"With my cultivation at the peak of the Qi Cultivation First Level, I possess the strength of five hundred pounds, which is considered exceptional. Why were you able to break my arm with your Qi Cultivation First Level?" The knight clasped his broken arm, unable to fathom the problem.
The teen sneered coldly, "Summer insects can't speak of ice. I'll ask you again, why did you stealth attack me just now, were you sent by someone to kill me?"
The knight's eyes darted around frantically. He had a broken arm and his treasured sword was nowhere to be found after being discarded by Qi Tian. If he continued to fight the teen, he would only bring hardship on himself. His best course of action now was to flee as quickly as possible, but the miserable horse that he was banking on had run off. If his horse was still around, as long as he could leap onto its back and gallop away, he refused to believe the teenager could catch up to him. But even without his horse now, with his strength at the peak of Qi Cultivation First Level, as he fled at full speed, he doubted that a Qi Cultivation First Level child could catch up to him.
"I'm warning you, don't think of escaping. My patience is limited," said the teen sternly.
How could the knight heed Qi Tian's warning? Before the teen finished speaking, the knight turned and made a run for it. He had trained in a particular movement method, the Chasing Wind Step - a low-grade Yellow-rank method. When used at full throttle, it could reach a speed of twelve meters per second in a short time, then maintain a speed of ten meters per second for several minutes. Counting on this speed, he could run for two or three thousand meters without stop, enough to shake off the teen's pursuit.
Seeing the knight ignoring his warning, the teen's face darkened, and with a push of his feet off the ground, he charged after him like an arrow released from a bow.
Even as the knight ran, he risked a glance backward and spotted the teen chasing after him. Initially, he felt worried, but when he realized that the teen was also using the Chasing Wind Step, he broke out into laughter. The Chasing Wind Step being a Yellow-rank low-grade method, its maximum average speed was ten meters per second, impossible to exceed.
He had stolen a head start from the teen, not to mention whether the teen had cultivated the Chasing Wind Step to its peak. Even if the teen had, his speed could at most match his, the knight's, and absolutely would not be able to surpass it.
"Brat, you're only fit to eat dust behind my ass," the knight sneered triumphantly.
Before the smile even faded from the knight's face, his expression abruptly shifted to horror when he discovered unthinkably that the teen had somehow pushed the speed of the Chasing Wind Step past its limit and was running a meter per second faster than he was. Even though it was just a meter per second difference, it meant life or death in this situation.
The knight had no time to mock the teen anymore, as he felt an overwhelming dread. He desperately poured his Qi into his legs, hoping to increase the speed of his Chasing Wind Step. However, as a Yellow-rank lower-class technique, Chasing Wind Step had inherent limitations that could not be broken through just by wishing. Of course, if the knight's cultivation level could rise to the mid-phase of Qi Cultivation, his speed would certainly increase when using the Chasing Wind Step, but it couldn't necessarily outpace the teen, something even the mid-phase of Qi Cultivation might struggle with, let alone his current state.
In less than a minute, the teen had caught up to the knight and slammed a punch towards his back. The teen did not resort to any martial arts but simply concentrated his strength in his fist.
The knight heard the sound of wind from behind; his heart sank, but it was too late to dodge. He felt a severe pain in his back as if he had been hit by a hammer, and struggled to maintain his balance. He waved his arms futilely and staggered to the ground.
Before the knight could get up, the teen stepped forward, planting his foot on the knight's head as if he were stepping on a dead dog.
The knight struggled vehemently, trying to shake off the teen's control.
"Behave, or else, I'll crush your head," the teen spoke sternly.
"Master, spare my life!" Realizing he had landed himself in deep trouble, the knight hastily begged for mercy.
"I warned you earlier, but you didn't appreciate the chance," The teen said as he firmly secured the knight under his foot to prevent escape, then bent down, clenched his fist, and delivered two swift punches to the knight's left and right shoulder blades.
The knight let out a scream of agony instantly. Though he was wearing a Human Grade Low-Grade Spirit Armor, it could only mitigate the force of up to four hundred pounds. The teen's force definitely exceeded the power of a tiger, and was conservatively estimated to be over six hundred pounds. Even after a part of it was absorbed by the armor, over a hundred pounds still landed directly on his shoulder blades, crushing them with the sheer force.
The teen ignored the knight's screams, saying coldly: "This is your lesson. Now answer my question, and if it satisfies me, I'll let you go swiftly. If not, I won't hesitate to break your ribs and leg bones one by one."
"I'll talk, I'll talk." The knight's voice was becoming hoarse from shouting. At this moment, he was feeling nothing short of disdain towards his superiors. The intel they had provided was entirely wrong. Had he known that apart from his cultivation level, the young man trumped him in every other aspect, he wouldn't have taken this assignment no matter what.
This time, the knight didn't resort to any tricks. He answered every question the young man asked.
The young man asked over a hundred questions, some key inquiries he asked repeatedly but in different ways. Eventually, after interrogating the knight, he obtained the information he sought.
Afterwards, the young man delivered a punch to the knight's temple, ending his life with that single blow.
The young man bent down and placed his right hand on the knight's head. Within a blink, a vortex appeared on his hand which shrouded the deceased knight, sucking him into it.
In an instant, the knight's body disappeared without a trace.
The young man looked at his palm where a tattoo resembling an aeronautical engine was etched. Observing this tattoo, his expression seemed nostalgic.
The boy, named Qi Tian, was originally a student at an aviation academy on Earth, aspiring to design the world's most advanced aeronautical engine for his country. On the eve of his graduation, he was selected by a certain department to be trained as an exceptional covert operative. Returning home on a granted leave before he was to be assigned his first mission, he held a model engine to bid farewell to his parents.
However, while crossing the street, a dump truck ran a red light. Qi Tian didn't have much time to think. He pushed a shell-shocked pedestrian out of the way but was hit himself, his life extinguished in that instant.
Qi Tian thought he was going to die, but after the world in front of him darkened, a glimmer of light emerged. Struggling, when he opened his eyes again, he found that he had transmigrated. He was in a world completely different from Earth.
The pattern of the aeronautical engine on his palm did not originally come with Qi Tian. During one of his excursions, he discovered a nondescript wild grass in the wilderness. On it was a shriveled fruit that burrowed into his palm upon touching, turning into the engine pattern.
Qi Tian was startled at the time. This was not a technological world, so why did an aeronautical engine appear on his palm? He found a spring in the mountains and scrubbed his hands for a long time to no avail. The tattoo did not fade but became more prominent instead. Reluctantly, Qi Tian came to terms with the existence of the engine tattoo.
Latterly, Qi Tian risked his life to kill bandits. Confused about how to dispose of the corpses, he discovered a vortex that would appear and engulf the corpses when his right hand was near them.
When Qi Tian was about to kill the second bandit, he was astounded to find that the aeronautical engine pattern on the palm of his hand began to turn. As though equipped with an engine, every aspect of his power, speed, etc., significantly improved. This made the killing of the second bandit much easier and quicker.
After that incident, Qi Tian was very cautious about collecting the bodies of his enemies. He had a suspicion—the engine tattoo seemed to be using the powerful energy contained in the enemy's blood and bones as fuel. The tattoo being an aeronautical engine likely had something to do with his former life's unfulfilled ambitions. If his goal was to design the best automotive engine, the tattoo might have been an automotive engine instead.
After accepting the existence of the aeronautical engine tattoo, Qi Tian named the pattern on his palm "Heavenly Dao Engine" to commemorate this fate given to him by the heavens.
Qi Tian waited quietly as a vortex appeared in his palm again. He quickly extended his palm downward and, with a few squelching sounds, a pile of debris shot out of the vortex. These were all indigestible items without nutritional value—silver coins, scraps of clothing. The remnant of the human-grade low-rank spiritual battle armor had been reduced to debris, unrecognizable from its original state.
Stirring the debris with a twig, Qi Tian found a few silver pieces and pocketed them. The rest were incinerated with a fire talisman into ash.
Qi Tian adjusted the bloody burden on his back and continued his journey with determined eyes and steady steps, undeterred by the encounter with the knight assassin.
So it was, after walking for more than an hour, a city came into view ahead. The city wall was low, reaching only about ten feet high. If there were to be a war, the wall wouldn't provide much protection. However, this city was situated deep inland, far away from the frontier. If an enemy were to invade and reach this place, then the entire nation would be on the brink of collapse.