Sicario exited the pavilion and gripped a wooden sword by the doorway and took a deep breath of cold air as he closed his eyes. The familiar feeling of the hard wooden handle on his skin soothed his mind.
Five wooden dummies, looking pretty beaten up, stood at various distances from each other in his front yard, partially covered in frost. Sicario went to examine each of them and rubbed away any marks left by his training the previous day.
The sun had just got over the frozen mountains in the distance, and the winter creatures began boasting of their power with distant roars. They were always ready to fight, just like him.
Sicario’s relaxed posture changed as his gaze turned serious and the blade lifted, ready to strike. He took another deep breath and disappeared in a gust of wind.
The sound like that of a woodpecker rang out for a second and then stopped. Sicario found himself on the other side of the courtyard and released the breath he had been holding. The snow was absent where his foot touched the ground, and each of the dummies carried another mark.
He slowly turned around and took a deep breath again.
The strikes of wood on wood were heard again, and he was back at the place he started. Another split second, and he was back on the other side. A good bit of training to warm up his joints and muscles.
He pushed himself. Accelerate, strike the target, change direction, repeat. He was unpredictable, his feet leaving audible booms every time they touched the stone-paved floor.
What started as a gust of wind, transformed into a hurricane. The training dummies shook in the wind as they were struck countless times every second and from all sides.
He became nothing but a blur as his hard wooden sword tapped on the target with barely any force behind it. They were his things, why would he destroy them? He was training his speed and precision, not destructive power. He already had plenty of that.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the front door of his pavilion. Then came a voice.
“Senior Sicario? Are you there?”
Sicario stopped in his track, releasing the kinetic energy he had been building up in a torrent of wind and dust, and turned at the door.
“What is it?” He called, recognizing the owner of the melodious voice.
The front door was pushed open and a woman stepped in. She lifted her gaze towards the pavilion, but the man wasn’t there anymore.
“I did not say you could enter.” She heard the whisper in her ear.
Her head jerked around as she nearly jumped, eyes enlarged, yet once more, the man was not there. Instead, she heard the footsteps from the yard.
“Senior Sicario, the Elders have another task.” She said, not turning around. From behind her, she heard the sound of wood striking wood, yet resisted stealing a quick glance. “Trespassers were found on our land and an Elder went to capture them, yet they somehow managed to escape.”
She turned around. “I have their faces here.” She took a bamboo container holding said paper scrolls. The wooden dummies still rocked side to side, yet the man was once again not there.
“Give me that.”
She nearly jumped again as a hand came behind her and snatched the container. Sicario then slowly walked back into the courtyard while looking at the scrolls.
“Reconnaissance, sabotage, and assassination? They are really getting their money’s worth, huh, Vayra?” He laughed.
“Yes, Senior.” Vayra bit her lower lip as she took in the sight of Sicario’s tall stature and broad back.
“Well, no matter. Tell the Elders I’ll be on my way tonight. And they better prepare a meeting when I get back. Next time my services won’t be so cheap.” He partially turned around, letting her see part of his face. “Now go! I have to prepare.”
Vayra blushed and quickly averted her gaze, lowering her head. “Yes, Senior Sicario!
She quickly backed away and closed the door behind her. Once safely on the other side, she lifted her head high with a smile and patted away the dusty handprint on her behind. She then quietly giggled and skipped away in a terrific mood.
On the other side, Sicario read and then re-read the instructions, making sure to imprint every word into his memory. He then looked at two unfamiliar faces staring back at him from the paper. Two young cultivators, less than half his age.
The fact they were able to escape from an Elder meant they probably had the protection of one. It would make his task much more difficult, but not impossible.
And his task was simple. Observe the target and then cripple, or preferably, kill, as swiftly as possible.
But that was for later.
Sicario looked at the front door where the girl just left.
She was a nice one, and he quite liked her. However, the nature of his work conflicted with keeping a long-term mate. Or a family for that matter. He was alone by necessity, not by choice.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
He had nothing to sway his allegiance, nothing he could be blackmailed with, nothing holding him back from giving 110% to the task at hand.
Maybe after he finally broke through to the Spirit Realm and became an Elder. By then his value to the Sect would increase even more and he wouldn’t need to work anymore to produce an income. He was so close. Just two or three more jobs. By the next winter solstice, he could already be producing Spirit Stones on his own. Sure, he would need many of those to Cultivate and to pay a percentage to the Sect, but there would e plenty left to get a wife or two. His life would turn for the better. He just had to endure for a little bit.
He was still young, with centuries of lifespan still ahead of him if he remained diligent in his training. Cultivation was a long road, and though he would be walking alone, being surrounded by his family and loved ones during that time would be nice.
And what better way to leave a legacy than to have a capable heir to carry his name? He came from humble beginnings, but his future was going to be bright! He could already taste it!
Sicario smiled for a moment and then burned the scrolls in the palm of his hand, turning them to ash and scattering it in the chill wind.
He had to prepare for the task. First, he had to get in contact with his informants in the Myriad Beast Sect and gather some vital information. Then he had to gather everything for a perfect plan. He still had to purchase some information from other spy networks, but that required just a bit of money. And if the only obstacle was money, then that was not an obstacle at all.
Sicario gripped the sword and hardened his gaze. His body twitched and reappeared on the other side of the courtyard. The dummies and his sword exploded all at once the moment he acted.
He had trained his speed for long enough. Now it was time to kill.
----------------------------------------
I groaned as my aching body sank into the boiling water.
Elder Li forbid me from regeneration and instead demanded I fight like a normal person. Well, as normal as I could be. And that meant that every hit that landed on me left a painful mark. It took me some time before I managed to avoid the golem’s attacks, and that was after really pushing myself.
Heck, I even had to bring to light my self-created Wind Walk Movement Art from the Before. It had been a while since I last made use of it, but the agility it granted me was unlike any other. Though I knew some other techniques, this was the only one that suited my body perfectly.
During the fight, I even gained some insights and added some moves while removing unnecessary actions since I was much stronger and faster.
And how did the fight end? Well, I won, of course! I figured out how to beat those seemingly immortal golems. Just like me, they also regenerated after getting damaged. Unless you destroyed the crystal in their core, something easier said than done.
So, what did I do? Why, I ran around it, of course. For about five hours, until it ran out of energy and collapsed. Easy!
Elder Li said that wasn’t a good strategy, but so what?
Getting beaten black and blue by a stone giant is no fun, so why should I let it? Granted, it still managed to land a hit or two on me, but I was like a slippery eel. Difficult to catch and with a dangerous bite.
And as a reward for my nearly flawless victory, Elder Li granted me access to a medicinal bath to soothe my body. He also said it was good for improving the resilience and regenerative properties of my body, so I didn’t complain. And it had been a while since I last had a hot bath, so it was wins all around.
I finally had some time to examine my recent loot.
Summoning one of my storage pouches closer, I examined the goods I collected from the space crack.
The first thing I took out was the Elemental Codex, a book that started it all. I flipped it to the last page and looked at the complicated Formation written there. Now that I had a general idea of what the Runes meant, I realized it was just a simple teleportation Formation, somewhat similar to the Thunder Translocation Talisman, though clearly much stronger.
The anchor was somewhere on the other side of the world, and considering it most likely transported me from a different solar system, if not a different galaxy entirely, it had to be something really amazing.
I was still surprised I managed to activate it with just my blood and a piece of that black crystal hidden in the book.
Speaking of black crystal… I looked down at my chest and noticed the black thing spreading through my chest. My collar bones just recently pierced my skin, and they were similarly dark and crystal-like.
It was almost as if my entire skeleton was turning into this weird form of crystal.
I didn’t feel any different, so I wasn’t sure if I should be worried. I felt just fine all things considered, and my powers grew day by day. Even getting hurt didn’t carry any permanent damage, instead, I got even stronger. I confirmed that after breaking my bones a few hundred times. They were getting harder and harder to damage. The golem only managed to break one of my ribs, and that was after landing a very good hit right in my chest.
I put the book back inside and tried to remember the first time I came into contact with magic. It was that same black crystal which was most likely a core chunk of some godlike creature. Even now, with my massive Qi stores, the feeling I got back then was still infinitely larger.
It was as if a person seeing the ocean for the first time, without the concept of scale. It was impressive, sure. But when you realize just how huge the ocean actually is, it is difficult to wrap your head around it.
What I am trying to say is… The energy required for that seemingly simple Formation to work was… stupidly large. I wasn’t even sure if reaching the peak of Spirit Realm would be enough to do that.
I just shook my head at the absurdly large powers at those heights.
A bit of rummaging through the storage pouch later, I pulled out two vials. One of them was bright red and giving off heat, while the other was teal and cold to the touch.
[Hah! A Mana Elixir… I actually had another one!]
I thought I would have never again seen one of those. They helped to enhance the Mana stores a tiny bit, well, I guess I should call them Qi stores. Anyway, as a Mortal had about 5-10, the fact that this Elixir boosted it by 20-30 was incredible!
Obviously, I drank these things whenever I had the chance, allowing me such high stores. Too bad I couldn’t find the herbs to make more of them around these parts. As such, I held the last one…
I pulled off the cork and drank it all.
It tasted… alright, just as I remembered it. It was a mild herbal taste and slightly bitter, nothing much.
I soon felt some tingles as the Elixir began working on changing my body, but as I observed it working with my Arcane Eyes, I realized it was all mostly useless.
The potion was for Mortals, and I was already high in the Nascent Soul Realm. My body had bathed in Essence for months already, and the changes that brought were way more than whatever this potion did.
Half an hour later, when the effect ran out, my Qi capacity nonetheless remained slightly elevated. It wasn’t much, obviously. Maybe by 0.5% if my observations were accurate. And that was me being optimistic.
I couldn’t really accurately tell how much Qi my body contained anymore. It was so much, and all the spells I knew used so little of it, it’s like trying to count grains of sand on a construction site.
I detected that Mana Elixir contained a tiny bit of Essence, but that would barely be significant for a young child, let alone me.
As my pondering came to an end, I realized the water was getting cold. I left the herbal bath, most of its medicinal properties already soaked into my skin, and went back to my room.
There was another thing I wanted to try out. Something I wanted to get to the bottom of for a long time.
I took out one of them. The large, white, crystalline Memory Orbs.