Chapter 8: 8
As he made his way to the humans, he spotted a few more beasts wandering through the forest, although he didn't bother killing any more of them. If he saw a beast nearing his power level, it would be a different case, but the rank 1 beast cores were useless to him.
He quickly came up to the humans he sensed and inspected them with his eyes. Sensing with ki perception was useful, but it didn't let him know anything specific about what he sensed; he still needed to use his eyes to know the details.
Ray jumped up a tree and hid amongst the leafy branches.
A wide opening of the forest revealed itself in front of him, including large stretches of farmland filled with wheat and crops.
The humans he sensed were tanned workers who were picking the crops and putting them into a large carriage behind them.
His stance was pretty relaxed since he couldn't sense an ounce of danger coming from the worker, their ki cultivation levels barely passing regular humans.
Ray wanted to go up to the farmers and ask them a few questions, but he knew they would probably flee and make a ruckus if they ever saw him. He still didn't know much about the prowess of a cultivator with higher strength than himself in this world, so he didn't take an immediate risk without any planning.
He stretched his perception toward the small village that lay in the distance and tried to judge its strength without any outside information.
Unbeknownst to the mortals of the small rural village, Ray's ki perception swept over every single villager and scanned their bodies for any ki energy.
One of the farmers suddenly broke his cycle of picking crops and asked the farmer beside him, "Did you feel that?"
The other farmer also stopped in his tracks and looked at his surroundings. "Yes… it feels like somebody's watching me closely, just like that one time a beast attacked Albert."
"You were there when that happened?" The farmer exclaimed, a hint of fear rising on his face.
The other farmer grimaced before saying, "Yeah, I was, it was a gruesome sight. The way it dug its claws into his chest and ate his flesh…" The farmer shuddered, as if he was recollecting a traumatic injury.
The farmers weren't aware of it, but Ray was quietly listening to their conversation from the trees above them. He was high enough that the farmers didn't see him, but their gaze came fairly close a couple of times.
'So these humans can feel my ki aura…' Ray thought to himself. He knew he had to be much more careful with releasing his ki aura in the future.
The farmer tried reassuring his friend by putting him on the back, and saying, "We have old Bill to defend us in case anything like that happens again. A few of the youngins have cultivated to the middle of the ki expansion stage too, so the village has a bright future ahead."
The other nodded his head in agreement, although fear was still apparent in his eyes. "Right, Bill recently broke through the ki expansion stage and became a stage 2 practitioner."
Ray listened to them talk for another couple minutes before jumping from the trees, consequently revealing himself to the farmers. They unknowingly gave him all the information he needed to give him the confidence to go forward with his plans.
Stage 2 ki practitioner? The farmer clearly stated Bill just broke through, and Ray wasn't intimidated by a human on the same level as him. Rather than being scared, he was even somewhat looking forward to fighting Bill.
Before he could get to Bill, he turned to the farmers who were frozen in shock at the sight of him.
He didn't bother killing them and simply jabbed his hand into their chest. With his level of strength, he could skip the previous steps and rob the farmers of their mana seeds before they could die.
Ray plopped the mana seeds into his mouth, then the two corpses fell onto the ground.
He took one last look at the two farmers, then sprinted across the field of crops. He didn't want to spend too much time in the village since he was still in the middle of a human empire. He might be strong, but he wasn't so strong that he could invite the powerhouses of the world to come looking for him.
At some point or another, the massacred village would be found out and investigated by the empire.
By the time they linked things to Ray, he planned to be across the continent in the demon empire: he had no intention to stay in this hostile environment.
He quickly reached the village and started his hunt. He didn't need to go searching for the humans since he could see them with his ki aura, which he hung loose for anybody to see; he wasn't afraid of anyone being aware of him anyways.
In a stroke of luck, not a single villager noticed him entering the village, which was quite surprising considering his gigantic stature. His pitch-black skin didn't exactly help him blend in with the environment either.
Ray walked up to the first house and stared at the door knob. He gently opened the door and crouched into the human-sized house.
Without turning his eyes to scan the room, his long arm jabbed forward and plucked the mana seed out of a villager's chest. His ki perception was already good enough to do simple things without using his regular vision
A wailing sound interrupted his smooth operation, his eyes quickly turning to the source of the noise.
"A human child…" he muttered to himself. 'It hasn't absorbed enough ki to be visible through my ki perception.'
He didn't differentiate between children and adults, so he killed the child before it could alert other villagers.
With that, he left the cramped house and headed for the next one.
He figured would continue slaughtering the villagers until Bill showed up; he was certain Bill would be enraged after seeing the villager's corpses, so he wouldn't try fleeing from him.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone