Kai slowly looked up, his gaze focusing on a wooden door on the opposite side of the room. The space wasn’t large, but he could just barely make out the shape of the door through the darkness and the clouds of dust kicked up by his frantic search for Halia.

He raised his foot to walk forward, then hesitated.

My cultivation is gone… Whatever is out there could be dangerous.

Kai’s hesitation didn’t last more than a second, and his expression hardened as he strode forward.

“Halia, do you know anything about where we are?”

[Nope. You were unconscious for a few hours after the tokens activated, but I wasn’t able to see anything until you woke up. Heh, even now, I’m just borrowing your senses.]

Kai just responded with a grunt as he reached the door. Just like the rest of the room, it was coated in a thick layer of dust. Clearly, no one had been in or out of the room in years.

Instead of immediately rushing outside, he lightly brushed his hand over the body of the door, trying not to knock any more dirt onto his robes. Once the surface was clear, he pressed his ear against the grainy wooden surface. Faintly, he could hear what sounded to be the grunts of a beast, from somewhere outside, as well as what he presumed to be something trying to escape from said beast.

The noises were getting progressively further away, and Kai pulled his head back.

“Beasts. If they’re anything like the ones around our sect, this could be trouble. It was nearly impossible for ordinary humans to even escape from them…”

Kai looked down at his own hands, but the somber expression on his face was distracted as he eyes wandered back to the ruby sword still clutched in his right hand.

Then again, those ordinary humans didn’t have years of fighting experience and an awesome sword. If I, the future leader of the Crescent Moon Sect, back down from some simple beast, how will I be able to stand before my disciples in the future?

[What if it’s something like the phoenix?]

A shiver ran down Kai’s spine as the massive flaming bird’s final dive resurfaced in his mind, and his hand fell away from the door’s handle.

[Hey, don’t back down. Make that guy your target.]

“The phoenix? It wiped out the whole sect. It would’ve killed all of us in the next second.”

[And? Tell me, who do you think is more monstrous, that thing, or our fellow disciples?]

Kai grit his teeth, and Halia continued speaking.

[If you gave those three a few more years to grow, I have a feeling it would’ve been the bird fleeing for its life. Even if you don’t have their talents, beating the phoenix… is probably still too small of a goal.]

“Too small?”

Halia let out a small chuckle that almost sounded self-deprecating.

[Your talent was good, but it still seemed mediocre compared to the other core disciples. My physique wasn’t suited to growing stronger, so I spent most of my time researching their techniques and developing new abilities for them… but somehow, you always stayed in the top spot. Now that I’ll be helping you, it’ll be even more one-sided]

Kai stayed silent and a dark look shadowed his eyes as Halia spoke.

[Also, if it was some empire-destroying monster like that, there’d definitely be way more noise. It’s probably something weak that even you can handle right now.]

Kai let out a sigh as Halia’s voice switched from serious back to her usual joking tone, then glanced around the dark room one more time. His eyes paused for a moment on one of the symbols inscribed on the door’s surface, then looked down at the ruby sword, noticing that the symbol on the door matched the sword’s.

Kai pulled on the door’s handle, setting off another cloud of dust as he heaved the old wooden relic of a door open. Sunlight illuminated the thick air around him, and Kai didn’t even need to squint his eyes as he peered through the dust.

Outside, there was a rundown temple. Pillars, cracked stone floors, and evening sunlight shining through the broken ceiling- despite it being Kai’s first time seeing the scene, it felt strangely familiar. After just a moment of looking around, something clicked in his mind.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The layout is the same. It’s a way bigger space, but all of those pillars are in the same spots as the small obsidian temple back home.

Unlike the obsidian temple, though- or perhaps similar, now that the phoenix had likely destroyed it- this one was in a complete state of disaster. Random weeds and flowers wormed through the cracks in the floor, and almost every stone pillar had large chunks missing from them. If there had ever been runes inscribed on them, there was no easy way to identify them now.

There was all kinds of rubble scattered on the floor, and in the corner of his vision, Kai could see a few broken statues, as well as two more wooden doors on the left side of the building.

[Turn left! I think I recognize something!]

Kai nodded, confirmed his grip on the sword one more time, then turned right and walked out of the temple.

[Oi! Do you still not know the difference between left and right?! After I-]

Kai’s eyebrow twitched and he focused on a random pile of rubble, and one of his hands reached up toward the necklace. Halia wisely went quiet before he could grab it.

Kai’s pace increased as he strode down the overgrown pathway leading away from the temple, but he remained vigilant. The scream he’d heard before had come from this direction, and he wasn’t as easily distracted as Halia.

Kai felt a vague sense of surprise as his mind actually stayed quiet for more than a couple seconds, but he didn’t have a chance to linger on the feeling.

A few dozen meters ahead of him- after the overgrown path opened up into a small town street, lined by similarly rundown and uninhabited buildings- a figure darted across the road. A young man in long, navy blue robes was sprinting at top speed, his long dark hair trailing in the air behind him.

A second later, a second figure charged through the street, this one considerably larger and more dangerous looking. A small cloud of dust followed in a huge boar’s wake as it charged after the young man, and even in just the second they were visible as they ran across the road, Kai could see that the boar was definitely gaining on the man.

That man has unfamiliar robes, he must be a disciple from a weaker sect. I’ll lend him some help, and he’ll owe me a favor in the future. A simple boar is just free meat-

Kai kicked off the ground, expecting to fly through the air and finish off the beast in an instant. Instead…

“Uff!”

Devoid of all of his previous cultivation, Kai promptly face-planted, narrowly moving the sword out of the way at the last moment to avoid impaling himself.

A snort of laughter echoed in Kai’s mind, signaling the end of Halia’s short silence, but Kai was back on his feet and charging in- this time normally- before she could make any comments.

One street closer, the man sprinted to the middle of the road once again, then paused for a moment, clutching a thick book in his hands. To Kai, it looked like he was out of breath and giving up on life. There was no way an ordinary human- or even a weak cultivator- could take on a large boar without a weapon.

Boom!

In the moment before the boar crashed into the young man, a brilliant flash of light leapt from the book, then shot toward the charging beast. The air crackled with heat as a fireball slammed into the beast, sending it veering off course.

What the hell was that?!

Instead of sticking around to celebrate his kill, the young man turned and frantically sought out another path to escape. He looked up, and his eyes instantly locked onto Kai.

“Help! This thing keeps chasing me, and I don't have the mana to do that again!”

The stranger’s face was overwhelmed with relief as he stumbled toward his regal savior.

Pure white robes. A handsome, angular face crowned with long, flowing hair and the outline of strong muscles. A glowing ruby sword more beautiful than the sunset.

Kai was a textbook unfathomable otherworldly young master.

“Turn around, run the other way! Don’t lead it to me!”

Kai’s eyes widened as he saw the menacing boar lift itself up, then start charging after the other man once more. The fearless, unbothered personality Kai typically maintained even around his fellow sect members dropped as he saw the beast charging over.

This guy barely scratched that thing! I doubt my sword can even hurt it!

[My sword, and it definitely can. The fireball this fellow just threw was just for show, it was awfully weak.]

Kai wanted to retort and ask what Halia could possibly know about the strength of a stranger’s completely unknown ability, but the young man was still running straight toward him, with the boar on his tail once more.

This sword better be as sharp as it looks.

Kai dashed to the side of the road, then readied the ruby sword. In the past, when hunting boars of a similar strength to himself, the strategy was always to end the battle as quickly as possible.

Spears worked excellently, as they could be anchored in the ground, and the boar’s own momentum could be used to drive the weapon in.

Naturally, when wielding a sword that he wasn’t even confident would be able to cut the foe, Kai wasn’t enthusiastic about placing himself directly in the beast’s charging path.

The blue-cloaked man ran past Kai, then turned and continued sprinting down another rundown side road, not even bothering to look back as Kai lunged out from his hiding spot at the side of the road, slashing his sword toward the beast.

With the boar’s already frighteningly quick speed and Kai’s lunge, there was more than enough momentum for the razor-sharp ruby blade to dig into the boar’s flesh.

A deep crimson line appeared on the beast’s shoulder, and the sword was nearly ripped from Kai’s hands as it grated against the boar’s shoulder blade. A faint smile of relief surfaced on Kai’s face as he realized it wasn’t an unwinnable fight.

“Hmph, I praise whichever blacksmith made this sword.”

[Ahem… You cou- hold on, this isn’t over.]

The positive expression on Kai’s face quickly dissipated as he realized that his strike had done roughly the same amount of damage as the previous man’s fireball.

[Kai used slash! Results: You pissed it off. Run.]