'I tried to be cautious, but I still underestimated the power of a sixth-stage cultivator.'
Ken thought to himself as he reviewed his battered body. Ever since the fire whip appeared out of nowhere and started fighting him, he was accumulating burns in every exchange of blows, and soon some wind blades were added to the mess.
He recalled what happened back then.
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A few minutes earlier:
'I will lose if this continues, and they don't let me back off now.'
Ken thought to himself as he deflected the whip with his sword. He was using his Cloud Running technique to help him dodge the whip and the wind blades, but it only saved him from fatal injuries.
With every second he gained another cut or another burn. Although none of them were dangerous, they would be lethal once he gets too many of them.
'I must find a way out.'
Ken couldn't even find an opportunity to use the knives to pressure his enemy back; he had to use them to fight off the wind blades that kept coming at him.
'Even if I throw the knives, I will only risk getting a deeper injury and they would deal with them just like they did earlier.'
When he thought about it, he understood the problem. He couldn't inflict a decisive strike even by throwing the knives because his enemy could react on time.
'That's it!'
Ken's mind soon came up with a solution. The knives returned to float right next to him.
'Sheathed Man.'
Ken's technique finally reached the Small Success mastery realm after being stuck in the Advanced realm for so long. He expanded the sheathing effect from his body to his weapons, and he threw the knives at the woman. He could only touch two knives at once, so he used Qi to toss the other two first without any concealment.
'Argh!'
He panted in pain as a few wind blades cut through his flesh, leaving deep bloody gashes. He had to cancel his Cloud Running technique when he performed Sheathed Man, causing his dodging abilities to decrease considerably.
However, the results weren't late to come. The whip faltered for a moment and the wind blades stopped, and the injured child immediately fled. He disengaged the whip and distanced himself from his enemy further, out of their attack range.
He smirked when he saw them trying to run away. His knives were already in his palms again.
'Too late.'
He had only one minute before she makes it to the Fire Chasm, but he wasn't worried. He threw the knives again, and his victim could only see through Sheathed Man when the knives were 5 meters away. It didn't give them enough time to react, and now they were the ones to accumulate cuts in every passing moment.
Their Qi expenditure skyrocketed as they made a decision to become a human bomb and just radiate a powerful fire consistently coupled with strong winds that made it even harder to attack.
'I can't cut through those defenses.'
Ken thought to himself, but he still wasn't worried. He already took a healing pill and followed his prey from the distance. Weirdly enough, the target kept slowing down with every second.
Instead of reaching their goal in a minute, 3 minutes already passed, and they were crawling on the ground desperately, a few meters away from the end of the bloody mist.
Ken who already got close enough to be able to see his enemy, finally found a jade beauty with porcelain skin and wavy platinum hair. Her beauty could be seen now much more easily as no fire covered her anymore, and the cuts, blood, and torn clothes couldn't hide it.
Vivienne finally managed to cross the mist with her head, seeing the scene of a large chasm radiating heat in front of her, but she didn't sense any joy at the sight. She lost hope of running away.
Ken grabbed the lady's legs and pulled her violently back into the mist, back to a place void of hope.
"Hello, Big Sister. I'm lost, please help me?"
He said with an innocent expression on his face. He already saw the symbol of the cloud, leaf, flower, and sun embroidered on her shoulder, and he knew her origins.
"You… you're the Devil's Heir."
Vivienne said with slight fear and desperation. She didn't want to appear as someone who feared death, but she lost grip of the only hope her assaulter might let her go in exchange for something. She didn't believe she fell prey to a fourth-stage cultivator, but here she was, without even the comfort of denial.
"Did my mask give me away? oh well, how about cutting a deal with me?"
"Yes, we can make a deal. I have a very high status in the Four Seasons Sect, and I can gift you with as many resources and presents as you want!"
The woman said enthusiastically when she heard she might be spared.
"It's all right, I don't need your money. I'm quite rich myself, or else how could I afford a poison that can paralyze a sixth-stage cultivator?"
Ken asked with a smile, causing Vivienne to contort her face for a moment before regaining her fawning smile back. He coated his knives in paralyzing poison, which was the source of her plight right now.
"You're right, Young Master. What can I offer you?"
"Don't call me 'Young Master', I know you must be a Young Mistress yourself. You can call me Ken or Devil's Heir, whichever you like better. Anyway, I need information. If your answers are satisfying, I will let you go. Oh, just let me feed you with this truth drug first."
Ken added the last sentence with a forgetful smile and shoved a fifth-grade pill in her throat. He couldn't concoct sixth-grade pills, but he was confident of his pills' abilities to affect cultivators a stage higher.
Vivienne choked on the pill but involuntarily swallowed it.
"Now, what's your name, young fairy?"
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