“Hey, I asked a question,” Tang Ze said.

“Hmm?”

“I said that I don’t really know how strong they are,” Tang Ze said. “So how much stronger are they than a normal person?” From what Tang Ze could tell, Zhang Long might’ve been in a much better physical shape than he was - but that was also likely because Tang Ze hadn’t been quite athletic in his previous life.

As it was, it did not seem like Tang Ze had superhuman strength or anything along those lines.

“Ah… about five times as strong as a normal person,” Zhang Long said. Shouldn’t a Nascent Soul cultivator know this? Or maybe it had been so long since this man had ascended to a higher realm that he had forgotten what it was like to be at the lower realms? That was a possibility. “And around three times as strong as I am.”

Tang Ze nodded. That should’ve been easily manageable - so long as they didn’t have any strange glowing rocks with them. It also explained why they were still using horses, they clearly weren’t strong enough to the point where they could get around solely on foot yet. Either that, or they wanted to conserve their stamina.

“Right, so how should we do this?” Tang Ze asked Zhang Long.

“Land in front of them and demand that they hand Jin Zhen back - else we’ll cripple their arms and legs!” Zhang Long said.

Tang Ze sighed. “No matter how strong we are, the fact remains that they have a hostage with them, don’t they? So what will we do if they threaten to chop off you little friend’s head before we can do anything?”

“...ah…”

“So this is the game plan,” Tang Ze said. “I’ll land a bit behind them, and I’ll grab Jin Zhen and take her to safety. Then, we teach them a lesson.” He then paused. “Wait - do you think they’ll have any special techniques that they can use?” Zhang Long had said that they were only about five times as strong as a normal person, but if they had something say, a skill that could attack one’s soul directly or some other kind of ability that bypassed Tang Ze’s physical strength and capabilities, he might find himself in a pickle.

Come to think of it, if they knew how to transform living objects, then, he might actually find himself turned into a literal pickle. After all, the character he was emulating did not have any resistance to magic or similarly-based attacks.

“They might know some techniques,” Zhang Long said. “But at Qi Refinement, the amount what they can do is limited to temporarily granting themselves some boosts, or healing, and what little attacks they can do are nowhere spectacular. I’m sure you’ll have no problem with them.”

Tang Ze was somewhat relieved by this, but was also aware that for whatever reason, it sounded like Zhang Long thought he was a lot stronger than he actually was. The kowtowing near the beginning when he had flown was an example - maybe that was it? Maybe flying was something that was rather difficult in this world?

So, while he was relatively certain of his victory, he would still need to be careful in case one of them looked like they were going to use a special technique against him.

The actual best thing to do would be to wait, and see how his powers worked first. But Tang Ze could not do that - he had been thrust into this situation basically the very moment he had walked into this new world, and if he left, it would leave Zhang Long without any method to save his friend.

And while Tang Ze was not the type to throw away his life when there was some other recourse, he was not overly-cautious to the point where he would not engage an enemy like this.

There were some times when, even if you knew the odds were stacked against you, or that defeat was inevitable, you had to fight regardless!

It wasn’t as if Tang Ze was not afraid.

He was running into an unknown situation - and did not know for sure if he could win or not.

His heart was thumping loudly in his chest, and yet, he could not turn around.

He felt afraid, yes, but at the same time, he knew that he couldn’t back down.

Why was that?

It was not because of any special attachment to Zhang Long - it was because Tang Ze no longer wanted to be that person he was before.

The coward he had been in his last life.

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If only he had had the courage to step up like this back then…

...to step up when it had mattered.

But that was all in the past now!

One could not choose the circumstances of one’s birth - though to a small extent, one could choose the circumstances of one’s death.

And if Tang Ze had one wish, it was that in his life, that he could go down fighting for what he believed in.

Maybe then, he could make up for his failures.

And so, with a deep breath, Tang Ze landed, depositing Zhang Long a few feet back.

Tang Ze hadn’t been noticed yet, and it was at this crucial moment that his actual skills would be put to the test.

He had only recently gotten such strength and speed - he had had no time to practice.

But like an animal who taught its children how to swim by tossing them into the water, he too, would have to learn by doing. And so, Tang Ze launched himself into the air.

The leader of the horsemen who were part of the Diamond Dust sect, was named Li Wei.

He was at the third minor realm of Qi Refining, and had been leading this group for a singular purpose.

And that was to rile up the Rising Phoenix sect!

Such border conflicts, in which low-ranking members of a sect would sneak into the borders of the other sect and then either steal or harass the other members, was long since considered ‘fair play’ between the sects of the Raswatian Empire.

Not only was this allowed, but it was also somewhat encouraged as a way for the sects to fight amongst each other in a covert way, and to give the newbies some combat experience as well.

It also fostered a sense of camaraderie between those engaging in such behavior together, as well as a sense of rivalry between factions.

Granted, there were still tacit rules to such activities. For one, killing or maiming was greatly frowned upon - while it could be said that the journey of a cultivator was all about strength, and as such, even if someone died in the fighting it wouldn’t be ‘too much of a deal’, Li Wei was not in good graces with his sect, and would like to avoid further censure.

Golden Core and higher ranked cultivators were not sent on such journeys given how much stronger they were, which would no doubt invite strong retaliation from the invaded sect - as it was such cultivators were rare enough that they were busy with other aspects of sect business rather than doing things like this.

As another general rule, mortals were left alone.

Why did they seize this woman then?

When Li Wei had been given a few horses and told to ‘sow chaos’ in the Rising Phoenix sect’s territory, he had happened upon a nearly perfect scene.

He saw an Initiate of the rival sect, along with what looked like his jade beauty! Such an opportunity was perfect for them to have some fun - and to grab her.

The Initiate had been a pitiful Qi Condensation rank cultivator, so there was no real glory in ganging up to beat him to a pulp. Instead, they took her before his eyes and then taunted him before running off.

No doubt that Initiate would run back to his sect, and then they would send some others after them. But that would give Li Wei and his gang a chance to fortify their location and ambush the Rising Phoenix sect’s forces!

In so doing, they would emerge victorious over either an equal number of fighters, or maybe even a numerically superior force if Li Wei played his cards right.

Now that - there would be great glory in that as he returned back to his sect!

The Diamond Dust sect would finally be able to recover a bit of its face after recent events at the Advanced Tournament a few months ago. Li Wei also knew that for such a small issue, the Rising Phoenix sect would not send anyone of Golden Core rank or higher to deal with them - meaning that it was would most likely be either evenly matched, or heavily skewed in their favor.

Despite all that they had traveled for, the horses had not tired one bit.

That was because these were special horses - raised by sects and essentially the animal equivalent of a Qi Refining cultivator. They were not that much faster than normal horses, but could maintain their top speed even while carrying weights like Li Wei without stopping for several hours, a feat that no ordinary horse could do.

Naturally, they were almost five times as expensive as normal horses.

It would’ve been even better for their mobility if they could have something like pegasi or griffins - but there was no way the sect would give such things to Qi Refining realm members like themselves.

Before he could think any further, a flash passed before his eyes.

With his heightened senses, he could somewhat make out the blur pass behind him, in front of him, and could just barely trace it with his eyes as it went out of sight.

What had happened was Tang Ze had flown in, grabbed Jin Zhen after tearing through her restraints, turned around, and then flown back to Zhang Long.

It was actually good that he could only bring out a fraction of the character’s power, else he might’ve done something like snap Jin Zhen’s body in two by accident.

Nothing of the sort happened though, and she was quickly reunited with Zhang Long without any issues.

Tang Ze was quite glad that no harm had befallen her - he was still suppressing quite a bit of his power, and it was good to know that she hadn’t been hurt when he had snatched her away.

Zhang Long began untying her as Tang Ze turned around to face the perpetrators.

“Whoa there!” Li Wei yelled out as he urged the horse to turn around. It was still an animal and its intelligence was nowhere near the level of a proper magical beast, but it was able to respond to such commands quickly.

Tang Ze knew that he had to act before they figured out what was going on, and made to strike at the nearest horseman.

The thing was that there were two targets here - the horse, and its rider. And though he wasn’t one for pointlessly hurting animals, this was a fight, and the horse was the larger target. Not to mention he figured that if he threw the horse off-balance, the rider would also be thrown off and would be out for the count.

Though, in this case, he did end up underestimating how strong he was.

The punch he threw was not practiced or elegant, but carried such brute force that it snapped the animal’s spine in half as it was tossed twenty feet back, the point where his fist made impact leaving a huge dent in the animal’s body. Without a doubt, it was dead.

All through this, Tang Ze had felt nothing. It was like punching a pillow - but that was where the problem lay. He had not actually meant to do that to the horse, as such the result stunned him slightly.

What if he couldn’t control his power?