Lu Zheng slowly made his way to the top, as the underground consisted of three floors, and he was currently on the lowest floor.
The other floors only existed to confuse others about the precise location of the treasury, as only the Clan Head knew about it.
It was a mystery why his mother was aware of it and was even passing the information to her son.
Lu Zheng finally arrived at the spiral stairs leading him to the second floor after killing ten more external disciples, and all of them were Novice Rank Cultivators.
It was normal that it was lacking any internal members since the numbers of the external compared to internal had a vast difference, to begin with.
Scorching Blade Clan accepted any disciples to become external disciples, but few would pass the examination to become internal disciples.
At most, they had thousands of external disciples, while they only had less than internal members.
Furthermore, most of the internal members were Apprentice Rank and above, and they possessed high levels of combat abilities, too.
Unfortunately, they could still not be compared to Lu Zheng who had a drastic change after a single day.
The ten external disciples Lu Zheng killed provide five increases in strength, three in agility, and two in speed.
Now, Lu Zheng was stronger than before, receiving a powerful buff.
He even believed if he had a fair duel with Jade Fang, without the temporary boost of power and the element of surprise with him, he would win.
That was how confident Lu Zheng was with his current power.
Furthermore, Lu Zheng discerned he would not ascend to the Rank soon since achieving higher ranks required the cultivation of Qi balls.
For now, he only had one ball, which was equivalent to one Qi point.
If he wanted to become an Intermediate Rank Cultivator, he needed to have ten Qi balls.
However, he did not want to yet, as ascending means the points he would receive from killing Novice Rank Cultivators would decrease.
He did not want to lose his advantage.
As he halted before the spiral stairs, checking if there were patrolling external members above, Ravyn's voice echoed inside his mind, seemingly hearing his thoughts earlier.
"There will be a limit to how many points you will receive by killing Novice Rank Cultivator. The system is not that magnanimous." His voice carried a hint of amusement.
Lu Zheng's eyes widened, feeling a bucket of water pouring on his head.
He nodded, not doubting Ravyn's words at all.
After all, from what he had observed from Ravyn, he was the type of person who took things seriously.
He would never joke, even though it appeared his tone was mischievous.
Lu Zheng had now faced trouble on how to ascend to the Intermediate Rank.
After all, he only had two extra points left, while his Qi points only had one point.
If he wanted to ascend to the Intermediate Rank, he needed ten Qi points, which was not near enough.
He could only wish he would receive Qi points from killing Apprentice Rank Cultivators since they had their meridians opened and had Qi balls on their dantian.
Lu Zheng soon discarded those worries, for he had to focus on leaving the underground first.
Since he had been standing for a minute and perceived no patrolling external members, he decided to tread carefully.
The spiral stairs lacked torches, so it was obviously dark.
One had to carry a torch by grabbing one from the walls of each floor.
When Lu Zheng walked underground, he obviously grabbed one torch because he was afraid of what was in the dark.
Furthermore, since he was going down, he must have a torch since the stairs were uneven.
If he stupidly had a miss-step, he would have rolled downwards, receiving broken bones and unnecessary bruises.
However, now that Lu Zheng had Qi, his senses were enhanced, even more so due to the increase in durability and strength points.
Furthermore, his eyes were getting used to the dark, so he did not need a torch to walk the spiral stairs upward.
He could clearly see the steps he must take, so he did not face difficulty when going up the stairs.
Slowly, Lu Zheng arrived on the second floor.
There, he saw two external patrolling disciples chatting by themselves.
As always, they were telling the story of how they killed the Azure Tide Clan, and raped the female members, even creating a licking noise, infuriating Lu Zheng.
However, compared to before, Lu Zheng controlled his temperament, calming himself down.
The fact that he could finally control his bad temper must have been influenced by the Ocean's Heart Qi Technique.
Nevertheless, as soon as they were talking badly about his clan, he did not hesitate to kill them.
This time, he tried a different stance again, which was the third stance, Crashing Wave, aiming to be familiar with the stances and techniques, wanting to become the shadowy figure.
The Crashing Wave stance was divided into three techniques.
Tidal Smash, a powerful overhand strike that crashes down with the weight of a tidal wave.
It was also a powerful move when it came to attacking by surprise.
Breaker Strike, a diagonal slash that carries the momentum of a breaking wave, capable of cleaving through defenses.
As he successfully wounded the other external members with the first technique, the other reacted. He attacked him, but he had long slashed him first, making the other member take the defensive state.
However, the Breaker Strike completely broke his defense after parrying it, leaving him open.
Yet, the other member utilized all his strength, attacking Lu Zheng with a swift downward slash.
Lu Zheng could still attack him, but the other member's slash would successfully hack his shoulder, so he did not want to risk it.
As a result, Lu Zheng executed the third technique, Wave Crush, a heavy, sweeping strike that knocked opponents off balance, completely destroying the possibility of the other member landing an attack on him.
Then, Lu Zheng finished with a simple horizontal slash, decapitating his head, making it fly from its body, and rolling to the ground.
When it halted, the face depicted a horrified expression.
Lu Zheng was about to rejoice, but his expression turned ugly when he only received a single notification, even though he had already checked that the other external member he wounded was now dead.