Despite knowing this was Hu Qing leading the Azure Tigers to attack my sect, I wasn’t sure what his objective was. Wang Ren had spread news of the healing sect’s arrival, so we expected them to attack sooner or later.

  However, the way these two had rushed to the cavern immediately confused me. They knew it was here.

  I could tell myself they simply felt the life signatures of the mortals hiding here, but that would be a lie. They had come for the spirit stones.

  Or perhaps… the natural treasure.

  A single glance told me that it was moments from being ready to harvest. They had attacked at the perfect moment to steal it from under us.

  Whatever their reasons for coming in the middle of the night, it didn’t change what I had to do. I needed to kill these two to make an example.

  The fact that their leader had come himself made this difficult. It also made my life simple.

  Wang Ren and I had expected a long, drawn out battle where we had to play the different local forces against each other. Instead, the tiger had delivered himself to our doorstep.

  This was simply a case of a meat pie falling from the sky. Wang Ren would arrive soon. One of them was poisoned.

  The longer I could drag this out, the better. Unfortunately, my opponents had the opposite idea.

  “Idiot. You can’t kill a single six-star cultivator on your own?” Hu Qing snarled, shoving the man aside and marching towards me.

  The way he spoke unsettled me. Was he so strong that he didn’t even need to put a cultivator of my realm in his eyes?

  A close inspection told me that his confidence wasn’t entirely unfounded. Hu Qing was a nine-star Qi Gatherer. An average six-star wouldn’t pose much of a threat.

  I wasn’t average.

  The man hadn’t earned his name without reason. As he approached, a pair of razor sharp claws slipped onto his hands.

  Three sword-like blades extended outwards from his knuckles, held onto his fists by sleek and refined grips. It was masterful work.

  Ornate carvings curled along the length of the weapon, marking it as the creation of an expert refiner. I felt his qi curling from his dantian and coating the edge of the blades.

  The ease with which the claws accepted his qi was frightening. A Martial grade weapon at the very least, perhaps even low King Grade.

  I didn’t have a weapon of my own, but I was confident in the strength of my body and my unique techniques. Hu Qing’s pace quickened as he approached, until a few paces away he bent down on all fours and snarled.

  A wave of pressure buffeted me. Even his roar was an attack, but it was far from enough to make me tremble in fear.

  His movements resembled the animalistic style of Guan Chaoxing. This man was no beast, however. He was a man.

  His style had clearly been inspired by tigers. With another snarl he leapt up and slashed twice, blades of qi extending out from the metal to carve open my chest.

  I stepped back, charred flesh cracking and falling to reveal fresh skin. I evaded the first strike, but the second sheared through the flesh of my arm, carving two crimson valleys in my flesh.

  He was relentless. The moment he’d delivered his first attack he had already returned to all fours and pounced forwards.

  He slashed and cut at my legs and stomach, but I weaved around his barrage of strikes. It was impossible to avoid the slicing blades of qi entirely and I suffered dozens of wounds.

  My powerful healing was keeping up for now, but that wouldn’t last long. I had been forced on the defensive and Hu Qing was turning the tide.

  While I had poisoned his companion, he was utterly unharmed and ready to slaughter us all. I needed skin contact for most of my offensive techniques, but that would be difficult. The only way was to lay a trap.

  I would need to give flesh to break bone. While I dodged Hu Qing’s lethal blows and allowed his weaker slashes to carve into the flesh of my legs, I observed his movements and analysed his body.

  The watchful eye of a doctor was trained to spot any sickness or malady in their patients. That made us dangerous.

  When twisted with lethal intent, I was able to meticulously break down the flaws in my opponent’s body. Where they moved awkwardly. Vital points they left exposed when they struck.

  Hu Qi roared, infusing his voice with qi and making me stumble backwards. He shot up on two feet and lunged towards me, thrusting his claws at my chest instead of slashing.

  This was the moment I’d been waiting for. My lungs were vital and I couldn’t let him pierce them, but I could survive a while without my guts.

  At the last moment I shifted to the side and he was forced to adjust the trajectory of his strike. Six razor sharp claws bit into the soft flesh of my abdomen.

  Burning pain lanced across my torso and up my spine as they pierced all the way through and broke the skin on my back. Hu Qing’s eyes sparkled now that he’d caught his prey.

  I had him right where I wanted him. I’d noticed that after every successful strike, he would rear his head back slightly.

  The moment he buried his claws in my guts he threw his head back and snarled. My arms shot out and I grabbed him by the throat.

  He gargled, not expecting the sudden strike right after dealing what he thought was a decisive blow. If I tried to strangle him, he’d carve me apart like a juicy duck.

  That wasn’t my intention. I tore away his robe and sent as much qi as I possibly could flooding into his neck. This time, it wasn’t poison.

  It was corruption.

  His neck bulged as my qi ravaged his flesh. This technique had already been disgustingly potent when I was in the Body Tempering Realm—even letting me cross realms and fight against Qi Gathering cultivators.

  Empowered by qi it had become magnitudes more deadly. Not only was it twisting his flesh and turning it against itself, but I watched as my qi wrapped around his, constricting it and twisting until he lost his grasp on his own energy.

  Qi writhed and carved through the flesh in his neck. His spiritual veins were in chaos as his own qi turned against him.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Despite the savage blow I’d struck, Hu Qing didn’t falter. He twisted his claws and ripped them back, ripping and tearing my abdomen and stomach apart.

  Blood and guts spilled onto the ground and I hurriedly clutched them against my body. I could probably heal from a missing intestine, but not in the heat of battle. A moment’s distraction would mean death against this opponent.

  I inhaled deeply, refining the energy in the air into medicinal energy that raced towards my abdomen. The tears in my intestine were the first to seal, followed by the thin slash across my stomach.

  His blades had struggled to carve through the refined walls of my stomach, which had impressed me greatly. The refining process of my physique gave it more than just a mysterious ability.

  Before I could heal the damage, Hu Qing roared and pressed the attack once more. His neck bulged as tumours spread through his flesh and his control of his qi was faltering, but that was exactly why he struck.

  He surmised, as many who faced me had, that if he couldn’t purge my technique the quickest way to end it was to erase the source. He was intent on ending my life as soon as possible.

  I smirked.

  He’d fallen into my trap. The moment he abandoned any reason or strategy he lost hope of winning.

  At least, in an ideal world. The other bandit chose this moment to intervene. He’d been content to let his boss handle me, most likely believing that there was zero possibility of me claiming victory.

  Seeing the struggle of Hu Qing he no longer waited. The exposed flesh on his shoulder where I’d poisoned him was purple with infection, but he hadn’t noticed or didn’t deem it a threat to his life.

  He was right, but it would make using his qi a lot trickier. Unfortunately I was far from a skilled warrior.

  The moment the second enemy entered the battle the tide turned and I was once more on the back foot. Hu Qing’s claws slashed and sliced, cutting deep furrows into my flesh.

  Blood poured from me in rivers and streams, my medicinal qi barely stemming the loss. I couldn’t relax.

  I’d entered the battle hoping to capture one of them alive—to interrogate them and find out how they knew about the natural treasure. That was no longer possible.

  They had to die, or I would.

  Our movements sped up into a blur. Qi raced through each of us. Claws whirled and carved. The bandit’s jian thrust towards me the moment I deflected or dodged a claw.

  Wounds piled up, but I wasn’t suffering for nothing. I punched and kicked like a madman, pounding flesh and trying to break bone in return. I wasn’t crippling them, but I didn’t need to.

  Hu Qing ducked low and whipped his claw round in an almost imperceptible slash. I felt a sudden cold in my left hand, but I had no time to focus on the strange feeling.

  In a sudden twist of his combat style, Hu Qing kicked out at my shin. Not expecting the strike I failed to dodge.

  A sickening crunch sounded as he split my shin in two. I stumbled and the bandit buried his sword in my chest.

  It narrowly missed my heart, but pierced the edge of my lung. Things weren’t going well.

  “Master!” Xiao Cui cried out from across the cavern.

  I grunted. Hu Qing raised his claws to decapitate me, but suddenly roared out and stumbled backwards, clutching at his chest. Ignoring the tumours and corrupted qi had been a mistake.

  If he tried to stem the spread he might’ve been able to save himself, but he had left my insidious tendrils to their own devices and they’d spread to his heart. Perhaps he would live, but he would never be whole again.

  Unfortunately, I might not live to see that happen. The other bandit roared. “Bastard, what did you do to Boss Hu!? Die!”

  He ripped his sword from my chest and I winced as blood began to trickle into my lungs. With a grunt of exertion he slashed his blade at my neck.

  Why did this keep happening to me? All I wanted was to help people. To heal them. Yet I was constantly attacked, accused of demonic cultivation, and threatened by violent and cruel bastards.

  I’d had enough.

  Utilising every scrap of willpower I had left, I managed to yank my neck backwards. A thin line of scarlet appeared on the front of my neck, a single drop of blood beading at the edge.

  The bandit snarled when he realised he hadn’t killed me. He presumably had the same hope as Hu Qing—that killing me would dispel my techniques.

  To be honest, I had no idea if that would even work. Maybe the cancerous corruption and the venomous qi would persist after my death. I hoped I would never have to find out—although if that did come to pass I wouldn’t be around to see the results.

  My vision went black for a breath.

  I’d passed out.

  Fuck.

  The bandit stepped forward and grabbed my hair at the root, yanking my head towards him. “I’d love to see you escape death now, trash!”

  He stabbed his jian towards my heart.

  A clang of steel echoed in my ears as my vision flickered black and white. Wang Ren stood before me, his glaive held in outstretched arms.

  The bandit staggered backwards as his sword arm was blown to the side. The Prime Guardian of the Grasping Life Sect took a single step forwards and snapped his arms with it.

  The razor edge of his glaive met no resistance as it broke the bandit’s flesh and bone. He was cleaved in two with a single slash.

  I collapsed, but before I could hit the ground I felt a firm grip under my armpit, hauling me upright.

  “Here, eat this,” Wang Ren said, stuffing something in my mouth.

  The pill dissolved, its medicinal energies diffusing through my body. Along with the healing energy I noticed thin strands of pill toxins. Where had he got such a shoddy product?

  Regardless, it didn’t matter to me. My refined stomach devoured all the energy and turned it into a more potent form.

  My own energies spread into my savaged flesh and began the slow process of bringing me back to health. I heard a roar and the clash of steel as Hu Qing threw himself at Wang Ren.

  He was frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog, his strikes faster than ever before. Somehow the closer he was to death the deadlier he became.

  Wang Ren was a strong bastard, but against a true speed fighter he struggled to keep up. His glaive slashed and whirled but Hu Qing cut into his flesh.

  Unfortunately for the fearsome bandit leader, he wasn’t only facing my Senior Brother. He was fighting against the deadliest killer of the human race in their long history—cancer.

  Corrupted qi and twisted flesh spread through his body. His heart was barely beating and his own qi was tearing it apart.

  The only reason he was able to fight with such ferocity was that his dantian remained intact. Wang Ren was pushed back by the furious assault, a strained expression painted across his visage.

  He deflected a sharp slash of Hu Qing’s claws, but another followed right after. The thrust roared past the shaft of his glaive. Mere millimetres from piercing Wang Ren’s chest, the bandit’s arm froze.

  He snarled and roared, his body beginning to convulse and twist. Tumours ravaged his flesh and his qi broke down. Looking closer, I saw the reason for his sudden predicament—my technique had pierced his dantian.

  Within moments he lay still on the ground, crippled and dead. Wang Ren wiped the blood from his glaive and returned it to his storage bag. I walked over to Teng Sheng and helped him to his feet, grunting at the effort it took.

  I was still seriously injured and even basic movements hurt. In the time it took to eat a meal I would be hale and hearty once more, but that didn’t help me now.

  Teng Sheng wasn’t faring much better. His arm was crippled and even though he had toughed it out, I knew the boy hadn’t been wounded so severely before.

  I quickly cast my healing technique, but that made him scream in pain as the bone snapped back into place. I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

  “You did well, Sheng. Thank you for protecting the others in my place,” I said.

  The young man nodded and met my gaze proudly. I meant every word. He had done well as a member of the sect, putting himself in harm’s way to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.

  Grouping up with the others, I knelt beside Du Wen and healed him too. He remained unconscious, but he would be fine.

  “I’m sorry. I thought you’d be safe here. I never expected they would know about this cavern,” I apologised, bowing my head to the others.

  “Master, don’t be silly! It wasn’t your fault. And you saved us anyway, so don’t worry about it,” Xiao Cui replied, hugging me tightly.

  I tousled her hair with a smile. “Thank you, little Cui. That means a lot, but I still have to apologise.”

  At that moment a powerful ripple passed through the ambient spiritual energy and knocked me back two steps. My eyes locked onto the stalactite in the centre of the cavern’s ceiling.

  “The treasure is about to appear,” I said.

  “You’re right. Be prepared. Fortune often arrives hand in hand with danger,” Wang Ren replied with a nod.

  “Oh? What do we have here? You killed the little tiger and his cub already?” A familiar voice echoed through the cave.