Rexi looked at the others and said, "We have to abandon the mission and report back to the sect.
After saying that, he took out of his chest pocket a paper crane. He unfolded it and scribbled some words in it; after that,, he folded it back and infused qi into it.
The paper crane came to life, and after making some bird sounds, it flew off.
They watched as the paper crane disappeared from view.
Rexi looked at Zeron and said, "Go wake up Sake; we have to be vigilant for any attack."
Zeron walked towards Sake's tent, and suddenly, he stopped.
The heavy snoring sound he heard coming from the Sake tent had stopped at some time.
His heart pounded as he thought of all the negative thoughts in his head.
He thought that maybe Sake had been killed or something worse might have happened to him, but when he was about to accelerate toward the tent.
The cover was lifted by a large palm, and with sleepy eyes, Sake walked out.
He gave out a big yawn and asked, "What's up with all the commotion. You all woke me up from my sleep."
He continued yawning as he rubbed his sleepy eyes while muttering about an unsatisfied dream of being in a harem and having countless wives and mistresses.
"Hey Zeron, what happened?" he asked Zeron after getting a little sober.
Zeron replied, "A righteous sect disciple wa—"
Before he could complete his sentence, he with startling speed drew his sword and attacked behind him
Clang
The Sword struck another sword, which was aiming to cut off his head.
The force of the blow pushed him a few meters back and the attacker only staggers.
Zeron readied his stance and stood in front of Sake. He looked at the black-clothed middle-aged man and said. "Evil sect?!"
The man ignored him. The man flexed his right hand as he wondered how a cultivator below the aperture stage could parry his blow.
He didn't know Zeron's real cultivation, but he knows that he is not in the aperture opening stage because those in the aperture opening stage have defining characteristics.
The middle-aged man decided to finish the fighting quickly and support the others on the other side.
"Ha!" he shouted as he let out an impressive momentum. It felt like the air was bending to his will, and his eyes were shining bright like a torch.
This showed that his cultivation is in the eye aperture stage.
Sake was terrified as he looked at the man.
Zeron took a deep breath and held his sword tightly. He was only in the internal organ tempering stage peak.
"Ha!"
The man attacked first with a cleave from his sword. Zeron blocked it by raising his sword and placing it against his shoulders horizontally.
He was pushed down by the force of the blow as his right knee touched the ground.
When the middle-aged man wants to follow up with another attack, Sake shoots him an arrow; he has to parry the arrow, allowing Zeron to stand up.
Zeron have a solemn expression because the force of that blow was very strong.
The middle-aged man does not seem like someone only in the eye aperture stage.
He took a careful look at the man and saw a little air current escaping from his nose as he shot Sake a menacing look.
Sake hid behind a tree as he fearfully gazed at the man.
Zeron was speechless because the tree could not fully hide his fat body and even an ordinary skin refining stage cultivator could cut down a tree.
The middle-aged man smiled dangerously at Zeron after he removed his eyes from Sake. He twirled his sword in his hand and made an apparition appear where he stood.
He appeared in front of Zeron and cleaved down again.
He used a movement technique to appear in front of Zeron, where he cleaved down forcefully again
This time Zeron did not block his attack but dodged by shifting to the right.
Bang.
The Sword hit the ground and caused a deep depression to appear in the ground.
Zeron borrowed the power of the shockwave generated to increase his speed as he jumped at the man with his sword pointed out. "Dragon nod!" he exclaimed
The middle-aged man, with alarming dexterity, eyed the sword and gave a long sweep with his large sword, encompassing Zeron in the attack field.
Zeron had no option but to block the sword by placing his sword vertically.
He was pushed far away by the force of the attack.
Before he could balance himself, the man carried out a thunderous attack.
He didn't give Zeron time to think. He attacked and attacked and attacked. All with simple movements like hack and sweep. But such a simple movement put Zeron in a life-and-death encounter.
"Ha!" A heavy roaring noise was generated by the man as he cleaved his sword horizontally with a powerful force.
Zeron, on blocking the sword, puked out a mouthful of blood as he flew back with force and broke through more than six trees before being cushioned by the seventh.
He still spit out blood as he shakenly stood up.
Sake, in the distance, was terrified and had tears flowing through his eyes. His hands were shaking as he held the bow and arrow, but he was too terrified to release the arrow.
Zeron stood up in pain as he said, "Peak of aperture opening stage?"
The middle-aged man walked slowly towards him while dragging his giant sword on the floor.
The sword made a screeching sound as it rubbed its tip against the hard ground, leaving a long line as it traced its way to Zeron.
"Qi sensing stage, in fact." The middle-aged man replied Zeron.
Zeron smiled wearingly at his reply. He thought (No wonder I was beaten miserably, so he is in the peak of body refining rank. The last stage which is to sense qi, qi sensing stage.)
The man continued, "I am impressed that you could survive up to this point kid, but you are going to die now."
He stopped abruptly as he lifted his giant sword and placed it vertically to his front. "Ha!" he shouted as his apparition appeared where he once stood and his real self appeared in front of Zeron.
Zeron thought he was going to die.
He shouted inwardly for that time manipulation occurance to appear but it didn't. He was very aggrieved, thinking that he couldn't achieve his ambition.
But before he could be killed, a specter appeared in front of him and
Clang!
The deadly attack was blocked.
The middle-aged man was pushed further back by dozens of meters.
He fearfully looked at the tall and stern young man in Sword River Association disciple clothing.
The man was the leader of the bodyguards which is Rexi.
Rexi looked towards Zeron, who had an unwilling look in his eyes and was badly beaten with cuts and bruises on his face and body, before gazing back at the middle-aged man who looked towards him in fear.
"What happened to the others?!". He fearfully screamed out as he asked Rexi
"All dead." Was Rexi the only reply
"How can they be all dead?! There were five peak qi accumulating class cultivators and a dozen body refining ranks. How can they all die in such a short period of time?"
Rexi did not answer but only walked towards the middle-aged man whose hair had gotten disheveled and whose eyes widened as he watched Rexi's sword being enclosed by a blue colored liquid qi
"qi condensation stage." That was the last thing the middle-aged man could say before his head was separated from his body.
He had no power to resist.
A qi condensation stage cultivator is a very terrifying entity to a body refining rank cultivator.
Rexi walked back towards Zeron after searching the body of the middle-aged evil sect cultivator.
After discovering nothing important, he walks back to Zeron, who is being attended to by Sake.
"Are you alright?" he asked Zeron.
Zeron was silent for some seconds before replying back with a question.
"I thought you were in the qi accumulating class."
"I broke through a day before the mission." That was all Rexi could say.
Zeron and Sake were impressed by his level of composure and how cool he is
If it was other cultivators that had this breakthrough, they would have bragged to the end of the world and told everyone, but Rexi kept quiet and only revealed his real cultivation when the need arose.
"Let's go back to the others. They are waiting for us. We can't stay here anymore." Rexi said. Of which Zeron and Sake nodded.