Ken traveled in the forest, meeting all types of beasts inside. He made sure to avoid those that radiated a powerful bloodlust that marked them at the peak of the fifth stage or above, unwilling to find out whether he could defeat them or not.
In those past 3 days, he met many beasts and convinced most of them to gift him their marks. Some were convinced by his pills while others preferred to be treated with his Mind-Poisoning Domain before willingly surrendering the marks.
Overall, he already collected 210 marks as he didn't have another encounter as bountiful as the one with the buffalo herd but was still a hard worker.
'Hmm, there are people. I hope they collected a good number of marks.'
He found two cultivators at the fifth stage not far away from him. He estimated they were at the high phase of their stage.
'I guess people don't form teams bigger than two or three in this test since each beast can produce only a single mark.'
Ken deducted as he wore his silver mask. Although the white one was the best, he wanted to use his other masks too as he liked them all indiscriminately. He ran quickly to intercept them and found a good lurking spot in their way.
It didn't take them long to arrive at the ambush point, even less than a minute, so he couldn't lay a formation to make things easier. He even swallowed a fifth-grade Concealment Pill he concocted earlier to make his presence almost untraceable when combined with his technique.
The two ran on the ground while looking around them for possible dangers. Neither of them was a scout, so they just agreed that one will be in charge of the right side and the other will be in charge of the left side.
"There's someone here!"
They both shouted almost at the same time. It was a young teen, wearing a silver mask to hide his face. They didn't believe how close he was; he was less than 2 meters away and within a sword's range.
'Flash Unwind.'
The two paled when they suddenly felt a surge of Bloodlust emanating from the teen's Blood Token. Judging by the amount alone, he must have killed a fifth of the participants in the secret realm by himself, or else they could not explain the insane amount of BP he had.
"AAAAHHH!"
One of them screamed in an insanely high pitch. He didn't scream out of fear; he was a respectable inner disciple of the Serene Lotus Sect, as his green attire testified.
'Sound Paralyze!'
The man was a Sound Qi user. His technique did what its name implied, it sent a sound shockwave forward and stunned the people in the shockwave's way.
However, Ken's unsheathing technique was all about speed, and by the time the sound arrived at his ears, his sword already decapitated his friend who couldn't react in time.
"Argh!"
The two of them, both Ken and the Sound Qi user, lost the air in their lungs when the latter collided with Ken at high speed. Ken was stunned while the other had no time to do anything after using his technique.
Rolling on his back, Ken stood quickly and held his sword high. He heard that the reason that the Serene Lotus Sect was at the top was their mystical inheritances. Many of their members used unusual types of Qi, making it difficult to counter their unpredictable fighting styles.
"Kid, are you the Devil's Heir? Our elder said you are on good terms with my sect, so why are you attacking?"
The man, Johnson, stood up and brought a heavy hammer out of his storage ring. It was easy to see how heavy weapons could complement his Sound Qi better than weapons like spears or swords.
"I barely enjoyed any privacy in this secret realm ever since I joined; what's the point of wearing a mask if everyone can tell my identity with a single glance?"
Ken complained with a sigh, irritating Johnson further.
"I don't care about your anonymity. You've killed my friend, and you better have a good explanation or I'm going to violate our elder's orders and attack."
It was the first time Ken heard that the Serene Lotus Sect had such an order. He wasn't part of their sect yet as he didn't give his consent to Elmer's offer, and he already fought and killed plenty of their cultivators who didn't adhere to this order.
"I want your marks, is it good enough of an explanation?"
Ken shrugged and told the truth. He wasn't going to let the man live even if the latter planned on offering a truce.
"It's not!"
Johnson smashed his hammer into the ground and echoes filled the area around him. Ken, who didn't like facing the unknown, jumped backward hurriedly, but the echoes reached Ken's ears in no time.
The Devil's Heir turned unstable, losing his sense of direction and balance from the overwhelming sound. The inner ear has a liquid called endolymph which was responsible for one's balance. Johnson's attack makes the endolymph vibrate, which results in his enemies feeling dizzy and disoriented.
Ken, who aimed to land on a tree branch, missed his target with his feet and was thrown back to the ground from the impact. He instantly closed his hearing sense with Qi and closed his eyes while reactivating Blood Sense.
Since Blood Sense was a sixth sense that didn't rely on his balance, he could sense his enemy in the darkness that now enveloped him, and the said enemy was about to crush Ken's skull with a long swing of his hammer.
'One Step.'
Ken used it to dash blindly somewhere else, but the dense forest didn't provide him an advantage, and he crashed into a tree at full speed. Instead of feeling lightheaded from the collision, the pain woke him up and helped him focus.
*Bang!*
Another shockwave came as Johnson's hammer struck the ground where Ken's head was a moment ago, sending his troublesome echoes again.
'Damn, I shouldn't have been overconfident while facing fifth-stage cultivators.'
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m