Chapter 44 44 – Returning To The Sect



Ken appeared behind them and performed Flash Unwind against the saber user. The saber user wasn't a core formation cultivator for nothing. He turned around immediately and slashed at Ken.

Ken's sword met the saber close to the enemy's chest, and to the saber user's surprise, he couldn't push Ken back. His posture wasn't firm because he had to take a swift turn, but he never thought a third stage could overpower him.

'Time to show the first card.'

As soon as Ken's sword clashed with the saber, his sword made a curve to cut the enemy. However, the strength of a Core Formation Stage cultivator was on display again; the man managed to react and lean backward, making the sword miss him by an inch.

Ken lifted his right foot casually and an arrow landed right where it was. His right foot was the only place the archer could aim at without risking hitting the saber user in case Ken dodges, and Ken positioned it that way on purpose, to make the next shot predictable.

Although he dodged Ken's sword, it made the saber user's footing even less firm now, and the power he could exert was minimal. 

'Snake Thrust'.

Although this attack didn't have the same power as Flash Unwind, it was extremely unpredictable, making it much more fitting for the situation. The saber user executed his defense technique, and his saber blocked Ken's thrust.

'Cloud Running'.

The club user was in an awkward position all this time; when he tried to move to have a better angle to attack, Ken already moved, and he had to change his positioning again. Now he finally had a clear swing against Ken.

Ken jumped backward with a roll and dodged both the club and an arrow that attacked him. Although he dodged the club completely, he couldn't do the same with the arrow. He knew it would happen when he attacked, but he still chose to take the chance and kill one opponent.

The arrow stabbed the side of his waist and left a deep cut on it. Ken was still satisfied with the exchange, killing one of the three for a cut.

The saber user collapsed on the floor in front of him, with a gaping hole in his stomach, right under the spot he blocked with his saber. Snake Thrust's second stab took him down.

"Mark, what happened? Mark!"

The club user shouted when he saw the saber user fall to the ground and slowly lose his life.

"Bastard!"

He shouted and charged at Ken again. Now that Ken wasn't limited by a third person, he was much freer to make his moves. Ken used Cloud Running to hide between the trees, letting the club user's swings hit them instead.

He knew that the archer must have changed his location after Ken dodged his arrows easily, and he couldn't predict where the next arrow would come from, so he had to be careful.

'I can't prolong this fight too much. Although he spends Qi 3 times faster than me, he has a core, while I don't.'

As a heavy weapon, the club was expensive to use in Qi and stamina terms. On the other hand, the broad club also gave him great defense, making it harder for Ken to pull off the same thing he did with the saber user.

The archer was now swearing silently to himself as he kept jumping from branch to branch, trying to get a clear shot at Ken. To his dismay, Ken kept retreating between the woods, and he couldn't do anything.

Ken then crouched slightly, and the club user immediately placed the club in front of him, ready to defend.

'As I thought, he is careful about my One Step technique. Let's give him a surprise.'

Ken didn't use his One Step, instead, he retreated again and used this chance to open a greater distance between them.

"Trying to fool me!"

The club user got irritated when he defended for no reason and kept chasing Ken. He saw Ken standing straight in front of him, still 30 meters away. As soon as he dashed forward, Ken disappeared from his place.

"No!"

He shouted in panic when he saw it. Ken didn't crouch before executing his technique! It should've been his weakness, yet he didn't do it!

The club user was in a bad posture; he was mid-running, and his club was held in his hand behind him. He tried to pull his club on time, but it was too late.

"AHHH!"

He fell and felt a sharp pain in his leg. Looking at it, he found out there was nothing where his leg was supposed to be. Instead of killing him, Ken cut off his leg.

The moment Ken finished his Flash Unwind, another arrow pierced through his shoulder. He groaned in pain but ignored it and slashed with his sword to cut off the club user's arm as well.

As a cultivator at the fourth stage, he would be able to maintain his life, but there was nothing to say about his combat power.

Ken rushed toward the direction the arrow came from and made sure to hide behind the trees. He soon heard movements from the branches, but he couldn't catch up. After seeing both his friends die, the archer chose not to engage in any further combat and ran away.

'I can't catch up with him. I will just take care of him later.'

Ken returned to the place he left the other two and took their rings. He found inside each of them 150,000 medium Qi stones.

'They can't be that rich. This probably has something to do with their ambush on me.'

He used an alchemy technique to burn the corpse of the saber user and sat down to heal his wounds with a perfect fourth-grade healing pill. 

When his wounds stabilized, he got up and looked at the wounded club user in front of him.

"What's your name?"

But the man remained silent. He was hoping that Ken would kill him and get over with it. His greatest fear was involving his family in this mess.

Ken took out a healing pill and shoved it into the man's mouth.

"Here, it will help you sustain your life. I know you were just hired to kill me; I have nothing against you. All of us do our best to get resources and survive in the cruel cultivation world."

Ken said with a soft smile and patted the man's shoulder with his hand.

"Thank you, Young Master."

He regretted agreeing to kill this child for 150,000 Qi stones. He knew it was wrong and immoral, yet the temptation was too strong. He barely earned 10,000 Qi stones in a year, and he was offered 150,000 at once to kill a third-stage cultivator.

"It's ok. I can make a deal with you. You should know I'm from the Sue clan, and I'm the grandchild of the patriarch. It means that the one who hired you never planned to let you live for long. If you tell me who hired you, I will at least make sure to give a sum of money to your family so they can live comfortably for the next few years."

The man paled when he heard he tried to kill a descendant of the Sue clan, and a direct one at that. Now, with both his feelings in the right place and Ken's truth drug taking effect, Ken was ready to ask again.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Rowan Rhett, Young Master. Please forgive my family, I'm the only one to blame."

"Don't worry, I'm not heartless. What about your friends?"

Ken learned they were three friends who enrolled in the sect together as children from a nearby village. The sect would give a quota for the villages to send their children to become outer disciples in the sect.

The ones to hire the three were the Han clan who wanted to take revenge for Joel. They couldn't afford to send their own Formation Core Stage descendants or else there would be a war between the two clans if it was ever found out.

Ken assumed they planned to use those outsiders to do the dirty job and just kill them afterward, as nobody would care if an elite family killed some outer disciples with no backing.

After he finished learning everything he wanted from Rowan, he removed his head with a swift slash and burned his body to dust.

·ƈθm He returned to the sect but took a detour to make a stop in a certain village and massacre three families. It'd be easier in the future if commoners feared taking the job to kill him.

'Once I can get to the Core Formation Stage and concoct fourth and fifth-grade pills freely, it will be time to make a mess in the sect.'

He took his rewards for completing his quest and returned to his room. He found two weaknesses of his in this journey. 

The first one was that his attacks were single-target attacks. If he faced many enemies at once, he'd have to waste a lot of time to kill them one by one while being careful not to get hit by one of them. 

Although he had his Slash technique, it could be blocked by weaker cultivators if he separated the slashes.

The second weakness was his senses. Since he was working solo, he had to find a way to sense enemies, which was normally the role of bow users and other more sensitive cultivators.