"I swear I'm not making excuses, that bastard was cheating."
One of the men in the group yelled while waving his arms furiously while wearing an exasperated expression on his face.
"Yeah, you say that every time you lose a game, Robert. Just get over it."
His friend snickered at the side without paying him much attention.
The two women limited themselves to quiet giggles at the side while the one in front, who was obviously the leader, remained silent.
Their robes, which were a light shade of blue, featured a cloud pattern on their side chests and backs. This made the force they belonged to obvious to anyone in the nearby region. They were from the Cloudcrest sect.
The group kept moving with their leisure attitude until their leader suddenly stopped walking and stared in a particular direction.
The others noticed this and also stopped moving. They turned their heads to look in the same direction, but couldn't see anything amidst the fog.
One of the girls then asked in a soft tone.
"What is it, Bryce?"
The leader, whose name was Bryce, responded after a few seconds.
"There should be a fight going on not too far from here."
He replied in an indifferent tone.
His cultivation of a wind element technique made him far more perceptive than the others in his group. He could pick up odors and sounds far more clearly than others could.
In the Misty Mountains where vision and visibility were low, it was always nice to have such an added boost. That was why those who practiced techniques of the wind element were always looked at favorably here.
"Should we check it out?" The other dude whose name was Daniel asked a bit hesitantly. The Misty Mountains were a dangerous region partly due to the magical beasts.
The other reason, however, was due to the cultivators themselves. Killing someone there was easy, and as long as there were no witnesses, it would be next to impossible to prove that it was you.
Fights often broke out due to this as people killed each other for money, resources, or simply out of pleasure.
"Don't worry, from what I can tell, it's only one person," Bryce replied without removing his gaze from the direction he was staring at.
Daniel heaved a sigh of relief as he finally calmed down. He was a fairly timid person by nature, and he wouldn't put himself in uncertain situations on a normal day.
"Don't be such a wuss, Daniel. We haven't even gone that deep into the outer regions yet."
One of the two girls commented with a chuckle. Daniel's timid nature was something they were all too familiar with.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go.
Maybe he found something good, and he's fighting with the magical beast over it. If we act now, we can get it from him. Even if he didn't find anything, we can always rob him."
Robert said as a cold smile appeared on his face. It seemed that his recent losses had made him broke and in need of money again.
The rest of the group looked towards Bryce, who limited himself to a nod before starting to run in the direction of the battle.
Meanwhile, in a rocky region not too far away, Adrian was busy fighting with a boar at the peak of the first rank. Normally, such a beast would be easy for him to dispatch, but this time, it was a little different.
Adrian wanted to test the power of his new body, so he limited himself to only using his physical strength without using his Qi or sword. A punch landed on the ribs of the boar, and he jumped out of the way of its charge. This has repeated itself multiple times as Adrian was simply using the boar as a punching bag.
The boar was furious but couldn't do anything to him because he always dodged at the last second.
'Okay, let's test one more thing.' Adrian said in his mind as he braced himself for the next charge of the beast. This time, he wasn't going to dodge. He put his hands in front of him as he crouched slightly while bracing himself for the impact. The boar charged at him after snorting and tried to pierce him with its tusks.
Just before they pierced him, he grabbed them and tried to stop the charge of the boar. He was engaging in a contest of physical strength with the beast.
The boar pushed him back for a few dozen meters before slowly coming to a halt.
A smirk appeared on Adrian's face, which sent chills down the spine of the boar.
He was enjoying his current situation. He knew that the Diamond Sovereign Physique was an amazing body-tempering technique, but this went beyond his imagination.
He had just stepped into the beginning of the Bronze rank, equivalent to the lower levels of the Qi Condensation realm, yet he was able to match a creature that was at the peak of that stage.
Granted, the boar wasn't a magical beast that was known for its physical strength. Its attributes were pretty average, and it had no special qualities, but it was still in the peak stage of the first rank.
It was almost as tall as he and its weight surpassed his many times over. Being able to match its power spoke volumes about the potential of the technique.
The boar shook its head violently. It wanted to free itself from Adrian's grasp. However, Adrian didn't budge. He gritted his teeth and let out a low grunt before mustering up all his strength. His muscles bulged as he started to lean backward slowly.
The boar had an incredulous look on its face as it slowly felt itself being lifted up from the ground. Its view of the terrain slowly turned upside down as Adrian lifted it above his head. With a slight yell, Adrian fell backward and allowed gravity to help him as he sent the boar crashing to the ground.