It was blasphemy, for it was the Heavens who gifted the grace of cultivation to the humans.

  It was akin to a child defying their parents, the same who fed them, nurtured them, bathed them, raised them. For they could not live, let alone survive, without the guidance and comfort of their parents.

  Yet, Shuren could not deny that the absurd ideological beliefs of the man in front of him didn’t have a sense of grandeur to them.

  Silver tongue of a mad demon. Using such claims as a fa?ade to woe conflict and strife amongst the mortals of the world!

  The old tales he had heard in his youth of the believers of the Architect branding demons and destroying their dens rung true in his mind. If they kept growing unchecked, it would only cause the world to be in further turmoil.

  “You have a way with words, Lixi, I’ll think on your words. It is truly absurd they did not make you the Grand Disciple of the sect,” he replied, acquiescing to the whims of the demonic cultivator.

  Those words succeeded in swaying his mind. With a finger to his cheek, he mused. “I cannot deny Reizou is just as worthy as I am to claim the title. Unfortunately, he’s merely at the final stage of Path Foundation, and on that basis alone he shouldn’t be allowed.”

  Shuren shuddered at the confirmation of this man’s status as a Rank 3 cultivator, a Core Genesis. Someone who had mastered their path to such an extent that it formed a Path Core in their intangible side of the body, between the realms of the Talisbody and Talisoul. Shuren even considered if that snake was the tether of his Path Core, his Talispirit.

  But it wouldn’t be a surprise to Shuren if he purposely mentioned his cultivation level to put fear in Shuren and Aerestia.

  If he hasn’t developed his Talisbody to an absurd extent, and he doesn’t have artifacts that excel in speed, we may have a chance in escaping. Realistically, Rank 1’s escaping a Rank 3 is nigh impossible… I can’t depend on his whims to let us go.

  “It’s about time. You may… enjoy the show, senior brother Lixi,” Shuren declared, before walking over to Aerestia. He put a hand on her shoulder, leaning in closer to speak.

  “We’ll do as we planned. After throwing the boulders to ambush the caravan, you’ll send a few of your icicle dirks into the caravan, and then we jump down together to join the battle.” He stared into her eyes, waiting for her reassurance.

  She gave back a forced smile, tapping her staff into his chest. “Sounds good. Don’t worry, it’ll be a cinch.”

  Shuren lay at the edge of the cliffside, with his head barely peeking out. Within a few minutes, the caravan they were chasing would be right around where they were. Shuren stayed as still as a corpse, with his Qi focused around his eyes.

  He could still feel the daggers of Lixi’s stare baring into his back. As if he were a mouse in the claws of a cat.

  “Now!” Shuren moved away from the canyon cliffside, standing beside Aerestia. The concave ice wall slowly pushed all the boulders at the same time, and Lixi moved away with amusement. At one point, he had taken out a drink from his spatial ring, completely relaxed.

  The moment the boulders barely tipped over the edge, they all dropped off instantly, and the sounds of the boulders clashing with the mountainous wall echoed throughout the canyon. Rock dust rose in its path, somewhat obscuring their vision.

  “Quick, make sure to do the same thing we did against the Pyros Eagle,” Shuren whispered, staying near her side. And with her mantra having long been prepared, the Qi from the skies and her staff gradually formed, and three icicle spikes formed in the air, with one of them slightly more flat and concave than the rest. Both of the Twintail cubs leapt on Aerestia’s shoulders, bracing for impact.

  And when the eve of the night sky began to break, and dawn arose with Heaven’s Eye, Shuren grabbed Aerestia’s arm and leapt on the flat icicle spear, using a sliver of Qi to slow his fall on it. Ensuring it wouldn’t crack under their weight, Aerestia couldn’t help but yelp in the freefall towards the caravan, its guards floundering amongst the fallen boulders.

  It turned out that true to Ming’s words, they were truly at most, Stage 5 of Qidense Realm, with most being at Stage 3. The yells of men and preparation for battle was imminent.

  And before they even had to land, the first fountain of blood spilled as Ming sliced an arm off.

  “What’s with that face?! You looked like you’ve both seen a monster! Relax, it’s just me, good ol’ Ming!” With a vigorous roar, Ming announced to the world.

  Damnit, did he really have to go announce his name like that?! The last thing we need is that snake sniffing us around later on knowing our identities!

  Both Shuren and Aerestia alongside her Twintail cubs leapt off the icicle skyboard, landing on the ground with ease. The other two dug themselves deep into the caravan, and the mad roars of the beasts resounded from within.

  Aerestia noted the expression in Shuren’s face, yelling towards Ming. “We’re going to follow Brother Hei Xin’s plan. Do what you have to!”

  With his bloodied sword raised to the sky, Ming continued to yell to the distant pair. “Very well! Follow brother Hei Xin’s plan!”

  Ming smirked at the realisation, with a face that yelled at the pair to explain to him what’s going on.

  If we run away now, we’ll immediately grab the attention of that demonic dog Lixi, and he’ll spare no expense to chase us. If we follow with our original plan, destroying the caravan, he might let us go out of amusement. I can’t tell if he told us all that information to ensure he wants us dead after to keep secrets, or if he's really that bored.

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  Can I really count on his whims to let us go? Or do we have to make a gamble?

  Shuren calculated the potential risks, before moving forward to inform Ming. They entered a battle formation they practiced earlier, with Ming at the front and Aerestia at the rear.

  “Shit! We got ambushed by three random brats! Which sect are they from!” The captain of the caravan yelled out, getting all his men into a formation. Most of them wore a combination of leather and chainmail armour, while a few were garbed in beige shirts and simple trousers.

  “There’s twenty of us, and three of them. These sect coddled brats can’t deal with this many, even if they’ve gotten a slightly higher stage than us! Do the Thrice Lynchpin formation now!” The captain with a stubble and helmet commanded, controlling the sway of morale in his men. Only a few of them were hit by the boulders and were incapacitated, and the caravan was disrupted, but most of them were ready to fight.

  To think one of us is a bloody cursed rat leaking our intel. It can’t have been that madman Lixi, surely! He hasn’t even appeared once for our job to deliver these goods to the professor!

  The captain of the caravan ensured these thoughts stayed in his heads, wholeheartedly focusing on the three kids in front of him. There was no way either of them had experience in true battle, sizing up the three of them and their soft looks. Only the swordsman posed some risk, but that’s about it.

  He was confident in killing them all. It wasn’t the first time they faced na?ve young cultivators from an oh so righteous sect that he demolished with ease, and it wouldn’t be the last.

  Just like the rest of them, thinking of us as inferiors just because we’re slightly beneath them in our cultivation level. I’ll show them how the real world works!

  When he saw the blond haired young man, the one endowed with the most intricate, luxurious robes, he had long eased. Such an obvious move, you really think throwing that staff against me in such an obvious manner will be enough?

  Little did he know that the disciples he was facing was from the powerhouse sect in the nearest vicinity, the most renowned Rank 5 righteous sect amongst the surrounding continents.

  They were nothing like the mere Rank 2 or Rank 3 sects scattered across the realms, whose disciples had the least foundation possible.

  “Ming, deal with the trash, I’m aiming straight for the one with the most expensive armour! And we have a Rank 3 demon hiding on the cliffside, be prepared for him!” Shuren yelled, holding his Ruyi Staff in a javelin stance, ready to strike right through the captain hiding in the middle of his battle formation.

  Swords cut through wind, staffs control the wind. The stronger the rebound force builds up in my Ruyi Staff, the more condensed it’s power rises, like rubber being pulled to the extreme. I shouldn’t be facing any more backlashes from this technique anymore!

  Employing the Liu Clan’s breathing technique, the one he learnt from his grandfather, Shuren felt attuned with his weapon. Like a positive feedback loop between the body and the weapon, he almost touched into the realm of using the weapon as if it were an extension of his limbs.

  Against his opponent, he’d only need to use a third of his power.

  “Boundless Winds, Disperse into all!”

  Aerestia, who had already begun preparing as she fell with Shuren, began a mantra to summon an array of ice spears in the sky. Likewise, the yelps of guards resounded as the Twin Tailed cubs danced around the floor, biting into their tendons.

  “Captain! These kids clearly aren’t simple! We need a new formation!” One of the guards yelled before facing the steel of death, slicing right through his jugular down to his right arm. Blood pooled on the floor of the battlefield, and Ming kept slight focus to ensure he wouldn’t slip on it.

  “Are you serious?! How are we gonna deal with that?!” With gritted teeth, and tensed arm, Ming danced wildly, mowing down the Stage 3 demonic guards with ease.

  Before he got a reply, Ming felt a sudden burst of wind at his side, causing his clothes to move with the sudden breeze. The sound of a wooden whistle stabbed through the air, and the head of the captain burst like a watermelon. Likewise, a second whistle went past his head as the Ruyi Staff ripped through the air to return back to his master.

  For a moment, Ming considered if he could survive a move if Shuren used the full brunt of his Stage 10 Qidense power. He sighed inwardly, he would have no choice but to dodge the move. Even if he was at the edge of Stage 12 Qidense Realm, all of his training and regiments wasn’t anything like whichever place Shuren came from.

  One day, he would definitely need a duel against Shuren with both of them at the same level.

  Most of the guards had little bits of ice strewn across their body, embedded like air borne daggers. Some were limp from the mad attacks from the Twintail cubs, who were too nimble yet small to deal with. The bloodied staff held in Shuren’s hand, filled with the gore of their captain’s brain, made them face reality.

  Protocols in the sect taught them to fight to the bitter end, to never let the enemy gain information from their corpses and goods. But the instinct of humans would scale heavier in the end, and the fear of a worthless death inebriated their rationality.

  The roars and yells of the fighters transitioned to fear and proclamations of retreat. Shuren came near Ming, while Aerestia stopped her attacks, and she whistled to call over her familiars.

  “I’m thinking of using the Deviant Beasts to disturb him, but that man’s a bored madman. He’s the one that told us to kill all of his own men.” Shuren quickly replied to Ming, trying to reconsider their options.

  “Even if the Deviant Beasts are Rank 1, we need to make it so that it aims for that Rank 3 bastard,” with a flick of his blade, Ming dispersed the blood on it. “I’ll let you make the call, you know the situation best with that guy.”

  With nonchalance, he added on. “Worst case scenario, one of us should escape and deliver the message. Even if both of us are the fastest, Rixia has the most cultivation to sustain flight the longest out of all of us.”

  Aerestia stepped forth beside them, sweat trickling down her forehead. Her hands had almost turned a slight blue, a backlash from overusing her abilities. “They’re all beginning to retreat. This much should be enough, right?”

  “No. We have to kill them all. Knowing that madman, he might use it as an example, but regardless, these demonic cultivators need to die.” Shuren said without hesitation, dashing forward with Ming to finish the job.

  Aerestia clenched her fist, staring at their backs. “What’s even the point if he just listens to the whims of that demonic person?” With a tensed expression and narrowed eyebrows, she moved forth with them.

  It didn’t take long for the strongest, those garbed in armour to end up dead. Shuren’s Ruyi Staff debilitated and destroyed the heads and spines of his enemies, and Ming sliced through the hearts and minds of the rest.

  At the end of it all, only a pair of demonic cultivators, merely at Stage 2 of Qidense Realm, remained. Wearing the clothing akin to a farmer, they held their head down to the floor, kowtowing for forgiveness. Shuren noticed their race, their branched horns crumbled and cut, the only one’s he noticed out of the rest.

  The weakest of the group, were willing to abandon their dignity and bow down for mercy.

  Ming could only have a strange expression at seeing the subservience of these people. Shuren raised his Ruyi Staff high, and though not a sword, to the pair it seemed even worse than guillotine.

  To kill or not to kill, that was the question.

  Before his staff could lower, a hand grabbed on to it, stopping it from moving.

  “Wait! These two, we can’t kill them!”

  Aerestia barred his path.