Ezio woke up with an uneasy feeling. He felt danger, a danger he had never felt before in his life. Without thinking any further, he activated the ring tattoo on his chest and vanished from where he was standing. Not long later the door of the hut opened and, three figures barged inside.
They looked around and searched inside with their spiritual perception, but to no avail. "Where is the damn brat?"
They turned back and vanished in the night after finding nothing at all.
Hah. Hah.
Ezio appeared in the hut once again, panting heavily. The Godly Artifact he acquired from Elanor was heaven-defying. But running it was burning too much energy. The stronger the factors trying to find him were the faster it would absorb his energy.
It was three Qi Solidification Realm Cultivators, Peak Layer Spiritual Perception he was hiding from. The density of spiritual sense passed through his intangible body several times, which burned his Qi and Mana in a few short minutes. Fortunately, after he was targeted, Ezio was cultivating with everything he had. Because he felt the piercing gazes of the cultivators of the Tian Faction after the incident took place at the Royal Forest.
"Tian Xu!" Ezio gnashed his teeth in anger. "It was your father before, now you are sending someone to kill me as well. Do I look like someone you can bully on a whim?" It turned out Tian Xu decided to strike after half a year to avenge what had happened at the Royal Forest.
In this half a year, Ezio was able to break through to Qi Force Opening Realm, Intermediate Layer. His mana cultivation also broke through, even though slower, he was able to awaken his first Mana Signium.
The Tian Faction was always targeting Ezio. Tian Xu wasn't the first one who wanted to get rid of him. Actually, there was someone stronger who almost succeeded.
It was three years back, when he first entered the Qi Gathering Realm, he started to absorb Qi the second he tried. Of course, this notion startled the sect even the Supreme Elders and Abbot heard about it. They summoned Ezio and wanted him to demonstrate, and so did Ezio. This wasn't something he could hide, because all the kids at the same age were cultivating together with the aid of a master. Since he couldn't hide, Ezio wanted to profit from this and showed his brilliance.
After that day, he was summoned at monthly intervals and cultivated in front of the Supreme Elders and Abbot. When he was 10 years old, he had enough Qi to break through but was advised otherwise by Abbot, who wanted him to gather more and more Qi to achieve a Seamless body.
When the legendary Seamless Body was heard, all the Supreme Elders lost their footing. It was unbelievable to them of course. But some were worried more than excited. Such as Tian Xu's father, Tian Wen. He was an ambitious man who once fought against Abbot for the title, but he lost. But he never gave up on the throne but only became shrewder. Now a potential leader born in front of his eyes, how could he ignore this boy and let him grow up?
Of course, this little killing intent that seeped through his unholy eyes didn't escape from the Abbot and he erected formations around Ezio's hut. When Tian Wen arrived he was trapped and killed by Abbot, and Ezio saw it all.
"Did you really have to kill him?" Ezio asked. He grew up in a society where laws and norms prevented these kinds of actions. Abbot already saw through his actions and even had time to use formations. So he could instead gather some of the other Supreme Elders and catch him red-handed, and condemn him or even imprison him.
"Little Ezio. In this world only a stronger fist is right. Even if I come clean with this murder no one can blame me, do you know why?" Abbot asked Ezio. He had his usual smile oozing with calmness, nothing like the killing machine he saw earlier.
"Because you are the strongest." Ezio guessed easily.
"Yes. But this is not why I killed him. Even if I had let him go, he would come another day, his son, his grandson would come. Even if I imprison them all, someone else will come, but if I kill one, there will be one less danger to your life. After all, your life is more important than their thousand." Abbot's words awakened something in his heart. It was like fatherly love he never felt, not in this life, nor in the previous.
Ezio sat on his bed while thinking about that day. He didn't know what to do. He was in a similar position now, but he couldn't bring himself to take another person's life. Even his anger vanished when he thought about it. He came clean with himself as much as he could. He grew up in a world where killing was a norm, but were they righteous? 'Am I being holier than thou?'
"Abbot would want me to kill them." Ezio thought. "But I will not. I still believe in the laws and norms people created for thousands of years."
He returned to his sleep.
The next day he woke up to the commotion outside of his hut. He sprang from his bed to look outside. When he opened the door he received a shock that almost fried his brain. One of the three who entered his hut the previous night, Xiao Meng, the weakest one at the beginning of the Qi Solidification Realm was dead, and he was lying dead outside of his door. He already lost a hand when he was trying to hunt Fire-Tiger. Now he was disposed of.
Almost every member of the sect was present, except for the big guns. The other two of three intruders were looking at him with hate and killing intent. As Ezio was wrapping his head around to figure out what was happening, Tian Xu arrived at the "crime scene."
"You devil! What is the meaning of this?" He shouted to Ezio as he pointed his finger at him.
"What do you mean? I just woke up and saw him like this. How should I know what had happened to him." Ezio asked without emotion on his face, but inside he started to get angry, and killing intent started to form for the first time. How could he claim he has a brain instead of dog shit in his head if he can't understand what is going on.
"Master, because this little bastard insulted you, yesterday our Junior Brother couldn't overcome his anger and confronted this little bastard to protect your honor. I heard the little bastard threaten him with killing intent when our Junior Brother called him a bastard who brought calamity to his clan. He must have killed our Junior Brother when he found an opportunity." One of the three said while spitting all kinds of insults at Ezio. It wasn't rare to hear them insult him by saying he brought calamity to his clan, but it was always a taboo subject to talk about. Now he had the guts to talk about it openly.
If Ezio were to be a normal kid, just this sentence alone could cause trauma, but fortunately, Ezio even remembered the day he was born. So he knew the clan was destroyed by his mother, and the clan he once supposedly belonged to was just a lie fabricated by his evil mother.
"Yes, Master. I was there too. Heavens are witnesses, we saw it happen with our own eyes. This little bastard must have killed our Junior Brother. You should redress our grievances, and avenge Junior Brother, or he will never have peace."
"I always knew this bastard is trouble for this sect. Now he killed one of ours. To execute justice, I will take your head. You little bastard —" Tian Xu shouted but he didn't even finish his own words as he dashed to Ezio to kill him. "—what words do you have to defend yourself?"
His claw shone with white light and was in front of Ezio's face even before his last words were heard.
***
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