Bang!

“Ngh!” With a muffled scream, the man that was assimilating the qi fell unconscious and hit the ground with a dull thud, prompting the four other people that came along with the man to look at what happened.

As one of the men in black garbs laid unconscious on the ground, the leader of the group of five could not help but narrow his eyes as he noticed that a dark red fluid slowly trickled out of the man’s face. Without hesitation, the leader removed the mask that all of them wore from the man that laid unconscious as stifled gasps came out of the other’s mouths as they looked on in silence. Never once did they expect that the sight that would greet them was… gruesome, to say the least.

Surprisingly, all of the orifices on the man’s face had blood trickling out of it, forming a small puddle on the ground. On top of that, the leader noticed that the veins on the man’s face were faintly protruding, even slightly glistening due to the darkness of the night. With a light sigh, he looked at the others, who were curious as to what happened to their comrade, and said, “Fortunately, we brought a few medicinal pills along with us in case of emergencies like these.”

“What happened to him, leader?” one of them couldn’t help but ask as his hands still moved to scoop up the Spirit Slag, albeit considerably slower than before.

“He’s affected by the easiest illness to avoid,” the leader replied, clicking his tongue. “I’m sure you guys heard what he said a while ago. He told me the spirit vein was giving him qi and he was assimilating it.”

With those words, the other three could not help but look at the unconscious man with a hint of pity and schadenfreude. “Qi Overflow…”

“Yep, Qi Overflow.” The leader nodded in response before sighing once more. “He bit off more than he could chew.”

“Number 2, you’re the doctor here. Go wake him up,” he ordered one of the men not long after. “It won’t be good for us if we don’t get back before sunrise.”

Nodding in response to the leader’s words, the man that the leader called Number 2 went closer to the unconscious man and administered the necessary medicine that would allow the unconscious man to wake up. As for the leader and the others, they could not help but look at the pile of Spirit Slag in front of them… or more specifically, the budding spirit vein that existed beneath the pile.

Qi Overflow was an illness that normally occurred in cultivators either cultivating for the first time after a long while… or those incredibly arrogant of their capabilities. Those cultivators bit off more than they could chew by absorbing more qi than what their bodies could handle. Although such an illness did not occur for those at the Essence Gathering Realm, those at the Essence Condensing Realm and above were highly susceptible to it if they did not know the limits of their bodies.

Nevertheless, from how one of their members fell unconscious from the sheer amount of qi that was given to him by the spirit vein, the others could not help but harbor thoughts of greed once more. In fact, even the leader wasn’t exempt from this, asking the others, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have this spirit vein for ourselves?”

“With how much qi it gave Number 4 there, I’m definitely sure all of us would be able to reach the next realm within the next few months or so,” one of the other people said in response, prompting them to let out a few light chuckles here and there. “Perhaps, the realm after that wouldn’t even be impossible. After all, the density of qi here is already far greater than the density of qi back in the clan.”

“Surely there’s a way to keep this spirit vein for ourselves, right?” Another one could not help but ask, prompting the leader to say in a stern tone, “Unfortunately, the patriarch tasked us to haul the Spirit Slag and return to the clan as fast as possible.”

Though, just as their gazes turned into that of disappointment once more, the leader said with a grin, “But it’s not like there’s a way to keep the spirit vein for ourselves.”

“Oh? How so?” The others could not help but become curious once they heard that. Surprisingly, after the leader said his response to this question, all of them exuded a hint of killing intent.

“It’s quite simple, really,” the leader told them as killing intent exuded out of his body as well.

“We just have to kill the young master and his wife.”

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…

At the very moment the man fell to the ground unconscious from the effects of being infused with too much qi, Arthur could not help but become silent, wondering if what he was doing was right or wrong. After all, there was really no need for him to go so far. He was just a spirit vein, not some person that was related to Jian and Qin in any way.

In fact, when the leader of their group removed the mask covering the unconscious man’s face, Arthur could not help but inwardly shudder as multiple emotions surged in an instant. Fear, terror, disbelief, such emotions had gone rampant in his mind. However, one emotion stood above all of them.

Disgust.

He was disgusted at how simple it was for him to inflict harm on people, even though he was just a spirit vein, something that was inanimate in the first place. But surprisingly, even though he was disgusted at what he had done, at what he was capable of, he knew that he was just ignoring reality. After a little bloodshed was normal, much less to say when the human civilization in his past life relied on it to get where it was. For the world of cultivation, that thought was just amplified.

Just as he was about to swear to himself that he would not do something like that again, the words spoken by the leader were picked up by his [Spirit Sense], resounding inside his mind as something inside him snapped. For once, he allowed rage, something he rarely ever felt, to control him. With a great portion of his rationality lost, he went ahead and activated [Spirit Aura: Infusion] again, aiming it at…

The leader of the group.

Whoosh!

“Mngh!” Out of nowhere, the leader felt qi entering his body, prompting him to think that the spirit vein was also giving him qi, just like what happened to the man that fell unconscious. With an air of excitement and confidence around him, he told the others that he had received qi from the spirit vein as well, and he wasn’t going to fuck up like the previous man did.

Well, as he was the leader, he was unsurprisingly the strongest among them, being at the 7th Stage of Essence Condensing. Of course, that also allowed him to last longer than the man that fell unconscious as his body could absorb more qi. But eventually, his body had also reached its limit, yet more and more qi still gushed into his body.

It was only then did the leader realize that something wrong was happening, as well as what happened to the man that fell unconscious. Forcefully suppressing the excess qi that was still entering his body to delay the effects of Qi Overflow, the leader quickly stood up and told the others with a grim expression, “We have company.”

Hearing that, the remaining two that were still scooping up Spirit Slag stopped what they were doing and unsheathed their weapons, ready to fight against those that seemed to have ill will against him. However, even after a couple of minutes, only silence covered their surroundings.

Bang!

Coincidentally, it was also at this moment that the leader’s body could not endure the excess qi in his body anymore, allowing the excess qi inside him to turn rampant as his orifices soon started to bleed. A few seconds later, he also fell to the ground unconscious, falling more or less similarly to the first unconscious man.

With two people in their group now unconscious, there was a thought in the remaining three’s heads that someone was specifically targeting them in the middle of the night. With that, they could not help but ponder, ‘Did the young master find some sort of protection during the two years he ran away from the clan?’

Unfortunately, none could answer that question as the remaining two people, who were keeping an eye for their potential enemy, soon felt a gush of qi into their bodies, prompting tears to brim out their eyes as they muttered in fear, “No… no… no…!”

With no other choice, the remaining two people went ahead and sat cross-legged in a panic, trying their best to assimilate the qi they were receiving into their cultivation. On the other hand, the doctor among their group, who had just stabilized the condition of the first unconscious man, could not help but feel great fear and nervousness at this moment, wondering if the one targeting them was out to get him after the two were done.

Eventually, the two people could not handle the amount of qi entering their bodies and ended up the same way as their leader, their blood gradually dyeing the ground blood red as some of the Spirit Slag was eventually dyed red as well.

Seeing as all four of his comrades were on the ground unconscious while he was the only one still unaffected, the doctor could not help but panic as he hyperventilated, feeling like he would faint at any moment. Right now, all of his senses were working on overdrive, wondering when the one targeting them would come out and show themselves to him. Sadly, even after waiting for half an hour, no such person appeared in front of him, feeling like his sanity was going to break at any moment.

At this point, he knew that the mission they undertook was considered a failure. After all, a simple plundering mission had turned into a massacre where four people were left grievously injured, all of them at the edge of life and death if they weren’t treated as soon as possible. Making up his mind as to whether he should proceed with the mission or head back to the clan as fast as possible to save his comrades, he eventually gritted his teeth and used all of his strength to lift all four of them at once over his shoulders. After that, he utilized his strongest movement technique to get out of there, his strength being fueled by fear and adrenaline.

As to whether the doctor or any of the members from this five-man group would return to this place in the future…

Only time would tell.