I stood on the roof of my house, looking towards the building which had been destroyed. Thankfully, it was the grasping life palace.

  I wasn’t pleased that all of Yu Chun and Du Wen’s efforts in decorating it had gone to waste, but it was better an empty hall than the houses my sect members had painstakingly built and decorated for themselves.

  Half of the palace had been blown away, leaving the interior exposed and the supporting beams groaning dangerously. My eyes locked onto five figures clad in black with masks covering their faces.

  In the distance I spotted two others racing into the forest. My eyes narrowed. They were heading in the direction of the cave.

  Did Hu Qing know about the natural treasure? Was that why they had attacked so suddenly? The timing was suspicious.

  However, before I could race after the two figures I would need to defeat the five invaders. They had noticed me, the leader pointing at me and shouting orders.

  I frowned. Their cultivation was rather pitiful. They must have been able to gauge Wang Ren’s cultivation during his expeditions, so what was giving them so much confidence?

  Whatever the case, I wouldn’t show mercy. They had attacked my home. My sect. If I wasn’t able to deliver swift justice, then our careful planning would be for nothing.

  I leapt from the roof of my house as the first attacker arrived. I snarled, seeing the lack of care they showed for the flowers.

  Many of them had been trampled and destroyed by their careless actions. We could regrow them, but I was far from confident in being able to ensure that the grand formation they formed would remain intact.

  The man yelled, pulling two talismans from a pouch on his waist and tossing them into the sky. Forming a hand seal and pulsing his qi, they burst.

  A dozen blades of wind and five jets of flame launched towards me, with the man following underneath. He drew twin daggers and lunged low, thrusting them at my heart and stomach.

  At the same time, I felt a fluctuation in the ambient spiritual energy as one of his companions fired a qi-infused arrow at my head. They were used to working together—this would be a difficult challenge, despite their cultivation being two to three stars below mine.

  Honestly when it came to traditional combat methods, I was a complete amateur. Worse than that, even, given my predecessors utter lack of talent.

  However, I could use my prodigious physical strength and fine control of my qi, along with a rudimentary knowledge of martial arts, to put up a decent fight against weaklings like this. My dantian flared to life as I pulled on my qi, letting it flood my meridians and empower my body.

  Most cultivators would struggle to avoid the endless blades of wind and jets of flame along with an assassin’s blade, but I wasn’t most cultivators. I didn’t need to avoid them.

  My arms and chest were sliced apart. The wounds cauterised as my flesh sizzled, five jets of flame barbecuing me alive.

  The attacker’s eyes widened beneath the mask when he saw this, but then they steeled in determination. Perhaps he thought his surprise attack was a success. The first dagger slipped into my gut and I winced at the sting.

  However, as the second blade approached my heart and the arrow was a breath from piercing my eye, I moved. I clenched my abdominal muscles, qi reinforcing and healing the damage as I gripped the assassin’s dagger tightly.

  My hand flashed. My fingers wrapped around the shaft of the arrow. The qi struggled even after I arrested its momentum, but it soon fizzled out. Seeing this, the assassin cursed and shoved his dagger faster.

  However, I was in complete control. I shifted my body to the left and his blade passed harmlessly between my arm and my ribcage.

  I stabbed the arrow between his shoulder joint and his collarbone, incapacitating his arm completely. Then, I punched his throat and kicked him away.

  The dagger slipped from my gut as I released my hold, the man collapsing to the ground and gasping for breath. One down, four to go.

  The next two attackers were already striking out at me when I downed their companion and the archer had fired another two arrows in quick succession. They barely flinched at one of their number being defeated—they were well trained.

  I couldn’t afford to be so gentle. My wounds were already healed from the medicinal energy flowing through my body, my three refined organs forming an almost complete system.

  I flashed, my figure blurring as I kicked off the ground. I appeared in front of the nearest attacker, a man wielding a long jian. He didn’t flinch, swinging his sword at me as soon as I appeared, but he was too slow.

  I planted my foot and rotated my lower body as I buried my fist in his solar plexus. I heard the crunch of breaking ribs as he doubled over. Grabbing the back of his head I smashed my knee into his nose.

  Blood sprayed across the grass. I ducked low as twin kamas scythed through the empty air above my head.

  Straining my ankles, I spun while crouched and then exploded upwards into a straight kick that made the man’s head snap back and then fall limp. He was dead in a single blow.

  I hadn’t wanted to kill them, but I couldn’t afford to show mercy here. One of the arrows pierced my shoulder and I immediately ripped it out as the wound started to heal.

  Suddenly, sharp and jagged qi burst out from the wound, tearing a bloody hole in my shoulder. I clenched my jaw through the pain and directed a burst of qi to expel the foreign qi that was causing havoc.

  The momentary distraction almost allowed the other arrow to strike me in the head, but A flash of silver carved through the darkness and split the arrow in two.

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  My attackers had strength in their numbers, but neither was I alone. Wang Ren barely stopped after saving me from the arrow and raced forwards to meet the approaching attacker.

  This hulking brute was the strongest of the five, with a five-star Qi Gathering cultivation. Still weaker than the two of us, but not to be discounted.

  He wielded a massive club with iron studs down its length that he swung about as if it weighed less than a feather. It would’ve been a bad match for me—blunt force trauma was harder to deal with in the moment.

  However, against Wang Ren, the giant had met his match. He may have swung his club as if it were paper with enough force to crush the bones of a weaker foe, but Wang Ren was a thick slab of muscle that had been refined to perfection.

  He planted a foot hard enough to split the earth, yet delicately avoided damaging a single flower. That was true skill, unlike the clumsy attempts of our attackers.

  With a roar, he spun his glaive, the light of the moon dancing across the blade as it descended. The huge man threw the club with both hands to meet my brother’s blow.

  A flash and a single line of severing moonlight cut the silence. The giant stood unmoving where his club had met Wang Ren’s glaive.

  Then, a breath later the top half of his club fell to the ground, followed by half of his body that slipped from the base with a wet squelch. My brother had split the man in half from shoulder to waist with a single slash of his glaive.

  “I’ll handle the last one,” he said, flicking the blood from his weapon and locking his gaze on the archer.

  “There were two more. They headed towards the cave,” I told him. “I need to make sure the others are safe.”

  “Go, this won’t take long. I’ll hurry to join you after.”

  I nodded and raced towards the forest. The archer spun and tried to fire an arrow after me but Wang Ren raced forward and sliced it in half with a simple slash.

  I didn’t stay long enough to watch the battle unfold, but I had no doubt the archer was doomed for a swift death. Wang Ren was nigh unbeatable in single combat, especially by a weaker cultivator.

  As I ran I pushed myself to the limit. Flooded my muscles with qi. I had to reach the cavern in time.

  I didn’t know what the intentions of these midnight invaders was, but it couldn’t be good for my sect members. Whether they would kill them instantly or keep them hostage, I didn’t care.

  If I could catch up to them before they arrived it would be for the best. However, they had a headstart on me and I had sensed that the two who ran were the strongest of the group.

  That meant I might be rushing headfirst into danger, facing off against two cultivators equal or greater in cultivation to me. Even so, I couldn’t stop.

  The trees began to thin, my heart pounding in my chest as my qi circulated through my muscles. I soon reached the edge of the cliff, catching myself before I tipped over the edge.

  No sign of the masked attackers. I cursed and leapt off the edge of the cliff towards the rocks below.

  As I approached the hole in the cliff face, I slowed my descent with a cushion of qi and grabbed hold of the edge. My palms were sliced open as I stumbled.

  In my haste I’d fallen way too fast for my qi to effectively arrest my momentum. I needed to hurry, but I still had to be careful.

  I was no use to anyone if I ended up crippling myself in haste. I rushed through the cramped tunnel until I saw the golden glow of the spirit stones.

  When I drew near I heard shouting from within the cavern. Little cui. I increased my speed until I was a blur.

  I entered the cavern, eyes darting around to take in the situation. Du Wen lay on the ground, unmoving. Blood was pooling around him.

  I threw out my senses, sighing in relief when I felt a faint pulse of life from within. He wasn’t dead yet.

  Yu Chun stood over his body, glaring daggers at the two masked men. Teng Sheng was plastered against the wall, breathing raggedly. His right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle.

  He tried to force himself to his feet, but collapsed with a grunt of pain.

  “You bastards! How dare you invade our sect! My master won’t let you off easily,” Xiao Cui shouted at the two invaders.

  I wasn’t sure how to feel about her bravado. On the one hand I was proud of her defiance—this was our home. No one could attack and escape unharmed.

  However, she had no strength of her own to back up her words, relying on the invisible threat of me to scare her foes. One’s backing was a power in its own right, but she shouldn’t just throw around my name and hope I could save her from every danger.

  The cultivator closest to the girls took a step forward, unbothered by my disciple’s protests. I moved to intercept them, but in the corner of my eye I caught a flash of movement.

  Without thinking, I smashed my leg into the ground and kicked off towards him. Golden light flashed, the spirit stones’ glare reflected in the man’s sword as he drew it from a hidden storage item.

  He thrust the jian at Teng Sheng’s chest, intending to silence the boy. How dare he.

  The only person allowed to kill that kid was me—and only on accident if our experiments went wrong! No masked bastard would touch a member of my sect now that I was here.

  The blade was inches from his chest when I appeared between them. The cultivator’s eyes widened in surprise but he reacted instantly.

  He pulled his sword back, cancelling the death blow. His foot landed on the ground and he spun while reaching into his robe.

  I lunged forwards to meet him, avoiding the rapid slash of his blade. I grabbed hold of the shoulder of his robe and yanked it to the side, exposing bare flesh.

  At the same time, he slapped a paper talisman onto my chest and I felt a bead of qi burst from his dantian and enter the talisman. He slashed at me with his sword once more, trying to create distance between us.

  I saw him leap backwards, but before he could escape I jabbed two fingers into his clavicle, where I’d pulled away his robe. Right before he broke contact and escaped my range I sent a chaotic whirl of qi into his body, twisting the medicinal energy into a potent toxin.

  He slipped from my grasp soon after, but the foundations of my victory had been laid. I could’ve tried to deal a more devastating blow, but I knew the battle could drag on for a while.

  Poisoning him now would ensure that he was weakened for the fight ahead. However, there was a far more immediate threat.

  The reason he’d so desperately tried to create distance between us was the talisman he’d plastered on my chest and activated with his qi. I felt a burning heat blossom on my skin, rapidly expanding and intensifying.

  Oh crap.

  The next instant I was engulfed in an explosion of flame that burst from the talisman. The flesh on my chest sizzled as it was cooked, the rest of my body following suit. I was fairly flame retardant by now, but this close it was impossible to escape damage.

  I suspected this talisman had been created by a cultivator around my own level. If it had been the work of a Foundation Building Master I would be crippled temporarily.

  As things stood, my body was already healing the worst of the damage from the inside out. I panted, cycling my qi as the flames dissipated.

  “How are you still standing!?” the cultivator exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at me as I stumbled forwards.

  “Ha! Next time use two talismans, sneaky bastard,” I retorted through gasping breaths.

  Honestly I had little need for oxygen with how energy-reliant my body had become, but my lungs produced more medicinal energy the more I inhaled. Especially in the thick, ambient spiritual energy of this cavern.

  “Boss, this one’s tough. Probably the strongest here. Let’s tear him apart,” the masked figure I’d poisoned called out to the other.

  The taller man peeled his glare away from Xiao Cui, a pair of icy blue eyes piercing my soul. I knew immediately who this was, even without seeing his face.

  The Azure Tigers had made a preemptive strike, attacking Million Flowers Celestial Peak without warning. Hu Qing had come for my head.