Chapter 43 43 – Advanced Mastery Realm



Ken remained one more night at the village to rest and eat, then he left for the sect. His next immediate plan was to create bloodlust techniques and master them before finally advancing to the fourth stage.

He didn't hurry this time, so he either jogged or walked, but didn't speed up like on his way to the mission. He stopped from time to time to hunt a beast for food, and one of those times he heard an animalistic scream.

'This should be a gorilla. It could be a good chance for me to practice my skills. Gorillas should be close enough to humans.'

He ran in that direction and found a troop of gorillas. Most of them were third-rank beasts, but the screams came from a fight between two fourth-rank males. All the gorillas were busy watching the show and didn't notice him watching it with them.

Soon, Ken inferred one of those two males was the leader of the pack, and the other was a newly advanced fourth-rank gorilla, who chose to challenge the old leader for his position after getting a boost of confidence from his new strength.

Ken watched the experienced leader beat the new challenger with his smacks. The challenger was too young and didn't have enough experience in fighting fourth-rank beasts. In contrast, the leader protected the troop from fourth-rank beasts for many years.

When the challenger fell on its knees, dizzy from the leader's beating, the leader used his claw and sharp teeth to cut the challenger's neck and kill him, then slumped back on its butt. It was a tough fight for it too, and it got hit many times.

'Good chance.'

Ken ran forward and unsheathed his sword. He slaughtered the gorillas around him, using mainly Snake Thrust and One Step. The gorillas soon screamed in panic when they noticed someone was killing them.

*ROAR*

The leader got back up to face the new threat. The damn human killed some of its favorite females!

Ken got into a trance of killing as he lost track of the number he killed. He could easily count them in his memory if he wanted, but he didn't even think about it. He was only focused on killing everyone around him.

The gorilla ran toward him, and Ken sensed the heavy threat. He let out his bloodlust out completely, and the weaker gorillas whimpered as they froze and cowered.

Ken used it to keep appearing in front of the third-rank gorillas as he took them down one by one. He disappeared from his place and appeared in front of a gorilla, only to disappear again, leaving behind a punctured gorilla.

The limit of One Step was currently 15 meters, but it slowly grew as he appeared in front of gorillas that were 17-18 meters away. When the leader of the troop was 25 meters away from him, he sensed a strong threat coming from it.

Immersed in his bloodlust and killing intent, he didn't think when he performed One Step and appeared one meter too far away from the gorilla.

The surprised leader took a moment to react, but swiftly waved his claw to tear Ken apart.

'Cloud Running'

He jumped above the gorilla's arm and performed Snake Thrust, which was an extremely sharp stabbing attack.

The sword pierced through the gorilla's shoulder and left a small hole in it. Although it was a painful wound, it wasn't enough to stop the gorilla.

Ken stepped back and leaned backward to dodge another claw and this time he stabbed the gorilla's stomach.

'A snake bite leaves two marks.'

A battle to death was the best time to get enlightened. Much better than slaughtering weaker enemies. Every mistake would cost Ken his life, but Ken didn't make any.

Ken used Snake Thrust again, but this time it was different, the movement was the same, yet two holes opened in the gorilla's skin. The gorilla was now bleeding from many wounds, and it was already tired from its fight against the challenger earlier.

Although none of the wounds Ken inflicted on it were life-threatening, none of them was superficial. The gorilla's movements turned sluggish, and Ken could hit it much more easily.

The gorilla felt it was losing; it quickly disengaged Ken and started escaping. In a second, it already distanced itself 25 meters away from Ken.

"Now!"

One Step!

Ken appeared behind the gorilla's back, with his sword thrusting forward. Ken's sword pierced through the gorilla's back all the way to the other side, and a hole of a similar size was bleeding right underneath his sword. 

Ken pulled out his sword from the gorilla's body and let it collapse on the ground in front of him. The other gorillas were long gone in scared screams and panic, not that Ken cared.

'Finally, I reached the Advanced mastery realm in all my 5 techniques.'

He thought to himself as he dug through the gorilla's body and pulled out its core. Since it was at the fourth stage, it already formed its core, and Ken could use it to sustain formations like Qi stones, use it in concoctions, or do other things with it.

If other disciples heard Ken's saying "finally" about reaching the Advanced mastery realm of 5 Heaven-grade techniques less than a month after creating them, they'd turn green from envy.

Generally, to be able to advance to the Core Formation Stage at an early age, disciples would learn 3 higher Sky-grade techniques or lower Earth-grade techniques to the Advanced mastery realm. 

It was enough to leave a strong impression on the soul, and when the core would be formed, they would have a much easier time practicing better techniques from the attributes their core acquired.

And even then, geniuses needed years to train their techniques. Rose was at the peak of the third stage for 2 years now, and she probably wouldn't break through to the Core Formation Stage before turning 17, despite being supplied with the best resources money and influence could get.

Ken, however, got the best foundation possible. He had 5 different skills in the Advanced mastery realm, and all of them were Heaven-grade. 

Even the movement skills were a product of inspiration from swords; the One Step skill was based on the sharpness and swiftness of unsheathing techniques while Cloud Running was based on the lightness and flexibility of a flexible sword.

Ken suddenly felt a strong killing intent, and he was pulled out of his reverie. 

One Step!

He dashed 20 meters forward and an arrow missed him by a meter. 

Cloud Running!

A man landed from the tree above him with a powerful swing of his club. The swing barely missed him by a few centimeters.

With a rotation on the spot, another arrow passed right where his heart was a moment ago, and with a step back he dodged a saber user that landed from another branch.

"Wow, this kid is slippery, he dodged our ambush!"

Ken retreated to get out of his attackers' encirclement and finally had a good view of their identities.

They were all wearing gray robes, meaning they were outer disciples. They weren't too shabby since they were still members of a top sect, but their foundation couldn't be compared to the likes of Rose and the top list of the inner sect.

The only dangerous thing about them was that they were all Core Formation Stage cultivators, even if they weren't very impressive.

"Who are you?"

He tried asking for their identities. If novels could be trusted, they'd reveal all their secrets, thinking he will die anyway.

"Dead people don't need to know about us!"

*Sigh*

He got a cliché answer, but not the cliché he was hoping for.

'I guess I will have to find out myself.'

By now, he was sure there were 3 enemies only. The archer, whom he still didn't find. Although he calculated the archer's previous location, which allowed him to dodge the second arrow so easily, he was sure the archer wouldn't just sit in the same spot forever.

Then there were the club user and the saber user who stood right in front of him. Ken's senses were concentrated to the maximum, waiting for a whistle of an arrow to resound at any moment.

'Their teamwork is great, they've done many missions together. However, it can also work to my advantage. The best time to land an arrow will be… now!'

He took a step to the left and an arrow passed by his side. The amazing part was that he stepped right when the arrow left the bow before he even sensed it. It rendered the arrow useless, as it couldn't disrupt him when he engaged with the other two. Ken crouched a little and disappeared.

One Step. 

"We know about your quick movement!"

The saber user was running right next to the club user who raised his large club vertically, ready to defend against the following unsheathing technique.

But Ken anticipated that. Since they target him specifically, it meant they were aware of his One Step and Flash Unwind skills combination from when he showed it against Joel.

However, the distance he could cover with his skill almost doubled from the last time he used it, and against Joel, he used it from only 10 meters.

Instead of appearing in front of them, Ken appeared behind them and performed Flash Unwind against the saber user. The club user couldn't hit him without changing his positioning yet or he will hit his teammate along with Ken.