skyslaying Saber.

"Looks like I have accidentally drawn too much power and have overdrafted myself," Xiang Shaoyun muttered with a bitter smile. He then crushed one low-grade spirit stone in his astral cosmos sea. The energy from the spirit stone flowed into his stars and coursed through his meridians, restoring his lost energy.

At the same moment, Little White arrived by his side and started guarding him vigilantly. The benefit of the astral cosmos sea was that it helped Xiang Shaoyun use or devour anything stored inside it faster. That in turn helped him recover more quickly when using a recovery item stored in there.

At this time, the Mad Lion Hunting Groups who had stayed behind to deal with the silverscale elephants finally arrived. When they saw the three corpses on the ground, shock covered their faces.

"T-the d-deputy commander is dead! And two captains are dead too! How did this happen?" a first-stage Transformation Realm expert cried out in alarm.

Little White suddenly grew large and pounced on that person.

"Howl!"

Before any of them could react, Little White landed and bit the Transformation Realm expert's head. The Transformation Realm was completely caught by surprise. The sight of this frightened the other Mad Lion Hunting Group members even more.

They had just finished fighting the silverscale elephants, and all of them carried different degrees of injuries. Their combat strength was not even half of their full strength right now. How could they face a Great Demon like this? More importantly, the youngster who had killed their deputy commander and two captains was still standing there.

"Retreat and ask for reinforcements!" someone cried out. At that, all the Mad Lion Hunting Group members scattered in all directions.

Xiang Shaoyun wanted to chase after them, but he stopped after thinking about it for a bit. Yes, the Mad Lion Hunting Group had indeed offended him. But it was impossible for him to kill every single one of their members.

I'll just make them disband in the future, Xiang Shaoyun thought to himself.

He then got Little White to hunt a demonic beast as their meal. After he finished the meal, he started to meditate to recover his lost energy so he could resume his journey as soon as possible.

After one night of meditation, Xiang Shaoyun had recovered by about 70 percent. He weighed the silverhorn fruit in his palm with a smile. "Silverhorn fruit, able to grow one's stars and expand the size of one's stars as well. It is a rather rare mid-grade spirit medicine."

Xiang Shaoyun then put the silverhorn fruit away instead of using it. With his talent, it was pointless to use this fruit. It wouldn't show any obvious effect. This fruit would be the most useful for someone with weaker potential.

Xiang Shaoyun was in a great mood. Mounted on Little White, they traveled on as he hummed a song. With the increase in his strength, he was no longer a weak scholar who couldn't even kill a chicken. So long as he continued working hard, he would soon be able to return to where he had come from and retake everything that was once his.

After a few days and many more killings, Xiang Shaoyun finally arrived at the outer fringe of the Hundred Beast Mountain Range. After so many days of tempering, he was now radiating a steadfast and sharp aura. It was as if he was now a murderous blade instead of a human, making it hard for others to even look straight at him.

After leaving the Hundred Beast Mountain Range, Xiang Shaoyun headed straight back to the Martial Hall Palace. He did not want Elder Zhen Peng and Zi Changhe to keep worrying over him. After returning to the Martial Hall Palace, he looked for Xia Liuhui and gave him the silverhorn fruit.

Xia Liuhui was extremely touched. The silverhorn fruit was a mid-grade spirit medicine, but his boss was giving it to him like it was nothing. This generosity was something many people couldn't even compare to.

Xiang Shaoyun was just trying to help Xia Liuhui as best as he could. After all, this was his first friend in the Martial Hall Palace. He was hoping that Xia Liuhui could grow even stronger, to be able to stand by his side in the future. Although it was rather unlikely, he still needed to try since he was the boss.

As for the destruction of the lightning strike wood, Elder Zhen Peng would be the one doing the explaining. In any case, Elder Zhen Peng was the one who had taken it from the Martial Hall Palace, not him. Nobody in Martial Hall Palace would dare to give a King Realm cultivator trouble anyway. Only an absolute idiot would do that.

Xiang Shaoyun ignored everything else and started a three-month-long seclusion. He had to grow even stronger before the Battle of Towns. More importantly, through the continuous killing in the Hundred Beast Mountain Range, he had already figured out that he needed to increase his accumulation of trump cards.

Three months were very short for someone focused on cultivating. With Xiang Shaoyun focusing on nothing but cultivation, time flew even faster for him. If Zi Changhe had not come to notify him that the Battle of Towns would start in half a month, he would have continued his seclusion.

The Battle of Towns was a major event of the Cloud Margin City. Over 100 towns would send the disciples of numerous academies and cultivation organizations to represent them in the competition and win honor and glory for them.

Recently, the Martial Hall Palace had been urging their disciples to grow, and the Battle of Towns was the reason why. Before the Battle of Towns, an internal competition would be held in the Martial Hall Palace to pick the 50 strongest disciples that would eventually be sent to the Battle of Towns.

With Xiang Shaoyun's strength, he did not need to participate in the selection process. But Zi Changhe still forced him to come out and show his face. Although he had maintained a low profile in recent months, he was still a cultivating freak receiving countless attention in the Martial Hall Palace.

He was the one who had caused the five stars illuminate the sky phenomenon when he first came. Not long after, he defeated the Wu Clan disciples, the Li brother and sister pair, and even the first elder's disciple, Ye Tianlong, was scared off by him with a mere shout. His numerous accomplishments placed a massive pressure on the other disciples.

On the other hand, the female disciples were completely smitten by Xiang Shaoyun. A large number of female disciples winked and smiled at him, trying to attract his attention and have something beautiful happen between them and him.

Xiang Shaoyun pretended he didn't see anything and merely sat at a corner daydreaming.

"Shaoyun!" a joyful voice rang out behind him.

When Xiang Shaoyun turned around, he saw Lu Xiaoqing standing there in a martial outfit, her hands clasped behind her back. She was looking at him with tenderness in her eyes and with a radiant smile on her face.

It had been a few months since he had last seen Lu Xiaoqing, and she looked even more graceful and beautiful now. She was like a blooming flower at the peak of her beauty.

Xiang Shaoyun smiled and said, "Lu Xiaoqing, you're participating in the selection as well?"

"Of course I am. My senior sister told me a spot has been reserved for you in advance. I want to fight alongside you, so I must enter the top 40 in the selection!" Lu Xiaoqing said, her battle intent soaring.

She had vowed to follow closely behind Xiang Shaoyun’s every step, not allowing herself to fall too far behind. If she stayed at the same spot, she would only find his figure gradually moving far away from her.