The Hollow Echo Sect’s abilities were mostly innate and not technique based. This meant that there wasn’t much of a difference between their many clans’ fighting styles and abilities, whereas sects like the Flowering Sword had many different variations of the technique. The people of the Hollow Echo all just used sound qi and while having such innate proficiency with sound qi made them dangerous, it also made them quite predictable.

Cai backed away from the man and readied his blade. He had applied his new understanding of the Flowering Sword technique and it had borne fruit, just as the honored master had said. He had woven the sword qi as evenly as he could throughout the whole attack and just a simple graze against the sword pattern had resulted in such a terrifying increase in his skill. Amazing.

Cai watched the cloud of dust from a distance. The man had stopped howling at some point and Cai waited in pure silence. He could have attacked first, but he didn’t know where his attacker was in that cloud of sand. And the blind bastards of the Hollow Echo sect all saw using sound.

A wave of sand burst from the cloud and came at Cai with ferocity. Cai leaped, dodging the sand, but there was already another wave heading to where he would have landed. He met the oncoming attack with his own Ten Thousand Petals and the two waves collided in a dusty mess.

What? Cai thought.

There was nothing in the attack. It was just a wave of sound qi flying through the ground. Another wave appeared this time and Cai raised his blade, ready to cut it down, but again, it was an empty attack. Why was his opponent just wasting their qi? The ground erupted as another wave of sand overtook him and the surrounding oasis.

He was trying to blind him.

Dammit.

His enemy knew that Cai needed to rest at that oasis. He couldn’t afford to leave it and find another one, not with an enemy on his tail. But he couldn’t drink from it either as long as the attacker stayed there. He would either have to win the fight or endure his thirst.

His grip tightened. There were many important things to a fight, but the most important thing that Cai had learned over the years was decisiveness. If he didn’t act now, his opponent’s advantage would only grow stronger.

Cai leapt into the air, qi pushed through his legs and his body reached for the suns. The biggest issue with the Flowering Sword Style was the time it took to cast. The Ten Thousand Petals Art for example, took at least a second or two and while it was great for ranged opponents, it was really hard to utilize in close combat. Cai himself could only do two hundred and thirty petals a second and he could only maintain a pattern with one thousand petals before the art became too complex for him and dispersed. But the art was capable in terms of range and versatility, having numerous forms of attack and defense all in one.

Still, range was useless without a clear target.

"Ten Thousand Petals: The Guarding Bloom."

Cai weaved. A pattern of sword qi bloomed in front of him. Strong strings of power flowing into one another materialized at the end of his blade. But he didn’t send the strike down. If he did, his enemy would dodge and strike, quickly utilizing the time it would take Cai to cast another attack to land a blow.

Cai’s body descended into the dust pile, that attack still held at the end of his blade. His feet touched the ground and there was a screeching sound from his left, his opponent getting ready to attack. But before the attack could hit him, Cai’s arm moved. The qi control required to reinforce a limb and move it at supersonic speeds, while keeping an unfired attack technique at the end of his sword wasn’t something that Cai could do for more than a second, but a second was all that he needed. His limb twisted to align his blade with the sound of the oncoming attack and Cai’s defensive sword strikes were released, slashing through the sand-fogged air.

There was an audible pop as Cai’s arm failed to stay in his shoulder socket, but that was to be expected. He let his sword go as his dislocated arm fell limply to his left and grabbed it with his functional one and readied another attack.

A part of him knew he was in pain, but that part wasn’t being listened to right now. His immediate survival was far more important.

The pain of the present is a sacrifice for the joys of tomorrow. Cai thought. That was an old mantra that he had picked up from the battle-practiced cultivators around him.

Cai didn’t wait for his attack to land before he started weaving another flurry of sword patterns.

"Ten Thousand Petals: The Gathering Web."

The same pattern was woven again, but a little different this time. This time, the strings of sword qi were thin and delicate but spread out much wider than the previous iterations of the attack. The pattern left Cai’s blade and flew into the sand cloud. There was a small clinging noise as his opponent blocked against it, but that was all Cai needed.

Cai leaped directly at the noise with his blade raised up and launched another set of qi patterns. His opponent backed away but before he could clear the distance Cai pushed forward again, closing the gap between the two and launching another set of attacks. Again the opponent backed away and again Cai followed until suddenly they were both out of the sand cloud.

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Cai was breathing heavily now. He was tired and dehydrated, and on top of that, he had just rushed at his opponent relentlessly. His qi reserves had been rapidly drained with his consecutive attacks and his chances of losing were growing with every second that passed by.

They both stared at one another for a brief moment.

"Your hand for your sight?" His opponent said, noting the purpose of Cai’s attacks and his dislocated shoulder.

"My hand for your life," Cai replied, leaping towards the man with hate. Again, attacks were exchanged and again the man countered. Close swordplay was often like that. When you had the ability to reinforce your limbs with qi and move at sub-sonic speeds instantaneously, skill became much less relevant in close combat sword fighting.

Rhythmic beats of blades sounded out as the two men fought. They matched each other's pace, each keeping an eye on their opponent’s speed and strength and adjusting their own to be able to block and keep up with it.

"Who sent you?" Cai asked once more.

The man had asked for Cai’s name, meaning that someone had to have sent him. The Hollow Echo Sect did have clans that worked as assassins, but the strength of their assassin was also reflective of the employer’s wealth, and wealth indicated status. His opponent was three minor realms above him, which did give him a huge advantage, but wasn’t a guarantee of victory. And everyone back at the Flowering Sword Sect knew that he was capable, so to send a man like this, well, they’d have to be an idiot, wouldn’t they?

Cai swung his blade, pushing aside the man’s guard and lunging for his ribs. With immense speed, his opponent sidestepped and redirected the attack with his blade. The sound of scraping metals screamed as the two collided, and before Cai could counter, his opponent screamed. The sound ripped through Cai’s body and blood pooled in his mouth as his organs shook. Cai felt a warm cut on his left followed by the sound of flesh hitting the sand.

He looked down to see his sword arm on the ground. He had nothing beneath the elbow and blood leaked from his stump.

"What?"

There was a change in the aura of his opponent and power revealed itself, pushing down on Cai’s presence.

"Fo- Fourth realm?" Cai sputtered through the pain.

The man from the Hollow Echo Sect just smiled, looking at him with a despicable grin.

"I lost track of you for a bit after you entered the desert, so I assumed that you knew about this attempt, but it seems like you had no idea. But still, you never do know with you young masters, even the most hated ones have some trick up their sleeves."

"As if I’d be worth that much to them," Cai replied. Blood leaked through his mouth with every word.

Cai closed his eyes. There was no possibility of him beating an opponent who was two ranks above his own. The man had been playing with him the whole time. This fight was meant to draw out whatever life-saving treasure Cai might have been given so that the bastard could negate it and kill him anyway.

"You’re worth enough to hire me. I must say young master Cai, your family members sure are vicious folk. I offered to maul you and break your cultivation, so you could at least have some life left, but they refused! " The man said, shaking his head lightly with a vicious grin.

Of course, that’s what this was about. He had always been hated because he had one of the most direct lines of claim to the patriarch’s throne, not that the old man would give it to him. The only people with a motive to kill him were his own family, and now that his mother was no longer here, they could act without the worry of repercussions. Who would investigate his death seriously? Who would risk upsetting some of the most powerful clans within the sect, merely for a dead man’s justice? There was still some threat when his mother was around. Even if she didn’t care about him, he in some ways represented her, and if he was harmed so was her reputation. Cai doubted she would care, but if she had, the his grandfather would have gone to the ends of the region to seek vengeance.

"Oh well, you have only your own misfortune to blame, Young Master Cai."

I never even wanted to compete to be the Sect Patriarch, Cai thought. All I ever wanted to do was to be left alone, but I wasn’t allowed even that.

His assassin raised his blade and swung.

"Really, I close my eyes and meditate for a couple of hours and you guys go starting a fight in my backyard?"

Everything stopped. Cai felt his limbs lock into place, and for a moment felt like the air itself was refusing to go into his lungs. Cai opened his eyes. He saw his opponent, frozen in place with the blade hovering only a few inches above Cai’s neck and he could feel a blanket of qi so large that it seemed to cover the world itself. It was as if the desert itself was holding its breath. There was a man standing ten paces from where he was. He couldn’t make out the figure's face for some reason, but something about that lackadaisical stance of his felt familiar.

"Ho- Honored Master-" Cai started.

"Relax kid, no need to grovel when you’re half dead," Honored Master Bill interrupted.

The Master walked forward, striding slowly towards the Cai and his frozen opponent.

"You just left and you’re already fighting, eh?" The Master said as he inspected the surroundings.

"Ah, an ambush. And from someone of the fourth rank too."

The master’s eyes glanced over the surroundings, looking through the tracks in the sand as if he was watching the battle unfold right then. His gaze travled, first to the cloud of sand over the oasis and then over to the path of battling footsteps.

Then he let out a slow and sharp whistle before commenting, "See where you really messed up was not seeing his arm. After using an attack like that on his arm, it should have been pretty badly mauled, or at least bleeding. But then again, he did do a pretty good job of distracting you from noticing that, what with the blinding sand and all."

Then he turned, shifting his gaze from the trails of the fight to its conclusion. He walked over to Cai and looked at the arm lying on the sand right next to him. He picked it up, inspecting it with curiosity.

"Looks like you could use a hand, eh?" The Honored Master chuckled.

Cai looked at him then he looked down to the floor at his own severed arm. His sword was still in its grip, and then everything hit. Fatigue overwhelmed him. His fight or flight shut down and whatever was left of his pain resistance fled along with it. His arm, or what was left of it, seared like sizzling meat. His body shivered with agony, so much so that he wasn’t even able to scream. The pain seemed to possess him in that moment, almost removing everything that made him Cai and leaving only agony to fill the void, turning his very existence into a scream itself. His face scrunged up in horror as he felt his mind go limp.

“Bad joke?”

Then he blacked out.