He remembered the guard’s advice: to not go beyond 10 kilometers from the city line. -Assuming the guard could gauge my cultivation base somehow, beyond 10 kilometers is survivable by bone-forging cultivators only. I don’t think there would be anything valuable before that. Let’s go with the flow.- He murmured.

He chose a random direction away from the dirt path that he saw outside the city gates and jogged without any goal. He kept marking his paths with unique prints on tree barks as he did when he was on the run with his mother. The more he traveled, the fresher his memory of those 3 years became. He didn’t notice when he started tearing up. Eventually he felt the cold on his cheeks and vaporized his tears away. -Tears are for the weak.- He murmured.

He kept an eye out for anything worthwhile on the way. He found no luck with spirit herbs. He did find a few low level spirit beasts but he didn’t try to hunt them. He had decided before venturing out, he will only hunt aggressive spirit beasts and only when absolutely necessary. He will never take a life which is not evil or is not trying to harm him.

After traveling for around 7 kilometers, he started seeing mountains and valleys. He thought people will usually go to bigger mountains for treasures, so he chose a smaller mountain for a better chance at finding something and smaller conflict. He could see a small mountain quite far away that was sandwiched in the middle of two tallest mountains in the area.

On the way to the small mountain, he heard a small commotion towards his right. Contrary to what his guts were telling him, he went to check it out. After a few minutes, he could hear metal kissing each other. As he got closer, he could see a somewhat open grassy area surrounded by trees. He could see two cultivators in the same red and white martial uniform duking it out.

He hid behind a tree to observe the fight and understand the circumstance. Both the cultivators looked to be in their early twenties. One of the cultivators was using a sword while the other was dual wielding small sabres. The first cultivator’s sword was glowing red while the 2nd cultivator’s sabres were on fire and emitting large fire waves. Their fight was charring the grass around them.

Even though the first cultivator’s skills looked weaker, he was holding his own against the other cultivator. -They would decimate me in a normal fight. Even if their basic sword mastery looks like a joke, the sheer impact of their skills would probably break my katana in a few clashes.- he thought. The first cultivator was wearing some sort of armor, maybe that was what was protecting him from the fire wave from the second cultivator.

“Qing, you should give up and accept fate. I have already broken through to pinnacle bone-forging while you are still in early bone-forging. Your skills can’t penetrate my armor anyway.” The first cultivator called the second one Qing. He was pressing towards him step by step.

“Jack, is it worth it to kill a fellow sect member for a 90-year ginseng? Do you think you can escape the investigation of the sect and my father?” Qing replied. He sounded a little anxious. It was getting strenuous for him to keep up the continuous use of his skills. But without the fire waves, he will just die faster.

“Don’t cry crocodile tears. I know you killed five outer disciples to get this ginseng. I will either become a preparatory true disciple or an outer sect elder after I go back. Your father can’t blatantly try to harm me by then.” Jack became more ruthless with his shots. The battle had been dragging for too long.

“Ok, let’s compromise. Give me the location of where you found the ginseng and I will leave you be.” Jack said as he left a bloodstain on Qing’s lefty shoulder. Jack jumped back 10 meters to get some respite and let Qing consider the deal. Jack’s armor was chipped and charred in several places but he was not hurt much visibly. On the other hand, there were several bloodstains on Qing’s hands but his body was also fine otherwise. Qing looked much worse for wear.

Qing slowly moved towards Jack as he huffed and puffed. His sabres on his sides, their tips leaving a mark on the grass. He already put away the fires on his sabres. He was not talking anymore.

“That’s not a wise choice, Qing.” Jack lunged towards Qing with his glowing sword. He made a horizontal slash. Qing jumped up and in swift motion brought his sabres above his head and slashed them down simultaneously. Jack’s swing missed because Qing jumped up. Jack didn’t have enough time to dodge Qing’s attack because he was still in his swinging motion.

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A fire wave shaped as a sparrow descended on Jack as Qing slashed his sabres down. It mutilated his head and also destroyed his armor leaving a charred wound on his torso. Qing’s sabres crumbled with this last attack.

“You…already reached…the second stage of fire sparrow art. Why..not…use it…in the beginning?” Jack said in a strained voice as he laid on the ground, dying.

“I was not sure I could use it and you might dodge it when you are at your peak.” Qing replied. He also laid on the ground and took long breaths. A few seconds later, Jack took his last breath and died. Qing slowly stood up and looked towards the place Castiel was hiding.

“Come out.” Qing said in a commanding tone. Castiel’s breath quickened and he tried to lessen his presence. He hoped Qing was talking to someone else.

“No point in hiding. Don’t make me chase you. You are too weak to escape.” Qing just sat down and meditated. Castiel knew he was talking to him because he should be the only one nearby considered ‘weak’ by bone-forging cultivators. He still didn’t know how Qing knew he was hiding nearby. -I need more general knowledge. I don’t even know bone-forging cultivators could sense others hiding nearby. If he had more energy to spare, he might have killed me before I had the chance to react.- Castiel thought. He slowly went out of the tree cover with his hands raised up to show obedience.

Qing saw a strange man come out of the shadows, donned head to toe in all black, only his green eyes visible.

“Remove your mask. Don’t think that I don’t have a weapon, so you can do anything.” Qing commanded. Castiel didn’t try to resist. He removed his mask obediently. Qing immediately lowered his guard when he saw a young face.

“I am a nobody. Just an early qi-gathering kid, trying his luck in the wilderness. I was just passing by when I heard your battle. I know nothing about you. I don’t mean any harm. Please let me go.” He tried to seem innocent but his expressionless face failed to evoke any emotion in the opponent. He misreported his cultivation to see if Qing could see his cultivation level exactly. He stayed exactly 10 meters away from Qing to react to any unforeseen circumstances.

“Well, at least you have self-awareness. Ok, you can go.” Qing said condescendingly. It didn’t look like he caught Castiel’s lie.

As soon as Castiel turned around, he felt blazing heat behind him. He instantly sidestepped to the right and turned ninety degrees left, his hands on his katana. He saw a Qing lunge in front of him with his fist on fire. Qing barely missed him as he didn’t predict Castiel would dodge so fast. He heard a whistling sound as he passed Castiel by but he ignored it. The clothes on Castiel’s torso burned and the skin on his chest blistered almost immediately. Castiel didn’t even so much as frown. Years of torture in that facility had dulled his senses towards pain. He immediately threw away his upper garment.

“Why? I am inconsequential.” He asked Qing. Qing couldn’t see if Castiel was hurting, angry, or bewildered. There was no expression on his face.

“Why? Because I can. And only dead people keep secrets.” Qing said ferociously.

“Was it worth it?” Castiel looked at him pitifully.

“What is that look? You are in no position to…..” Before Qing could finish his sentence, his right hand almost disconnected from his body. It was just hanging by the last few tendons. His muscles, ligaments, bones, all disconnected at the upper arm. Blood poured out like a fountain. Qing screamed in excruciating pain.

“When did you….” His right leg also gave away as there was a nightmarish gash starting at his thigh extending until his calf. He knelt down in pain.

“Let’s call a truce. My father is an inner court elder of the Phoenix sect. The disadvantages of killing me far outweigh the benefits. You have no idea what methods nascent souls have in their arsenal. You can also have all my property. What do you say?” Qing raised his head in difficulty and pleaded. All he saw was an expressionless face bringing down a pitch black katana on his head. He was split in half effortlessly.

“You are right. Only the dead can keep secrets.” Castiel whispered. He searched for the 90-year ginseng in Qing’s bag and anything resembling a map or directions to the location which Jack was asking about. After a few seconds, he found a paper depicting some mountains and valleys and a cross mark on one of the mountains. He took the ginseng and the map, leaving everything else untouched. He didn’t even check what was in Jack’s bag.

He burned the detached right hand of Qing to wipe away any traces of his blood on it. Since there was no trace of mana in it, it burned to a crisp easily. He also burned the grass around where he was standing and his upper garment. He changed his clothes to what he was wearing previously. After that he just ran in the direction of the city.