'Let's see the third prize.'
Ken approached the third pedestal, hoping the prize will be as good as the first one. He found a stone scripture on it, prompting him to try to read the contents. However, only a single word was carved into the stone in large letters – 'Kill'.
"What is this?"
"This is the 'Murderous Intent Stone'. The seven elders worked hard to comprehend together Murderous Intent despite not cultivating Bloodlust Qi, and they imbued this stone with their intent to help their inheritor to grasp this concept faster."
Ken saw the stone's name, but it didn't mean much to him. Other than killing intent, he never heard of other intents, and his only clue was his knowledge from the cultivation novels he had read in the past.
"What is Murderous Intent?"
"It's a type of intent, just like Sword Intent, Fire Intent, and any other intent. Murderous Intent fits those that cultivate Bloodlust Qi."
Ken assumed that those intents worked to enhance one's techniques, but he still didn't know what intent was.
"What are those intents? I've never heard about them before."
"I see, it seems you don't know much about the higher stages of cultivation. Most people cultivate intent at the sixth stage, merely because the mind is boosted significantly in this stage which makes comprehending new concepts much easier. Anyway, you need to comprehend intents if you want to advance to the seventh stage, and the higher your comprehension, the stronger you will be."
"And what's the right way to train in intents?"
"There's no right way, just do whatever helps you understand it. Developing intent is developing the concept of that Qi with your mind. If we take Sword Intent as an example, you'll need to bring out the concept of the sword with your mind alone. Can you cut through objects with your hand alone?"
"Yes, it's simple," Ken answered and did a slashing motion with his hand. He coated his palm with Sword Qi, and when his hand clashed with the pedestal, it left a small cutting scar on the stone.
"Wrong. You had to coat your hand with Sword Qi. If you had comprehended Sword Intent, your hand would be a sword even without it. I don't mean that swords would be useless, but your intent would add to the sharpness and power of every attack."
Ken pondered on the voice's words for a few minutes before nodding and moving on.
"Well, thanks. I will buy this intent stone."
Ken paid 80,000 and the stone floated to him. As soon as it left its protective bubble, A strong aura of threatening death radiated, and Ken felt in danger again. He could sense swords and weapons hovering around him, ready to attack and kill him at any moment.
"It's the same sensation as inside the challenge room. Does it mean that the danger I sensed there was done by intent?"
"Partly, yes. This stone only has Murderous Intent imbued into it, but the last steps you took in the challenge were amplified by normal bloodlust, killing intent, and a seventh-rank formation."
Ken placed the stone inside his storage ring and the stifling sensation vanished as if it was never there.
"What's the next challenge?"
"I can't tell you this time; you will have to enter and find out for yourself. I will give you one clue; you have to take care of yourself if you want to survive in this harsh world."
With this advice, Ken walked down the corridor for a few minutes before facing another door, identical to the one that led him into the former challenge. He opened the door with a strong push and stepped inside, waiting for the challenge to begin.
Inside the square room was a pair of siblings sitting on two chairs, each of them holding a rope in their hands. Following the ropes with his gaze, Ken found at their ends two humans on the floor. He soon recognized those two as his new companions, Tiara and Alaric.
'Were they caught?'
Ken pondered to himself. He remembered they separated after they entered the bloody mist and he had never seen them ever since. For some reason, the thought that nobody else should have the Bloodlust Qi other than him, meaning they wouldn't be able to find the Mystic Chasm of Bloodlust, eluded his mind.
He also seemingly forgot to consider the fact that it was impossible for them to pass the first challenge since they didn't have intense bloodlust like him to counter the pressure of the Challenge of Courage.
"Who are you?"
Ken asked the pair. They were both wearing the yellow robes of the Divine Sword Sect. Ken guessed their relationship by their similarity; their green eyes, brown hair, greek nose, and other facial features.
They seemed familiar, but he couldn't tell where he knew them from.
"Hello Ken, you really don't know us? After you've killed our dear little brother?"
Then something clicked in his mind, and he recalled his time in the Phoenix Feather Sect. After killing Joel Han, a son of an elite clan, he was summoned by his grandfather and was given a warning. His maid, Soleil, showed him a list of the prominent young generation of the Han Clan, and those two people were among them.
They were both in the intermediate fifth stage back then, and Ken knew that two years weren't enough for them to advance so they were probably not much different than back then.
"Mason Han and Abigail Han. What do you want?"
He found it weird that he didn't remember them. He never forgot anything before in his life, and the feeling was strange and unfamiliar to him.
"It's simple, we want closure for our little brother. You've killed him, so we must put his soul at ease by avenging his death and killing you."
Abigail said with a smug smile as she pulled her rope, dragging Tiara mercilessly. The cold and aloof princess lost her charm; she was bruised and scarred from torture.
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