Masked Cultivators

"Elora, is Emma all right? She is four months already and she has not even tried sitting up." Drake asked with worried expressions while caressing little Emma's hair.

"Drake, this is normal. It will take a month or two for her to sit. Why are you comparing her to Nile." Elora said with a bit sorrow tone. She was missing her son, and she still held herself and Drake responsible for Nile leaving and hiding in the forest.

"Yes maybe you are right, I am thinking too much." he glanced at his wife who had a grim expression and he continued trying to console her- "El Nile and Darren will be fine, they will return soon you know Darren he will take care of Nile."

"I hope they return soon." Elora said while smiling at Emma who was looking at them with her pretty hazel eyes.

Hundreds of Kilometers to the North of Withlock, a small village was being plundered by masked cultivators.

(Village head's house)

In a large room, three cultivators were fighting the village head, out of the three cultivators one of them wore a mask.

"Old man we can talk this out." a thin cultivator said while smiling slyly. He had a warrior rank 2 cultivation.

"HOW DARE YOU EVEN THINK I AM GOING TO TALK TO YOU, YOU ARE GOING TO DIE FOR DECEIVING US YOU BANDITTTSSSS. " the old man shouted furiously while throwing a knife at the thin cultivator.

The old man was the village head and the only mid-warrior rank cultivator in the village and he was facing 3 initial warrior rank cultivators.

"BANNNNNDDIDTTTSSS, we are the disciples of the blood moon sect you old hag.' the masked cultivator with a huge monster like build shouted while jumping in the course of direction of the knife.

"Die." the old man said seeing the knife penetrate the skin of the huge cultivator.

"Huh... " the old man narrowed his eyes seeing what had just transpired, the tall man had changed his state into a liquid form and his knife that he saw penetrate earlier drop to the ground without even scratching the enemy.

"Give up old man. You may have a higher cultivation level than us but how do you plan on winning against three." the female cultivator gave voice to her thoughts, she had a cultivation level of warrior-1 same as the tall bulky masked man.

"THINK AGAIN BITCH." the village head shouted and three clones emerged from the ground that looked identical to him except for the dark brown color.

"Tiara thanks for pointing out." the thin cultivator said sarcastically. He then continued "We respect you Old man, let's talk this ou-" he was only mid sentence when one of the clones came rushing towards him holding a stone club.

The thin man did a backflip evading the club that was directed towards his body. The clone did not wait and advanced further, but no matter how the clone attacked it could not even touch the thin cultivator. After evading dozens of attacks successfully the thin cultivator called out Tiara and did a small gesture with his head.

As soon as Tiara saw Garry, she left the room.

Seeing Tiara leave the village head folded his hand and laughed out loud- "hahhahahaha, the bitch abandoned you already, don't worry I will kill her once I am done with you both" he stood in one of the corners while his 3 clones did the fighting. Two facing the masked cultivator who could change form to liquid and the other clone fighting the thin cultivator Gary.

"Gary, what are you doing ? Use your skill already" the masked giant shouted, who was being corned by the two clones.

'He has not used his ability yet? All these months he tricked us believing he just had insane flexibility as a skill.' the village head thought and started scrutinizing his surroundings.

After just inspecting his environment for a moment he noticed something and jumped away. A thin orange thread was emerging from the fire torch on the wall just a few feet behind him. - 'Sneaky bastard, this is what he was up to.'

"ALFIE YOU BLOCKHEAD." Gary shouted when he saw the village head had seen through his plot.

"You deceitful bastard, " the old man said. He then closed his eyes and on the battlefield, 2 more clones took shape and fiercely sprinted towards Gary.

Gary took a step back and spread his arm wide, soon hundreds of threads emerged from dozens of fire torches that were resting on the wall and started tangling with each other forming two chains burning with fire. He jumped back and simultaneously directed the two chains towards the village head.

'You are not the only one with cards hidden up their sleeves.' The old thought.He bent his knees and just when the chains were about to hit, he swiftly leapt towards Alfie, leaving a small crater on the ground which was created by the impact of his jump.

By the time Alfie was struggling to keep up with the two clones. Even though he had destroyed the clones a couple of times with his physical strength but the clones would reassemble themselves over again. His huge body acted against him as it was easy to hit his huge body, in the battle with the clones he had to use his skill continuously to evade the attack leaving only twenty percent of his energy.

Gary tried following the old man with his chains, his eyes still fixated on the old man.

He soon realized the movement of the chain was being obstructed- "Huh stuck ?" he turned his head to check, and his eyes widened. Two thick hands made up of rock had emerged from the ground where the old man had jumped from, and they were holding the fire chains restricting their movement. 'Sly old man he had not revealed full potential of his skill earlier. '

The village elder clenched his fist and punched Alfie right on the face with his might of a warrior-6 cultivator.

'THUDDDDDD' a muffled voice could be heard in the room.

The monster sized cultivator was sent flying like a paper plane towards the wall by the force behind the punch. The village head movement speed was so fast that Alfie had no time to use his skill.

"Quick thinking." Village head said. Even though Alfie could not evade the punch but he still used his skill and changed his body into a liquid state before hitting the wall, escaping death.

Alfie fell unconscious on the ground, his energy pool almost depleted, and bones jutting out from the opposite side of his face where the punch had landed, distorting it.

In the meantime

The whole village was burning and dead bodies flooded the streets. There were just a handful of initial human rank cultivators among the villagers, who could not even kill a single masked cultivator. At the entrance of the village, dozen masked men were loading up the metal carts with handcuffed females just like cattle. These carts were drawn by tamed monsters.

The masked cultivators had just captured young women and girls while killing the rest as they would sell for more in the slave market. There were even girls cuffed who were as young as 4. Some were crying, some howling, and some just sat quietly in a corner stupefied by the awful events. Some of them knew what lies ahead while the younger ones had no idea what their future beholds.

"She bit her tongue, you fool why didn't you put a cloth inside her mouth?" a masked cultivator said while dragging a dead girl out of the cart, "What a waste of a good face and money." the cultivator said while lecherously looking at the dead girl's face.

"I did put it, she must ha-" 2nd masked cultivator replied but was shushed by the first cultivator.

"Put a bigger cloth, now if even a single girls die, I will make sure you won't get to touch even a single girl before being sold." the first masked cultivator said with a grin.

As they were having their conversation Tiara came rushing towards the entrance, all the masked cultivators bowed down seeing her.

Without even catching her breath she spoke in utmost urgency- "Where is Radella."