Naath continued walking as if he simply didn’t hear Reth at all and seemed as if he was going to walk right past him and his lackey. The veins on Reth’s forehead all popped out as his temper rose. It was well known that fire cultivators had very volatile emotions and had trouble controlling them in any way shape or form. Reth charged out at the young man who seemed to give him no face whatsoever. Naath smiled as the opponent moved forward and leaned to the side slightly making Reth’s fist miss entirely,,as he struggled to stop his momentum Naath held his leg out. Reth tripped and fell face first into the dirt and skidded across it for a few inches.
The surrounding disciples all held back laughter seeing this result. Reth got back up from the ground and not learning his lesson at all charged Naath once more at full force. Letting out an annoyed breath he dodged again, tripping him once more and said, “look man, I don't know what your issue is but you’re not going to be able to beat me. I just spent the last few days ingesting toxic poisons and becoming entirely immune to all of them. Before that I fought my way out from the core of the 10 thousand beast forest, this is my first day off since joining the sect and I’m in a good mood. Compared to those beasts in that forest you might as well be a baby chick in terms of combat ability.
You might be in the late third stage of muscle strengthening, but compared to those beasts and life and death battles I had to fight you are less than impressive. I will give you this one last chance to just walk away, if you charge at me again I will get angry and make you realise just what kind of strength it takes to get out of that hellish place.”
All the surrounding disciples paled slightly as they heard what Naath said. Every single one of them had heard of the 10 thousand beast forest. Their masters and the teachers of the sect often used it as a threat for punishment. Every single one of the people listening knew that that place was a hellscape used to sentence people in the sect who had committed unforgivable crimes to death.
They all watched the ‘fight’ even more intensely wanting to see just how strong Naath was if he claimed to have passed through that forest and survived. Reth only felt like Naath was looking down on him as he heard the insults and cutting in his words. He charged out even more wildly than the previous time, a light red flame surrounded his fist as he struck outwards. Naath shook his head and raised his own palm in response. He circulated the true void arts and summoned out the true void mist, Reth’s fist met Naath’s palm and the flame disappeared as if it were a complete lie. Naath closed his palm around Reth’s fist and started to put down pressure in his grip. He let out a breath asking, “are we done now?”
Reth continued struggling to free his fist and gave up after a moment and swung his other fist over as well. Naath simply shook his head and brought up one of his knees into Reth’s chin and a shattering sound rang out in everyone's ears. Reth instantly stopped his other fist and began to let out pained screams. Naath let go of his fist and then sent another kick at Reth’s head knocking him out cold.
Looking around he asked, “would anyone else like to try out their luck in fighting me?” Not a single disciple watching dared to even breathe too loudly in fear of offending Naath. In a nearby tree hiding and watching all of these events unfold, Elder Fu had a wide smile on his face.
He quickly got down out of the tree and made his way to check on the condition of Reth after Naath had left the walls of the core city. When he did he found that Reth had all of his teeth shattered and his skull had hairline cracks in it.
He stood up and let out a low whistle saying, “he did this to someone with a cultivation two small realms higher than him? Haha elder Gui, truly you got yourself a little monster of a disciple.” Naath was unaware of any of this and simply made his way towards the edge of the mountain and to where, after a short climb down, he would find Baal’s residence. When Naath reached the end of the cliff he looked down and smiled lightly.
Without a second thought he moved his feet lightly hopping off of the edge as he fell saying casually to himself, “Weeeeee.” Down at the bottom of the cliff there were three young men and a young woman all seemingly around Naath’s age. Two of the young men and the young woman were surrounding the last young man. The last young man was precisely Baal, he was on the ground clutching his arm that was hanging loosely at his side clearly broken. He was breathing heavily glaring at the three people who were surrounding him.
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The young woman spoke, “hmph Baal did you truly think that someone of your status was worthy of my admiration? What a simple fool, I'm an inner sect disciple. Our statuses are worlds apart. It's like the difference between the mud in the swamps and the clouds in the skies.”
Baal was glaring daggers now and spat to the side saying, “Harrah you wench, how I fell for you is beyond me. Do you really think an inner disciple is so impressive? Hmph my friend Naath was given the possibility of being a core disciple upon passing the exams for the sect!”
One of the males sneered, “Baal this old story again? Give it up will you it's been several years and this mysterious friend of yours has yet to show up even a single time. Look at you now beaten, broken, and being rejected after trying to court someone above your own status. What a sha-.”
At this moment all four of them heard a noise above them and looked up simultaneously. When they looked up they all saw a young man with jet black hair and piercing green eyes falling straight down with his arms casually behind his back one hand in the other.
They all listened and heard “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” All four of them went slack jawed as they could guess he had been doing that the entire way down the mountainside. They watched as with a loud crash the young man landed on the ground creating a crater tens of feet in diameter and a foot and a half deep. Dust and shattered earth went everywhere creating a cloud none of them could see through.
They all heard a young man laughing as he said, “oh man, I’ve always wanted to try something like that! Haha that was great, just as fun as teamfourstar made it seem, makes my nice elder disciples robes a bit dusty though.” After that they heard the sounds of someone patting the dust off of their clothes and chuckling lightly to himself.
The young man patting the dust off of his clothes spoke saying, “ah a fruitless labor, I guess I have to get rid of this dust cloud first.” They heard him breathe in deeply and with a large breath he blew away all of the dust in the surroundings.
Once all of the dust was cleared Baal was wearing a look of astonishment and glee as he shouted out, “Martial brother Naath! Haha I knew you didn't forget about me!” Naath looked around and saw the situation, instantly his smile from enjoying his own antics flattened and he walked up next to Baal asking, “what happened?” Baal then explained that when he first joined the sect he ran into the three who were surrounding him now. They were Harrah, a redhead with dull black eyes and an average frame. Torac a young man with early graying hair due to his cultivation technique and similarly colored eyes. Lastly was Anok the leader of the trio.
He had bright blue hair and matching shining blue eyes that seemed as if they could see through everything. He explained that for the last few years they had been on good terms and Baal had even begun to have feelings for Harrah and today he had tried to express them only to be beaten ruthlessly by the trio for it. They had played with him exhausting his martial energy and once he could no longer use any moved in and broke his left arm and dislocated the shoulder after. They were just about to do more when Naath had fallen from the sky and landed in a giant burst of dust. Naath’s expression grew worse and worse as he listened finally when Baal was done explaining the rune in Naath’s soul sea spoke up.
“The kid isn't lying at all, His soul is calm like the surface of a serene lake, no fluctuations of lying whatsoever.”
The look on Naath’s face soured completely at this point and he shook his head pinching the bridge of his nose slightly as he spoke, “Ah and here I was having such a good day too, but people seem determined to ruin my mood no matter where I try to go. Fine then I will have to use you three as an example!” As soon as Naath finished speaking he released his aura and the pressure of an initial stage muscle strengthening cultivator hit the trio. All three of them flinched when they felt the aura. Immediately Anok began speaking, “ah so you are the mysterious Naath, surely a senior brother of the sect under an elder won't believe the lies of this little welp?”
Hearing this Naath’s temper hit it’s limit and he felt a nerve snap in his mind. He took a deep calm breath and pinched the bridge of his nose again, “Okay, fine I don't like killing other humans but nope, okay, you just crossed my bottom line. I know he’s not lying, I’m a soul master you fucking idiot. You just called my friend a welp? The first person who I bothered helping in this world and you called him a welp? Okay, fine, if that's how you want it so be it.” Suddenly Naath’s aura underwent a drastic change, it turned from martial energy that everyone could recognise to his true void aura. The rune in Naath’s soul sea let out a low whistle saying, “damn they really pissed him off, I'm in for a good show.”
When the trio heard Naath was a soul master they paled instantly, Anok began to stutter and try to explain away everything as he felt the situation wasn't very good. The one thought that brought him solace that he told his companions was, “Don't worry we are in the sect there is no way the sect elders or sect master will let him wantonly kill us! He’s bluffing.”
Naath spoke again his voice much deeper than before and said, “How will they know if I don’t leave a single fucking atom?” The three of them paled again this time seeming like all the blood in their faces was completely gone. Naath stepped forward and casually began walking towards the trio who then tried to run. He simply held out his hand and circulated the true void arts to their fullest. It was as if a black hole had appeared on his palm. The trio were immediately sucked back in front of Naath and he simply stared down at them.