Ben waited patiently.

His hyperfocused state muted all the pain he felt.

He tried to minimize the chance of silly mistakes as much as he could. So, right now, he was only acting on instincts, as a machine ready to kill.

After finishing the meeting, the group inside finally got up to leave the tent. But Ben still couldn't hear what they were talking about since his mind focused solely on his objective.

As they walked out, every step the cultivator took was like a ticking clock in Ben's mind.

But only after they passed the corner did Ben open his eyes.

The sight of his target's back filled his mind. So as a response, all of Ben's muscles tensed, and he jumped like a predator.

His left arm flew at his antithesis like a spear.

His left palm opened, and inside, a small drawing glowed.

Unable to stay under the shadows, his black cover began to melt.

However, when people noticed him, it was already too late.

The tall woman at the anchor's side was the first to move. And before Ben even touched his target, her cleaver was already in the air, flying toward him.

But Ben ignored it.

Yet, he didn't pierce the walking ritual anchor. It was just a smack, but with this contact, a bit of his refined soul invaded his target.

As Ben finished his attack on the bald young man, the cleaver cut through his left shoulder like paper.

Almost immediately after, an immense amount of Spirit hit Ben's head. And that smashed his nearly cut-in-half body to the floor.

The other cultivators all moved into a ready instance while one elderly carried the victim away from Ben.

After taking some distance, the elder placed the young man on the floor and began urgent treatment. However, despite the lack of wounds, the guy didn't respond.

After scanning the body once, the doctor turned around abruptly and yelled at the woman holding the cleaver.

"His whole cultivation imploded! He is as dead as he can be. And it seems the seed imploded too!"

He was going to say something else regarding the body on the floor, but once his sight focused on where Ben was supposed to be, he saw nothing.

"CATCH HIM!"

After confirming with their senses that the body on the floor was dead, everyone shifted their focus to the surroundings, trying to notice if another attack was coming.

And that was their biggest mistake. Ben took those few seconds to disappear back into the shadows.

And even the blood left behind also began evaporating.

The doctor stayed there staring at those marks disappearing, perplexed.

"How did they notice it? And what was that?"

He stood up and took the corpse onto his arms.

A group of very young soldiers surrounded them with a protective formation.

The elder knew he needed to move. Even with the seed destroyed, he couldn't allow that to fall into the protectors' hands.

Even if the attack made him suspect his enemy already knew how to deal with the anchor, he couldn't be thoroughly sure. So he still followed the strict rules of prioritizing the elimination of any clue.

In addition, after calming down, he even regretted sending all their strongest warriors away since that impulsive response might be what their enemy wanted.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

---

Despite the cost of keeping his technique active, Ben stayed melded with the darkness.

Ben's body was boiling, and any part that fell from it immediately evaporated.

He held his left side with his right hand. But despite the open cut, his blood didn't keep falling because it became viscous.

Due to the urgency, Ben merely glued his parts without fully healing them. But due to his quick actions, even his right hand became immobile.

He moved whatever he had left to his legs and ran in a straight line.

However, he wasn't blindly running away. In the last few days, Ben carefully thought about where he should hide if need be.

His many years of exploring came into play since he remembered an abandoned ruin in this region.

And despite it being a ruin he would preferably not visit, Ben still put his old feelings aside and sprinted toward it.

Those events he wanted to forget happened more than four thousand years ago, and going in would at worse make him bitter, and at best, maybe, he could finally forget it.

His escape was a success at first glance. However, that wasn't a surprise.

He knew that despite all the enemies being strong warriors, none of them were close to the apex.

No apex figure could effortlessly move around without triggering a reaction from the leaders of this world. And they would have it even worse if they acted with unknown intentions.

So because of their intermediate level, no one had the sensitivity to locate Ben after he went all out in hiding.

And Ben needed that since he wasn't the fastest. But after adding his ability to blend into the surroundings, he could safely reach his destination.

Once he was closer to the ruin, Ben's consciousness slowly began shifting back.

Holding a complex train of thought again, Ben quickly located an entrance and jumped into the dungeon.

After entering those narrow caves, the bit of presence that he emitted disappeared completely. So even if someone arrived that had the sensitivity close to the apex, they would still find it impossible to locate him through it.

---

Back on the battlefield, the dragons had already stabilized their defensive formation.

Even before the assassination, they canceled the influence of the ritual.

And while the battle stalled with only Ginn and Matt on the offensive, they were still winning.

In addition, it didn't take long for the army on the other side to notice the two jumping onto them weren't crazy. Instead, they merely knew their strength.

However, once the assassination took place, the situation became even more one-sided.

As soon as the ritual's influence was gone, the careful turtle jumped at the Creek Sect army like a starving predator.

The change of pace was brutal, and it took the Creek Sect not even 20 minutes to understand they had no chance of winning.

Yet, besides a few at the top, no one else in the Sect understood what happened. However, almost unanimously, this peculiar question popped into those cultivators' heads: 'If they are this strong, why did they wait this long?'

One hour later, the battle had ended. The Creek Sect retreated. And their confidence was like an untied balloon losing air.

But if the common folk were worried, it was even worse for the Sect Leader and Elders. Since they saw the support from the outsiders disappear like it never existed.

---

Ben was unaware of the exact effect his action had above. But he could predict a few things.

He knew the dragons were against his direct involvement in this battle, but he still did whatever he wanted.

Once he was deep enough underground, Ben deactivated his technique.

However, he only sat down after he was at a particular narrow corridor leading to a door.

He knew this place, and Ben hoped that, unlike before, he could open it. Yet, he didn't try it immediately. He first sat down for a while and looked at his left hand.

He felt the node inside his palm and smiled.

'A success. With this, I can have a better read and plan accordingly.'

From the beginning, Ben knew that destroying a single anchor wouldn't stop the ritual. So his main objective was to extract a piece of their refinement.

Since he felt such pressure from them, Ben guessed they must have done something similar. And his bet was right on point.

Having achieved his goal, Ben carefully isolated the piece but also disconnected it from the rest of his refined soul. The ripping was painful but needed.

His arm slowly began forming a suppressive array. With this, he would be unable to use his hand for a while, but Ben would also minimize the risk of corruption.

Ben chose to be this extra careful since he wasn't completely confident in his ability to suppress this refined soul piece.

After his fist and more than half of his arm became rigid, Ben focused on healing the rest of his body. And after a while, he could finally move his right hand again.

But that wasn't what fully occupied his mind. As he also calculated his losses.

By the end, it was exhilarating that he didn't have to use any trump card. But now he was back at counting his years. So he wasn't without worry.

'I used around one thousand years of my lifespan. I can't believe how easy it is to lose that much. I was so happy back at sunset for gaining that amount. At least, I gained ten times as much in my breakthrough. If not for that, I wouldn't be able to act now.'

Seeing the years leaving his body worried Ben. Luckily, after the cultivation that he did while near Grimhorn, Ben had attained extra reserves.

'It won't be easy to break through again, though. That was more than four thousand years of preparation.'

Unfortunately, Ben exhausted all his alternative options to increase his life span. He had no way to trick his body anymore, so it would eventually fall apart if he couldn't strengthen his refined soul.

And he didn't even waste a lot, as he extracted from his body the complete life span of an apex figure. But he could only trick the code inside his body so much.

'How unfortunate, the kids are too young, or else this would be much easier. But there is still only one way forward. I can only bet on their future. I'll stir the pot as much as I can and hope my trust isn't unfounded. If I could sit around, I would, but I can't.'