Chương 23: Dealing with a Buffoon (2)
That conniving middle-aged bastard, he dares send a Wudang Sect Elder after us even though we haven't bothered him once in the five months we were training? I'll teach him a lesson he will never forget.
As I leapt from branch to branch heading into the northern area of the forest, I couldn't help but feel a weird chill down my spine as I searched for the middle-aged man's base.
From what I heard from the twins; the middle-aged man lived near a giant cave that held a lake of water within it. And based on how the middle-aged man said there was a spirit he was trying to protect, that spirit may be an Imoogi*.
Imoogi's were solitary spirit beasts, only known to show themselves when they're about to ascend to the Heavenly Realm*, or when they are forced out of hiding by the greedy beings around it.
But that middle-aged man felt off, his muscles were too developed to be a normal person, and his precision was far better than a normal lumberjack. And what's even weirder was that I couldn't feel any energy coming off of him.
Even though I didn't have a dantian, every being gives off a small amount of energy whether they notice it or not. But those who are proficient in martial arts learn to hide their energy to make them look like a normal person. But completely hiding their energy is something only highly ranked masters would do.
If that middle-aged man fooled even the Fifth Elder into thinking he was a normal person, and he's guarding an Imoogi, this could only spell disaster for all of Jianghu, no, all of Zhongyuan!
I quickly spotted the cave Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong had mentioned and began searching for a way in. However, the further I went around the cave the more I noticed the stench of blood ahead of me.
Did he kill the Imoogi to take it's spiritual core? Or did he die trying to kill it and awaken the Imoogi before it's time to ascend? Either situation would be a disaster for me to face at the moment.
When I reached the cave's entrance, I was met with the same horror I saw atop Mount Song. An Imoogi's body laid dead on the floor, it's once white and blue scales stained red with it's own blood.
The Imoogi's body was split vertically down it's body; It's spiritual core, however, was in the hands of a man sitting atop the dead beast's body.
The light being emitted from the core was slowly fading into the unknown man's body. If he was absorbing the qi from the core, I didn't have a second to spare.
I dashed over to the man and unsheathed my sword as I jumped onto the Imoogi's body. Since the man was focusing on absorbing the core's qi, he wouldn't notice me coming up behind him.
However, just as I was about to cut off the man's head, I noticed an eerily similar axe next to him. It was the same axe that had been used to threaten me to leave the forest five months ago in fact.
So the middle-aged man is the one who did this, I knew something was suspicious about him. And since those who are suspicious shouldn't be left unquestioned, I'll take the honor of questioning him.
I altered my swords position and swung down on the middle-aged man's right arm leaving only a blood curdling scream and my sword swinging through the air to echo through the cave's walls.
Heiik!
"KUAKKK!"
Leaving no time to spare, as the middle-aged man grabbed his severed shoulder, I raised my sword upwards and sliced down on his left shoulder as well. Even if a martial master has his dominant arm cut off, they're still a threat if they're at a high enough level.
Heiiik!
The middle-aged man collapsed from the pain and landed in the Imoogi's cold body; this wasn't over though. I picked up his body and began using the Clouds Origin Force to gather pure qi at my fingertips.
A moment later I struck the man's pressure points, which forced the man's severed and bleeding shoulder muscles, veins, and arteries to squirm and stop themselves from bleeding.
"Once you wake up, the fun will begin. Kukuku."
---
The middle-aged man's eyes shook open a few hours later, still showing signs of the pain he had endured hours ago. Despite the pain his eyes revealed, his mind was still that of a warrior, he quickly began looking around him to judge his surroundings.
Though that just brought more pain to him, as he looked from left to right frantically, he remembered the source of his pain. His last moments of consciousness a few hours ago where that of extreme agony, as he endured his arms being removed in the midst of absorbing the qi from the spiritual core of an Imoogi.
The agony that raged through him after awakening from his sleep made him look around frantically for the one who severed his arms from his body. But despite how hard he searched, not a soul could be found within the cave.
He paused for a moment, thinking as to what he should do. His legs were still intact, so he could try to run and save his life, maybe he could even bring back more forces from the sect or clan he belonged to.
As he tried to stand up however, the simple sound of someone walking throughout the cave echoed like a Fighter Jet roaring over a neighborhood park.
A voice spoke out from the darkness, "Now, now~ Why are you trying to flee? Our fun has only just begun." Despite how much he trained his senses to find those who tried to hide themselves, he couldn't find where the voice was coming from.
A moment of sheer terror washed over him, the person he was facing was someone who could hide their presence beyond what someone who was now in the Supreme Master Level could sense. His instincts told him to beg, as not even the strongest beings in Jianghu would be calm in his position.
A quiet stammer emerged from his mouth in an attempt to spare his life, "...Please... I'll tell you what you want... Just let me live...."
As if the world stood still, every decibel of noise within the cave came to a halt, it wasn't until the sniffles of the middle-aged man that broke the silence echoed throughout the cave that the voice in the shadows responded.
"Why should I?"
Author's notes:
Imoogi: A serpent like spirit beast thought to be the sacred beast of the land. They are also thought to be lesser forms of dragons, despite the two species being entirely different.
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