“Oh? The little tiger and his cub died already? Pathetic,” said the familiar voice.

  I froze, a shiver running down my spine at the stranger’s arrival. Turning my head, I saw someone I never expected to see again.

  Jing Ma strolled from the entrance of the cavern towards the centre, his hands clasped behind his back as if he were out for a relaxing walk through the city rather than entering a battlefield.

  I couldn’t move, the weight of his cultivation keeping all of us frozen in place. A scowl twisted my face as I realised what had happened.

  This snake bastard! He’d slipped into our midst posing as a friendly traveller while preparing to slaughter us in our sleep.

  Had he already known about the natural treasure, or had he formed this plan after I told everyone about it?

  He was clearly familiar with Hu Qing, so that led me to believe he was established in this area long before we arrived. However, there was nothing I could do to stop him from stealing the treasure and killing everyone.

  Jing Ma was a Foundation Building master, while I was just a Qi Gathering cultivator. The difference between those realms was impossible to cross, even with my powerful techniques.

  The difference between a Body Tempering practitioner and a Qi Gathering cultivator was like the earth and the sky, but the gap between Jing Ma and myself was like the gulf between earth and heaven.

  Unlike the savage bandits, he didn’t seem bothered with killing us. He was content to keep us suppressed while he claimed the treasure for himself.

  While I was glad that I wouldn’t have to watch my friends die, I was furious that this bastard dared to spit in my face after the hospitality I showed him. Forgetting favours and violating justice—a vile snake.

  “Jing Ma! You dare!?” Wang Ren exclaimed.

  I cringed a little, but I couldn’t blame my brother. I felt the same way.

  “Do either of you brats even know what this is?” he asked, turning to face us with a neutral expression and a tilted head.

  To tell the truth, I didn’t. I only knew it was a powerful natural treasure from the sheer brilliance of the spiritual energy contained within. What it actually did was a mystery to me.

  I had planned to figure that out after we harvested it, but fate was cruel. Man proposes, heaven disposes. Jing Ma, hands still clasped behind his back, walked back towards me until we were face to face.

  I felt the heat of his breath on my face, calm and regular. Every exhale contained a wisp of qi, the quantity and quality of the Foundation Building master’s energy leagues greater than my own.

  “I like you, Zhao Dan. I might not kill you and your… sect when I’m done. If you behave yourself, that is,” he said, not a hint of emotion in his voice.

  Wang Ren spat at the man’s feet. “Trash.”

  I didn’t see him move. One instant he was standing in front of me and the next he was looming over Wang Ren.

  My brother was on the ground, bleeding from his nose with a red handprint on his face. Jing Ma exhaled and clasped his hands once more, before walking back to the stalactite clinging to the centre of the cavern.

  “Learn to respect your elders, brat,” he snarled, voice wavering for the first time. “Since you are both ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth, I shall educate you. This is Golden Millenium Dew. Only a single drop condenses over a thousand years and only in specific environments. Do you know how absurdly rare it is for gold spirit stones to form in the wild? Of course not,” he chuckled with mirth.

  “Before I found this place I had been searching the Celestial Jade Empire for two hundred and fifty years in search of a treasure to allow me to continue cultivating. Pure gold spirit roots are rare, but they are as much a curse as a blessing. Only treasures such as this dew can provide me with a pure and stable foundation. Without it, I would be shackled in this realm forever, unable to forge a core.”

  God this dude loved the sound of his own voice. We didn’t ask for his life story, but given that we were powerless to resist the weight of his presence I supposed we had to listen as he gave us this dreary soliloquy.

  I hadn’t been idle during his speech. Even if it was like cutting a tree with a toothpick, I was wearing away at the suppressive presence little by little.

  “Not that either of you whelps would know what that’s like. Even untalented trash can reach the Qi Gathering Realm without much effort. Every step you take towards the peak is suffocating. The heavens refuse to allow mortals to claim even a scrap of its power. The Dao remains elusive. Cultivation is a fight against the will of the heavens. After a certain point it becomes impossible to advance without treasures or the assistance of one’s elders,” Jing Ma continued.

  As he spoke, the tip of the stalactite began to shimmer with golden light. Until now it had appeared as a plain spire of stone, but now the dazzling energy contained within was starting to appear.

  Jing Ma had only said two things that caught my attention. The first was that he claimed to possess ‘pure gold spirit roots’ and the second was his description of cultivation.

  I’d never heard that spirit roots could possess some sort of elemental affinity—only that the quantity was what decided one’s talent. Perhaps this was a rare occurrence that only prodigies and the heaven’s chosen needed to worry about. Or maybe a ‘third-rate’ sect like the Cloudy Falls Sect simply didn’t know about this key fragment of knowledge.

  To call cultivation a battle against the heavens will was accurate, based on what I knew. However, to hear him tell it, ascending to higher realms made that battle less metaphorical and more real.

  The second part was of more theoretical interest to me, but the first gave me some direction in my research about cultivation. If I survived this I’d have to properly thank the snake bastard.

  By now the light emitted by the stalactite was blinding. I noticed little Cui and the others had to close their eyes, with only Wang Ren and myself able to keep them open and watch what happened.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Jing Ma took out a small jade bottle and uncorked it, holding it beneath the tip of the stalactite. As the light flared, a droplet of golden liquid condensed at the end of the stone spire.

  What followed transpired at a speed almost impossible to perceive. The droplet of Golden Millenium Dew formed a bead and plopped off the end of the stalactite.

  A ripple of spiritual energy passed through the cave and Jing Ma’s eyes widened in anticipation as he raised his jade bottle to catch the droplet. The combination of his lacking concentration and the shift in the spiritual energy loosened the crushing weight of his cultivation on Wang Ren and myself.

  We shared a look and as one, we moved.

  I expelled a burst of qi to remove any trace of Jing Ma’s hold on me. Wang Ren drew his glaive and I saw his qi swirl and writhe as it traced the patterns of his signature technique.

  Even the way he manipulated his qi for the Shattering Earth, Carving Heaven Heavy Glaive resembled his physical movements. Bang Ji had created a truly exceptional set of battle arts that resonated with the truth of the world.

  I wanted to achieve the same for healing. Now though, all I wanted was to tear Jing Ma’s head from his neck for daring to put my disciple and the members of my sect in danger.

  He noticed our approach too late.

  He only had eyes for the drop of dew.

  Wang Ren planted his forward foot. The ground shook as he swung his glaive, splitting the air in its wake. I thrust out my arm, threading my qi into two strands.

  Jing Ma was the strongest opponent we had ever faced, so I had to try something I never had—using two techniques at once.

  My cancerous touch and poison qi were both lethal in their own right, so how devastating would they be if combined into a single attack? This wasn’t a true combined technique, but if it worked it would further my comprehension by leaps and bounds.

  If we failed, we would be dead. So I had to take a risk. Jing Ma’s gaze flicked towards us when our strikes were a breath from landing.

  The drop of dew had fallen half way from the stalactite to the jade bottle.

  With only a single free hand, he wouldn’t be able to defend against both of us. Or so I believed.

  He gently tossed the jade bottle into the sky. His hand flowed like water as he pressed three fingers against the edge of Wang Ren’s glaive. At the same instant, an invisible hammer smashed into my chest.

  I gasped and stumbled a step backwards. Wang Ren’s glaive quivered, emitting a shrill whine. The blade shattered.

  His palm slammed into my solar plexus. Wang Ren stumbled forwards, his technique interrupted. He spat blood as the backlash sliced through his spirit veins.

  In a final act of desperation, I threw my hand out, clutching at the man’s forearm. My fingers brushed against his. That was enough.

  Jing Ma’s leg snapped into a straight line like a bolt of lightning. Wang Ren crumpled to the ground. I smashed into the cavern wall, losing consciousness for a breath.

  “Foolish,” Jing Ma snorted, reaching out a hand to catch the falling jade bottle as it fell. “You could’ve lived through this with your only loss being a natural treasure you aren’t qualified to possess. Now, your lives are mine to reap,” he finished, the drop of dew slipping through the neck of the bottle.

  He stoppered it the next instant and raised the bottle to his face. Closing one eye, he stared at it for a moment before smiling brightly and keeping it in his storage ring.

  “At last. Once I have consumed this and broken through to the Core Forging Realm, those Shi bastards will regret the day their wretched clan appeared in this world,” he muttered to himself.

  Jing Ma turned to face us. “Now, do you want to watch the mortals die or would you prefer to lead them into the six paths?”

  I seethed in rage at his vile words. He was going to kill all of us? I couldn’t help but curse myself.

  Everything I’d done was to help the people around me but we kept falling into danger and tragedy. Was this the curse of cultivation?

  He strode towards us at a measured pace, the smile fading as he neared Wang Ren. “You’re an arrogant one,” he sneered, planting his foot on my brother’s face and pressing it into the stone. “You can die first.”

  Jing Ma raised his knee and began to stomp down. At that moment the entire cavern began to rumble and shake.

  The shaking was so fierce that a few of the spirit stones were dislodged, clattering to the ground. Knowing how damn hard it was to pull them free, I was shocked.

  What the hell was happening? The rumbling intensified and Jing Ma was forced to halt his strike. Wang Ren was spared for now.

  The man turned towards the depths of the cavern. I hadn’t explored that far yet, not bothering to after I found such riches in the first place I entered.

  “I suppose it was too much to expect such a treasure to be lacking a guardian,” he sighed. “It will do these old bones some good to have a real stretch. Beating up weak trash isn’t worth the effort.”

  Shattered spirit stones and debris showered the cavern as an explosion came from the source of the tremors. Two glowing red orbs appeared in the darkness.

  The orbs grew closer until the head of a golden serpent was revealed. Its jaw unhinged, revealing two fangs larger than my body that tapered down to needlepoints. A drop of yellow venom beaded at the tip of each fang.

  In a few breath’s time the serpent’s full body was revealed as it slithered into the cavern, curling and winding before rearing its head at us. My entire body trembled and even my qi shivered as it hissed at us.

  What happened next shocked me, but Jing Ma seemed unsurprised.

  “You dare intrude on this sacred peak and steal treasure which belongsss to this king?” the snake hissed, tongue flicking up and down as its gaze bore down on Jing Ma.

  “Hmph! Strength is all that matters in this world. If you want the Golden Millenium Dew then you can take it from my corpse!” he declared, taking out four jade pebbles and tossing them to the four cardinal directions while forming a seal with his right hand.

  The snake didn’t avert its gaze for a moment. The stones crashed into the stone floor of the cavern.

  Jing Ma finished forming his seal and shouted. I saw four strands of qi burst from his dantian and connect with the stones. The ground lit up with curled and straight lines that twisted into each other.

  The spiritual energy in the air moved as the cultivator stepped towards the beast. With the world at his back, it seemed inevitable that the snake would die.

  Yet, the beast remained still, staring at the man as if he were an ant. I tried to sense what the beast’s cultivation was, but I found my senses completely blocked.

  At the very least, Jing Ma was taking it seriously, which meant it was strong enough to threaten a Foundation Building master. A realm above an awakened beast, then.

  When Jing Ma was two paces away from the snake, it snapped its jaw shut and its entire body tensed briefly. Its inner eyelids flicked shut and when they opened it pounced.

  Jing Ma’s palm smashed into the snake’s nostrils in a devastating clash. The entire cavern shook. Even the spiritual energy trembled and I felt my lungs squeezed as if I was in a vice.

  Even watching this opening clash gave me insights into combat I would never have considered before. But Jing Ma wasn’t done.

  He roared and the inscriptions on the ground flared to life. Spiritual energy poured into the four stones and I saw the four strands of qi swell as that energy was poured into his body.

  Was this a formation? With the energy that filled his body to the brim, Jing Ma gained the strength of a thousand men.

  He twisted his body backwards and struck the snake a second time. This time the beast didn’t dare meet the attack with its face, snapping backwards and blocking with the tough scales on its neck.

  A metallic chime rang out as the blow landed. The snake hissed and shook its head. Jing Ma fell to the ground, but he remained casual.

  “Not bad, thief. Your sss-strikes are precise. Still, it is not enough to threaten this King! Die!” the snake cried, slapping its tail against the ground and shattering the four jade pebbles instantly.

  Jing Ma staggered backwards while coughing blood. The energy in his body went rampant and dispersed as the snake shot towards him and opened its jaws.