Chapter 12: Sometimes, Toughness Doesn’t Have To Be Feigned!

　　Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation

　　The faces of the villagers within the underground cellar turned.

　　“Not good! The immortals are all coming.”

　　Even Xiao Rou looked flustered as she turned towards Xu Que.

　　“Brother Xu Que, hurry and flee. If you don’t leave now, there might not be another chance.”

　　“That’s right! Xiao Rou is correct. You have to leave quickly and stop delaying it.”

　　“Immortal Elder, please leave. We can hold onto them.”

　　“That’s right! They’re no big deal. We can all fight and resist them…”

　　Everyone started urging him anxiously.

　　Xu Que’s heart skipped a beat!

　　These simple-minded villagers didn’t think of selling him out and betraying him when crisis struck. Instead, they were willing to risk their lives for him to flee.

　　At such a crucial point, if he were to greedily and selfishly run away, would he still be considered a man?

　　“Boom!”

　　Another loud sound rang out, causing the entire cellar to tremble. It felt as though the entire cellar could crumble down any moment as pieces of debris loosened and fell to the ground.

　　Sounds could be heard coming from outside as well.

　　“All of you insects, you have the audacity!”

　　“All of you are mere mortals and yet you dare to protect and hide the person we’re searching for?!”

　　Following those shouts, the pleas of the villagers outside could be heard from within the cellar.

　　“Immortal Elders, please spare us! We really don’t know where he’s gone to.”

　　“Yes, Immortal Elders. As soon as we woke up, we’ve not seen him. He already departed from here.”

　　“Hm… then you only have to blame your poor luck. Kill them all!”

　　“Immortal Elders, please spare us!”

　　“Ah!!!”

　　“No!!!”

　　“Ah! Village chief!”

　　Soon after, the anguished cries of agony wafted into the underground cellar.

　　Fuck!

　　Cultivators, cultivate your sisters!

　　How could you bear to kill these innocent and simple villagers!

　　I shall fight it out with you guys and kill you to repay for the lives you’ve taken!

　　Xu Que clenched his fists, his entire body was trembling in fury. He was thoroughly pissed.

　　He turned around immediately before dashing upstairs.

　　“Brother Xu Que, you can’t go!”

　　Xiao Rou and the rest of the villagers couldn’t react in time to restrain him and were too late.

　　Since she couldn’t do anything about it, Xiao Rou bit her lips before chasing after him as well.

　　“Xiao Rou, what are you doing?!”

　　Da Zhuang and the rest of the villagers couldn’t react in time to hold her back as well. They let out a shout of surprise at her reaction before deciding to chase after her as well.

　　Xu Que was almost crazed, his eyes were bloodshot as he ran in hot pursuit of the immortals above.

　　“Boom!” A loud sound rang out.

　　The cupboard which was used as the entrance broke into fragments as Xu Que charged right through like a crazed beast as he sped towards the entrance of the village.

　　The scene which greeted his eyes was that of a cruel slaughter.

　　Several villagers had fallen and were lying motionless in a puddle of their own blood. Even in death, they maintained a look of utter fear. Many other villagers were on their knees, all kowtowing and begging for their lives.

　　The dozen cultivators were floating atop their flying swords. Their hands were behind their backs as they stood upright and watched the scene down below coldly.

　　At this point, several bursts of fire elemental Qi combined together to form a large sword and was about to descend onto the kneeling villagers who were begging for their lives.

　　“Stop it right now!”

　　Xu Que burst out in anger as he rushed towards the villagers. In the split deciding seconds between life and death, he stood in front of them.

　　“Bam!”

　　He arrived in the nick of time to take the blow of the fiery sword as he sustained severe injuries but he had saved the lives of the villagers. Blood spurted out from his mouth and stained the ground.

　　“Brother Xu Que…”

　　“Immortal Elder Xu…”

　　The villagers were all taken aback. Even the people who had ran after Xiao Rou— Da Zhuang and the rest of them. Just seeing the bravery and selflessness of Xu Que caused their eyes to glisten with tears.

　　All these while, these villagers had always felt like mere ants before immortals. Everyone knew that just a flick of their finger was enough to see them squashed to death.

　　Yet Xu Que was willing to sacrifice his life in order to ensure their safety. He rushed straight out to stop their immortal magic arts and saved their own village people.

　　This selfless act deeply moved the hearts of the villagers. Being touched and the sorrow of seeing their fallen villagers welled together and formed tears which rolled down their faces.

　　“Ding! Congratulations to host ‘Xu Que’ for successfully acting tough. The reward is 50 acting tough points.”

　　The system beeped out in his head.

　　Xu Que didn’t seem to care about the points as he raised his head and glared at the group of floating immortals.

　　The cultivating immortals blinked several times before recognizing Xu Que. All of them simultaneously laughed out coldly.

　　“Haha!” Looks like the turtle had decided to come out of its shell?”

　　“If you had came out earlier, all these mortals wouldn’t have to die.”

　　“Although we don’t know much about your history, we’ve heard that you plundered the treasures belonging to the Celestial Sect. We just received the order to kill you. Looks like you shouldn’t think of escaping alive today.”

　　“All the treasures and items which you stole now belongs to us!’

　　“Keke… but we would never have imagined that you would be selfless enough to give your life up for these stupid commoners. I really don’t know if you’re stupid or silly or stupid and silly. Hahaha!!!”

　　The cultivating immortals whose hands were stained with the blood of the innocent villagers, started laughing out manically.

　　They were perched high above as they laughed out mockingly at Xu Que. They took Xu Que for an ants under their feet. All that was needed was to gently step on him to crush and kill him.

　　At this point, Xu Que straightened himself as he raised his head to give a death glare at the immortals above.

　　“In the past, I always enjoyed acting tough.”

　　Xu Que spoke out suddenly, interrupting their laughters.

　　Although his tone was plain, it bore some sort of power and strength to it as his voice reverberated all across the land.

　　The immortals in the air all paused as they looked at each other, confused. None of them could understand what he meant.

　　The villagers all looked at Xu Que curiously as well, their hearts were clenched in fear.

　　With his palms on the floor, Xu Que stood up gradually. The wounds he had sustained earlier had started to recover from the system’s healing option.

　　A smile emerged from the corner of his mouth as if he was laughing to himself. He then continued to speak, “It felt good to act tough. However, I know that it’s nothing to be proud of.”

　　“Today, I could have ran away and saved my own life.”

　　“But I didn’t! I chose to stay and stand up for them.”

　　“Because I know…”

　　“Sometimes, toughness doesn’t have to be feigned.”

　　“Even if I had to force myself to appear tough, I knew that I had to devote all my energy and strengths to protect and defend them!”

　　“I know that I’m not a good person but I’ve never harmed the innocent!”

　　“But you people…”

　　Xue Que raised his head as his black pupils dilated before he screamed out, “You people are considered dog shit immortal cultivators! You recklessly assault and kill innocent people with your rubbish cultivation techniques! Fine. Today none of you should dream of walking out of here alive!”

　　Boom!

　　Immediately after his last word was spoken, Xu Que exploded in a blue ray of light as he shot towards the skies.

　　“Roar!”

　　The sound of a roaring dragon emerged from within his body, shaking the four corners of the land as the sky turned its color.

　　The ray of blue light charged towards the skies before transforming into nine dragons as they swirled and danced around each other.

　　All the immortals around were taken aback.

　　“What’s happening?”

　　“What skill is this?”

　　“It actually was able to create such a wave. Could it be an ancient immortal spell that he casted?”

　　“It must be. Only an ancient immortal spell would have such an earth shattering effects.”

　　“The message sent out by the Celestial Sect said that this person’s cultivation level was only at the tenth level of the Qi Refining Stage. Who would’ve thought that he would progress so quickly to the first level of the Foundation Building Stage. He must have some other treasured items on him.”

　　“Kill him and acquire his techniques and treasures!”

　　“Die!”

　　Immediately after, all the immortal cultivators had a glow in their eyes as they coveted his possessions greedily. Stepping on their flying swords, they turned into prismatic beams of lights and charged towards Xu Que.

　　Ancient immortal spells? The temptation was too great.

　　“You’re looking for death!”

　　Xu Que stood at the same spot as he let out a huge roar.

　　He curled his fingers into a fist and rushed towards the first immortal.

　　“Soaring Dragons Nine Transformation, first form!”

　　Boom!

　　Instantly, a single dragon emerged from among the nine dragons and dashed towards Xu Que. It then coiled itself around his head before resting on his shoulders.

　　Bam!

　　Xu Que’s fist connected with the flying sword of the first immortal, causing it to vibrate violently. At the same time, he was sent back several paces and the immortal riding the sword seemed to remain unaffected.

　　“Hehe… you seem to overestimate yourself. Just a mere Foundation Building first level immortal would dare to fight a Core Bearing Stage immortal?” The cultivator let out a snort as he proceeded onwards to kill Xu Que.

　　“Core Bearing Stage, huh? Sure.”

　　Xu Que let out a cold laugh as his gaze turned icy. He summoned all the elements from his five spiritual roots and directed it to his Soaring Dragons Nine Transformations skill. Clenching his fist once more, he charged towards the cultivator.

　　“Soaring Dragon Nine Transformations, second form, go!”

　　“Third form!”

　　“Fourth form!”

　　“Fifth form!’

　　…

　　“Ninth form, go!”

　　In that instant, the nine dragons swirled around Xu Que’s head but didn’t rest upon his shoulders. The nine dragons fused together to form a colossal dragon and wrapped around Xu Que.

　　He then dashed towards that particular cultivator and it looked as if a huge dragon descended down upon the heavens to aid him.

　　An aura of might and prestige seemed to be emitted from the heavens as it cloaked the entire area with its presence.

　　“This… How could it be?”

　　That immortal cultivator’s face turned pale as he could feel the tremors erupting from the might of his skill. An intense sense of fear overwhelmed and crippled him.

　　He wanted to flee but it was far too late for that!

　　Xu Que seemed to have transformed into the huge dragon and his fists resembled the head of the gargantuan dragon as it connected with his body squarely on his chest.

　　Boom!

　　That cultivator which was hit didn’t even have time to cry out in pain as he disintegrated into ash and dust instantly and not a single bone remained.

　　Everything turned quiet and still. The silence was pin drop as everyone was scared out of their wits and remained still.

　　“Ding! Congratulations host ‘Xu Que’ for subduing and killing a cultivator in the Core Bearing Stage. The reward is ten thousand experience points.”

　　“Ding! Congratulations to host ‘Xu Que’ for successfully acting tough. The reward is ten acting tough points.”

　　The system rang out within his head.

　　Xu Que’s gaze swept across his surroundings with sinister. His gaze was fixed upon the nearest few cultivators who were charging right at him before he killed the first cultivator.

　　But the entire group of them were scared stiff and stopped midway.

　　An awe-inspiring Core Bearing Stage cultivator was… was actually defeated by a single punch and was vanquished to dust?

　　Fuck! This guy… Is he really a mere Foundation Building cultivator of the first level?

　　The bastards from the Celestial Sect even said that he was still in the Qi Refining Stage but he’s almost at the Golden Core Stage’s full foundation already. How could we hope to defeat him?

　　“Hurry and run away!”

　　“Let’s return and inform our sect members. We shall let the sect elders come and take his head off.”

　　Instantly, the remaining cultivators acted like babies still sucking milk from their mother as they kicked off their flying swords to flee in different directions.

　　Xu Que revealed a cold smile, “I’ve already said! Today… None of you shall escape alive.”

　　“Ding! Congratulations to host ‘Xu Que’ for purchasing . 10 act tough points have been deducted.

　　Three Thousand Volts Lightning Strike: takes on the caster’s strengths for maximum effectiveness, low tier skill of Earth class. Total of 3 executions : Thunder Dash, Thunder Dodge, and Lightning Haste!