Lou Ben started dispatching the wandering undead knights, yet to fully encounter a full party.
There was enough for Lou Ben to trim the fat and not make an impact on the majority.
His progress was slow but it was still a step in the right direction.
With his speed, he estimated that he would arrive at the tower in the distance within three weeks.
Not bad with all things considered. Facing off against a large population as a sole individual and only taking three weeks to eliminate them? Seems like a good trade off.
Lou Ben can be seen dashing from left to right on the rock encased battlefield, slicing and dodging.
He was getting more proficient in using the long blade to attack.
"Space technique - Gravity Blade!"
A sole undead knight dropped to the floor, the dark flame roaring on the skull fizzled out.
Lou Ben had already put his life at risk continuing to do this.
His heart was racing, he dashed towards the next undead knight to continue the killing spree.
Eventually there were no more lone wandering undead knights and Lou Ben had to approach small groups.
He thought carefully about how to do so.
When he encountered his first party it was of three undead knights.
He quickly got rid of one by dashing forward, the response time for his enemies were on average very slow, so there was not too much of a problem.
He had been hunting this enemy type long enough to develop a keen sense of their strengths.
Two left!
This time Lou Ben was on the receiving end of attacks.
"Space technique - Blade Block!"
This technique was originally Gravity Wall but being used on a blade, made Lou Ben rename it since the wall was no longer as large, but instead more sturdy and direct since it only covered his blade.
Ting!
The two blades met and caused the undead knight to stagger backwards five steps while Lou Ben already moved his blade up to attack.
Slice!
The flaming skull of the second undead knight hits the floor.
B-ting! It rolled to the side and the final undead knight approached Lou Ben.
*Slice!
He didn't give his opponent the time to counter and immediately lept into action slicing through the half-ready blade and neck bone of the undead knight.
"With this encounter, it looks like these guys don't gang up to use their numbers to their advantage!"
The undead knights, although slow, seemed to keep their sense of justice in the way that they would prefer to take care of their enemies with a one on one battle rather than using their strength of numbers.
What luck?
Lou Ben thought it would take him three weeks to approach the tower, which included a lot of sneak attacks and dirty measures such as hurling boulders and using learned techniques to group and kill them!
But, now it looks like he can enter any battlefield and take care of them slowly in one to one combat!
The new time estimate should be around two weeks, there is still a large population, this also accounts for time to enter the nearby metal forest to rest his body and recuperate.
So that is what Lou Ben did.
Eighteen hours of slow combat and afterwards six hours of rest.
His body received many surface injuries, but with getting ample rest his body healed.
There were not any surprises when it came to combat, only that the frequency from fight to fight dwindled as it seemed the undead knights became flustered as a sole individual wiped out an entire army.
If they were hell-bent on sticking to these little rules of one on one fights, how would Lou Ben take care of them?
It wouldn't be possible.
Thankfully it was as if they were hard coded to not do so.
So, the two weeks went by relatively easily.
He cleared his way from the beginning of the metal forest to the lake.
Not a single undead knight to be seen.
There were many unmoving corpses, but since Lou Ben already found a decent blade, there was no need to try to loot the bodies.
Lou Ben treated his advancement towards the tower like work on Earth. Simply waking up and having to do what needed to be done.
That's the way Lou Ben knew.
Before Lou Ben was able to reach the tower, he first had to cross the thick liquid lake that was shining.
It was clear so Lou Ben held no fear of surprise attacks.
He stowed his long blade in his sleeve and put his body into the lake.
His movements greatly fell due to the viscosity of the liquid.
He felt like his body was trying to move through jello.
More surprising was that as he ventured through, his body was healing itself!
Wherever the thick and shining liquid touched his body, injuries faded away, scars became faint, and scabs became scars.
This was not the only thing!
He felt the yellow-gold string of energy within his meridians become stronger!
He was advancing through the peak stage of the atmospheric condensation realm!
If he had to cultivate normally to have this yellow energy condense inside his meridians then he expected to take ten to twenty years!
Now as he trudges through this thick liquid he is slowly advancing!
"I can't wait to tell the other guys!" Lou Ben smirked as he muttered.
When Lou Ben thought of his brother he thought it was a strange happenstance, but he also saw the ropes of the strong tightening and moving himself and his brothers in the Xiao clan as puppets.
He originally didn't care much about them, but he spent almost two years nonstop with them. He felt he was close to them.
So when he used his brother Kai Yang and Su Sheng it tore open a hole in his heart.
This hole is what the sun spirit used to tug at his heart and use as his advantage.
This was because all this time he had been arguing with himself to be more selfish and care more about his happiness, the sun spirit used this chance to attack him in this weakened state.
Now that he had released his pent up anger and confusion on taking care of the undead knights, he felt more at ease.
He cares about everyone that he has met in this life, Lou Ben had a big heart and struggled with balancing his care for others and his care for himself.
While Lou Ben was advancing through the peak stage of the atmospheric condensation realm, Wu Gen and Kai Yang were preparing for a mass venture.
"Brother Wu Gen, I am also worried about brother Lou Ben, it's been two months now and he has yet to send any message!" Kai Yang said as he walked through the top floor with Wu Gen at his side.
"Don't worry Brother Kai Yang, I was waiting for today." Wu Gen sighed.
The two figures walked into the office of Wu Gen and closed the door.
Wu Gen sat down and spoke slowly: "I have prepared to take a leave of absence, in a couple of days, I'll bring a few more brothers to look for Lou Ben."
Wu Gen sighed: "Will you and brother Su Sheng join in on this? If we had you guys then I'm sure the success rate would increase no less than twenty percent!"
Kai Yang dropped his shoulders and pouted: "Brother Wu Gen, that day brother Lou Ben saved our lives, not only is he our life savior but he is also our brother, just like you and everyone here."
"I don't want to start the idea that when our brothers are in danger we leave them out for death!" Kai Yang stood up and went to find Su Sheng.
Wu Gen smiled and nodded, but as Kai Yang left Wu Gen pouted. He knew that Lou Ben would be gone for a few months, but he was expecting to hear back.
This is the first time any brother has been gone for so long.
This feeling was tugging at their heart since each brother saw themselves as each other, that goes to say that Wu Gen saw himself in Lou Ben and even Kai Yang.
They shared origins, shared the explosive moments to become dao masters, killing others to begin their path, everything they did, they did it together.
When they got to the tavern in the village they all felt a sense to protect their brotherhood against invaders.
That is normal, this is how a man thinks. When a man has a place or people that enter their hearts, then they don't hesitate to protect what is theirs.
Yes the Xiao clan had their bloodline changed, but not even Lou Ben cared about this, so how would natives of this world mind?
Bloodline was only superficial, the experiences they had gone through for the last two years only caused their relationships to deepen.
If Lou Ben was in trouble and Wu Gen told the Xiao clan then he knew everyone would stop what they were doing to attack the undead trench, because of this, Wu Gen had to keep this quiet.
"We're on the verge of losing everything. It's only been two months of collecting tax and stepping forward as a force of dao masters." Wu Gen sighed as he looked up at the bland ceiling.
In a couple of days, Kai Yang, Su Sheng, Liang Jianjun, and himself will go into the undead trench to find Lou Ben, whether it be alive or as a corpse. That is all the manpower that the Xiao clan can afford.