The blazing fire eventually died out which left behind the charred remains of the shack. The trio then approached the shack after feeling it was safe.
"The bandit boss definitely stored his valuables in a durable chest or something. There's no way he would leave his treasures in the open," convinced Ye Tian while being stabbed by the two's glare.
"See? I was right on the money," Ye Tian pointed out as soon as he saw a silver chest.
The trio opened the chest to find a bunch of spirit stones, a few books, and a scroll.
Nan Feng counted the stones and smiled, "We hit the jackpot. There are 45 stones in here."
Spirit stones were the golden currency for cultivators since one spirit stone could be used to cultivate at twice the speed for three days.
Once the spirit stones were split equally, the trio then took a look at the books.
'Explosive Strike'
'Wind Blade'
'Shock'
'Qi Arrows'
'Blood Absorption Qi Cultivation Technique'
The books were actually combat abilities and a cultivation manual.
The infamous Blood Absorption Qi Cultivation Technique belonged to the Bloody Devil Sect which usually had murderers for their disciples. The technique used the blood of innocents to speed up cultivation speed. The bandit boss had clearly become a bandit in order to obtain human blood.
Cultivation techniques were rare and each faction or sect usually only had one or two of them. Every cultivation technique had pros and cons as the Blood Absorption Qi Cultivation Technique uses blood, which is needed in abundance, to cultivate while some other techniques may require an environment.
Every cultivation technique also had a rank for how much faster one can cultivate with the technique or extra features that the technique offered. Some techniques actually made the qi of practitioners more robust than usual while other techniques focused on the speed of cultivation. The ranks of these techniques were similar to the spiritual root rankings of mortal, earth, and heaven with three subranks for each.
The Elite Soldier Qi Cultivation Technique was a fairly average technique at earthly inferior rank. There was only a slightly faster speed of cultivation as the technique was made for the general soldier. The only con for such a generalized technique with not much adverse effects was that the technique required a spiritual root of the same level.
The combat abilities were similarly ranked as spiritual roots for their different levels of strength and difficulty in mastering.
Most abilities could only be used by qi stage and higher cultivators since that's when qi becomes corporeal. However, qi stage and above cultivators were already elite troopers in the military thus weaker abilities were created for the average soldier. Some of these weaker abilities were the Qi Gathering Strikes and Qi Burning Movement Technique which don't even have a rank.
Ye Tian guessed that the city lord would likely grant real abilities for the three if they reached the qi stage, but extra options were always good.
The scroll was then unfurled to show a map with a circled region and a line of words at the bottom of the scroll.
'He who is fortunate to chance upon this scroll shall be my fated predecessor.'
"I think this might be one of those inheritances left behind by an expert!" Nan Feng exclaimed.
_Was the bandit lord preparing to explore the inheritance by breaking through?_
Ye Tian pondered.
By the side, a hint of excitement could be seen in Yu Ling's eyes as if a child was going to receive a new toy.
Nan Feng smiled at seeing Yu Ling's joy, "The three of us are going to be rich!"
Upon hearing Nan Feng, Ye Tian smiled.
_Seems like the usual cliche of betrayal in those novels isn't happening. Mmm. Indeed, only a man of character could become friends with a righteous person._
Suddenly, Ye Tian's face began to drop, and his brows furrowed as if he was trying hard to remember something.
_Wait… Something's not right… Three… Betrayal… The 34 bandits are all dead. There shouldn't be anyone else that could possibly know about this map._
Ye Tian's eyes slowly widened in realization.
_No... There's still one more person! The one who issued this mission in the first place! Is his betrayal merely a coincidence?!_
Ye Tian shouted, "We have to leave now!"
"Too late."
A voice came from behind the trio. The three turned around to see 3 men leading a group of around 30 troops.
"Initially, we wanted a squad to come in and weaken boss Luo's bandit group since he was nearing bone stage, but you guys actually won. Oh well, it won't matter since we'll still be reaping your efforts," The gray-robed man at the forefront laughed.
A man, beside the gray-robed man, jeered, "Senior Martial Brother Luo is so retarded. If he had just shared the map then this wouldn't have happened. Tsk Tsk."
Ye Tian could sense that the three men in the front were around blood stage while the troops were around muscle and mortal. Although Ye Tian hated to admit it, the trio had been played. Their inscribed arrows were gone, they've been in action since last night, and they've sustained injuries from the boss Luo.
There were no open wounds since bandit boss Luo had been empty-handed after being chased out by a fire. However, the blunt force from bandit boss Luo's punches, while negated to some extent by the robes and cloak, still broke a rib or two and bruised a few muscles.
Nan Feng stretched his tired arms and grinned, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Ye Tian paused and grinned even harder.
_So you had this crazy side in you too._
Yu Ling looked at the two grinning buffoons and took a deep breath before tensing up and raising her sword to a fighting stance.
"I just have one question. Since you are blood stage, why didn't you just stay by boss Luo's side and kill him when his guard is down?" asked Ye Tian.
"That son of a bitch didn't even trust me after 8 years. He was probably going to dispose of everyone just for secrecy," the man, at the forefront, spat. He then sneered, "Now he's dead."
"I see. You'll be joining him." Ye Tian mocked.
"Get them," The gray-robed man coldly ordered.
The troops, behind the man in gray, charged the trio.
It was at this moment that Ye Tian felt abnormally calm like a still lake in front of adversity. It was the type of peace that one made at the face of death as if embracing it. From this, Ye Tian felt a surge of clarity in both vision and mind.
The first enemy arrived and swung his sword at Ye Tian.
_Slow._
Ye Tian dodged by a hair's breadth, and a flash went through the attacker.
The rest of the enemies froze as they watched the man, who had attacked Ye Tian, split in half.
Ye Tian took a deep breath. He could feel his blood surging and rampaging throughout his body which brought an invigorating feeling.
_Blood stage!_
The pressure of death had helped stimulate Ye Tian's breakthrough! Every moment, Ye Tian could feel his strength consolidating and himself growing stronger.
The gray-robed man narrowed his eyes, "Kun Ning, help me deal with this kid. Kun Tan, take the troops and go deal with the other two."
The two surnamed Kun nodded and did as the gray-robed man commanded.
A muscle stage Ye Tian with inscriptions on all his gear was already at the strength of pseudo blood stage. While Ye Tian hadn't fully consolidated his newfound strength like boss Luo, Ye Tian's gear fully compensated for this.
It could be said that Ye Tian just as strong as the gray-robed man, but there were two that Ye Tian had to face!
Ye Tian traded blows with the gray-robed man and Kun Ning. However, due to the number difference, Ye Tian was the only one getting wounded. The cuts made by the two were shallow though thanks to Ye Tian's robe and cloak.
_I can't keep this up for too long!_
Eventually, Ye Tian connected a strike on the gray-robed man, but, to Ye Tian's dismay, the cut was more shallow than expected.
The gray-robed man laughed, "Did you think you were the only one with inscriptions?! Don't underestimate the backing of a sect! Our rank one inscribed swords would've diced you to pieces if it wasn't for that extra cloak!"
_I need a different plan._
On the side, the opposite scene could be seen as the man named Kun Tan struggled to keep up with Yu Ling and Nan Feng. The two were occasionally hit with attacks and arrows from the sides by the troops surrounding the fight which was preventing Kun Tan from losing swiftly.
Yu Ling's attacks were swift and elegant as each attack was smoothly followed up by another. Her rank one inscribed sword which had made sure that Kun Tan's defensive robes not as effective. Kun Tan could only watch his body being riddled with wounds as he tried to keep Nan Feng's giant broadsword at bay.
Compared to Yu Ling's strikes, Kun Tan still decided that he would rather not be struck by Nan Feng. The raw force granted to Nan Feng by his physique and his rank one inscribed broadsword had ensured that Nan Feng's strikes would cause deep wounds if the strikes landed.
Previously, the broadsword's edge hadn't touched boss Luo's skin when it was grabbed thus the inscriptions were useless. This time, Nan Feng licked his lips in anticipation of the damage that the sword could cause. On the other hand, Kun Tan was not so excited about what could potentially happen.
However, even with this, Ye Tian could not play the game of endurance. There would have to be a new plan.
Unbeknownst to the gray-robed man and Kun Ning, their fight with Ye Tian slowly inched towards the other fight by the side. Ye Tian made sure to occasionally back up in a random direction to keep misleading the duo. In their concentration on killing Ye Tian, they had failed to notice that they were getting closer to the other fight.
All of a sudden, Ye Tian turned around and pressed his feet deep into the soil. He launched himself at the man named Kun Tan who was busy dodging and parrying.
"Watch out Lil bro!" Kun Ning shouted out in a panic.
But it was too late. Ye Tian's sword stabbed into Kun Tan's heart.
Now, the enemies couldn't play the endurance game anymore.
Yu Ling and Nan Feng quickly got to cutting down the troops who had been pestering the two like flies.
Kun Ning's eyes were red in fury as he left the gray-robed man's side to attack Ye Tian.
"Idiot!" the gray-robed man cursed out loud.
Ye Tian met each one of Kun Ning's random, wild strikes that were filled with anger. The strikes were even more powerful than the previous calm strikes. However, Kun Ning's form was gone which left openings all over the place.
The fight was over.
Ye Tian merely had to defend and counterstrike at one of the openings to kill Kun Ning.
The few troops that were left had immediately escaped with ashen faces when they saw that their bosses had been defeated.
Yu Ling and Nan Feng immediately gave chase to kill those deserters.
Meanwhile, Ye Tian entered the final phase of the fight with the gray-robed man.
It had taken the gray-robed man and Kun Ning to suppress Ye Tian, but now there was only one left.
Ye Tian lunged in and the man deflected.
Ye Tian's follow up strike then swiftly connected with the man's body.
The man tried to attack Ye Tian but was met with a parry.
Ye Tian took this chance to counterstrike and wounded the man again.
It was over.
The man knew and turned around to run for his life, but this was a bad choice which left his back open.
Ye Tian gave chase and caught up to deliver a final blow to man's back. The fight had finally ended, but there was no time for Ye Tian to catch his breath since the troops, that had escaped, must be silenced.