Demonic Sect cultivators were leaping about from the burning rooftops of the Hidden Fist Sect’s buildings. They paid no attention to the two teenagers on ground level, as they were busy looting.

Yin Na laughed at Tian Ji Han’s numb expression.

“Well, I do owe some sort of explanation, don’t I? You see, my father was my protector, my teacher, my family. One’s father is the greatest living benefit of all to a child. You all took him from me!”

Yin Na said all this without any anger, as if he were simply telling a story.

“My father taught me this:

Take my benefits? I’ll take your life!”

Yin Na threw his head back and laughed, and it was the first time Tian Ji Han heard his real laugh. It was a smooth, cruel and sardonic laugh that went against the Heavens.

It was at that moment Tian Ji Han realized that Yin Na’s display of friendship and brotherhood with him over their entire childhood and time spent together was a lie.

But what Tian Ji Han really could not forgive is that during that moment, while confronting Yin Na, he was forced to reason with the demon on his terms, using his language. It was symbolically him acknowledging, and thereby giving in to his demonic brother’s twisted philosophy. It was the defeat and temporary surrender of his principles and philosophy!

“Now, were my efforts to obtain vengeance ‘inefficient?’ Maybe, I lost countless hours of sleep plotting my steps to revenge, I spent my life’s savings in hiring the help of other Demonic sects, getting ripped off, and learning forbidden techniques that, although would make me much stronger than an ordinary Qi Condensation disciple, have cost me several years of my lifespan. I’m broke, and physically exhausted. I may be rationalizing now, but vengeance in itself is… emotionally beneficial!”

Yin Na kept on ranting triumphantly, but Tian Ji Han heard nothing. He was sure he would have remained standing there and burned to the ground along with his sect, had the cries of several surviving cultivators not jolted him out of his stupor.

“B-brothers!” He cried. “Sisters! Hold on, I’ll save you!”

“Tch,” Yin Na leaped after Tian Ji Han. “Always thinking of others, never of yourself, Ji Han? If you want to criticize me for being ‘inefficient,’ it’s that my plans didn’t calculate that you would miss the initial explosion. Now, I have to go through the trouble of killing you myself!”

And soon, Tian Ji Han was in a battle with Yin Na, fighting for his life. Tian Ji Han was also shocked to learn of Yin Na’s real battle strength, now that he was using forbidden, demonic arts without restraint. Yin Na was really trying to kill him!

The reason was simple: Yin Na saw him as someone who would potentially put an end to his benefits!

In the present…

Tian Ji Han ended his painful recollection. At that precise moment, he sensed the gaze of his apprentice.

Xiao Feng saw that his master had caught him staring.

“Do not worry, Xiao Feng,” Tian Ji Han said. “I would never let my apprentice come to harm!”

Xiao Feng felt his eyes tearing up in relief and gratitude, then looked away in embarrassment.

Tian Ji Han smiled, but internally he was still dwelling on his past history with Yin Na.

Only a few li away…

Xiao Ying heard the pursuit of the Ethereal Hounds, nipping at her river dragon’s tail.

The young river dragon’s flight speed was almost exactly equal as the Ethereal Hounds’ supernatural running speed!

“Go, little dragon, I believe in you!” Tears blurred her vision, both in fear and sympathy for the river dragon’s suffering at being unable to stop and rest by the many rivers and streams it passed by. She could feel its fatigue through its scaly hide, its ragged breathing.

The Ethereal Hound knew that the prey’s mount was being pushed to its limits, and sensing the advent of the kill, decided to do the same. The Ethereal Hound was not a legendary beast for nothing, it had its own qi reserves, which it expended every time it used its insanely fast running speed meant for chasing down other beasts!

The alpha successfully latched its teeth on a sizable chunk of the river dragon’s tail. The pain, as well as extra weight slowed the river dragon temporarily, but it was all the other hounds needed to latch their dagger-like teeth into its flank and hind legs.

Seeing their hunt coming to an imminent end, the hounds were driven to a frenzy, and they descended upon the river dragon in full fury.

The river dragon gave a pitiful roar.

“Nooo! River dragon!”

Xiao Ying tried futilely to get rid of the unwanted passengers on the river dragon. She fired blasts of qi and elemental bolts, but she was never skilled in combat.

“Please, someone, anyone, save me!” She cried.

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The river dragon was intelligent, as well as a high-level magical beast that could sense the aura of strong living beings from the East, which it immediately assumed belonged to other humans. It knew that it was better for its owner to try its luck with another cultivator, than reason with the fang of beasts.

The vision of the river dragon was fading, not even an entire lake would have been able to save it now. The river dragon bravely pushed on, but it was clearly nearing its limits!

With the last burst of its strength, it pushed toward the direction of cultivators one li away!

…

Tian Ji Han snapped to alertness.

“Over there, signs of life!”

“What? I don’t see anything!” said his apprentice Xiao Feng.

“Over time, your qi sense will expand in scope and strength,” explained Tian Ji Han, with his eyes closed. “It’s…a Yellow Fox Sect member, and she’s being pursued by beasts!”

“Come on! Let’s waste no time, let’s hurry!” The party of righteous cultivators got their weapons ready.

With the speed of their mounts, assisted by Tian Ji Han’s heightened senses due to being a Golden Core cultivator, they quickly located the desperate Yellow Fox Sect member. They found her bleeding and on the verge of passing out from shock, hugging her dying dragon just seconds before its own death.

The river dragon’s final act of loyalty to its master was to wrap around her like a coiled snake. The river dragon was still conscious, and felt the pain of every bite and tear into its flesh as the Ethereal Hounds worked furiously through its scales, muscles, and eventually bone. Finally, it died.

She heard the snarl of the Ethereal Hound above her, about to dig its fangs into her neck, and clenched her eyes tightly shut for the end.

“Oh, river dragon…I’m so sorry.” She moaned into its fur. “You did nothing wrong.”

Instead, she felt a blast of hot air, and the whine of a whipped dog.

“Quick!” shouted a voice. “Assume anti-beast hexagram formation!”

“Save the girl, first, don’t worry about killing the hounds! The dragon is already dead!”

Xiao Ying couldn’t believe her ears. It felt like eons since her last time hearing another human. She had felt like she was the last human in the world.

“They’re Ethereal Hounds! Why are there so many?!”

“They’re being controlled, there’s really one Ethereal Hound!”

“Tie Xin, Tian Ling Feng, cover me as I dig the girl out!”

The righteous cultivators shouted to raise morale and transmit orders.

“Where’s their master? It doesn’t matter, just don’t let them surround us, and kill the alpha!”

“Yelp! Bark! Growl…”

…

Back at the sect…

“Oh, it’s Brother Ji Han…”

Yin Na watched the vision from the alpha.

“Forget the Yellow Fox Sect girl, focus all your strength on the weakest cultivator, kill him and move on to the next.”

He gave only one single order before closing communication.

“I did not expect these developments,” he frowned. “It seems the Ethereal Hounds’ dopplegangers will be lost, which is a waste of experience. But like the pill results from this brick, no matter how calculated your plans are, or how much effort you put towards something, sometimes a perfect outcome is just impossible to achieve.”

Yin Na sighed.

“I’ve been here at the eradicated Yellow Fox Sect for practically an entire day now. Even if ‘brother’ Deng Ping’s promises about his grandfather’s magical brick were unfounded, just my gains from the Sect Pill and Treasury collection alone have more than compensated my troubles. What can one expect when a single locust is given free reign among an unattended corn field? When a goose stops laying its eggs, you kill it. Hehehe, Yellow Fox Sect. One can say that its benefits are nearly exhausted!”

Yin Na chuckled to himself. “When a spy leaves your camp to report to its master, you kill him. Of course, if he already makes contact with another force, the situation is still salvageable. You can entice the other force with benefits…or you just have to judge whether you’re strong enough to take on that force in order to completely nip the problem in the bud!”

Yin Na knew that with Tian Ji Han leading his righteous band of cultivators, only the latter option would be viable.

Yin Na had every motive to kill the remaining Yellow Fox Sect girl. She was the only survivor and witness to his deeds that he knew of. If she survived, not only could she cultivate and grow strong enough to exact revenge on him, more directly her words and memories of what happened will reach the Golden Core Yellow Fox Sect members and their Immortal cultivators that were absent today. Such an outcome was absolutely to be avoided!

“Hmm, it seems that on top of the exhausted Yellow Fox Sect survivor, Brother Ji Han had also brought six other cultivators, all seemingly having reached the Foundation stage. I’m not concerned about those lackeys, but… it seems like Tian Ji Han had made a breakthrough into Golden Core, hmm? A shame that a canine’s vision has its limits. But it seems that from the strength of his attacks and just from his…mere aura, Brother Ji Han has indeed made a breakthrough into Golden Core.”

Golden Core! It was the third stage of cultivators, beneath the Nascent Soul stage. A Golden Core cultivator, at the earliest stage, even with the most subpar of Golden Cores, could annihilate a bunch of Foundation established cultivators easily, the power difference was like that between Heaven and Earth!

If any of the Golden Core cultivators were present at the Yellow Fox Sect yesterday, then the assault and annihilation of that sect by Deng Ping and Yin Na would have simply been impossible.

“Tch,” Yin Na clicked his tongue. “This is indeed problematic. I can definitely take on six cultivators of Foundation level of establishment, but now brother Ji Han has to go ahead and make my life difficult by becoming a Golden Core cultivator?”

“How dare he!” Yin Na smiled darkly. “I taught you many times before when we were kids, Brother Ji Han: Take my benefits? I’ll take your life!”

Yin Na was not at all perturbed. He did not feel endangerment at all, only a sense of urgency to quickly enact his plan.

“Hehehe, Brother Ji Han, you have simply saved me the trouble of finding you eventually. When a problem comes looking for you, you can intercept it in greeting!”

Yin Na quickly took out all the Ensoulment pills he had made earlier, all twenty-one pills at near-flawless potency.

“These would have earned a substantial amount at an auction house,” Yin Na sighed sadly. “I could have used my first pill batch as a means to acquire even more benefits!”

He popped the pills like candy, as he sat in a full-lotus position on a meditation cushion that was lying nearby.

Yin Na felt the blood beneath his skin boil with internal energy. The temperature got unbearably hot, blood even flowed out of his nose, and sweat soaked his robes.

Within his dan tian, his cultivation base rapidly began spinning. All the qi within his body was coursing through his meridians, like bottled-up steam with no place to vent.