The Dark Palm sect members shivered in the cold, they were left with only their undergarments huddling together in the cold weather. They glanced up to see a rather scary looking Wu Ming that was staring at them. The slaves that they used to abuse were moving all the food to the large flying ships that they used as a means of transport.
They were left with absolutely nothing and had to watch the group of slaves fly out into the sunset. The man responsible for this didn't leave together with that group, he just grabbed all the remaining treasures for himself. Things like flying swords and communication jades were all confiscated, but they had managed to inform the sect about the trouble happening here. For some reason, the man above them didn't look that concerned as if he wasn't afraid of the Dark Palm sect retaliating.
[ Name: Zhang Dong
Affiliation: Zhang Clan
Spirit Points: 89327891
Cultivation Base Qi: Nascent Soul [Early Stage 0,1%] (Divine Golden Nascent Soul)
Cultivation Base Body : Core Formation [Great Circle+ 100%] (Golden Body+) ]
The man in question was looking at his status screen, this encounter had netted him almost ninety million spirit points. He also had a lot of spatial rings and bags to go through so he might be even able to reach over a hundred.
'This should be enough...should I go back to Spirit Spring City or try my luck some more...'
He had set the slaves free, quite a lot of them had their cultivation crippled. They all were wearing slave collars that acted like bombs, decapitating anyone that went out of line. It wasn't much of a problem to remove them, he also pocketed each one for more resources.
The moment of surprise was gone by now, the sect should have sent someone to take care of him. The question was if it was only a lone nascent soul elder, or would they bring more people to oppose him. He still had no idea how many nascent soul farts this sect had. Besides the two that he took care of, there was one more back at the old secret ground.
To his dismay, he felt something moving towards him from the distance. Instantly he knew that it was the Dark Palm Grand Elders coming to the rescue as he could feel multiple nascent soul cultivators flying this way.
'One...two...four...five... well... they certainly want me dead if they sent so many old farts after me.'
Matt squinted while looking in the direction that the people were coming from. He could feel that four of those people were in the early stage and one was in the middle stage.
'I haven't really been able to rest since I've left my city, engaging them would be unwise...'
He looked to the side, this was the direction that the slaves took off. He told them that they should leave the area and hide somewhere till the heat is off. There was a war coming and he had no way of protecting them, also telling them to go to Spirit Spring City would give valuable information away that could come biting him in the behind. He decided to just help them out, but if they made it to safety depended on them.
Still, he couldn't fly that way as it would expose the slave workers he just saved to unneeded danger. The nascent soul lunatics that were on his tail could slap them out of the air just for fun. He needed to go in a different direction and at least keep those five cultivators busy.
He didn't get a good look at the people that were chasing him, but from the looks of it, he was getting chased by four old men and one older lady. They were all wearing brownish robes that had quite a lot of sleeve space so that fluttered while they were chasing him.
He took off with a blast, propelling himself forward while holding his hands behind his back. A golden aura surrounded his body that protected him from the wind pressure and any bugs that would normally splatter all over his face if he flew into them. The quintet of angry nascent soul elders saw him taking off and instantly gave chase. One of the elders remained behind for a moment, just to get a more coherent report than what they got from the communication jades.
He was quickly filled in, the Grand Elder that was left for dead even woke up and started complaining but with his cultivation gone no one paid attention to him.
"Elder Guo, you must avenge me!"
The old Grand Elder called Zhu cried out, his teeth rattling in the cold.
"Tend to Elder Zhu, even though his cultivation has been crippled, he is still a Grand Elder, show him some respect."
The man gave his older while snorting, he didn't really care much for his fellow Grand Elder, but the hierarchy had to be kept. They couldn't abandon the old man just like that, at least not in the open. He would be relocated to the main sect and they would see if his injuries could be reversed. If it turned out that he was nothing more than an old man now, he would probably be abandoned or given a teaching role to the lesser disciples.
Guo quickly flew back after the other four members of his clan, he got a more throughout report and it looked like this Wu Ming was an imposter. From what Zhu had said, the man was using some kind of disguising technique. No one below the nascent soul level here was able to see through it, so that made it not all that exceptional.
Back in the sky, Matt was charging through the clouds. The people behind him were slower than him, but he would have to strain his cultivation to actually getaway.
'Mhm, I'm getting low on Qi here... I used up quite a bit after summoning my Soul-Beast and flying like a madman towards Jade Grass City...'
He thought about his next move, there were a few things that he could do. He could stay and fight those five people that were chasing him, but he didn't know if he could handle five of them at once or if there were more of them coming. The second option was to run away and he had just the thing to aid him with that. Taking both options into consideration he opted for a third choice that took both into consideration.
The people behind him weren't really getting any closer and he had to keep this up for a while so that they didn't go after the slave workers he rescued. For the time being, he decided to bring up his disciple screen, he went to the same section where he bought the fast travel option for his disciples.
[ Instant Transfer [ 1 000 000 SP ]: Instantly transports the user to his disciple, can also transport the disciple towards their master. ]
[ Large Portal (Two Way) [500 000 SP]: It creates a large portal that allows two-way travel. ]
He didn't want to use the portals as that wouldn't be an option during a fight. He also feared that one of those nascent soul farts would send an attack after him, or even dive in after. Then he would need to protect people in his front yard from enemy cultivators. He had managed to procure a massive amount of spirit points with his heist, so he could spend some points on the good stuff.
'I did get that fast travel point option back after I ascended to the nascent soul, but I didn't buy it...'
Besides these teleportation options for his disciples, there was also another one. It was a fast travel point between cities or strongholds that he was the owner of. For now, he could use it for both Spirit Spring City and Moonlight City, he just didn't do it before as he didn't have enough points.
'I can't set up the fast travel point without being at the location... the disciple fast travel system will have to do...'
The fast travel points in the cities were cheaper than the disciple ones, but at the time he just had no spirit points to spare. But thanks to that he managed to find that his disciple tab even had that feature in the first place.
While he was fiddling with his system he felt something. He instinctively dodged to the side and saw a large flaming boulder flying past him. When the huge rock landed down on the ground it produced quite the explosion.
'Oh right... those guys are still chasing me...'
He looked back and saw four people there, the fifth one was further in the back. They were shouting some profanities at him, mostly something to do with courting death and that he should reveal his true identity to them.
He started bobbing and weaving with his entire body as the people behind him continued sending ranged attacks. The terrain below them became riddled with large craters as if the group was composed of modern bomber planes.
"Hey, be careful, what if you hit someone with that?"
Matt that was still looking like Wu Ming returned fire. The Grand Elder that was at the front and also the strongest held out his hand and produced a shield of wind, just in time to receive a golden lightning bolt to it. This caused him to stop in his tracks, his shield cracked slightly but it managed to defend against the charged bolt.
"Lightning? Who is this man?"
"Elder Wan, are you okay?"
The female Grand Elder called out after the man in front stopped after getting hit.
"I'm fine, but this man is clearly an imposter, this is not something Wu Ming was capable of, are there any sects good with lightning magics?"
The group of five continued on while deliberating the true origin of this man they were chasing after. From the exchange Elder Wan had, he knew that this wasn't someone they could take lightly. He had taken out Zhu without any problem whatsoever, from the reports the sect members in the mine didn't even know that he had been done in till he was discovered by the guards during the cave in.
"Could he be from the Thunder-Storm Sect? But his techniques feel strange..."
The man was a mystery, he didn't fit any nascent soul cultivator that was known to them. They didn't think that he was a renegade or a new prospect as he was far too powerful for that.
"We'll just have to apprehend him and let him spill out the truth himself!"
"Yes, I bet the Sect Leader will reward us if we bring him in alive!"
The five people smirked as they didn't think that the man could get away from them, sooner or later he would tire himself out, and then they would surround him. None of these people thought that the unknown cultivator could handle them all on his own. He was also fleeing so this only confirmed their theory. Still, the quintet knew that an injured beast is the most dangerous one. So, for now, they kept their distance and continued with their ranged barrage. Due to this a long chase had ensued, when it ended no one knew.
...six hours later...
"Hey, what are you people even aiming at..."
Matt shouted while barrel rolling around the beam of heated energy that one of the chasing people fired at him. This wasn't all as a gale of wind blades chased after him the second he evaded the first attack. The people behind him were fuming with anger as the man that they were chasing was quite the slippery eel.
...ten hours later...
"Hey you guys, why don't we talk this over some earl gray tea?"
The group of old farts raged, even more. They pelted him with various ranged attacks over and over again but the only thing that they were hitting was the rocky areas below.
"Damn, if I didn't know it better, I'd say you wanted to kill me!"
He dodged a fire blast to the face, then deflected a couple of sharp icicles that were the size of telephone poles. These Sect elders had various abilities and didn't really stick to one type of elemental attack.
"I'm feeling unwanted here, think I'll just leave!"
Matt shouted out and bolted forward, the group of Dark Palm Elders just shook their fists at him and continued with their chase. It might have looked like he was doing random things at the moment, but he still had a plan in mind. He was heading in a certain location, making sure that the other nascent soul cultivators were mad enough at him to not notice where that was...