Chapter 144 - Open Season (Part II) (Patreon)

Lucian had previously battled groups of cultivators, but that was before his last slumber. After the Curse of Sloth had enhanced his constitution, powers, and runes for a second time, he had only fought Elder Black Scale and Gong Xi, the woman wielding two daggers from the Sailor School. Both were Qi Condensation cultivators, and weren't small fry.

Now, dealing with a bunch of weaklings, he could have chosen to take things slower. However, he had no desire to play with his food and risk being bitten back. So, Lucian controlled his Blood Essence, enhanced his physique, and then, with a flare of Qi, he activated the crystal ring artifact.

Next, his figure blurred as he rushed forward, becoming a dark specter in the thugs' view. As he ran, two sharp ice swords condensed, one in each hand.

Using the Two-Leaf breathing technique while reinforcing his arms with Blood Essence, he slashed sideways with both swords, aiming at two different people.

A strong white light drew every thug's attention to Lucian's new location. There, two severed heads were rolling across the ground.

Meanwhile, Lucian flicked the blood from his ice swords and muttered, “One.”

The metal pipe slipped from the lean man's hand as he watched in horror as his two companions at the Qi Refining realm died without using a single technique.

“Wait—” he began to shout, moving Qi through his twelve meridians and four unlocked chakra points.

However, he was interrupted. Unable to control his Qi, he saw the world spin around him before he heard a thud and faced a headless body. A few steps away, he also saw a detached head on the ground, facing him in horror.

“Two,” Lucian said, his voice echoing through the Broken Maze.

Hearing the cold voice coming from above, the leader of the group finally realized he was looking at his own body and at another friend's head. His own severed head rolled across the ground as darkness swallowed his vision.

Meanwhile, every remaining cultivator had witnessed Lucian kill four people in less than two seconds, feeling fear gripping their souls.

Wang Chen, for his part, was so shocked that he did not know what to do. He had trained with Lucian and knew how fast he was, but he had never imagined that other cultivators would be so utterly outmatched.

Recovering before the third second, Wang Chen kicked off the ground and lunged toward one of the men Lucian had pointed out. He had been given a time limit and a few targets to deal with, and he would prove himself useful!

He didn't know his opponent's cultivation realm, so Wang Chen opened his palm, reinforced his shoulders and legs, and adjusted his stance. Then, just like he trained, he struck toward the man's chest.

Next, Wang Chen felt his hand sink into the man's chest. He felt his target’s sternum shattering, the ribs collapsing, and the heart and lungs bursting beneath the force of the strike.

Wang Chen froze.

Simultaneously, Lucian's voice echoed again, accompanied by two more heavy thuds.

“Three.”

While the nine ordinary people remained frozen in terror, the surviving four cultivators desperately circulated Qi through their meridians and fled in different directions. Obviously, Lucian immediately pursued them.

Left behind, Wang Chen was in shock. He stared at the man who collapsed before him. Blood stained his open palm, his robe, and his face as he muttered, “How... how did this...”

He could not understand how he had killed someone so easily. He thought he was fighting a cultivator, just like Lucian! Until now, he only killed people to survive. Every time he fought people that he didn't need to devour blood from, he controlled himself.

Then, seeing that Lucian had disappeared and hearing screams from farther down the maze, he realized something. His eyes moved to the fearful people around him, noticing that they were just like the man he had killed. They were commoners, not cultivators.

Closing his hand into a fist, Wang Chen felt most of his fighting spirit vanish.

A moment later, Lucian returned carrying four corpses and dismissed the ice swords.

“A little over six seconds,” Lucian said, glancing at the ten dead cultivators before looking at the corpse beneath Wang Chen's feet. “I see, you still have a glaring weakness. I’ll kill the other six and deal with your leftovers.”

His words were enough to shatter the remaining courage of everyone present. Weapons clattered onto the ground as men and women alike ran toward nearby houses, screaming and crying for mercy.

Wang Chen did not chase them, but Lucian hunted them one by one.

Left alone, Wang Chen stared at the corpse in front of him.

“I wanted to beat them,” he muttered. “I didn’t want to kill.”

He had come here expecting a life-and-death battle against cultivators at worst, and teaching a lesson to a few gang members at best. Instead, he had practically slapped a mortal to death.

Lost in thought, Wang Chen barely noticed Lucian returning. He only came back to reality when he heard a tongue click.

“You would already be dead if this were the Sailor School,” Lucian said, tossing another two bodies onto the ground and shooting Wang Chen a curious glance. “Tell me what you are thinking.”

Biting his lip, Wang Chen gathered his courage and asked, “Why didn’t you point me at a cultivator? Why make me fight a common man?”

“Because you are weak,” Lucian said, arranging the bodies and counting twenty of them, making sure every head and arm was accounted for. “Given enough time, any cultivator could surprise and kill you.”

“Just because I don’t kill doesn’t mean I’m weak!” Wang Chen said, his face reddening.

Giving him an uncaring glance, Lucian muttered, “It is one thing for you not to kill. It is another for you to fear killing.”

Pausing for a moment, Lucian hummed. He had an idea. Turning to Wang Chen, he grabbed the plump young man by the shoulder and stared into his eyes.

Wang Chen felt the grip like an iron shackle and didn't try to move. He merely stared back at Lucian with a defiant glare.

“You are not strong enough to avoid killing, Wang Chen,” Lucian said. “You either make a move while prepared to kill, or you stand still and watch others die.”

Then, Lucian pointed with his chin toward the corpses near them. After waiting a second for his words to settle in Wang Chen's head, he walked toward the bodies.

Meanwhile, Wang Chen struggled to understand what Lucian meant, wondering whether there was something wrong with his brain.

“I’ll give you a choice, Wang Chen,” Lucian said, grabbing a corpse by the hair and lifting it. “You either continue deeper into the Broken Maze with the resolve to kill, or you return to the Merchant Chamber’s warehouse and prepare a few boats for the corpses.”

Wang Chen trembled when he heard the coldness in Lucian’s voice. Just as he was about to answer, he saw Lucian plunge his fangs into a corpse’s neck, draining every drop of blood until the body became a dried husk of itself.

Clenching his fists to suppress his fear, Wang Chen muttered, “I will—”

He wanted to leave, but then he thought of Bai Xiaomeng. He thought of the Wang Clan, which was long gone. He thought of the Bai Clan, reduced to distant relatives living far to the west.

Feeling his heart ache, his gray eyes cold, he said, “I’ll enter the Broken Maze.”

After saying that, he rushed past Lucian and the corpses. Wang Chen ran toward the center of the Broken Maze in search of someone to fight. He was searching for anything that would take his mind away from all the suffering he had been through.

Deep inside, he vowed to rid himself of this fear of killing, just as he had gradually overcome his fear of Lucian.

Behind him and watching his back, Lucian smiled.

Letting the corpse fall, he activated the Rune of Greed and drained the remaining blood from the bodies. Next, he switched to inverted cultivation and cleansed the absorbed Qi.

“Go forward, Wang Chen,” Lucian muttered, his eyes glowing crimson. “I’ll treat this as hunting season, while you treat it as a season of growth. Grow, grow, and gain enlightenment, so that we may both advance. I can feel that after this, we will both advance!”

After he devoured the remaining blood and refined the Qi, strengthening his inverted Qi Refining cultivation, Lucian followed Wang Chen into the darkness. At first, he had never intended to use this situation to shape Wang Chen’s mindset. However, after realizing how easily he could slaughter cultivators below the Qi Condensation Realm, he saw no reason not to.

Switching back to his natural cultivation, Lucian maintained a safe distance behind Wang Chen while expanding his senses to their maximum range.

For him, tonight would be an opportunity to kill several birds with a single stone.

Or at least, he thought so.