Hours had passed since Ling ran away from the rundown pavilion. Upon reaching a certain distance, he took a final leap, reaching the highest branch of the tree in a second. He searched around, checking if there's any pursuers that secretly following him while he's escaping.
(No one managed to follow me...)
After Ling didn't saw any sign of Wen Clan's pursuers, he sighed in relief and perched on the branch. Ling took out a seemingly tattered paper and opened it. Drawn on the tattered paper is the layout of Wen Clan's house.
(The plan of distracting their forces to search for me is completed. Now I'll proceed to the next plan...)
Ling carefully examined the layout, looking for an entrance to safely infiltrate without detecting his presence.
(Wen Clan, a fourth-class clan, seems pretty ordinary on the outside, but their force can't be underestimated. Their clan consists of at least seventy-eight Dantian Perfection Stage cultivators, twenty-one Qi Condensation Stage, sixteen Qi Saturation Stage and three Qi Perfection Stage experts. So far, I killed several of their Dantian Perfection Stage cultivators, and also killed their ten Qi Saturation Stage experts, which dealt a fatal blow on their side.)
(Though the six elders of the clan is a Qi Saturation Stage experts, they're not even enough to stop me, not to mention those small fries below their ranks. Even if I killed one of their three Qi Perfection Stage expert, Yao Peng, there are still other two of them on their side, including the patriarch of the Wen Clan, Wen Jian.)
Ling noticed that there's a section of the layout and remembered that the security isn't tight during a specific hours. Ling decided to enter that section to avoid detection from the guards.
(While observing their guard's movements for the past few months since I came to their house as a guest, this section's security is too low during nine at the evening. If I could enter there with ease, infiltrating their house is easy...)
Ling looked up and noticed the sun's position in the sky.
(It's still nine in the morning. I need to get stronger before doing any big moves.)
Ling sat in lotus position and closed his eyes. He checked his qi reserves inside his dantian.
(The amount of qi in my dantian is close to three-fourths before reaching saturation. As I expected, absorbing the qi's of those stage above mine is efficient, especially those whose stages are two steps ahead from my cultivation rank than those below or same cultivation level.)
(Thanks to Yao Peng, his qi and vitality replenished mine, even adding half of it in order to reach this amount. Although that's a small amount, it's enough to gain an advantage. But there's still twelve more cups worth of qi remaining to completely saturate it...)
Ling opened his eyes and tried to reach something inside his clothes. There, he took out a two scrolls and opened it.
(Luckily, the qi that was used to create the qi threads and daggers can be recycled back to my dantian thanks to the properties of my strange qi. These Qi Threads and Qi Daggers, was a sub-techniques of the 'Three-Dagger Killing Formation'!"
Ling took the scroll of the "Three-Dagger Killing Formation" and continued to master the technique further. He read the bottom section of the scroll.
"Now that I have enough qi reserves, I need to condense the third and final qi dagger in order to learn the final part, the Three-Dagger Killing Formation..."
Ling condensed the two qi daggers in each of his palms. Then, he condensed the third qi dagger with ease, taking his qi reserves. Only half the cup worth of qi was remained on Ling's dantian.
(At last..!)
The condensation of the third qi dagger was faster compared to the other qi daggers before, indicating that Ling's proficiency of creating qi daggers reached to an extent.
Ling started to visualize the patterns and incantations that was shown on the scroll. The qi daggers started to surround him and trembled fiercely. When When Ling opened his eyes, he began to activate the formation.
"Go!"
All of the qi daggers moved at lightning speed. Those qi daggers chopped all the branches within the vicinity, then came back to Ling's side afterwards.
(With this formation technique, I could stand toe to toe with the Wen Clan. Now that I've done preparing, I need to wait until the sun sets.)
Ling looked around and sensed several beasts lurking around the thick trees. Ling didn't felt fear and unrest at all, instead he found it as an opportunity.
(But first, I need to replenish my qi...)
Ling decided to hunt the wild beasts around the area and absorb their vitalities in order to replenish his own qi.
...
Hours had passed since Ling started hunting the wild beast within the area. It was five o'clock when Ling came back from his temporary settlement with some small edible beasts in his hands.
"I could kill thousands of beast within an eight-hour period thanks to this dagger formation technique. Just by obtaining those wild beast's vitality, I accumulated half a cup worth of qi to replenish my dantian..."
Ling skinned the wild beasts and placed them in bonfire. While waiting for the food to be cooked, Ling packed his things including the map of the Wen Clan's house and his two cultivation tecniques on his possession.
"I need to sort things out before going to infiltrate their house..."
After some time, the food was finally cooked and ready to eat. Ling condensed a qi dagger and chopped the meat with elegance and ate it. After he's done eating, the sun finally sets to the west, and prepared to move out.
Ling jumped from branch to branch. He rerouted his path away from his previous path as possible because he suspected that the cultivators from Wen Clan was there, waiting for him like a predator waiting to pounce it's prey.
Another hours had passed since Ling moved out to commence his infiltration. After he managed to reach the Wen Clan's house, he slowed down and hid behind a branch of the tree.
(Now, I need to wait for those guards to pass there before entering the premises. If I was right, nine in the evening is their estimated time that they'd pass that section.)
When Ling observed the situation ahead, he noticed two guards heading towards the section that Ling mentioned. They are talking about something, and he overheard their conversation.
"Hey, did you know? Mister Ling managed to kill ten Qi Saturation Stage experts on his own!"
The other guard couldn't believe at the guard's nonesense and scratched its head.
"That's bullshit! How credible is your source?"
"I overheard their conversation between Miss Jia and the elders. Somehow, I managed to follow her and got curious why she's frantically running towards the elders court!"
"That makes sense... If Mister Ling is that powerful, then we, a Dantian Perfection Stage cultivators wouldn't stand a chance against him..." the other guard said.
"That's why we're on high alert. The elders feared that Ling might infiltrate the house and take revenge for provoking him or something."
The other guard scoffed at him.
"Huh? Did you forgot that there are three Qi Perfection Stage experts here in our clan, including the patriarch? Sure he could kill ten Qi Saturation Stage at ease, but he wouldn't stand a chance if he fought a stage higher than that!"
"That's the scary part. I heard that sir Yao Peng, a fourth Qi Perfection Stage cultivator in our clan, didn't came back after stalling some time for Miss Jia to escape until now!"
The other guard couldn't believe at what the guard told him.
"That doesn't makes sense at all...!"
The other guard smirked. He waved his hand and stepped further away from the guard.
"Nah. Maybe sir Yao Peng's arrival got delayed, probably because that bastard Ling managed to escape and sir was searching for him. Or he managed to catch that brat and sir was just busy torturing him. Who knows?"
The guard is at loss with his words and fell silent. The other guard tapped the guard's shoulder and smiled.
"You don't need to worry though. No matter how strong a human could be, a lone tiger won't stand a chance against a pack of wolves. Now that there are only three- no, two Qi Perfection Stage cultivators on our side, even if he comes or not, those sirs would kick his ass to oblivion. Plus, the third Qi Perfection Stage cultivator took action and will meet sir Yao Peng soon to deal with that brat! "
The guard sighed and walked away.
"You're right. Well, let's continue our patrol ahead so that we can take a break afterwards."
The other guard laughed as they headed to their next stop. Ling was quietly observing the situation on the tree branch where he is hiding.
(Now's the time!)
"Hup!"
Ling jumped at the wall and managed to land on his two feet. Ling saw a large pots in the garden and crouched his way towards the pots and hid again to avoid detection.
After all this time, Ling's real intention was to enter the treasure room of the Wen Clan. That's why Ling is determined to infiltrate a fourth-class clan hoping he would get a treasure or herbs.
Ling took out his map and searched for the safe spots that he could hide and other important plans. After observing the map, he jumped towards the rooftop and jumped fron roof to roof.
(If I remembered correctly this is the house where the second Qi Perfection Stage expert besides the patriarch resides. I wondered if he's here...)
Ling peeked through a small hole above the roof. There, he saw the second one quietly sleeping on his bed.
(Is he sleeping? That's good then.)
Ling nodded his head and stood up. Ling jumped from roof to roof again, searching for something important.
(Let's see, that house ahead would be the clan patriarch's place.)
When Ling was about to jump onto the next roof, Ling smelled a burning incense stick from the air.
(Is that..!)
Ling tracked the incense smoke's origin and it came from the ancestral house. Ling managed to peek through the small gaps on the rooftop and saw the patriarch of the Wen Clan, Wen Jun, facing the altar while performig rituals by burning an incense. He saw the portrait of the young master he killed.
(Now that he's occupied on mourning on his son, it's perfect time to infiltrate the treasure house!)
Ling swiftly jumped towards the treasure house and entered behind the building unnoticed. When Ling entered the room, he looked around saw a trapdoor on the floor. Ling was certain that the trapdoor on the floor leads to the treasure room.
(Now, let's see what's inside this treasure room...)
When Ling took a step further, he felt a chilling sensation behind his neck. A murderous intent followed as it gets stronger over time.
"So you've finally came brat!" one of the voice spoke behind him.
(This voice...!)
Ling looked around and saw the second Qi Perfection Stage expert, Yao Tian, standing beside the patriarch of the Wen Clan.
"Entering someone's den is simply courting death!"