Ling Tian stuck his head out to see if anyone was present, it was the same street that the beggars of before sat on. He saw they had returned and even restocked their supply and smiled. He approached them and decided to apologize and ask for water to clean the blood off.
The moment the beggars saw him, they screamed and ran away again. "ITS A GHOST DRENCHED IN BLOOD! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!"
Ling Tian almost fell on the ground, 'What is wrong with these people?! Can't a man drenched in blood ask them something? What if someone is injured and needs help...'
He made himself comfortable and like before, used all the water to cleanse himself and changed the rags he wore. He then quietly left.
The beggars returned and saw the same situation that had happened yesterday.
"Okay, that's it; we are leaving this spot, this place is claimed by a ghost."
"Look at all the blood on the ground! The ghost must have eaten people!"
"Let's warn our fellow beggars on the way, a murderous ghost is on loose!"
Their shouts were ignored by Ling Tian as he slowly returned to the same street that he woke up in and after reaching it, he sat down and checked his system.
[Name: Xuanyuan Wenhao / Ling Tian
Age: 19
Talent: Low-Earth
Experience points: 40
Cultivation stage: Organ Refining in Process. (410/1500)
Dao Status: N/A]
He opened the Log: [6 Mortal humans killed: +30 EP] [1 Blood Refining human killed: +10 EP]
he sighed and closed the system then closed his eyes and entered the cultivation state.
"It's best to be cautious and farm as much as possible..."
He didn't need to eat at the moment since someone with his cultivation could survive days without sustenance. He also felt down since he had just killed people for the first time and wasn't in the mood to do anything else including eating. A while passed...
[+10 EP] [+10 EP] ...
He woke up from his cultivation state when he heard loud shouts nearby, "Search this area, we can't afford to lose him! That useless young master of Xia clan was among the killed!"
He ignored them and opened his system. He saw he had 3640 EP.
"I cultivated for 6 hours? I barely felt time pass by... Anyway, let's put it all in cultivation and buy another sword, I was distracted and lost the 1st one." he murmured and bought the same type of sword for 100 EP and poured the rest of his points into cultivation.
[Organ Refining Completed. (-1090 EP)
Marrow Refining Completed. (-2000 EP)
Half-Step Xiantian Transformation. (-550EP, 550/5000)]
The Qi inside him moved around his organs and created he felt his internal organs especially his heart get much stronger, his heartbeat got firmer and slower, much much calmer. He felt he could inhale much more air and breathed much easier. His eyes saw clearer and farther away and his ears heard better. He could even smell the scent of the guards getting close.
The Qi didn't stop though, it moved back to his bones and dug deep, this part was extremely painful as the Qi enhanced his Marrow. He had to clench his fists and grit his teeth to not cry out in pain. He didn't feel stronger by much after these two upgrades to his cultivation; However, he felt he could endure more and his reaction speed and such had increased by leaps and bounds. He noticed that Qi was infused in his blood after the Marrow refining but he couldn't control it so he decided to explore it later.
He opened his eyes and looked at the 5000 points required and frowned.
'The amount of points required is increasing, I won't be able to upgrade my cultivation like this... It seems I have to either go on frequent killing sprees or upgrade my talent.'
Nearby footsteps and shouts got his attention and he stood up, looking at his body he sighed in relief, 'No more black sweat to deal with thankfully.'
He quickly ran away clearly unwilling to confront the guards. He used his improved senses to easily evade them and slowly left the slums and saw the edges of the city and a sinister-looking forest.
As he decided to enter the forest, a loud shout made him stop in surprise.
"I finally found you! You killed the young master, I will avenge him by taking your head!"
A burly and tall man wearing green robes stood behind him, he had the word, Xia, written on the back of his robes with an evil smile on his face. His eyes were furious as he glared at Ling Tian with hatred, "I, Xia Ju, will kill you today!"
The reason he could read the language and speak it had to do with Wenhao's memories that were absorbed by him.
Before Ling Tian could respond, the man shot towards him. To his surprise, despite getting improved reflexes, he couldn't see the man's movement.
'The Xia young master? He must have been among the people that died due to the aftershock of my fist!'
He put aside his confusion, obeyed his instincts, and jumped back. The place he was standing on exploded and a thick cloud of dust rose.
He gulped and felt danger on his back, he jumped up and kicked towards his back with everything he had. He finally saw the man as his feet connected with Xia Ju's hand. He felt a tremendous force on his leg as he saw with wide eyes his leg bend awkwardly. Xia Ju didn't go scot-free as he too was blown back, the sound of forceful wind and the rising of dust showed the intense strength behind their attacks. The shockwave of their attacks moved like a wind to hit the trees and make them shake fiercely.
Ling Tian felt extreme mind-numbing pain coming from his left leg and yet to his shock, he felt his inner Qi deplete at tremendous speed and his leg fix itself up. His broken leg was back to perfect condition. He stood up and saw no difference, however, his Qi in his blood was gone by more than half.
'The marrow created a healing factor by infusing Qi into my blood!'
He opened the system screen but before he could take out his sword, he felt something in front of him. Before he could dodge, he felt something hit him with tremendous force, he heard cracking sounds and blew backward and violently hit a tree and more cracking sounds could be heard.
'My ribs are cracked!' he spat out a mouthful of blood and fell powerless.
"You! I will enjoy tearing you to shreds!" came the growling voice of Xia Ju who was filled with Hatred and wrath.
Ling Tian noticed his Qi had begun restoring slowly but it was depleted again till almost nothing was left and yet he wasn't completely healed. He had the power to barely stand up, the feeling of powerlessness, pain, and weakness made him very angry.
He thought of Wenhao's terrible fate and his death, he thought of the many cruel things he saw since coming to this world; From discrimination that he saw first hand to him being forced to take lives, something he never thought he would do. Even though it was a short time, he realized how cruel this world truly was.
'Mercy is only a sign of weakness that leads to death, I should have been more cautious. If I killed all the witnesses and ran away from the city, this wouldn't have happened... I want to live but I will never lower my head, neither to this man and neither to the sky! Let us die together!'
He turned to look at the culprit with eyes filled with cold wrath, "I will exterminate your family if I live to see another day! If I don't, I will take you to the grave with me!"
Xia Ju stroke his beard and laughed mockingly as he slowly approached him. "You, kill me?! With your measly power? What a joke! I will slowly kill you so you savor every moment."
He reached him and easily pushed him so he fell on the ground again, his back leaning on the tree. he raised his leg and brought it down with force, breaking his left leg. Ling Tian only looked with cold eyes. He didn't let Ling Tian's leg heal so he couldn't stand up.
"Strong will you got there, I will enjoy breaking it." Xia Ju repeatedly broke the bones in his legs. The pain was maddening but he only looked with cold eyes.
His Qi was depleted and the rate his bones broke exceeded the rate his Qi was being replenished to heal it.
Xia Ju suddenly kicked him in the chest and broke his ribs violently, he crouched and looked at his eyes with a sneer.
"You brought this on yourself, you killed the young master; Now you die a painful death!"
Ling Tian had trouble breathing and constantly spat out blood but his eyes were cold and he didn't utter a sound.
Xia Ju grasped his throat and slowly lifted him, he had trouble breathing but he didn't struggle; he only looked on coldly. Xia Ju felt a little creeped out, he clenched his fist and made breathing impossible for Ling Tian. Ling Tian began to finally struggle a bit; this brought a cruel smile to Xia Ju's face.
"Yes, that's it. I like this much bet..."
He was cut off in the middle of his sentence due to a sword firmly stabbing his throat.
He let go of Ling Tian and fell back, he panicked and tried to take the sword out only to be stopped by Ling Tian firmly holding the handle and forcing it inside. Ling Tian used his left hand to effortlessly grasp hold of Xia Ju and his right hand to take the handle of the sword.
Xia Ju's throat couldn't heal due to the sword piercing it, his blood gushed out and he slowly lost strength. His gaze filled with confusion looked at Ling Tian. Ling Tian smiled coldly.
"I had this sword ready to be taken out but I knew you would dodge it that's why I let you do whatever you wanted to let your guard down, I attacked when you least expected it. Know this, I will exterminate your Xia clan and you are the cause of it."
Ling Tian then violently used all his power to tear his head off. Blood erupted like a fountain from the headless corpse.
Xia Ju died with regret and anger in his eyes. A cultivator at the early stage of the Xiantian realm who had spent countless days getting to where he was today, someone with great power and status, died due to the carelessness of a moment. Thinking of this Ling Tian decided to never be careless in his life and let his guard down. He collapsed on the ground and let his Qi slowly restore itself and heal his body.
"No one came to my rescue... This is not a game or dream, this is real as real gets and I am not some protagonist in a show to have a plot armor... I must get stronger, only power will let me live as I want. I will never trust anything but my sword that was with me at my weakest time." he murmured and closed his eyes, going into cultivation mode to get points, he was not going to waste time in such a situation. His body slowly healed itself.