At the bottom of the heavenly sword sect shrouded by the large luscious trees, hidden in their shadows were three old mem solemnly staring at the three masked figures in front of them, the one of the middle of the three old men stepped forward and said
"You must go now, we wish you the best of luck, for the future of this sect and the future of each of our families"
As he said the last part of his quick speech his eyes glanced towards the hooded figure on the far left, his usually stern eyes softened as looked at her, but this was only for a moment before his usually cold look resurfaced
The youngest looking of the three old men was the next to step up as he glanced at the masked figure at the center of the trio, he said
"Son, your mother and I will miss you dearly, I hope you can escape this disaster, with your talent you will definitely be able to avenge us"
Then finally the third old man stepped forward as he said
"Xue Hao, my son, you must cultivate hard so you can re-establish our Xue clan to it's former glory!"
These three old men were naturally the sect master of the Heavenly sword sect along with it's two supreme elder's Lin Houshin and Xue Ren!
2 of the masked figures quickly climbed on their horse whilst the third got on his horse, 1 horse facing South West while the other facing south east, they are separating to ensure a greater chance of survival
and they set off!
the old men staring into the direction of the leaving horses had a slight grin on their faces but it only lasted for a few moments before it was replaced by one of seriousness and the sect master's voice rung out
"Sigh, it seems they are coming"
All three of them quickly vanished from their current locations as they appeared in the sky each of them quickly pulling out jade tokens to operate the killing formations around the sect they had 1 objective kill as many of the opponents as they can before blowing up the whole sect which will hopefully kill more of them!
the sect master's quickly pulled out a talisman as and sent some of his qi into it, suddenly a red light shot up into the sky illuminating the entire sect every cultivator present knew what it meant for they were being attacked! the city quickly started shining as cultivators lined up the streets and activated talismans to prepare for the upcoming invasion, gossip spread around the city wondering who it is that dared to attack them the mountain was soon enveloped in a myriad of formations as they prepared for the upcoming onslaught
it didn't take long for the large army to arrive at the base of the mountain only to be greeted by the numerous formations that they had to break through
The sect master of the Heavenly saber sect's voice rung out throughout the mountain his words amplified by the qi in his body
"You old fart Hun Zhi Peng, why don't you de activate all this nonsense and I can guarantee that I will grant you a painless death"
Hun Zhi Peng's domineering voice rung out
"Don't talk nonsense, bring it on quickly and let's get this over with!"
And so it began, the unending onslaught of attacks that landed didn't take too long to break their formations, the disciples clashed, blood flowed like a river heads were decorating the streets like lanterns, the the color of buildings now indistinguishable as they were painted with a crimson colour, screams rung out, the clang's of sword's and sabers until finally the heavenly saber sect had made it's way to the top of the heavenly sword sect's mountain, the two supreme elder's of the heavenly sword sect dead due to them being outnumbered, the sect master being held by his neck as he was held into the sky, his blood flowing from his head
The heavenly saber sect's master voice rung out
"It seems we finally triumphed, you damned geezer"
But his eyes widened when he saw the Hun Zhi Peng's face morph into a demonic grin as his eyes shone a crimson light, before he could even react a black pattern appeared through the entire town it was only moments later that a earth shaking explosion took place, destroying everything in it's wake
The once mighty heavenly sword sect was no more, all that was left was rubble of a broken mountain, and among that rubble were 3 old men all heavily injured as they looked around an absolutely enraged voice rung throughout the rubble
"HUN ZHI PENG I SWEAR I WILL ERADICATE EVERYTHING AND EVERY PERSON YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN, NOTHING WILL BE LEFT, YOU DAMNED GEEZER!"
thats right, in the fight with the two supreme elders of the heavenly sword sect, although outnumbered they managed to quite severely injure two of the Heavenly saber's sect's late stage core formation realm elder's and with the injuries they sustained, along with the injures from the explosion erased them now the remaining elders had to scurry for their nascent souls to ensure any hope of of revival!
Meanwhile, engulfed in the shadow of the trees were two masked figures on a galloping on a normal looking horse, these two figures were naturally Lin Tian and his wife Hun Yi Xun
Feeling the explosion Hun Yi Xun had tears forming on her face as he hugged Lin Tian tighter, her thoughts rushing with memories from the only place she ever called home since childhood, Lin Tian was truly enraged at how powerless he was, his plans, his perfect plans were all crumbled right Infront of his eyes and he couldn't do anything, but this was the fate of the weak and he realized it, being born in such a powerful family truly made his smooth his edges, he needed to be cautious once again! arrogance in this world only means death!, until he reaches the pinnacle of strength he cannot afford to be arrogant!
Lin Tian's mindset had changed, he would no longer be as careless as before he had to be prepared for everything!
His thought's raced as his horse galloped straight ahead after hours and hours of travelling the darkness of the night slowly eroded Lin Tian's vision, knowing it would be risky to continue their journey he stopped the horse and got off before helping Yi Xun off, he quickly pulled out a disc from his storage ring and used his qi to activate it, the disc briefly shone before he placed it on the ground, it was a level 9 Earth grade formation it's function was to make sure no one could enter the dome it formed around the disc, it could even take attacks from Late stage foundation building cultivators.
Seeing that the formation disc worked fine he let out a sign before saying
"We will rest here tonight, if we maintain our current pace we shall reach Clear Lake village in a few days"
Yi Xun was too dejected to say anything other than giving a
"Hn"
of acknowledgement, sensing his wife's depressed mood, Lin Tian slowly walked until he was in front of her, his right hand gently grabbed her chin as he raised it until his eyes met her masked eyes he slowly raised the the bottom of the mask until her perfect rosy lips along with the middle of her flawless cheeks were revealed, he gently gave her a peck on the lips as he stroked his thumb along the side of her right cheek before saying
"Don't worry, I will definitely slaughter every single person the inside the Heavenly saber sect, I will slaughter their families and I will slaughter every single relative they have, nobody who is even associated with the heavenly saber sect shall live
Hearing her husband's words, although still very upset about the loss of her home and family she had a a slight grin as she nodded in acknowledgement.
After receiving her acknowledgement Lin Tian smiled and said
"All right, let's rest now, we have a long few days ahead of us"
The night passed rather quickly, just like the day before they would keep riding for the entire day and Lin Tian would deploy the formation before resting for the night.
Until finally on the 6th day, at evening time, Lin Tian's refined eyes caught a glimpse of a human settlement he slowly nudged his shoulder where there was a Masked Yi Xun, sleeping she slowly raised her head wondering why her husband had woken her up but before she could even ask Lin Tian quickly said
"We are here, we should reach in about 20 minutes"
Yi Xun was quite satisfied it was quite exhausting to travel all day for a mortal like her.
It didn't take long for the large wooden wall with sharp wooden spikes piercing out of it to become visible.
as they followed the dirt road towards the village, a large wooden gate, connected to the wall by two tall archer towers, each holding armored guards, presumably the village's guard force
As Lin Tian slowly made his way towards the gate he heard a rather annoying voice
"HALT!, who are you and what brings you to clear lake village?"
Lin Tian looked up to the gaurd, his annoyed expression masked by the mask over his face responded
"We were apart of a merchant caravan that was destroyed by some bandits, so we came seeking the nearest village seeking protection"
The gaurd's eyes visibly softened as he heard Lin Tians story, merchant caravan raids were quite common since this was only the outskirts of the Red Siege Gang's territory, although thing's were cheap in this area, in exchange for the cheap area there were barely any cultivator protectors present, and since most merchant caravans passing by this cheap area often couldn't afford to hire cultivators to protect themselves they were usually outnumbered by the bandits.
The Gaurd quickly pulled a lever in the post which caused the giant gate to creek as it slowly raised allowing Lin Tian passage before saying
"Rent for the houses in this village is 3 low grade spirit stones a month, if you cannot pay and end up homeless you will be kicked out of the village, go to the town hall and speak to the manager of this village to see which houses are available"
Lin Tian nodded before his horse slowly went inside, he was greeted by a large dirt path surrounded by large trees on each side at the end of the short dirt road was a small market surrounded by wooden lodges, the market was quiet, barely any people were roaming around Lin Tian ignored the place as he made his way to the town hall which was right at the center of the small market, looking at the small building in front of him Lin Tian thought to himself
'can this measly thing even be considered a town hall???'
He sighed to himself, cursing the heavenly saber sect again for making him run away and his powerlessness for being forced to listen to those idiots.
He slowly got of the horse before telling Yi Xun
"Stay here, I will get us a house quickly"
Yi Xun nodded as Lin Tain made his way to the door of the town hall and knocked
A voice reverberated throughout hall
"Come in"
Lin Tian opened the door and saw a singular middle aged man with bushy eyebrows, slanted eyes and a dull nose sitting at the end of the hall, a desk in front of him, on that desk was a single map, this person emitted a stage 5 body refinement cultivator's aura
Seeing the masked person entering his hall the manager of the outskirt town, assigned by the Red Siege gang raised an eyebrow but he didn't really care to ask for details he just said
"The map shows which lodges are taken and which are available, pick 1 and pay the 3 low grade spirit stones, at the end of every month you will come here and pay the 3 spirit stones, do you understand? "
Lin Tian nodded as he approached the desk and looked through the map, he quickly found a somewhat secluded lodge as he said
"I would like lodge number 24"
The clerk nodded and stuck his hand out, Lin Tian quickly put his hand behind his back as is scrummaging for something as he slowly pulled out 1 low grade spirit stone at a time and handed it over, this was naturally to avoid this bushy browed fellow from getting any ideas about the presence of a space ring or pouch, in this rural area no one is supposed to have one if is someone does they need the strength to make sure it doesn't get stolen which Lin Tian lacked severally at the moment.
After receiving the payment the clerk pulled out a small map and said
"Here is your map, you may go to your lodge now"
Lin Tian nodded and made his way outside, quickly mounting his horse as he made his way up the path specified on the map, it didn't take long for them to reach their lodge, it was a rather simple 3 bedroom place, made of wood, Lin Tian looked at it and thought to himself
'Until I make some money I can't move to the core area if I suddenly pull out a middle grade spirit stone it will attract attention that I can't afford'
He could only sigh as he opened the door to his new house, Yi Xun looked around but she didn't say a word, she wasn't stupid, she knew they couldn't do much in the situation they were in, she saw the basic kitchen along with the flimsy wood that his lodge was made off but her scanning was quickly interrupted as she felt Lin Tian pick her up
"Kya"
She rapidly turned around looking at Lin Tian's Hungry eyes which were unmasked.
Lin Tian quickly made his way to the bedroom only to be greeted by a plain room with a small bed and some white sheets, Lin Tian naturally couldn't care about all that at the moment he hastily removed Yi Xun's mask as he quickly smacked his lip's on hers pushing his tongue into her mouth quickly, the kiss only lasted a few moments as Lin Tain placed Yi Xun on the bed he had a grin on his face as he looked into his wife's captivating eyes as he said'
"Tonight, I will not allow you to sleep, heheheh"