Thud.
The last opponent's body dropped to the ground with a soft sound.
Aksai could still feel that the woman was alive as she lay flat on her face, blood oozing from the gaping wound.
Her rapidly beating heart was working against her, making the blood flow more frantically and forcing her to die that much faster.
"A dead genius is no genius."
The 6th stage Spirit Refiner woman's last words reverberated in Aksai's mind like an endless echo. He had to say that it made so much sense to him.
"As a token of appreciation for teaching me a valuable lesson, I will end your suffering," Aksai mumbled before stepping forward. "Well… I'll try to."
Since the sword blade had been broken, Aksai didn't have the luxury to land a critical hit on the woman cultivator while standing up. With his bloody and injured hand, he gripped his sword before squatting down.
The mask slid off when the woman tried to grab her own neck with her hands in a futile attempt to close the gaping wound.
Aksai's face turned solemn as he looked at the woman cultivator's somewhat beautiful and yet battle-hardened facial features. She wasn't even looking at him. Her eyes were lost somewhere, the vision in them fading.
In the next moment, a subtle form of cruelty flashed across Aksai's face as he ran his broken blade through the woman's head. He used the same open wound but directed his sword in such a way that it lodged itself in her gray matter.
Of course, Aksai didn't achieve success on the first try because of the hurdles created by the jaw bone and neck bone.
However, after another attempt, he got the job done. This was the easiest form of relief Aksai could offer to the woman. He only hoped she appreciated the gesture.
Aksai would have liked to cut the woman's neck cleanly off. However, he knew that he didn't have the sword mastery to achieve this feat. Plus, it would only create more mess.
A cultivator's bones that had been refined and strengthened by their cultivation practices weren't easy to chop off, especially someone who was just a step away from breaking into the 7th stage of the Spirit Refining realm.
"Hehe. I should have said thank you to her for calling me a genius," Aksai sighed as he thought to himself. He then shook his head and smiled mirthlessly.
Although this woman considered Aksai's automated Hand-weaving as a manifestation of his genius, the essence behind those words was not just limited by the definition of the word genius. At least Aksai didn't think so.
After all, there were various factors that could make one come across as a genius.
How many cultivators were there in this world with various forms of luck acting on them?
Some would have a peerless background, some would have special physiques, and some others would have access to rich cultivation resources. Some would be way more talented than their peers due to certain reasons.
Like Aksai, there were, are, and will be many cultivators who are blessed with or inherit unknown treasures that are the legacy from the past. Some might just stumble upon something ordinary to others and achieve unbelievable feats with it just because they thought it was special. Some would just be at the right place at the right time.
All of them would eventually be hailed as geniuses of their generations if and when their cultivation reaches a certain standard. Their names would be recorded in the annals of history, and their initial momentum would allow them to walk further in their cultivation.
With bigger power will come bigger shares in resources. A mighty fist will be able to snatch more for itself.
This was a classic case of an upward spiral that stated that once you achieve a certain level of success, it'll be easier for you to have more and more of it as time goes by.
However, the blooming talent, the opportunities in the future, and the infinite possibilities that come with them—all of it would be turned into naught if someone died.
What would be the use of Aksai's automated neural link fabric if he ended up dead? What would be the advantage of his family inheritance in the form of Everwood farmland if he were to die as a 7th-stage Spirit Refiner—a nobody in the grand scheme of things?
If the Everwood farmland and the neural link fabric made Aksai a genius, then dying at this point at the hands of this woman would have taken that title away from him.
***
Putting his philosophical thoughts aside, Aksai decided to prioritize the task at hand.
He looked at the dead woman and the lifeless bodies of her two allies a few meters away. He then focused his gaze on the woman and recalled her encounter with her. He didn't miss the fact that after realizing that the two behind her were killed, this woman had actually considered retreating.
Plus, from the corner of her eyes, ever so subtly, she kept looking in the direction of the alley she came from as they fought, which made Aksai come to a grim possibility.
"Did she have a backup ready on the other side of the alley?" Aksai asked himself as he looked in the alley's direction. Coincidentally, the dead woman was also looking in that direction, which was why she didn't bother looking at Aksai.
Aksai decided to clear the kill site before the potential backup of his three enemies arrived.
First, Aksai held the woman's shoulders before channeling his Spirit Sense into the oil painting he held in his other hand. In the next second, he disappeared along with the woman's corpse.
Aksai quickly came back to the alley and did the same thing with the rest of the two corpses, completely clearing the kill site of his opponents.
He then used a simple Fire spell in the surrounding area to burn away the drops of his blood as well as the pools of blood from his enemies' leaky bodies. He didn't want to hide the fact that he had killed them. However, this would confuse the enemies.
Plus, he wanted to safeguard himself from the strange methods used by some cultivators. What if someone were to possess the ability to track him using the drop of his blood?
It merely took less than a minute for Aksai to clear the kill site. When he was done, the alley looked normal as usual except for the fact that three rifts had been present on the ground that couldn't quite blend in with the rest. Aksai raised his hands and closed those small rifts.
Since there was a possibility that the woman might have a backup ready behind her, Aksai decided not to take the risk by using the same way he had come from.
Instead, he created a fake trail with his Light Steps before safely retreating into Everwood farmland. He had decided that he would only appear in the real world after a few hours when there would be nobody around.
A minute after Aksai retreated to the Everwood farmland, a fourth masked person indeed appeared and looked around himself in irritation.