26 Return

It only took a day for Caol to get back to Gate City from the Capital. He rode an army ship, as Caol asked to be deployed again.

On the way, Caol heard news about the battlefield. After the massacre at Death Valley, the Empire needed 6 whole months to recover from the loss. A Continent-wide mass conscription was declared by the Emperor to fill up the numbers.

In the past 3 months after the recovery, the Dragon Army has been trying to siege and pressure the stronghold. A lot of immortals from both sides have appeared here to guard against the enemy's attacks against their mortal army. The Army has not been able to advance yet due to the stronghold's defensive location, and needed some sort of breakthrough as this place will be a strategic location when they advance deeper into the Tiger Continent.

As Caol was outside the gates, he felt like he could still hear the battle like it was yesterday. The smell of blood permeated throughout the whole city. The wounded soldiers at the front lines were sent back here to be treated.

A man was waiting for him. This man saw Caol disembark from the ship and walked towards him. Caol could recognize this man as he was one of General Yang's aide.

"Captain Caol, the General is waiting for you at the front lines and ordered me to escort you once you are ready."

Caol didn't have anything more important to do at Gate City and decided to head straight to Death Valley. It will take them at least 2 days to go there from the City.

A troop of soldiers came with Caol. By his count, it was at least 30 soldiers and General Yang's aide. They were tasked to protect Caol as he travels to the battlefield after what he did last time.

It was the first time people heard about a martial practitioner fighting against an immortal cultivator. The Tiger Continent set a bounty for Caol's head as he was a very talented youth and they wanted to prevent Caol from reaching his full potential.

Caol was not aware of this and was just informed by the aide. Even with a bounty on his head, Caol was not scared, as he needed people to fight with to see the results of his training. While Caol was training with Master Jian with qi control and martial techniques, he did not go easy on himself with his physical strengthening. As of right now, Caol's gravity bracelet is constantly opened to 25x the gravity.

If Caol was doing his physical training, he boosts it up to 70x. This kind of training allowed his physique to reach its limits and break through it rapidly.

During their journey, Caol met a very formidable old man who wanted to take his head and offer it to the Tiger Empire. This old man was a very famous bounty hunter, however he is from the Dragon Continent. It was not only the Tiger Empire that wanted to kill Caol, other people living in the same Continent as Caol wanted to kill him because of the enormous bounty placed.

The old man confronted them midway and walked near them. The elite soldiers who needed to protect Caol asked the old man to get out of their way.

The old man was skinny and wore a black robe. He got provoked and felt humiliated when the 'weak' soldiers in front threatened him. The old man decided to kill them first and disappeared from his spot quickly.

The old man went behind a soldier and punched towards the soldier's neck. Before it hit, a palm clasped his fist and blocked it.

Caol defended the soldier as he was powerless against the old man. When the old man appeared, Caol could already feel the killing intent emanating from him. Caol scanned his power level with the scouter and figured out his cultivation level.

[Name: Unknown]

[Power Level: 85,250 (3rd stage Martial Grandmaster)]

This old man was powerful and only Caol could handle him. "You guys better step back if you don't want to be marked as casualties." Caol told the soldiers as he did not want anyone dying unnecessarily.

"Heh, kid. You're a bit strong. Too bad you're still young and cannot defeat me." The old man teased even though his fist was held by Caol. He was not worried and was very confident of his strength. "I'm going to have to kill you though. This ain't personal, it's just business."

The old man lifted his left knee up high and tried to strike Caol's chin. Caol moved his head a little bit, but it still grazed his cheek. Caol let go of the fist and grabbed the old man's lifted leg and sweeped the other one towards him while Caol pushed the old man's chest down.

The old man was almost thrown to the ground, but with his reflexes, he was able to put his right hand on the ground and support him and pushed off to ground to regain his footing.

The old man had a shocked expression on his face as Caol reacted so fast. He was able to see Caol's proficiency in hand to hand combat. The old man was not fazed, as he knew that Caol was very talented and was able to hold off an immortal, even though it was speculated that Caol used an amplifying art.

Caol attacked this time around and copied the old man's first moves. Caol lifted his left knee and was going to strike the old man's chest. The old man, however, expected the hit and raised his guard up to defend himself. What the old man did not expect was that the knee was just a feint, and Caol's true strike was a straight right leg push kick to his abdomen.

Caol jumped horizontally and gained momentum from the flying knee to gain the speed and power to do a nasty push kick.

The old man stepped back and coughed a little bit of blood. That strike moved his entrails a little bit as he did not expect that.

Caol did not give the old man time to rest and went in for the kill. The old man was not to be underestimated though. Caol moved in front of him and did a straight left. The old man weaved his head under the punch and unleashed a punch at Caol's stomach. After doing this, he rapidly shuffled and did fast movements to get to Caol's left side fast enough before Caol reacted.

While Caol just took a body shot straight to his stomach, the old man already did his next move. The old man went for a hook to Caol's chin, and it connected.

Caol was dazed for a little bit and had a cut on his lips. He was smiling, however, as this fight made his blood boil and long for more. Caol was feeling the adrenaline rush through his body and made his reaction a bit faster.

As he saw the old man closing in on him, Caol did a round house kick for his head, to which the old man blocked. After Caol threw the kick, he torqued his body and did a reverse back kick to the old man. The old man was sent flying as the kick was fast and heavy.

Caol walked towards the old man. In the eyes of the soldiers, Caol was walking really slow, but he covered 15 meters in an instant. Caol attacked with the Gargantuan Fist and threw a simple punch towards the old man.

The punch was void of any fancy effects. It just tore through the air and landed on the old man's guard. When it hit though, the old man felt the bones in his arms crack. The punch was infinitely heavy. The old man felt like a mountain range was dropped directly to his arms.

Caol threw another punch. The old man felt like a pressure was keeping him from moving and dodging the punch. The intimidation Caol brought with him was surreal. The old man put all his qi into his arms and hoped for the best.

*Bam*

The old man was flying through the air, with his arms flailing around. The punch crushed the bones into powder and disabled his arms. The old man was in a miserable state. His shoulder blades poked through his back, making it look like a bloody, tiny skeleton wing.

The old man's breathing was unstable. He was going through an unspeakable amount of pain and misery right now. He looked at Caol and sighed. It was because of his greed that led to this. He was not mad at Caol and just mad at himself.

"Kid, kill me! I lost." The old man wanted Caol to end his life right there. With severe wounds all over his body, the old man knew he was done.

Caol walked up to him and looked at him, "I don't want to kill you. Just live out the rest of your life in peace." Saying that, Caol threw a high-grade recovery pill at his mouth to stabilize his injuries.

"I DON'T NEED YOUR PITY! KILL ME NOW!" The old man was mad. He thought that since he wanted to kill Caol, Caol would do the same to him. "My arms are gone, I'll be dead anyway since a lot of people want to kill me."

Caol still walked ahead and did not turn back. "You just lost your arms and now you give up? You call yourself a martial artist?" Caol left these words for him to ponder.

Caol did not want to be delayed and went with the soldiers back to Death Valley.

[Name: Caol Gwynt]

[Age: 15 years old]

[Race: Saiyan]

[Strength: 115.0]

[Agility: 127.3]

[Intelligence: 90.1]

[Will: 122.9]

[System Currency: 10,342]

[Power Level: 86,500 (3rd stage Martial Grandmaster)]