Early the next morning, Lin Xun had a splitting headache as he woke up, feeling terrible. It was a hangover.

After he took a deep breath, his energy revolved around the whole body, with the Gang Qi surging from head to foot. For an instant, discomfort dissipated.

Then Lin Xun felt fresh and raised his spirits.

Suddenly, he found that where he stayed was actually Old Mo’s warehouse.

“By your capacity for liquor, how dare you drink with others?” Young Man came over and passed a cup of tea to Lin Xun with contempt.

With a wry smile, Lin Xun gulped down his tea and said, “Was it Sister Man that brought me back?”

Young Man said “yes” and gazed at Lin Xun with bright eyes, “Although you got drunk easily, you performed well in making a breakthrough to Gang Spirit Realm yesterday. I have heard from Chief Shu, that you generated the Eye of Storm of pond of spiritual power. You prove yourself to be my little brother. Well done!”

She lovingly pinched Lin Xun’s cheek, with a self-satisfied smirk on her face, and said, “Do you know that? What you have done lets me vent my spleen. Those, who previously thought you were lacking in power, were startled like seeing a ghost when they knew what had generated the Eye of Windstorm. Hahaha!

Lin Xun smiled awkwardly and said, “Sister Man, you wouldn't bet with others again, would you?”

Young Man signed, “Originally, I wanted to bet with those guys, but they were terrified of failure since last time. Now there's no one daring to do it!”

Lin Xun was speechless.

Young Man suddenly asked, “When are you leaving?”

Lin Xun was stunned by the question. Then, he suddenly realized that as the assessment of the Bloodthirsty Camp was over, and they all made breakthroughs, it was high time that they left.

“Where are Shi Yu and Ning Meng?” asked Lin Xun.

“They’ve gone home with the people their families sent this morning,” said Young Man without thinking.

Lin Xun instantly understood why they wanted to drink with him, for they had already known they would leave today...

He couldn’t help sighing. After this farewell, God knew when they would meet again. The feeling of departure really made him sad.

Maybe they didn’t want face such a sad scene, so they left without saying goodbye.

“Whew! So sentimental at such a young age? Rest assured. As long as you are all in the empire, you’ll meet each other again sooner or later,” ridiculed Young Man.

“H'm,” Lin Xun responded and then asked, “So, is it time for me to leave?”

Young Man was a little surprised, “Well, are you attached to this place? I forgot to tell you. Except you, all the other trainees left before this morning.”

Lin Xun fell in a trance.

Finally, he clearly realized that the one-year training in the Bloodthirsty Camp drew to an end.

Really attached?

Maybe.

As for Lin Xun, when he was about to leave, he found that he had no place to go in such a big world.

Seeing Lin Xun was a little bit strange, Young Man patted him on the shoulder and said, “Bloodthirsty Camp is isolated from the outside world. If you want to make greater achievements in your cultivation, you must leave here.”

Lin Xun said with a bitter smile, “Sister Man, are you forcing me to leave?”

Young Man looked abnormally composed at the moment. Without the enchanting air on her beautiful and sexy face, she looked extremely serious now. She said while staring at him, “Brat, you really have to go.”

"You bear too many secrets and things that remain unknown to me in your mind. But, I know you have a lot to do, so I won't ask you to stay even if I don't want you to leave."

Her words were so simple but shocked Lin Xun. He stared at Young Man blankly for a while. Suddenly, he opened his arms with a smile and gave her a hug on his own initiative for the first time.

“Sister Man, remember what I said that night. Whenever you meet trouble, just tell me!” Then, he turned around and strode out of Old Mo’s warehouse.

His figure looked rather firm and straight like a spear that was thrown out with no turning back.

As she watched him leave, tears welled up in her beautiful eyes.

“You little jerk!”

...

Silence reigned the empty camp, and the hustle and bustle had been left in the past.

As Lin Xun walked alone, he thought of his purpose of coming to Ziyao Empire.

He thought of Master Lu who was missing when the mine prison was destroyed.

He thought of Shia Zhi.

He also thought of Old Mo who was taken away because of him...

As Young Man said, he couldn’t let go of too many things. Only by leaving here could he really resolve those problems.

He even didn’t notice Shu Sanqi had appeared in front of him. Shu gave Lin a Storage Ring, “You brought this ring with you when you came. Now I give it back to you.”

Lin Xun took it and asked, “Drillmaster Shu, actually, I came here…to...”

Shu Sanqi interrupted Lin Xun before he could finish talking, “Someone will clear your doubts soon, so you don’t need to tell me.”

Lin Xun was stunned and felt a little confused.

Soon, Lin Xun thought he knew who it was. A worn-out treasure ship staggeringly rushed towards them from afar like a drunkard with a piercing roar.

The treasure ship looked so familiar, because it was the ship that sent Lin Xun, Ning Meng and Shi Yu here a year ago.

Lin Xun could still recall that the middle-aged man with whiskers driving the ship was called Shue Jin.

“They come here to pick you up.”

Shu Sanqi stared at the worn-out ship with a weird expression emerging on his rock-like cold face.

Boom~

Panting like a man, the treasure ship landed outside of the Bloodthirsty Camp after a severe shake.

A big head stuck out of the ship, and shouted, “Kid, hurry up. I don’t want to stay in such a place of shit.”

With whiskers all over the face, drunken eyes and dark red cheeks, that uncourteous big head was just Shue Jin.

Lin Xun nodded his head and then turned to Shu Sanqi, “Drillmaster Shu, thank you for taking care of me this whole year. Trust me. I’ll bring Old Mo back.”

Shu Sanqi didn’t reply. He just took out a plain silvery hairpin and gave it to Lin, “If you come to the Forbidden City and get in trouble some day, you can take it to the Vulture House, the owner of which is a friend of mine.”

As Lin Xun was about to decline it, Shu Sanqi added, “Young Ke may be there, too. Don’t you want to see you drillmaster again?”

On hearing this, Lin Xun immediately put away the hairpin carefully.

Shu Sanqi said seriously, “Go! Take good care of yourself. Don’t forget the words carved on the stele before the Bloodthirsty Camp.”

“Ziyao Flowers never wither by drinking blood while the empire perpetuates by everlasting wars!”

Lin Xun read those words in his heart and bid a farewell to Shu Sanqi with a rather grave attitude.

Before leaving, he couldn’t help looking back into the distance.

He saw Young Man. With her arms folded over her chest, she stood upright with her long wine-red hair fluttering in the wind, revealing her sexy and beautiful face with a sweet smile.

Lin Xun strongly waved his hand, gave her a smile, and then walked out of the gate of the Bloodthirsty Camp.

“Goodbye, brat,” murmured Young Man.

Shu Sanqi stood there alone as straight as a spear, and watched Lin Xun leave silently.

Lin Xun was the last trainee of this session to leave the Bloodthirsty Camp. Nobody knew whether there would be new trainees coming to the camp in the future...

...

Boom~~

The minute Lin Xun set his feet on the treasure ship, Shue Jin whose patience had already run out drove the ship right away. With a loud roar, the ship was like a cannonball, rocketing to the sky.

Lin Xun staggered and nearly fell down. Lin Xun, who was still immersed in the sad feeling of the departure, now looked a bit angry.

“Hey hey hey, you got a problem with me? You know, few people in the world are lucky enough to take my ship!”

Shue Jin laughed out loud. He picked up the flagon and drank the wine, totally ignoring Lin Xun’s opinion.

“Oh,” Lin Xun responded and went inside of the cabin.

The moment he walked inside he was so shocked that all those distracting thoughts were gone.

An old man attired in a black imperial court dress was seated there. His silver hair was in good order, and his gentle old face was full of benevolence.

It was the old man who came from Heiyao Shrine!

This old man and the mysterious Queen of Dark Night once showed up in Donglin Town one year ago. They resolutely took Shia Zhi away and sent Lin Xun to the Bloodthirsty Camp.

With the one year gone, the old man appeared before him again, so Lin Xun couldn’t stay calm.

“Sit down,” said the old man gently.

Having restrained all his doubts, Lin Xun sat right in front of the old man.

The old man said after staring at Lin Xun for a while, “During the one year, you’ve broken through into the Human-gang Realm from the sixth level of the Martial Realm. Besides, you’ve successively won the first place in the quarterly assessment and war-zone assessment of the camp. Finally, you’ve generated the first-class Pond of Spiritual Power called ‘Eye of the Windstorm’.”

The old man made no attempt to conceal his admiration, “I have to admit that my lady and I underestimated your potential one year ago. However, there was perhaps another possibility that you encountered some lucky chance during the year in the Bloodthirsty Camp.”

Lin Xun said, “Senior, you overpraise me.”

But deep down, Lin felt astonished. It turned out that the old man had known all Lin’s performances in the Bloodthirsty Camp like the back of his hand.

“I promised that if you could successfully walk out of the Bloodthirsty Camp, I’d tell you something about that little girl,” the old man continued.

Speaking of which, he suddenly stopped and wrinkled his eyebrows as if he sensed something.

Almost at the same time, Shue Jin’s hoarse voice arose from the control cabin, “My god! The moment we just left the Bloodthirsty Dessert, someone comes after us! It’s so thrilling!”

Boom~~

Before Shue Jin could finish his words, Lin Xun felt the treasure ship that was originally marching on at full speed instantly stopped after a violent shake.

Far away from the treasure ship in the air emerged a 300-meter-long black battleship. Like a huge castle in the air, the battleship overflowed with dazzling light.

Click to read chapter - Strut in Borrowed Plumes on Flying Lines.