Zhang Quan fled for his life, his body turning into a streak of bloody light as he pushed his speed to its limit.
Every breath carried the tang of blood-the price of burning his vital essence. But the blue-robed figure shadowing him from behind left him afraid to pause for even an instant.
Si Chen rode the wind in pursuit, watching that desperately fleeing streak of bloody light with a twinge of regret.
Had I known it would come to this, I should have picked up a faster movement technique back at the Lineage. Then I wouldn't be stuck like this, far stronger than him but unable to catch up because of my speed.
He resolved to thoroughly search through the supplies in his storage ring once this matter was settled.
One pursued and the other fled. In the blink of an eye, more than half a day passed, mountains and rivers racing by beneath them.
Si Chen's spiritual energy recovered extremely quickly, and the restorative pills his Lineage had prepared for him were piled as high as mountains. He had enough to sustain his pursuit to the ends of the earth.
Zhang Quan, by contrast, was a spent arrow at the end of its flight. His face was as white as paper, and as he fled for his life, he kept pulling out pills and stuffing them into his mouth. Their medicinal power dissolved within him, barely sustaining his constantly dwindling vitality.
He groaned inwardly without end. That blue-robed youth behind him was an absolute monster. After chasing him for more than half a day, his aura had not weakened in the slightest!
Just as Zhang Quan was sinking into despair, his spiritual sense swept ahead, and wild joy suddenly flooded his face!
Ahead, above the clouds, a group of seven or eight cultivators was traveling slowly on swordlight. All wore matching moon-white Daoist robes, with a silver crescent embroidered on their cuffs.
Sect disciples!
At their head was a young man in his early twenties, with sword-like brows, star-bright eyes, and an imposing bearing. A longsword rested on his back, and the other disciples clustered around him like stars surrounding the moon. He appeared to be the senior brother leading the group.
Like a drowning man clutching his last straw, Zhang Quan fiercely drove his remaining magical power into motion. His bloody light accelerated further, hurtling straight toward the cultivators as he let out a shrill cry:
"Fellow Daoists! Help! Help me!"
He landed unsteadily before the young man at their head and dropped with a thump, looking as though he was about to kneel. Tears streamed down his aged face. Combined with his seemingly respectable Daoist robes and his paper-white complexion from excessive depletion, the sight could make anyone who heard him grieve and anyone who saw him weep.
"Fellow Daoist, what has frightened you so badly?" The senior brother leading the group frowned slightly and extended a hand to support him without touching him.
Several young disciples behind him immediately grew alert, watching Zhang Quan with both curiosity and wariness.
"It's him! That demon behind me!"
Zhang Quan pointed at Si Chen approaching from behind and accused him through anguished tears, grief and fury mingling in his voice. "He-he slaughtered three friends traveling with me, and now he wants to kill me to silence me! If I hadn't risked my life using a secret art, I would already... already..."
The young man at their head was Zhao Qinghe, the senior brother of this generation in the nearby Flowing Cloud Sword Sect.
Seeing Zhang Quan's wretched state and hearing his grief-stricken words, he was already inclined to believe part of his story. His brows drew together slightly, and he said gravely, "Don't panic, fellow Daoist. Take your time. What exactly happened?"
Seeing that the other man had engaged with him, Zhang Quan secretly rejoiced and threw himself even further into his performance.
He beat his chest and stamped his feet, tears pouring down as he spoke. "That's not all! A hundred li ahead lies Green Mulberry Town. Several children there were inexplicably afflicted with baleful energy, their life force draining away. This fiend was responsible! He must be practicing some evil art that devours children's life force! If you don't believe me, send someone to investigate immediately. You'll know as soon as you see them! Those poor children..."
As he spoke, he began to choke with sobs, looking utterly grief-stricken and furious, as though his heart were being torn apart.
His words mixed truth with falsehood, washing himself clean of all blame while dumping an entire basin of filthy water over Si Chen instead.
By then, Si Chen had drawn close on the wind and stopped ten zhang away. His clean blue robes were indeed stained with a little blood now. Against his far too young and handsome face, those stains looked especially sinister in light of Zhang Quan's accusations.
The sect disciples immediately reacted as though confronting a formidable enemy. They drew their magical artifacts and watched Si Chen warily.
The youngest among them, a pretty junior sister, was so frightened that she shrank behind Zhao Qinghe, her eyes full of fear as she looked at Si Chen.
"Senior brother, look at him... he's covered in blood. He's so frightening!" Her voice trembled.
Zhao Qinghe's brows were tightly knitted as his gaze moved back and forth between the disheveled Zhang Quan, whose acting was flawless, and the bloodstained Si Chen, whose expression remained calm.
He had not entirely accepted Zhang Quan's side of the story. In a grave voice, he asked Si Chen, "Fellow Daoist, is what he said true?"
Si Chen raised his eyes and answered honestly, "He wanted to kill me and steal my treasures, so I killed his accomplices. The children in town have nothing to do with me."
He paused, then looked at Zhang Quan, who was trying to hide behind Zhao Qinghe, and added evenly, "Now I'm going to cut out the weeds by their roots."
At those words, every member of the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect changed expression!
That was hardly the sort of thing a disciple of the righteous path would normally say!
A square-faced disciple immediately shouted, "Senior brother, this boy is so bloodthirsty. He's definitely no decent person!"
The junior sister tugged at Zhao Qinghe's sleeve as well and whispered, "Senior brother, he's so young, but his cultivation isn't weak. Maybe... maybe he really did use some evil method..."
Her words seemed to bring something home to Zhao Qinghe.
Indeed, a boy of twelve or thirteen who had already reached the middle stage of foundation establishment was truly rare in the wider world.
Evil cultivation arts often sought quick gains, pulling at seedlings to make them grow, and could readily produce such "young geniuses." Their practitioners were also usually cruel by nature, taking lives at the slightest provocation.
The scales in Zhao Qinghe's heart began to tip. Zhang Quan's performance was flawless, while Si Chen's "frankness" now looked more like the brazen confidence of someone who feared no consequences.
"Fellow Daoist, you're so young. Why are you so intent on killing?" Zhao Qinghe's tone grew sterner.
"Even if there is a dispute, we should establish its cause. How can you speak so lightly of cutting out the weeds by their roots?"
Si Chen tilted his head slightly, seemingly puzzled. He had already told the truth. Why didn't the other man believe him?
A moment later, that trace of confusion dispersed.
His mother had told him there was no need to dwell on things he could not understand if they had nothing to do with him.
His third uncle had also told him that if someone wanted to kill him, he should simply beat them to death.
He stopped paying attention to Zhao Qinghe. His gaze passed over him and settled on Zhang Quan, who was secretly gloating behind him, and he stepped forward to walk over.
"Stop!"
Zhao Qinghe shouted sharply and leveled his longsword, its tip pointing toward Si Chen. "Until we've cleared this up, you cannot hurt anyone else!"
Si Chen kept walking, as though he had not seen the sword.
Zhao Qinghe could no longer maintain his composure. As the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect's senior brother, how could he retain any dignity when someone ignored him like this before his fellow disciples? Seeing that Si Chen was about to pass him, he hardened his resolve and finally struck!
Buzzz-
The sword rang out with a clear note, and a condensed streak of swordlight slashed toward Si Chen's shoulder like a ribbon of silk.
He had held back with this strike, intending to force Si Chen away rather than take his life.
Yet Si Chen neither dodged nor evaded. He merely raised his right hand the instant the swordlight reached him.
Under everyone's horrified gazes, he met the sharp blade with that pale, slender hand!
Clang!
The sound of clashing metal rang out.
He gripped the blade firmly in his palm, stopping it from advancing another inch.
The bloody, mangled flesh they had expected never appeared. That palm was harder than steel tempered a hundred times!
Zhao Qinghe felt an unshakable force coming through his sword. He mustered all his spiritual power, his face turning crimson with exertion, but the longsword remained locked in the other man's hand without moving a fraction.
Every disciple of the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect stared wide-eyed, as though they had seen a ghost.
Their senior brother had received the true teachings of the Flowing Cloud Sword Art. Though he had not used his full strength, that strike was still enough to cleave stone tablets and split rocks. Yet it had been... caught bare-handed?
The smugness on Zhang Quan's face instantly froze, then turned into an even deeper terror. His body involuntarily shrank backward.
Holding the blade, Si Chen slowly turned his head. For the first time, his clear yet fathomless eyes truly met Zhao Qinghe's gaze.
He looked at Zhao Qinghe's face, slightly flushed from exertion, and felt the force traveling through the sword, trying to hurt him. Then he asked, enunciating every word:
"Do you want to kill me and steal my treasures too?"
Before you continue