Kellan looked at the remaining Nightshade clan member with murder in his eyes.
He didn't need to speak; his expression conveyed everything he wanted to say.
"Any last words?" Kellan finally asked, his voice cold and steady.
Irel shivered, yet he forced a smug expression, trying to cling to his arrogance.
"Boy, you dare kill someone from my Nightshade clan?
Do you know what will happen if the tribe finds out you killed us? They know we went to Mystfall Forest!"
Kellan remained silent, his gaze unwavering. Irel mistook his silence for hesitation, and his confidence swelled.
"Hmph, you lowly Shi Clan scum," Irel sneered,
"If you hand over the treasure you found, I'll forget about this incident. I'll even owe you a favor."
He tried to appear tough, but the fear in his eyes betrayed him. It was as if he were staring at a monster.
"What the hell just happened?"
Irel thought.
"Two cultivators at the third level of the Blood Solidification Realm against just one person.
How did we lose?"
Memories of the fight flashed through his mind:
The way Kellan had dodged their attacks at the last second, speeding up in certain moments, and how his eyes glowed golden.
"You… you're using the Temporal Breathing Technique!"
Irel exclaimed, his voice tinged with disbelief.
"How is that even possible?"
According to the Nightshade clan's records, the Temporal Breathing Technique was lost when your ancestor left the tribe!"
Kellan felt a flicker of doubt.
How long ago was it when people cultivated the Temporal Breathing Technique in the Shi Clan?
Is Elder Wei hiding something from me?
Despite his confusion, Kellan kept his expression stone-cold, instinctively knowing that showing uncertainty was unwise.
"Stop changing the subject," he replied icily.
"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now."
Fear flashed across Irel's face, but he forced himself to respond.
"Stop acting like you're some bigshot! Once my clan members find out what happened here—your Shi Clan is already in decline—"
Before Irel could finish, Kellan's eyes flared with golden light as he surged forward.
In an instant, he closed the distance, stabbing Irel in the throat with blinding speed.
Irel tried to block with his hands, but the force of the strike sent him flying backward.
"How… how are you this strong?" Irel stammered, horror flooding his eyes as he clutched his bleeding throat.
But before he could even try to escape, Kellan seized the dagger from Koli's lifeless hand, imbuing it with his temporal Qi.
With a fierce throw, he sent the blade spinning through the air.
The dagger struck Irel between the eyes, piercing his skull.
He let out a strangled gasp as he tried to pull it out, but it was too late—the weapon had buried itself deep into his brain.
Irel collapsed, his life snuffed out.
Breathing heavily, Kellan dropped to his knees, his body riddled with aches and injuries.
For a long moment, he stared at the two dead Nightshade clan members, his mind clouded with a disturbing sense of release.
This… was the first time I've killed someone.
His gaze lingered on their blood-stained corpses, unease churning within him.
Was there any other way? Could I have escaped without killing them?
But as he mulled over what happened, he shook his head.
That's too naive. Even if I'd shown them my storage bag to prove I didn't have any treasure, they wouldn't have believed me.
If they'd killed me here in Mystfall Forest, no one would've found my body. I'd have died for nothing.
Kellan looked down at his hands, now stained with blood.
A wave of nausea hit him hard, and he doubled over, vomiting onto the forest floor.
I need to get used to this, he told himself, breathing heavily.
The cultivation world is cruel; people are cruel.
The strong prey on the weak. If you're weak, you die without anyone knowing what happened to you.
But even as he repeated these thoughts, he couldn't shake the sickness clawing at his insides.
The bitter taste lingered as he vomited again, his body rejecting what his mind was beginning to accept.
I'll get over this, he vowed, gritting his teeth.
I have to.
Steeling himself, Kellan approached Irel's dead body, patting him down for any valuables.
"No storage bag?" he muttered, disappointed.
After a thorough search, he found around 300 spirit stones and picked up Irel's black dagger, its blade laced with a faint spiritual energy.
"Guess I don't need to buy any weapons," he muttered, examining the weapon.
This will do for now.
Kellan turned to Koli's corpse next, repeating the process.
He found another black dagger similar to the one Irel had, along with about 150 spirit stones.
He frowned, half-expecting more from Nightshade clan members.
"Are all Nightshade clan members this poor?" he muttered to himself,
Stuffing the stones and weapons into his storage bag.
"Whatever. Money is money."
Looking around, Kellan realized he needed to dispose of the bodies.
He gathered dried leaves and branches from the forest floor, arranging them in a pile around the corpses.
Striking flint, he sparked a flame and set the bodies alight, watching as they slowly began to burn.
The stench of burning flesh clawed at his senses, and he forced himself to look away, determined not to vomit again.
I can't keep reacting like this every time I kill someone. I need to control myself.
To distract himself, Kellan retrieved the carcasses of the red-tipped boars he had hunted earlier.
Using the new black dagger, he carved into the meat, preparing it for storage.
He tucked the cuts of meat into his storage bag, making sure to save the tusks for proof of his hunt.
"Guess I'll have this for dinner," he muttered, shoving the tusks into his bag as well.
The weight of the spoils brought him a brief flicker of satisfaction.
The sun was beginning to set, casting long shadows across the forest floor.
I need to get back to the clan, he thought, his gaze shifting uneasily to the darkening woods.
If I linger too long, something else might find me out here.
He began making his way through the forest, weaving between the trees, his body on high alert as the sounds of the night emerged around him.
The path was familiar, but every rustle of leaves, every crack of a twig kept him on edge.
As he neared the outskirts of Mystfall Forest, a chill settled over him.
The weight of the kills, of his decisions, clung to him like a shadow.
He clenched his fists, forcing himself to breathe evenly.
This is what it means to be a cultivator, this is what it means to "Defy the Heavens".
By the time he finally reached the Shi Clan's outer grounds, the sky had turned pitch-black, speckled with stars.
He passed by a few cultivators who spared him suspicious glances.
His clothes were torn, stained with dried blood, and his face bore cuts and bruises that were difficult to ignore.
"Had a rough trip, Kellan?" one of the guards chuckled as he took in Kellan's battered form.
Kellan shot him a look of exhaustion.
"Rough doesn't even begin to cover it,"
He replied before pushing past, too exhausted to engage.
Back in his quarters, Kellan set down his belongings, gingerly stretching his sore muscles.
Every inch of his body ached, and as he lay back, he stared blankly at the ceiling, replaying the events in his mind.
The thrill of the fight, the murderous intent he felt, and the unmistakable terror in Irel's eyes right before his death haunted him.
It's kill or be killed. I didn't have a choice, he told himself, repeating the mantra like a lifeline.
I did what I had to.
He could still feel the nausea threatening to resurface,
But this time he pushed it down, forcing himself to confront the reality of what his life would be like from now on.
He would need to get used to it.
The Nightshade clan wasn't going to let this go unnoticed, and the path he'd chosen wouldn't allow for mercy.
"Hopefully they don't do anything underhanded during the inter-tribe trial by fire"
Kellan thought about the task Lehen and Onru gave him about how he needed to make sure the Shi Clan gets the majority of the share for the Mystfall springs this year and he clenched his fist.
"This isn't enough, if I'm gonna be facing people like that from now on, the strength I have now is far from enough"
Kellan thought about the Frey Clan, when Yukino almost took his life.
"The Bone Sacrifice Realm"
Kellan felt longing for that kind of strength,
They say when a cultivator reaches the Bone Sacrifice Realm, they can fly, I wonder if that's true.
Pulling out the spirit stones he'd taken from the Nightshade clan members,
He counted them methodically, absorbing himself in the task to distract his mind.
450 spirit stones isn't a bad haul, he thought, slipping them back into his bag.
I'll need every one of these if I'm to keep up my training.
As his exhaustion began to settle into his bones, Kellan finally allowed himself to close his eyes.
His mind drifted, but the faces of Irel and Koli lurked in the darkness behind his eyelids, his first kills.
With a weary sigh, he whispered to himself,
"This is only the beginning."