Activating my small spatial ring, I pushed out several cannisters. Each one of them was primed to burst upon release. A massive cloud of dark smoke began expanding. It was would hide my scent as I made my escape and smell terrible to beasts. I also tossed out a final bomb. It burst, three shattered rank 3 spirit stones went zipping through the water in different directions. A cloud of ground up spirit dust also emerged, which should hopefully confuse the beast even more.

Putting that much energy into the water with the spirit stones along with the smoke would hopefully disguise my position. And make the beast lose interest. With its human level intelligence, I could only hope this worked.

I was already kicking my way upwards while throwing out more smoke bombs. Getting them to work underwater was what had cost so much. I didn’t hesitate to exhaust my entire supply in the next minute. I felt the pressure as the beast rushed through the smoke with its eel like form.

I then pulled out the next round of cannisters and tossed them up and away from me in various directions. More smoke exploded outwards through the water. I followed one of the arcing trails of smoke off to the side. The smoke, and particulates, hung in the water, not easily dispersing. If I was nearer the surface, then they would have dispersed much more. If I had been deeper, then the smoke wouldn’t have gone that far out of the bombs.

Swimming upwards and then back down. I heard the beast zipping around, looking for me. I could see its energy clearly through the water. Once it was on the far side of the smoke cloud, I swam out of the trail of smoke I was hiding in and away from the scene of the encounter.

I focused more on horizontal distance, rather than ascending. The pain was getting worse and worse. The canyon disappeared from my sight beneath me. I had picked a random direction, which was taking me further out into the ocean.

My joints hurt, I had a massive headache, and finally it was hard to breath. Waves of dizziness assaulted me, and my vision was blurring. I forced myself to stop ascending and keep moving horizontally and descend a bit.

With the diving suit and my cultivation, I had gone to untold depths, far deeper than an ordinary human could dive. The problems with pressure still existed. With my body cultivation and refined beast essence, I would be matched up high stage 3, possibly low stage 4 cultivator. I was incredibly tough and difficult damage.

But the pressure of the ocean, especially that trench, where I had gone into the red on the depth gauge was too much. I had been hoping that the calibration would be off so that I could survive. I had survived, but getting back up to the surface would take time. I was also exhausted, both mentally and physically.

My reserve of rank 3 spirit stones was quickly running out. Swimming out further into the ocean, was the smarter choice, since if any beasts looked for me, they would assume I would head back to shore. I was glad the large number of underwater smoke bombs and energy decoy bomb had worked.

The Imperial Sect really did make some amazing equipment, even if it was incredibly overpriced. The diving suit was also helping hide me as well. It was designed to avoid drawing attention from beasts. Another reason why I went to the Crashing Wave Sect to borrow one.

I popped in another rank 3 spirit stone to keep the suit running and sipped some water from inside the mask. While I had found a hidden beast garden, and stole the green ocean lilies, I would celebrate once I was back on shore. Swimming through the water, I was half conscious as I kept avoiding any beasts I could see, as I made a big loop back to the shore.

I was on my last spirit stone and couldn’t keep my eyes open as I finally reached the shore. My entire body hurt massively. The waves slammed me up against the rocks, as I dragged myself up on the coast. I made my way to the tree line, pulling my mask off. It felt good to breathe air. I collapsed under a tree and passed out.

No dreams came to me while sleeping. I felt a pain in my neck and woke up. There was a cloaked figure looming over me. They had a horrid smell to them. I felt a collar around my neck. “I wouldn’t try pulling it off,” the figure said.

“What?” I asked as I tried to make sense what was going on.

“A little itty, bitty cultivator washed up on shore. The heavens truly favor me. I haven’t smelled a cultivation like yours. It will be delicious to consume,” the woman said. I placed their gender through the voice and the curves on the robe. Looking at them, they were in the fourth stage of cultivation, if I had to guess. She had a plump figure.

“Let me go, or else,” I said as I tried to get up. The figure snapped her fingers and my body lost all strength.

“A collar of dispersal is such a wonderful tool. You feel it don’t you. Your cultivation has left you,” she said while holding up a formation key, before tucking it away into her dark robes.

“How?!” I asked afraid. I was not in Half Moon City, and in tremendous pain still. I was in no condition to fight. Rage coursed through me, but was offset by the amount of pain I was in. That was a way to suppress the beast essence, overwhelming pain that racked my body.

“That little cultivator is a trade secret. Don’t want you getting any ideas and escaping. Oh, no. I am going to extract every bit of cultivation out of you, for myself. Now let’s get all that equipment off of you. Unless you want to take it off yourself. It looks expensive,” she said.

“It is. I will take it off,” I replied. She grinned under her cowl. I saw her fat jowls jiggle as she let out a giggle.

“Good. Good. So cooperative,” she replied. I was trying to sense what the collar did to me. But it was weakening me greatly. I wouldn’t be able to outrun a rank 4 cultivator. Without my sword, I would have a hard time hurting her. With my body in pain, I wouldn’t be able to fight hand to hand or to even think about running.

I had to defeat her, here and now. There was only one chance. I had forgotten something important. This would hurt us both massively. But the hope was it would wound her enough, to disable her. I twisted a hand and poked my last smoke bomb I had out of my small spatial ring. It exploded and I turned to run.

I didn’t get very far as I heard the snap of fingers and I collapsed to the ground once more. “That might work on beasts, but not on little old me,” the woman cackled as she came closer. “You are collared already? What hope do you have?”

“Please, please my sect will pay for me,” I begged and cried. The tears and fear came easily, they weren’t all fake. She took a step closer and looked down at my pitiful form.

“The strong take and the weak suffer. That is the way of our world. Now I am going to peel you out of your shell,” she said. I had tried to make a fake escape to lure into a sense of superiority. She would think I had used all my trump cards.

I had one left. A very dangerous one, as she came closer and closer. I tried to scramble away, past the tree roots, but was too slow and weak. An impossibly strong hand gripped my shoulder and squeezed. “AHHHH!” I screamed in pain as I felt my bones shudder under the pressure.

“What ripe cultivation for me to harvest. I so enjoy your fear,” she said as she flipped me onto my back. I brought my right arm up to shield my face to make it look like I was cowering from her. My left arm swiped out, activating my mid-rank spatial ring.

BAM!

I was slammed into the ground as the massive amount of water pressure shot outwards, along with one of the cases. Thankfully the carrying case was aimed at this demonic cultivator. It slammed into her with a massive amount of force, launching her away into a tree. As I struggled to get up to my feet, I saw the massive tree was shattered halfway through its base from the impact of the demonic cultivator. The carrying case lay on the ground, unharmed.

The tree toppled over to the side. I made my way from the ground zero crater I was in over to the obese older woman. My diving suit had protected me from the pressure explosion. I should have drained the ring at intervals was ascending. My encounter with the beast and with how tired I was, made me forget.

I put the carrying case back into my mid-rank spatial ring with the other one. I reached into her robe and pulled out the formation key to the collar. I quickly found the slot and put it in. The collar snapped off. I still felt terrible, but I no longer felt weak. I quickly spun and clamped the collar around her fat neck.

A hand reached up and grabbed mine, but I could feel it was weak. I didn’t know how to activate the collar, but I ripped my hand free and put the key back into my spatial ring. “You dare!” she screamed, specks of blood and spit flying from her mouth. Some of it hit my face.

“Yes, I dare,” I replied. I stumbled back away from her. The pain and aches from my joints made it hard to keep my footing in the soggy, ripped up ground. “I am going to leave and let you run away. I am sure you can get that collar off in time.” I said.

“Ahhh!” she screamed in rage, as I turned and began walking away. She didn’t pursue me thankfully. She didn’t have a spatial ring, otherwise she would have put the formation key in it. I also couldn’t be sure I would win in a fight. While that collar sapped her strength, I was in incredible pain.

After two hours of stumbling through the coastal forest, I came to a paved road. Checking behind and around me, the woman wasn’t following me. I quickly stripped off the diving suit and put on my sect robes. I did a little rearranging of my spatial rings. I knew which way I had to go back up the coast to get back to the Crashing Wave Sect.

I picking up a branch from the side of the road to help support me, I began stumbling along it. Each breath, each step, pain racked my body. I knew I had to get back to proper civilization as quickly as possible.

It was about midday when I woke up and it was getting closer to evening as I stumbled my way up the coastal road and I heard noises behind me. I turned and there was a caravan. I let out a sigh of relief as a guard rode up towards me on horseback. I turned to fully face them.

I could see the guard processing seeing a child in a martial robe, indicating they are a cultivator. They quickly dismounted and deeply bowed. “Master Cultivator. We are passing through and hope we didn’t disturb you,” he said. I had encountered similar reactions while traveling. Mostly I ignored them and kept moving. Now, I was tired and wanted to rest. My head was killing me.

“I headed for the Crashing Wave Sect, which shouldn’t be far from here. Five days?” I asked.

“Yes, Master Cultivator. They have a city, Calm Cove, which we are headed to. Do you wish to travel with us?” he asked.

“That would be useful. Just a place to sit, since I have been traveling for quite a while. A carriage is not necessary.”

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“We already have a carriage, with another cultivator,” he replied. The main portion of the caravan was catching up now. Suddenly the soldier’s head was missing.

I blinked in shock as a fountain of blood erupted from the still standing body. “Attack!” the call went up. I spun around looking for the attacker. A cultivator burst out of the carriage. Rank 4 from what I could tell. They immediately rushed towards me with sword in hand. I quickly raised my hands.

“Not me! Someone or something else,” I shouted.

“Surrender!” they shouted and gestured at me with their sword. Suddenly the rank 4 cultivator spun around. Their sword shattered, a huge gash opened up on their robes, and they went tumbling along the road. They quickly spun up to their feet. I didn’t know what sect they were from based on their robe. I heard a familiar giggle on the wind.

The wounded cultivator slammed a hand on the ground. A pillar of rock shot up at them, while they were on it. Two more mortals in the caravan lost their heads. It was the female demonic cultivator from earlier. I had to act quickly. Taking my mid-rank spatial ring in hand, I placed it on a branch of my walking stick. I then threw my walking stick and ring away into the forest to the side of the road.

It wouldn’t be spotted easily or found. I couldn’t afford to lose the green ocean lilies no matter what. “Senior, it is a demonic cultivator, who is invisible!” I called out. I noticed he had already taken a pill and the injury on his chest had stabilized as he stood on top of the stone pillar.

Someone was behind me. I spun around and brought my arms up to defend myself. A powerful blow landed on my chest. I felt my cultivation shudder, shifting slightly, and the astral soul stabilizer vibrate heavily. I took a couple of steps back. I swung out with my fists wildly but hit nothing. I did see a slight blur of slightly denser energy, moving to the side.

“There! Senior!” I pointed out to the cultivator still standing on his pillar looking at the battle below. Stone spikes erupted from the ground. The heavy-set female demonic cultivator became visible as she flipped out of the way, far faster than her size would indicate. The collar was no longer on her neck.

“Brat! Die!” She rushed at me again. I tried to stumble back, but everything hurt too much. A stone wall erupted between us. More stone walls moved in on her from various directions, rumbling across the ground.

“Stone coffin!” The rank 4 cultivator on top of the pillar called out. The stone walls shook and then one shattered as the demonic cultivator leapt free from the technique. “Die!” she screamed and expelled a massive blood red cloud from her mouth. Her plump figure quickly became more saggy.

Everything in the path of the blood red cloud was corroded and began to break apart. I scrambled away as the pillar the caravan cultivator made crumbled, forcing him to leap back down to the ground. The woman rushed through her blood red cloud, and it followed along with her.

“Die demon!” the cultivator yelled while leaping forward with a sword strike. The female cultivator ducked under the blow and a hand landed on his face. It quickly began to melt away. He screamed and he swung his sword down. It cut off her arm that was grabbing his face. She had a gob smacked look on her face, as she looked down on her missing arm.

The cultivator brought his glowing sword back around and stabbed her though the heart, before he collapsed as he melted away. The demonic cultivator staggered back with a shocked look. The sword in her chest was melting, but the red cloud around her was already disappearing.

“How?” she asked and collapsed to the ground. I heard screaming in the distance. The mortals who had run into the forest were probably being eaten by beasts, which would soon descend on this area. I went over to a lone horse that had belonged to one of the guards. Thankfully it was trained not to run away in panic during combat.

It took a moment to pull myself on. “Yah!” I slapped its rear while shaking the reins. The horse took off down the road as I gripped the saddle. I was in no condition to fight. It was hard to breathe, and blood was dribbling out of my mouth. If I had my sword and was not crippled, then I could have easily cut down the beasts that were showing up. But in my wounded state, a well-trained mortal could kill me.

I kept urging the horse to keep going along the road. I went past one rest point and then reached another just as the horse collapsed, the following morning, frothing at the mouth. I stumbled into the small stone building built on the side of the road. I collapsed on the floor. “Ahhh,” I let out a half groan half scream of pain.

My body felt like it was ripping apart. For the second time in as many days, I passed out from exhaustion.

When I woke up, I didn’t have a demonic cultivator over me. Unknown cultivator who had been part of the caravan and who had helped me out, thank out. I focused on my cultivation and body. It wasn’t good, but it was better than it could have been. Breathing hurt more than before. There was a huge bruise on my body and several of my bones were broken.

My cultivation had shifted slightly from the impact of the hit I had received. It was minor but the channel structures I had been carefully building, had shifted a bit in relation to my physical body. I still had a headache and couldn’t work out the extent of the damage. Everything built quite compact, so the shifting wasn’t too bad, but my core area was the most concerning.

I hadn’t built my cores yet and the shifting of my structures was serious. There was no room for error in my mind. This was why stage 2 cultivators didn’t get into fights. One solid blow from a technique and there would be huge problems that would damage a person’s cultivation.

That hit I had taken would have killed most other cultivators. There was a technique behind the strike that had broken a few of my ribs. I crawled over to the nearby well, next to the building and pulled up some water. I drank heavily, but that didn’t help the issues I was experiencing. I needed a proper healer. I was also bankrupt.

“So stupid,” I muttered. Surviving high rank beasts, only to get found by a demonic cultivator. The lady had been far too crazy to get me. You would think she would have been smarter about the fight. But I guess she was too enraged and tired from chasing after me. She hadn’t properly assessed the situation at first. I was lucky they had killed each other, and the beasts would kill everyone else.

Stumbling back onto the road, I kept trudging along, in massive pain. I didn’t regret leaving my low-rank spatial ring behind with the two green ocean lilies inside of it. That was too much wealth to be carrying about. The mid-rank spatial ring was a bit of risk to bring along. But I needed to return the diving suit.

It took four more days, before I arrived at the gates of Calm Cove City. I was let in without hassle and quickly hired a carriage to go to the Crashing Wave Sect. I had a few rank 2 and rank 1 spirit stones along with a pouch of tael thankfully.

I arrived back at the sect I had left about a month ago. I was brought to Elder Bo once more. He seemed surprised to see me. I stood up as he entered the room, painfully bowing.

“Junior Yuan Zhou, greets Elder Bo,” I said and the collapsed back into my chair right after he sat down.

“You live. And you have depth sickness,” he replied with a shake of his head. “The fact you are still alive is impressive. But you will require medicine,” he replied.

“How much?” I asked.

“Five hundred rank 1 spirit stones. And that will just fix the worst of it.” I winced at that number.

“Let us conclude our other business. The diving suit,” I waved my hand and set it on the table from my spatial ring. He returned my sword. I had missed it. I was never going to give it up again. Its weight was a comforting presence.

“I don’t have the spirit stones, elder,” I replied.

“If you aren’t treated soon, the joint issues will become permanent and possibly mental issues as well,” he replied.

“I would humbly ask to be given some face, and the opportunity to repay such a debt at a later date,” I replied with a head bow. He let out a long sigh.

“You are causing our sect a great deal of headaches, Yuan Zhou,” he said. I winced at this. “We aren’t a rich sect, like your Cloudy Moon Sect that can send rank 2 disciples bumbling about into the ocean with more spirit stones than common sense. Or the Imperial Sect with its immense wealth. You will owe me a personal favor on behalf of the Cloudy Moon Sect.”

That was not good, since a favor could easily be worth ten times what was given. That was the common definition of repaying a favor. I would owe 5,000 rank 1 spirit stones. That was only 50 rank 3 spirit stones, so while bad, it wasn’t horrible.

“Thank you, Elder Bo,” I said and bowed my head deeply.

“Come, let us get you into a healing chamber. Did you even succeed?” he asked me and got up. I followed him out of the room.

“I am afraid not elder. I also took a blow on my chest” I replied while thinking that I didn’t have what I needed with me, and I had returned injured. He gave me a look for a moment but then kept walking.

“A shame. At least you returned alive. Many other cultivators fail to do so. Let us go see the healer first.”

I got a Healing Pill that was worth 5 rank 2 spirit stones. It would fix up my ribs and organs. But for my cultivation that was not something they could deal with. I now owed 100 rank 3 spirit stones. Not something I wanted to occur, but getting healed up was important.

After getting the healing pill I was put into a stone chamber with a bucket of water and an empty bucket. I was told I would be here for fifty days. Every tenth day they would bring me food and replace the two buckets.

I felt the pressure of the air increase, and began to feel better. I was incredibly hungry at the end of the ten days as the pressure decreased slowly. The pain came back along with the headache, but it was less severe this time.

During this time I focused on my cultivation. It wasn’t good. The carefully laid out internal structure was twisted slightly in my chest. The biggest impact was where I was going to put my cores. I tried to move the motes that had been moved out of position. It took time and was incredibly painful.

It was like pulling splinters out of my body and pushing them into another location. The amount of resistance, I faced was immense. The issue wasn’t the distance the aligned motes had moved, but the sheer number of them.

The treatment was repeated four more times. At the end of it, I was slightly sore, but no headache. I had only fixed about a twentieth of the motes that were not in the right spots. At my current speed, it would take another three years to fix the injury I had sustained. I left the chamber and was brought before Elder Bo once more.

“This is for your Master and Sect Leader,” he told me and handed me a letter. I took it carefully and put it in my spatial ring.

“Thank you, Elder Bo. I will it delivered without issue,” I replied and bowed deeply.

“Let it not be said that the Crashing Wave Sect turns its back on fellow sects,” he said and left the room. I left the Crashing Wave Sect with my sword on my back and a smile on my face. It was good to be able to move without crippling pain.

The soreness was still there, but that would linger for a while from what I had been told. It was time to recover my mid-rank spatial ring. Four days of traveling later, I arrived at the site of the battle. There was still rubble, and the road was damaged. The bodies were missing, and there were only scraps of broken up wood on the road.

I went into the forest where I had thrown my ring. I had been checking, but had seen no one following me thankfully. It took two days to find the stick, stuck up in a tree, with the ring on it. Nothing was missing. I let out a sigh of relief at that.

Now I just had to get back to Imperial City. Sell one of these green ocean lilies, buy a red desert rose, and then return to the sect. When I returned to the road, there was a young child that appeared similar to me waiting for me in a tattered blood red robe. I couldn’t see their cultivation, but a child cultivator like this was not a good sign.

“Junior, greets senior,” I quickly said and bowed my head.

“My disciple goes missing. I poke around and find this is the spot where she died. And here I find a young cultivator snooping around. Recovering a lost spatial ring. Tell me what happened,” he said and displayed his cultivation, letting whatever technique he was using drop. He was a rank 8 cultivator.

I was finished. I explained what happened. They then pressed me on my trip into the ocean. There was no point in lying here. It was clear that the crazy woman was his disciple.

“Interesting. A genius. And you survived through luck. I can see the currents of fate about you,” he replied.

“Thank you senior,” I replied politely like a meek little mouse before a massive tiger. My dark reflection just grinned at my subservient answer.

“You know you won’t make it with standard cultivation techniques. Past the first bottleneck,” he said.

“There was talk of sending me out into the Firmament,” I replied.

“HAH! Even I would not date such a thing at my stage. Only immortals are truly qualified to make such a journey. The aura of luck and fate that surrounds you, would mean nothing out there. But what if there was another way?” he asked.

“You mean demonic cultivation?” I asked.

“Hmmm, indeed,” the not child grinned at me. “You caused the death of one of my disciples. So, a debt is owed. There is no demonic immortal. And my path would be strengthened by taking one such as yourself under my tutelage. What do you say?” That wasn’t even a real question. It was like asking if I wanted to instantly die or not.

“Yes, Master,” I replied without hesitation.

“I know you are lying in your heart. But that is fine. Once you see the power that lies within the darkness, you won’t want to go back. And if you do, well, you can always object and fight me,” the not child said. That was never happening.

“Yes, Master,” I replied once more, and he grinned.

“I am the Blood Demon Aoyin. Your name disciple?” he asked.

“Yuan Zhou,” I said with a gulp.

“Yuan Zhou. A pretty name. I see your fear, but there is nothing to worry about. I am merely going to convince you the path of blood is the best. To corrupt your foolish notions of cultivation that have been put into your head,” he said as he approached.

A massive sword suddenly appeared in front of him and floated horizontally above the road like a surfboard. He stepped on the floating sword. “Get on in front of me,” he said. I quickly went over and stepped on the floating sword. A hand touched my back, and I froze in place unable to move. The sword I was standing on rose up into the air and then quickly set off, the wind rushing past us as we traveled at impressive speeds. I was forced to shut my eyes from the force of wind blowing into my face.