SWNOVELS Chapter 30 Time To Look For Jim
Ricky immediately jumped down from the huge tree and swung his arms before sidling up to Heather. He looked into her eyes which were wide open in shock and said smugly, "Hey, cutie, how do you like me now? I must be the man of your dreams.”
"Dream on!" Heather said disdainfully after hearing what Ricky had said.
Despite her retort, the shock wouldn't vanish from her heart in a short time. He was right that she was becoming more attracted to him, but she wasn't about to let him know that.
She knew that Ricky had been at the seventh grade of Skin Refinement. She wondered about how he broke through the seventh and reached the eighth grade of Skin Refinement in only a few hours. Even the most talented genius couldn't do that.
“Maybe he hid his strength before. Father once told me that some special medicine could hide the true ability of a warrior, * Heather guessed
Then they left the swamp with Ricky still building himself up and Heather responding coldly from time to time.
Ricky didn't talk about parting with Heather, and neither did Heather. They sparred, training for the
Iron Blood Trial together. And they got closer while doing so.
Ricky had killed the Anaconda-tailed Tiger and taken the black dots from Finn and Waylon, so he had nearly seven hundred black dots on his ironwood. There was no point in continuing to hunt down fierce animals.
But once he found out about the secret of his Blood Zone, Ricky started hunting fierce beasts again. Before they finally left the mountains, Ricky had killed five more ferocious beasts—all of them at the eighth grade of Skin Refinement.
Each time, Ricky snuck into the place where he killed the beasts and dragged the corpses into the Blood Zone. He didn't let Heather know about this.
Ricky's strength reached the peak of the eighth grade after he refined three beasts at the eighth grade of Skin Refinement.
And Ricky figured that he could make breakthroughs by refining a certain number of ferocious beasts using the Blood Zone.
But Ricky decided to hold off on that for a while. Instead, he focused on honing his technique. Using the Blood Zone, he didn't need the Body Refining Pill to eliminate the impurities inside his body. But there was a price.
'So using the Blood Zone isn't foolproof. It doesn't provide a solid foundation for improving my strength. That will become a problem later on, * thought Ricky.
“But if I take some time and spar more, then maybe I can get past that.
So I can use the Blood Zone to make breakthroughs and then eliminate this defect with fights and time."
Eventually, time marched on, and the end of the Iron Blood Trial was less than four days away.
That was when Ricky decided to look for Jim.
He was always hiding from Jim because he knew he was no match for the warrior. But things were different now. He was at the peak of the eighth grade of Skin Refinement. He should be able to go toe-to-toe with ninth graders.
Ricky had guessed correctly. Apparently Jim had summoned several disciples from the Snow Sect, intending to hunt Ricky down. Many warriors who attended the trial knew his name, if nothing else. And that made it easy to find Jim.
Ricky ambushed some of the contestants in the trial, but he didn't take their ironwood nor kill them. He just told them to let everyone know where Ricky could be found. He believed he could make Jim come to him.
"Heather, you probably need to get out of here before long," Ricky told Heather in the forest.
"Hey, do I look like the kind of girl who would leave a friend in the lurch?" Heather responded discontentedly.
"You don't get it. This is a personal beef between the disciples of the Snow Sect. You shouldn't get involved. What if you being here causes them to go after Lion King Castle?" Ricky explained. Hearing that, Heather went silent.
Ricky was right. She knew that Lion King Castle was nowhere near a match for the Snow Sect. What if they were destroyed in the conflict?
"No, I won't let you face this alone!" Heather made up her mind and took a strong stand at last.
"So you say things like that and still deny you're in love with me." Ricky made a joke after hearing what Heather said.
But his heart was softened. Aside from his father and his mentor Grace, no one else had cared about him like that.
"What are you talking about?! I'm just concerned about you as a friend!" Heather said shyly, her cheeks a bright red.
"Ha ha!"
Seeing how bashful Heather was, Ricky chuckled.
Heather ended up staying, despite Ricky's protests. But she also remained hidden, so she could help if needed. She'd only show herself if necessary.
The next day, as Ricky had expected, Jim showed up with three companions. One of them was a nominal disciple of Connie and was a contestant in Iron Blood Trial. The other two were either from the Casting Faction or they had a good relationship with Jim.
"You little bastard! I finally found you!" Jim said maliciously, glaring at Ricky. Anyone could tell that he wanted to kill the young warrior.
"So what are you waiting for?" Ricky responded with a smile.
"Nothing. You're going to pay.” Jim sneered.
"Jim, let me kill him. I want to see if he's still wearing that stupid grin after I cut off his head." It was Connie's disciple who said that.
"All right. Connie is your master. It would be fitting if you killed him,” Jim consented with a nod. Then Jim and the other two teens moved aside, arms folded across their chests. They wanted to watch Ricky die.
Subsequently this nominal disciple of Connie walked towards Ricky, his eyes shining with viciousness.
"I'm Leo. Tell 'em who killed you when you get to Hell!"
With a sneer, Leo darted forward, strong spiritual energy drawn from nature wreathed his arms. He condensed that energy into an icy fog and balled his fist before throwing the frozen magic right at Ricky's head.
"The power of frozen ice! Frozen Ice Fist!"
"Tell them yourself. Name's Ricky, by the way!" Ricky narrowed his eyes and responded to Leo in the same tone.
In a moment, the roar of a tiger filled the air. Ricky smashed his fist of frozen ice with the strength of a tiger.
Crack!
The frozen ice on Leo's arm shattered. His arm had been fractured in the fight, and he fell on the ground with a scream of pain before rolling to a halt.
This scene was no surprise to Heather, but shocked Jim and his two other companions.
They thought Ricky was still at the sixth grade of Skin Refinement. How in the world did he beat Leo? Leo was at the eighth grade. This was not the way things should have gone. Ricky should have been the one who fell on the ground, screaming in pain.
"Hum! You're too proud of yourself, and too weak to challenge me," Ricky said disdainfully, looking down at Leo who was still groaning in pain.
Then Ricky looked to Jim and his other two friends and said in a provocative tone, "You three, come here!"
"I don't believe it! How did you do it?! You're at the eighth grade of Skin Refinement?" Jim growled angrily. He knew it now. Those waves of spiritual energy were too strong to be denied.