Chapter 59: The Completed Proxy Training Contract – 3

Yang Zicang glanced at Liang Xi’s build, reached out his hand, and the model’s light flickered, tracing a completed proxy training contract across his palm.
“Here’s something for you.”
“What’s this?”
“A gift for you. About the two hundred years I owe you from last time—you might have to wait a bit longer.” Yang Zicang said with a smile.
“Big brother, what are you talking about? You’ve already given me so much chronological essence.”
Liang Xi took this phantom-like contract.
Proxy Training Contract: Flame Sword Dao, Glass Perception, Thousand-Armed Boxing, One hundred sixty years of combat experience, Completion 100%
[I have obtained the “Training Contract Scroll,” and upon using it, I can fully inherit the 160 years of cultivation experience of the signatory.]
The information naturally surfaced in my mind.
“Wha… what?”
The boy looked up at the young man before him in disbelief, stammering, “Th… this is for me?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Liang Xi immediately became flustered.
This was something as rare as a Century Weapon!
“Big brother, this is too precious. I…”
A large hand closed his small hand into a fist.
Feeling the contract in his hand, the boy’s nose tingled, but he held back his emotions.
“Big brother… thank you…”
Taking a deep breath, Liang Xi, according to the instructions received, squeezed hard.
[I begin using the Training Contract Scroll.]
A profound, distant aura erupted.
……
Yang Zicang rubbed his growling stomach, got up to use the restroom, then came back to twist open a water bottle and pick up some food to replenish his spent energy.
After a few minutes, Liang Xi’s eyes snapped open, faint flames scattered around his pupils, and an orange-red light flashed in an instant.
In those few short minutes, the numerous scars and wounds on Liang Xi’s skin gradually twisted and melted away.
At the same time, the displaced meridians and internal organs inside the young boy’s body, caused by severe injuries, let out gurgling sounds, as if gently massaged by an invisible force, slowly and naturally returning to their proper places.
This was the effect of Crystalline Perception.
“Amazing, and I’ve only managed a mere five percent synchronization.”
Liang Xi glanced at his hands; a surge of immense strength erupted from within his body, invigorating every limb and bone.
A bold confidence welled up inside him.
Yang Zicang, munching on snacks, smiled and said, “This is the convergence of three entire cultivation methods, you know. Being able to synchronize five percent at once is already quite an achievement.”
“Yeah, I feel like I’m terrifyingly powerful now. Even if I had to fight those guys lying in ambush outside, I might not necessarily lose.”
“Lying in ambush?”
“Oh, right, Uncle Luo Bin said there are people suspected to be monsters lying in wait outside. He told us to be careful.”
……
Xiang Xingyan led his entire team to the vicinity of Shengyuan.
Although he belonged to the monster-hunter faction, he was actually serving the other side.
Many engaged in such covert actions, but few did it as well as he did.
Most people heeded the other faction’s words merely to avoid offending either side, but he genuinely dared to defy headquarters’ orders.
According to intelligence, what could be the C-class intersection where Yang Zicang last appeared was nearby.
The other party was suspected to have gained control over this intersection, so these ten individuals, holding torches and flashlights, searched every possible entrance pit within the area and stationed guards outside in hiding, waiting to strike him down in a single swift kill.
After waiting for twenty to thirty hours, just as Xiang Xingyan began to doubt whether the informant who provided him with the intelligence had gotten the details wrong, a mud hole beside a dried pond suddenly turned dark and deep.
{Captain, the entrance has appeared over here on my side.}
Xiang Xingyan, who had been gnawing on grass, tossed aside the grass stalk between his teeth, feeling excited inwardly:
[Everyone, invest Lao Si up to six thousand. We must ensure a one-hit kill; don’t let him react at all.]
[I’ll add 1000N to Wang Longxuan’s investment.]
He took down the bow and arrow from his back, hunched over, and quickly dashed toward that direction through the dark woods.
But before he could take two steps, the leaves in the entire forest suddenly rustled. Xiang Xingyan felt a sense of panic in his heart, as if trapped in a tight, confined space, even the air seemed to evade his nostrils.
“Boom!”
A heavy sound came from the direction where Lao Si was.
[I’ve lost 1001N.]
Before Xiang Xingyan could react, several more screams echoed around him.
“What’s going on?”
[I’ve lost 1N.]
[I’ve lost another 4N in total.]
In just two or three seconds, the scattered team members were all killed.
Just as he was about to call the remaining teammates to gather, a sharp sound pierced through the leaves and struck abruptly.
After all, he was someone who had long survived on the brink of life and death. He stomped the ground hard with both feet, twisted his body sharply, turned his head to dodge, and at the same time put an arrow to the bowstring. As he fell diagonally to the ground, he was about to shoot one arrow.
“No, that’s Yang Zicang’s ability… damn it!”
Suppressing his anger, he put the arrow away. Sneak attacking with a bow would have been fine, but if discovered and still trying to kill Yang Zicang with arrows, it would only bring trouble upon himself.
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly realized something.
Xiang Xingyan turned his head, and the iron spike he had just dodged was veering straight for the back of his skull. He quickly rolled on the ground to take cover.
Thud! The silver-gray iron spike slammed into the dirt.
“I’ve been found out—run!”
Xiang Xingyan broke out in a cold sweat.
“Ah…”
[I have disadvantage.]
Another one dead!
How is Yang Zicang this strong? He’s only been here for two or three days!
They were the ones in ambush, hunting him, yet without even seeing a glimpse of him, seven of his men had already fallen.
“Whoosh!” A steel sword hurtled through the air. His pupils contracted as it whizzed past his face and embedded itself behind him.
He was about to pivot to dodge its return, but the sword didn’t whip back—it thudded into a tree trunk instead.
“Don’t run—come fight. I’m your opponent.”
The voice of a boy around ten to sixteen rang out from the woods. A silhouette about 1.6 meters tall stepped out from among the trees.
“You aren’t Yang Zicang?”
With a crackle, the wooden stick in the boy’s hand burst into flame, illuminating his outline.
“Captain Xiang!”
The weary cries of the two surviving team members in the forest echoed with his name.
“I told you, you’re up against me. Win, and the three of you can leave. Lose, and you’ll stay here forever.”
“You can start preparing the financing, and it’s best to broadcast my battle scene to everyone, showing them the strength of those around Brother Yang.”
Liang Xi raised the flaming torch and wooden club in his hands with an indifferent expression, adopting an opening stance.
[Proxy Training Contract, current synchronization proficiency at 6.5%, mental energy consumed at 95%]
The recent battle had provided valuable insights, making Liang Xi feel that his grasp of this precious skill experience was rapidly improving.
Xiang Xingyan felt his throat go dry. Was this really someone around Yang Zicang? Just a boy—why did he exude such a sharp and imposing demeanor?
“You dare to kill someone from the same camp? You…”
“Ah!”
Before he could finish his sentence, a scream rang out from the forest.
[I have failed with 1N.]
Xiang Xingyan felt an electric current run across his skin. He shifted his gaze behind the boy, where a vague human figure emerged.
“It was me who killed him. You can continue now.”
“Captain, save me—!”
The sole remaining companion, terrified to the point of collapse, fell limp in the forest.
“If we really win, you’ll let us go?”
“Of course.”
Xiang Xingyan hesitated and took a step back, carefully pulling the sword from the tree while keeping his eyes on the opponent.
“Kid, if you die, don’t blame me.”
“Stop with the chatter.”
“Then go die!”
Xiang Xingyan savagely raised the steel sword that originally belonged to Liang Xi, his figure moving in a striking motion.
But as he leaped forward, a fierce flaming gale swept across horizontally, exploding outward with a thunderous roar.
The man quickly rolled aside, the spreading flames striking the woods around him and igniting fine sparks on the surrounding trees.
Just as Xiang Xingyan was about to rise, the boy opposite had already leaped up, both hands gripping a wooden staff as he brought it down with the crushing weight of a mountain.
“Boom!” He exerted force with both hands and feet simultaneously to propel his body into a roll, and the strike created a three-meter-long wave of searing flame on the ground, the blast of air sweeping into the tree trunk in front, causing the bark to burst wide open.
A flash of tremor barely crossed Xiang Xingyan’s mind, and at that moment he realized just how formidable the boy’s strength truly was.
Taking advantage of two subsequent dodging maneuvers, the man darted into the woods and suddenly surged forward, charging into the distance.
The young lad, fooled into charging to the other side by a fake move, was quickly distanced from his foe.
In less than twenty meters of running, Xiang Xingyan’s mind received the final message of an investment loss.
Consumed by anxiety, he cast aside any thought of his own teammates now; he simply didn’t believe his opponent would let him go, and besides, he really couldn’t guarantee a victory in a fight against that young boy—this time, he had truly screwed up.
Activating the mode, a flickering triangular light enveloped the man, tripling his speed into an instantaneous gale charging through the forest.
“Ha, Yang Zicang, they say your capability can hasten you along, but little do you know, I’ve got speed that’s faster still!”
Seeing that the two were far behind him now, Xiang Xingyan felt the crushing weight on his shoulders lift away.
Though this was a total loss, as long as he survived, his team could be regrouped; people dared to operate in such a rough-and-tumble world only if they had reliable backers.
A beam shot out from the line on Xiang Xingyan’s chest.
“Boss Xiao, you need to compensate me for my losses this time. That little kid beside Yang Zicang is an expert who projects sword energy. You never told me that before.
“My teammates? These, they were all screwed to death by you.”
He had been racing for nearly a minute now.
The trees around him were thinning out. Right after the claim settlement call with the leader ended, he suddenly felt the air around him become stagnant.
It felt as if he was trapped in a cramped space. Xiang Xingyan felt disconcerted, dizzy, and lost awareness for two seconds as if suffering from motion sickness.
“Who is Boss Xiao?”
A soft voice sounded in his ear.
Xiang Xingyan felt an explosive, dazing force stirring his mind.
Under the pitch-black starless sky, he felt as if he had lost control of his body, trapped in a nightmare.
Above him emerged a beast-like phantom spirit with jaws pale and powerful enough to swallow him, whose mystic eerie aura was deep, gloomy and chaotic; its baleful glaring intent enkindled the darkness as if about to devour his soul.