My guest slowly opened her eyes and looked around confusion in her eyes. It didn't take long before her aura exploded outwards, only to be smothered by mine.

"I see you are back with us," I said with a friendly smile.

"You knocked me out!" she yelled.

"I did," I readily agreed. "No need to be rude, you're going to be here for a while.

"Release me at once! I swore your oath!" she yelled.

"You did. But I thought about it, so now you're still here," I said.

"Why?"

"Because your leader will not see reason. He already knows someone capable of defeating his lackeys is here, yet here you are. And if you return unsuccessful once again? He will send someone else, especially because it's obvious I don't kill anyone. So he has nothing to lose sending them," I reasoned.

"Apart from me, there's only the clan head and he can't leave the clan grounds unprotected. You have nothing to fear from us," she said. "My people need me."

"I don't think so, the risk to both me and my people is simply too big," I said. "It's not like you can do anything about it anyways. I made that barrier myself, and you swore you wouldn't fight me."

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Concern entered my mind as her face relaxed.

"So that barrier isn't strong enough to hold me?" she asked.

"It's not, but that doesn't really matter, does it?" I said with an easy smile, hiding my concern.

"It does. I swore an oath, and will keep it to the letter, yet I won't allow a perversion of the meaning to stop me," she stated, and punched out.

I could feel the ward shudder, and she punched again, and again, until the weak barrier collapsed.

"Let me tell you something about heavenly oaths youngling," she started, moving to pass me. "They only work if you actually perceive your actions as breaking them. And just destroying a weak barrier array? That's not a fight," she said, and took off.

I followed until she left my property, all the way thinking about a way to stop her.

It was of no use though. Subduing her again wouldn't be all that hard, but I had no way to actually imprison her that wasn't to utterly inhumane killing her would be a mercy instead.

"If you don't keep my secrets, your whole clan will come to regret it," I warned her as she sped off.

Damn. That did not work as intended. My warning would perhaps hold her hand for a few weeks, but cultivators searching for revenge had a way of advancement that was closed to the rest of us.

Which meant this really wasn't the last I'd hear of them.

I sighed. There was no real way around it, was there?

I had to really train fighting, if I wanted to stand a chance against anyone that wasn't a very strong and angry human. And I would have to become immortal and beyond even faster.

Just great.

Time to send some of my guards out to scout for a good area for our new headquarters. As for myself? I needed to develop some qi techniques to help me in a fight, and design several arrays to gather and direct qi, as well as some stronger ones to protect the new location from beasts and random cultivators.