"Now you will face justice intruder." the girl among the three disciples spoke up and got into a battle stance with her sword.
Zhishi Wu was still stunned by how quickly they had managed to change the mood of the situation back into a serious one but he in response also got into a fighting stance.
"Catch." Elder Kong chucked a sword at him.
He caught the sword and inspected it, it seemed to be the same sword his challenger was using.
"A standard weapon for the disciples." he thought to himself.
Without warning a blade came at him.
Although he wasn't prepared to block it his muscle memory kicked in, during the time he had spent on earth he had practiced not only martial arts but also weapon based martial arts to the highest proficiency.
Clang!
The two swords collided and sparks flew almost creating a bright flash, Zhishi Wu was rooted to his spot and didn't budge but the disciple who had attacked him had been pushed backwards about two steps.
In this instance Zhishi Wu had spent the majority of his Qi maintaining his balance and not in counterattacking, he knew if he was thrown off balance it would be easy for his opponent to find an opening in his defense.
For some reason he had an irresistible urge to taunt his opponent, it was somewhat funny for him seeing a cultivator who is an inner disciple actually struggle against him, who could either be seen as a new born or a 13-year-old child or an old man.
"Is that all?" he pretended to inspect his sword acting as if the fight was over.
The disciple's face turned ugly and she lunged at him, her Qi actually seemed far more dense than before, it was as if her emotions had led to a greater output of Qi.
Zhishi Wu raised his sword up in anticipation of the attack and was about to block it when he had a thought that made him change his decision.
"A sword is no different from my fists, if I can reinforce them with Qi why can't I do the same to the sword."
Instantly the sword was enveloped with a raging flow of Qi and shone brightly for those who had the capabilities to see.
He brought it up to counter the strike but just at the moment the two swords were about to clash his sword shattered.
…
"High priestess, the captured villagers all say the same thing." A bald man with a scarred face kneeled before a woman.
They seemed to be underground, the room was illuminated with torches and imagery of a red skull was present in every corner.
"And what would that be." the woman replied, she was wearing a long robe that resembled the man's with a red streak running all the way down, however her robe had an accompanying golden streak that ran across it.
She sat straight up emanating confidence, her gaze looked down upon the man as if he was something lesser while her hands were placed on top of each other upon her crossed legs.
The man was clearly nervous, he was shaking ever so slightly and had one or two beads of sweat on the back of his neck.
"The only time all the surrounding sects gather together is for a internal competition they have between sects for dividing up certain portions of the land."
The woman nodded her head ever so slightly.
"And when will this take place?"
The man swallowed before answering.
"In 6 month-"
A piece of the brick throne like chair she was sitting on flew towards the man and narrowly passed by him, barely even a centimeter off.
"Do you dare disgrace the King? Delaying his spiritual awakening." the woman stood up looked down upon him from even further up emanating pressure.
"FORGIVE ME HIGH PRIESTESS, BUT THIS WAS OUR ONLY OPTION!" he smashed his head against the ground repeatedly until it started to bleed.
"Enough, don't dirty this sacred room. Explain the plan."
The man stopped instantly.
"If we were to attack the sects separately there's a good chance of one of them fleeing and requesting assistance from one of the three great sect, we can't handle them at the moment."
The woman sat back down returning to her prior position.
"I see, if it is truly impossible then we must delay for six more months. Leave and gather more strays while we prepare."
The man nodded and ran out of the room quickly.
The high priestess sat back on the throne and stared into roof which had an engraving of a red skull, for some reason a few tears seemed to drip from her eyes on to the ground and her hands violently clasped her face.
"It's necessary, it's necessary, it's necessary." she repeated to herself without pause in a normal tone as if she was consoling someone.
…
As the sword shatter Zhishi Wu didn't panic but rather stopped directing QI to the sword and focused the QI in his entire body on to the singular point where the disciple's blade was going to strike.
The resulting shockwave from the sword colliding with the incredibly dense area of QI caused the disciple to fly back into the crowd and abruptly lose consciousness.
Zhishi wu also had a little backlash from the sudden usage of QI and looked at his arm, a dark spot had appeared, even though it was a miniscule part of his forearm it seemed like it had rotted.
"Necrotized flesh." he remembered that QI when condensed beyond a certain point can cause side effects, in this instance it seemed like it had killed the cells residing in that area of his body.
As he focused a safe amount of his QI into his eyes and looked closer at the cells, and let out a sigh of relief.
"It seems like the dead cells aren't spreading and are being dealt with like normal, so it's nothing permanent."
"It seems your abilities were not fully fabricated." Patriarch Thunder spoke as he descended the mountain with Elder Kong.
He walked up to Zhishi Wu and looked him straight in his eyes, he stared as though there was no mask blocking his sight, after all he had already seen his face.
"Stay here six months and fulfill your part of the deal and in exchange you will gain the presence masking technique alongside cultivation materials." he said without a semblance of change on his poker face.
Zhishi Wu looked at the sect master with a conflicted expression, he had seen the nature of this sects disciples, yet he had also seen the sect leader recognize him.
"I-"