Chapter 42: Chapter 42: New Prey
Shen Yuan sneaked out of his room while wondering who he should target. Before leaving, he had already stored all of his valuables, including his axe and the steel wire, into his newly obtained inventory.
Who knew when he might have to use the weapons. Since he could hide them without exposing himself, Shen Yuan had no reason to leave them behind.
Shen Yuan ran straight towards the forest lake; he did not even realise that the speed he was moving at was now twice that of his old running speed.
"Previously I got my funds from one of the goons of Peng Ho. I should stroke the genie while it’s still granting me wishes, hehe~."
That day, many servants in the districts jammed their doors with heavy stuff after hearing a demonic laughter echoing in the deadly silence of the night.
...
"Brother Yao, did you manage to break through to the next stage yet?" Under the cover of the night, two figures moved side by side, flickering from one tree branch to another.
Brother Yao was a wall of a man. His white servant robes were stretching around his frame. Months of body tempering had stacked muscles over muscles.
There was a burn mark on the left side of his neck and a cold, ruthless look in his eyes.
"You don’t have to make small talk." Without even looking at the other servant, he spoke indifferently.
While brother Yao was broad and tall, this one was lean. But that did not make him less of a threat.
He moved through the forest like a snake, slithering from one branch to another.
"Eh? Does that mean you have not broken through the seventh stage of body tempering yet?" Brother Leng did not seem scared of Brother Yao’s threatening gaze and continued to speak. "You don’t have to worry. I am the same, still the same seventh stage. Even though I was a genius in learning mortal martial arts to the peak, I could not hold a candle to a true cultivator."
Brother Leng shook his head in self-deprecation. "There is nothing to fear."
"Are you putting your confidence in that idiot?" Brother Yao looked back in disdain. "The same man who is forcing us to chase some bastard servant when we could cultivate."
The servant with the surname Ling turned to him in shock. Never did expect his brother Yao to say something like this.
But after a moment of shock came a deep laugh. "Of course not. Brother Yao thinks I am a lost cause? How cruel."
Even as he spoke, Servant Leng looked around; his eyes moved at fast speed. His robes were neat to the point of an obsession; even as he moved, he made sure not to put creases on the ironed cloth.
"I have my own ways to survive. Which is why I am not looking so desperate and broody like you." With a dark chuckle, the lean servant moved closer to brother Yao and whispered, "A tide of change is about to come, and when it arrives, it will affect the course of this place in ways you cannot imagine."
Servant Yao turned behind his partner as he followed traces left by the man they were following.
A flicker of curiosity flashed through his eyes; before he could speak anything, something appeared in his sight.
Something that made the two of them stop dead in their tracks.
The clearing before them was a nightmare.
Trees were snapped from the middle. Their broken halves were jutting out like they had been ripped about by a storm.
Some of them were uprooted entirely, their roots exposed, but the trees themselves were unharmed.
One might have thought that a terrible wind had flown past the area, causing such destruction.
But the rest of the trees around the area were perfectly fine.
The two servants noticed fist-sized marks on the trunks.
Not only the trees but even the ground was not spared.
Spiderweb-shaped cracks were etched across the earth in eccentric circles.
Even though the cracks were not that big, the foot and the fist prints in the middle of them made them look scary.
"Someone has been here. Someone powerful. Brother Yao, we should retire—" Servant Leng snapped his head back towards the tall brother only to freeze once more.
The colour from his face was drained instantly when he saw red line-like patterns appearing on Brother Yao’s face and torso.
"Wha—" The man opened his mouth to let out a confused sound, but his body instantly collapsed into tens of pieces, like someone had diced him on a chopping board.
Woosh!
Seeing his partner die without a sound, Brother Leng turned around to flee, but his feet refused to move.
When he looked down, he had realised what was going on.
A familiar thread of red line had slowly stained his pure white robes.
’How repulsive.’ That was his last thought before the pain came flooding into his brain.
"Argh! Help! Arrgghhhh..." Without his feet attached to his legs, the servant fell to the ground while screaming in pain.
No matter how much he wailed in pain, no one came to help him.
A second later, he heard the sound of dry grass being crushed under someone’s feet. "I was thinking, I should have a new signature killing style now that I am living a new life."
The chilling voice that followed after momentarily made him forget the pain he was in.
Shen Yuan stepped out of the shadows; he was dressed in nothing but his underwear.
"But now that I have tasted this power..." he looked down at the steel wires hanging from his finger, drops of fresh red liquid dripping from it, and whispered to himself, "I realised that I have to hone my old techniques. I still have a long way to go."
"It’s you..." Brother Leng spat through his gritted teeth, forcing himself to rise up from such an exposed position. "How?"
He could not wrap his head around how Shen Yuan was capable of even harming them, let alone killing them.
Then his gaze drifted to the clearing once more, and the reality struck him. "You did that..."
"Come on, you are not alive, so I can hear you ask questions." Shen Yuan walked up to the man. He crouched down and grabbed a handful of his hair to make the servant look into his eyes. "We have a lot to discuss. You better become comfortable."
"ArghHHHH!!!"
