Author note; Sorry about lack of 2nd release last week. Had to road trip with my dad on Friday to pick up some stuff for his work over the weekend and didn't get a chance to work on this chapter. I'll TRY damn hard to get 3 chapters out this week, but I think I might want to do 3 chapters next week for the sake of the cliff. Speaking of cliffhangers, a lot of em happening recently and probably one more next chapter too, but I promise to try and not make it a habit. I do love me some cliffs though.

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The Earthfire Boar's face sparkled with pleasure as it ripped through the corpse. It slammed it's stoney hooved feet into the ground wanting to stop quickly so as to see what kind of look the man had.

As it was coming to a stop it crashed into something which immediately caused a sense of worry to arise. Shaking it's head to clear the blood it opened it's eye and it's vision cleared. Instantly, as if struck by lightning, it froze as it's eye landed on an injured Xu Rong that was a distance away.

Three things had lead to Xu Rong's survival.

First, the boar's limited vision caused by Xu Rong's attack, the speed of turning and the wind caused by moving so quickly.

Second, the boar's confidence in it's attack. It knew it only had to aim for the spot the woman was landing at and the attack would hit. When it saw a blurry figure the boar instantly locked onto it and smashed through it with delight.

Third, a sentence briefly mentioned by Sun Jiao the night before. While discussing what had happened Sun Jiao had mentioned the bodies in the ring and that they might come in handy. Xu Rong, having cleaned up the bodies in the bandit's nest, praised Sun Jiao's cleverness and made a note to remember the wise words.

So as her body fell she removed a corpse from the ring and threw it in front of the boar. The boar, mistaking it for Xu Rong, ripped through it and then stopped. The boar hadn't stopped quick enough to prevent the attack but it was enough to keep her from dying.

She stood up, covered in scratches and abrasions, and looked over at Sun Jiao with her left arm loose at her side. She had seen how Sun Jiao held back against the boar and knew it would be easy for him to defeat the opponent in front of her. Not willing to be a burden on Sun Jiao she gritted her teeth and strengthened her resolve. Taking her left arm with her right hand she snapped her shoulder back in place and then moved it around to make sure it was working.

If the boar's anger had been like a roaring fire before now it was a bursting volcano. An explosion rang out as it began it's reckless charge again.

Xu Rong continued to gather ki with her Will trying to grab more and more to infuse into her claw. The decision she made as she stood up was to fight it head on. If she wasn't fast enough to avoid it then she'd be strong enough to take it head on or at least die trying.

The boar went all out from the start and blasted towards Xu Rong.

Sun Jiao began to panic as the boar closed in on her.

Just before it reached Xu Rong she slashed out with all her strength and a ki light from her hands ripped down the center of the boar.

The boar split in half with each half sliding past Xu Rong with her in the middle.

After attacking she stumbled for a second, but then regained her composure. Turning she saw the boar on the ground and all the built up tension released. Her pouty lips trembled for a bit and then curled upward in a smile. The intense atmosphere she was projecting slid away and was replaced by excitement.

Covered in blood, both her own and the boars, she jumped up and down yelling "I did it!" while throwing her hands in the air. After a moment she felt Sun Jiao's gaze and froze.

A blush appeared on her cheeks as she stopped jumping, dusted herself off, and turned towards Sun Jiao as she circulated her ki healing her body.

"I broke through to the Second Layer and beat it just like you knew I would!"

Xu Qing remembered the confidence Sun Jiao had shown in her at the start of the fight and her promise to make him proud. A blush returned as she continued.

"D-d-did I make you proud?"

"I was a little worried there for a moment, but you seemed confident so I believed in you. You were amazing."

With a smile Xu Rong used her hands to hide her cheeks and turned to retrieve the corpse and store it in her ring along with the blood that was covering her.

Sun Jiao seeing the cleaned up Xu Rong in a torn up outfit caused a fire to rise up, but was quickly suppressed after hearing Xiaobo's perverted laughter.

With a cough to draw her attention, Sun Jiao suggested a change of clothes.

Xu Rong quickly changed into a set of bandit clothes she had found; an orange tunic and pair of loose green pants. The tunic was a bit tight and outlined the shape of her body which caused Xiaobo to again laugh at Sun Jiao's reaction.

With a sigh he turned and started to again head into the mountains.

The two continued to fight beasts, but at the Second Layer there wasn't any challenges left on the mountain.

The sun passed over and began it's afternoon decent.

They had gathered several cores, but besides the Earthfire Boar no other magic beast corpse was worth collecting. The cores could help with cultivating, but were useless to Sun Jiao. As a prince he had access to much higher level magic beast cores by relying on his family. Xu Rong continued to collect the cores as they could still be sold or used and she didn't want them to go to waste.

As they returned from the mountains they found a path that had been recently cut and wasn't there when they had first passed.

Deciding to follow the newly made path they came to an open field surrounded by forest trees with a single tall baobab tree in the center. The baobab tree was a thick trunk tree with only three to four branches at the top. Hanging from the branch was a crystal fruit that was shaped like an oval coconut and had a sapphire colored star in the center.

The beast that had just cut a path to the field seemed to have done so because it was attracted to the fruit. It was a large silver giraffe with a large blade atop its head and several saw like blades along it's neck. The beast was incredibly tall, but even it was struggling to reach the fruit. It stood on it's hind legs and stretched as far as it could, but came up just short.

"Wow that's such a pretty fruit. Master do you know what that is?"

Sun Jiao listened to Xiaobo's explanation, cleaned it up and then repeated it to Xu Rong.

"It's a Silver Blade Giraffe which is a Second Layer beast. The fruit is a Sapphire Star Baobab fruit. If it eats the fruit it could change into a Crystal Blade Giraffe and break into the the Third Layer."

"It doesn't look like it can reach. Oh! It's doing something."

As she spoke the giraffe stopped reaching for the fruit, dropped down and pulled it's head back while the blade on the top of it's head started to glow. After twisting its neck back it rapidly whipped forward and slammed into the side of the tree leaving a large cut. Without pause the neck twisted the opposite direction and then blasted into the side of the tree as it whipped back. It began repeating this horizontal figure eight motion and was quickly working its way through the trunk of the tree.

Sun Jiao was astonished. Even with his Sun and Cloud steps he would have trouble avoiding that attack.

"Ah! We have to stop it master or it will destroy that tree and get the fruit!"

Her confidence had risen thanks to the time spent with Sun Jiao all day and she quickly stepped forward to attack the beast.

The giraffe had been noticed the two as they entered which is why it was frantically trying to cut down the tree. It had hoped to eat the fruit and then fight, but that hope was gone the moment Xu Rong began her attack.

With a practiced motion the whipping neck slammed into the tree, but this time it didn't leave a mark. Instead the giraffe bounced it's head off the tree and turned the horizontal attack into a vertical attack by twisting its body. A ki light left the blade and slashed out at Xu Rong.

She didn't even have a chance to scream as the blade light cut into her flesh.

~~Meanwhile just outside the outer city gate~~

A carriage rolled along while some unpleasant looking men followed behind it.

Atop the carriage were two men wearing city guard uniform and a carriage driver. The guards were at the peak of the Second Layer and had been assigned to protect the prince and princess in the carriage. They knew they were going to find Sun Jiao and would only interfere if lives were at stake.

In fact Meng Fai even told them to protect Sun Jiao's life.

When the group returned to the city the assassins Meng Fai hired would then set out and finish the job. This way the guards would serve as witness and the Third Prince wouldn't be tied to the crime.

Inside the carriage Sun Qi leaned over to her her brother and whispered in a not so quiet voice.

"Are we really going to beat him?"

Sun Jun gave an awkward smile and shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't disobey his mother and he thought that if he saw Sun Jiao beaten in front of him it would help him become ruthless.

The carriage arrived some time later at the spot where they would need to leave the road.

Exiting the carriage the group of men set out into the forest. Two guards flanked the Prince and Princess while 7 men surrounded them in a circle.

Po and fatman were also apart of the circle and were bringing up the rear.

As they walked Po began to pull out bamboo shoots that were slightly smaller than his fingers. Using his right hand he casually began sticking them into the tips of fingers while quietly humming a soft pleasant tune. As the tubes stuck into the fingers they filled with blood. The blood reached the edge of the tubes but didn't spill out as if they were magically held in place.

Fatman, on the other hand, seemed completely unaware and instead was chewing on a large piece of jerky made from magic beast meat.

Finishing with his left hand he looked down at his right arm and let out a tsk sound. The sound caused Fatman to look over with a curious look on his face.

"Always forget to roll up my sleeve." Po said with a smile.

Reaching over with his left hand he gripped the sleeve with his palm and thumb then pulled the sleeve off completely. The rip sound caused the princess to turn around.

"Just get'n ready miss; don't mind me none." Po said, again with a smile.

The princess turned back around with an unpleasant look on her face.

"Brother they don't seem nice. Maybe we should go back."

"Nonsense stop worrying."

With another frown she turned her head back around to again look at the man, but immediately tripped on a log.

Sun Qi quickly jumped back up and looked forward pretending nothing had happened.

Po, ignoring the girl, pulled out another bamboo shoot that was just a tad smaller than his wrist and about a foot long. With ease he shoved it into the inside of his forearm just past his elbow. This shoot too filled with blood that didn't spill out.

"Yo Fatman you ready?" Po said with a larger smile than the last.

Fatman ignored him and continued to eat. The time it takes to eat a large piece of jerky later he finally grunted.

Po turned and looked at the fatman with his eyebrow raised.

Fatman grunted again this time deeper and longer as though with reluctance.

"Ya it's necessary."

With a snort Fatman pulled out a short and wide bamboo shoot. The center of this was big enough to roll a softball through it.

Gripping the bamboo tightly he jammed it into the right side of his fat round stomach. Blood poured out and unlike the previous ones spilled onto the ground.

Author note: I found some amusement, and I hope you do as well, in a neck that cuts since usually it is necks that GET cut! For the story; man 2 cliffhangers in one chapter? I bet I could get 3 or maybe even 4 cliffs in one. TRY AND STOP ME! Ok maybe not for a long time, but I am putting that down as a goal. 4 cliffhangers in 1 chapter by at least chapter 200. Quote me on this. Or actually please don't because I might forget.

Side story? Yes. Side story:

Jia Cho wandered the street with Flicker, the flame element who had turned into an invisible flame above his head. Jia Cho approached some blue ribbon rat gang members with confidence in his disguise. The rats, seeing him, instantly grew alert.

SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK.(You're in the wrong neighborhood, homes.) The large rat said.

Jia Cho froze, was his disguise seen through? Impossible!

SQUEEK SQUEEK?(You think you're hot shit?) Flicker spoke for Jia Cho.

SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK? (YOU DARE?) The large rat flew into a rage and jumped at Jiao Cho while flailing it's arms.

Jia Cho wasn't worried however and met the charge head on. Literally!

His pincers slammed into the chest of the Rat Boss and pierced through him completely. With a flick the rat slid off his horns and slammed into a wall near by.

SQUEEK!(Let's get out of here and return to our base. This rat is too strong. We'll regroup there and then come back later!) Said a cowardly looking rat.

The rats with blue ribbons ran away.

Just after they scattered a sleek rat with all the right rat curves approached BK. Her body was wrapped in a silk red ribbon and her fur was tight against her body.

Squeeek squeek squeek. Squeek Squeek?(I've never seen a strong manly rat like you in our gang. Did you join us recently?) The female rat said as she sauntered over.

Jia Cho realized what had happened. The blood had soaked into the blue ribbon he had which caused it to turn red. They mistook him for a red ribbon rat gang member! How silly he felt; how could his perfect rat disguise be seen through?

Squeek squeek, squeek squeek. Squeek squeek squeek.(I joined long ago, but was burnt out with the gang life. But like a moth to a flame I've returned.)

Squeek squeek. Squeek. (We'll always welcome old blood to the New Blood Gang. Follow me.)

Infaltration? Successful! Now to begin the investigation!