The burly man grinned at Aiden, his crooked teeth visible in the cool evening air. The shadows accentuated the ugliness of his face, and Aiden felt the urge to punch him right then, just outside the broken hut. That would at least satisfy his inner critic.
"Why would you ask something like that?" The burly man pushed his fat fingers through his long, oily hairs. "I already killed one person today, so I won't kill you today. Even if I want to kill you, I won't kill you. Don't worry." A wicked smile played on his lips.
The bastard's meaty fist was speckled with blood stains that shimmered under the pale glow of the night sky. Aiden trembled as he recalled the agony he suffered when this monster hacked off his old body's head with an ax. Just thinking about it, fingers curled it into a fist behind his back.
"I'm just joking, you know." The bastard showed his ugly teeth once again, and even in the fresh breeze, Aiden caught a whiff of disgusting stench.
"Whom did you kill?" Aiden eased his fist, but he kept his composure tight so if this burly man attacked, he could defend himself. Who knows, this burly man might be a serial killer in this cultivation world. And he smelled like one - gritty and disgusting.
"Gun Ju, he was messing with people he shouldn't have, so I killed him on the outskirts of the sect." The burly man cocked his neck to the left, looking exactly like a serial killer, and Aiden had seen a few in his stint on Earth.
"Why are you telling me this? We aren't best friends or something."
"Senior sister Wang asked me to pass you a warning, so I thought I'd show you what will happen with you if you dare to disobey her orders." The burly man laughed, revealing his dangerous, criminal nature in plain sight.
Aiden licked his lips, tasting the dew in the air. The air in this small patch of trees was much fresher than he used to inhale back on earth. He liked this place. This would be his headquarter in the future.
Glancing back at the small hut, he planned his next house at the same place of the hut.
"Do you understand, brother An?" The burly man rubbed his dirty beard while snorting coldly. "Or you want me to give you some practical advice?"
Aiden returned the grin. The muscular man might assume it was a smile of surrender, and Aiden wanted him to ponder that for a bit. Battles weren't always won through raw force, but occasionally a touch of cleverness worked wonders. These bastards would have their death handed down to them. Soon enough.
"Why are you smiling like a frog?" Burly man stepped forward, stopping inches away from Aiden's face.
Senior sister Wang Renmei. Who the fuck was this bastard?
Ah yes, she was a lackey of the Senior Song Zhengwei. Internal news, of course, said she was a whore of Song Zhengwei. Anyway, it didn't matter what their relationship was. It was Wang Renmei who forced Li An to scrub toilets, so she had to pay the price some day.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
"Did you say your cultivation was only at layer six Refinement Realm?" Aiden asked.
"Layer seven." The burly man punched a tree next to them, leaving a deep impression on the trump for Aiden's display. "I can smash an ant like you in a few seconds."
"If a seventh-layer cultivator can do that, I wonder what a ninth-layer one could manage," Aiden muttered. He struck the tree in a different spot, putting everything in it. His fist sank into the trunk, as if he were punching soft tofu.
The large man stumbled backwards, his eyes flickering uncontrollably like a swinging clock.
"Now go back and don't show your face to me again. Am I clear?" Ah, so much for the cleverness. Sometimes the force worked wonders.
"You, just wait. Senior Sister Wang Renmei is the peak of Refinement Realm and she will crush you like a nut of a man."
Aiden glanced at the burly man's crotch suggestively. "No wonder it looks hollow."
The large man snarled, "You jerk..." He retrieved an ax and rushed toward Aiden. But Aiden swiftly kicked him hard in the chest, knocking the man backward through the air. It felt good. So good that he wanted to do it again, but he restrained the urge. It could wait. The burly man was going to meet his end, and Aiden would hand down the verdict to him before long.
The burly man fled while hurling insults, but Aiden paid it no mind and moved southward of the patch of trees. This was where the junior disciples lived, their small huts dotting the base of the mountain. The senior members and more experienced cultivators resided on the upper slopes of the mountain, while this was merely one of the seven peaks of the White Sun Sect.
If Aiden wished he could ask for a better hut as he had reached the peak of the Refinement Realm, but he didn't bother with it and headed directly into Li An's hut.
It was a small hut filled with dirty, crumpled clothes strewn about haphazardly. The musty, stale air hung heavy with the lingering scent of tears shed by the previous owner.
Aiden wrinkled his nose in distaste at the unkempt, disheveled state of the hut. Without hesitation, he gathered up all the clothes and tossed them in a corner. Then he cleaned another corner for his own use.
Sitting in a cross-legged position he went over his skill description once more. There was something interesting he wanted to check before but couldn't spend time with it.
Corpse Bloom
Quality: Rare
Quality: High Tier Silver Grade
Charges: 3
Corpse Bloom is a rare and potent alchemical substance, harvested from the refined remains of the deceased. These refined corpses retain a trace of the entity that once animated them - the very essence of the individual's life force. Skilled alchemists can extract this residual energy and condense it into a concentrated bloom, a glowing, pulsating orb of power. For cultivators at the lower realms, consuming a Corpse Bloom can provide a significant boost to their spiritual energies, accelerating their advancement through the early stages of cultivation. However, the process of harvesting and refining Corpse Bloom is both delicate and dangerous, requiring great expertise to avoid contamination or unintended side effects. Only the most experienced alchemists dare attempt this arcane craft.
Can only be obtained by Corpse Refine.
Refinement Realm: 1 Corpse Bloom can be used to raise your cultivation level by 1 layer.
Foundation Realm: 10 Corpse Bloom can be used to raise your cultivation level by 1 layer.
Bone Baptization Realm: 100 Corpse Bloom can be used to raise your cultivation level by 1 layer.
Marrow Cleansing Realm: 1000 Corpse Bloom can be used to raise your cultivation level by 1 layer.
Require: 50 qi/100 Mana for activation.
Will it do what he wanted it to do? It was time to test his hypothesis.