"Why are you so strong?! The information clearly said that you shouldn't even be at the Median Opening realm yet!"
I walked up to them with an indifferent look, their hardened gazes filled with an odd amount of hatred, and lifted up my one free hand towards their necks. With 2 fingers I placed it against the first man's jugular; manipulating my Qi around the path I forced him to immediately go to sleep. Unlike a regular sleeper choke hold or physical method to make some go to sleep, this way will last longer than a measly 10 seconds.
If I really wanted to I could make them go to sleep forever, especially since except for that Median Opening the other 2 don't have any resistance to this, but I don't believe these guys have done enough for that measure.
After manipulating my Qi around his jugular his head slowly went limp. I only made it so he would wake up after 10 minutes.
I walked up to the next man and I saw the motion he was making. He was preparing to spit at me before I came close, but before he could I quickly raised my hand and slapped him. I used no force, from cultivation, in that slap but still pushed his head aside and a light pink hand mark appeared a few seconds later. He looked that I did so, but I didn't care as another second later his head fell similarly limp as the first.
I walked toward the last one and he just stared at me like I was a villain. But was I one? Perhaps, in other's stories, maybe I could even be someone's end game boss. Stories are always told from the eyes of the protagonist and their bias, inevitably anyone they faced off against would be the enemy, the villain. But of course if it wasn't told from those perspectives would it really even be a story?
If I had to choose, then which side would I be? I believe I might struggle with this question. Most times the heroes win in the end, but it seems that villains just have a bit more fun than heroes do.
When I first came here to this world and began to cultivate I might have well been the hero, at least in those Chinese novels. The one who rises from the ashes as a nobody to become a master, now that story has ended. Perhaps now that I am so powerful I've become the villain for some MC somewhere to overcome. I wonder how many times I've been the villain of another's story. One MC's final form has become another MC's final boss battle to overcome.
Of course there isn't much of a probability that I am one, I'm just a man who is already content with life. Those villains would usually get tangled up with protagonists through their own greed, lust, and selfishness. I on the other hand already have life sorted out mostly, I suppose I now have another wife though. I simply drink tea, enjoy the sights of life, and even get in touch with mortal life quite often.
If anything I should be the teacher character, right? I had those all powerful disciples and betrayal of a couple of them. I liked to think I was vaguely like Master Shifu with the furious five, except there's 10 of them, and his other evil-ish disciple Tai Lung, except I had two who betrayed me.
When I reached for the neck of the final man he snapped at me. The Qi Manipulation within their bodies I used only froze the body from below the neck. I did so simply because I wanted to see them swivel their heads in less restrained motions.
Hearing the clack of his teeth as he tried to bite my hand I decided he wouldn't have it so easy. I brought my hand back a bit with my palm facing him, I wanted him to know I was going to hit him. Before he could even make a face though, in a burst of speed my palm connected with his forehead.
I used a sliver of strength since I was a little displeased with his snap. His eyes immediately rolled back as the whites appeared showing that he had indeed fainted. The damage I caused was just a minor skull fracture. When he wakes up he'll feel some pain, bruising, and swelling on the spot I hit for a few days.
He wouldn't enjoy his time the next few days when he wakes up, but such is his consequence for trying to attack me. He was already constrained and was in quite a vulnerable position. I don't know why he did that nor where his courage came from. This wasn't a life or death encounter for them, at least not with their power.
When the last one fell asleep I began to search their clothes for some kind of clue. I ran through their robes for information and after I gathered what I needed then I released my Qi Manipulation technique. Their unconscious bodies fell limp onto the cold stone ground of the alleyway.
The one who tried to spit on me that time even fell face first onto a small puddle of water. The water splashed up onto his face before eventually setting back down. I gauged the water level and oddly enough what I thought was just a puddle was actually a small divot 4 cm deep which was filled to the brim with water. It was a little too close to the minimum water level people could drown in which was around 5 cm for me. I didn't actually want the man to die because of some misunderstanding with me so with a quick wave of my hand the man's head was lifted out of the puddle and placed elsewhere.
There was still several minutes left until they woke up, but there was no way I was sticking around for them to wake up.If they died while I wasn't looking then there won't be any burden of guilt in my consciousness since I did as I could, it wasn't like I was responsible for them in the first place after all.
When I left that alleyway I took out a scrap of paper I found in their robes. I had actually taken all of their notes and papers of any kind. I didn't want to waste time trying to figure out if it was useful or not. It wasn't like any of them should carry important documents with them at all times, like a deed to their home, right? At most they should be trivial menial tasks assigned to them and if it so happened to be actually important to them then it's a shame for them. I'll probably just toss it away if I don't leave it out on the street, maybe some lucky man could find it and get something out of it.
From the first scrap was exactly what I believed they would carry on them. The paper only had a small list of tasks and then a smaller separate shopping list written underneath.
The next piece contained names of a few herbs with one crossed out. I guess it should be another list of some kind.
Third time's the charm and this time I pulled out a piece which looked like a wanted poster. A person crudely drawn onto the page had a faint resemblance to me. It looked like someone had already started adding on additional little doodles to the image. But this one had no words on it, simply a rough drawing of a man's face.
I pulled the next one and this one had another image of a man, this time the resemblance was a little clearer to me. There also happened to be some text below.
…
Be on the look out for this man! He's a horrendous man who has kidnapped and forced young women to become his wifes! Do not show any mercy for this man, but make sure he is alive. He has to atone for his crimes against others. His approximate cultivation should be around the 9th layer of the Body Tempering at most. He shouldn't be at the Median Opening realm yet. His primary focus should be speed so as long as you watch out for that he shouldn't be able to beat you.
…
'Oh? So that's why they said I was so strong. I could feel a bit of personal resentment just from reading this. Where did they even get the 9th layer of Body Tempering from? Is there someone I've offended recently?
Hmm, the only situation I can think of is when I was in that clothing store and a strange young man, who quite possibly had a mental illness, accused me of stealing their girlfriend. Could it be him? In fact it is the most probable.
He is spending quite the amount of effort doing this though, could it be what he said was true to some extent? He said he met Jinzi around when I met her, but he was too vague with it though.
I guess those words of his, whether truthful or full of lies, have already planted a seed of doubt in me. She was the one to punch him though, he didn't even get to finish before she knocked him out.
*Sigh* Have I already been tossed back into the dramas of these novels? Typically the rifts caused in a number of relationships have been caused by misunderstanding. Misunderstandings which are easily avoided if those characters told the truth to the others and explained their situation. Truth in a relationship is important and once there is even a few doubts about this bond, relationships can easily crumble underneath their own judgements and misunderstandings of situations.
I shall have faith in her and I shall trust her. These doubts sewn into me can still be torn asunder as long as not too many have accumulated into a solid foundation at which point I'll start to question every little thing I've known about her.'
I took out a 5th sheet of paper which only accentuated the crime I've committed on the past piece of paper, but this one specifically spoke about two forced women instead of women in general. It even spoke about how this other woman was ripped away from her previous marriage just before the ceremony from the same person the other woman was also in a relationship with. This one spoke mostly about how miserable the girls must be written clearly in a way to appeal to someone's sympathy. But after reading this one the doubt I had about Jinzi from the previous note was completely overturned.
If it only spoke of women in general like the last might I might not have realized, but since this one spoke of two I knew for a fact at this point that that young man from before was both behind it and bullshiting everything. None of the notes even had a single name on them for people to know or memorize.
That time was the only time I took them both out together and I saw from time to time how he would look at my wives. If it was only Jinzi then it could still be probable, but the fact that he brought up Jing Xiuying is almost impossible.
Although I didn't personally inspect that young man I knew he couldn't have been actually older than 18 or 19. His looks at the time resembled that of a man around that age naturally and with my current abilities I should at least know if he had a high cultivation level to which I didn't sense. I didn't sense a body filled with a Rich Qi keeping the body of a person youthful or at least to the point they wished.
Either he is stronger than even I, which should be impossible since those people were already left for the upper realm, or he's an actual youth of the generation who's full of shit.
Let's say he met Ying'er days before I met her 10 years ago, then he would be no older than 9! Even in ancient times like this a 9 year old was not eligible for marriage yet!
That man is causing quite some trouble for me.