Rescue (1)

Kai carefully followed Mina's Qi until he found an inconspicuous-looking cave. He peeked inside but found nothing out of the ordinary.

"This is definitely the place. I can feel Mina's core down there somewhere". It was early morning when Kai escaped from the [Rock-Wyrm] Queen. The sun was now slowly rising and had lit up the horizon with a soft glow.

"No time better than the present", Kai whispered to himself. He had gained a decent amount of power from his recent activity, so he felt confident in his ability to escape from danger.

Kai checked his Qi and figured it should be enough to work with.

[132/ 700 Qi]

"Mina, I'm at the entrance. Give me their current movements and locations..."

"Yes Master!, There are eight of them in the cave. Six of them are sleeping and the other two are playing cards by the entrance. There were two more, but they took some captives to the lower tunnels and haven't returned yet. I'm in a cage at the end of the cave."

"Good work, Keep tracking their movements and stay safe, I'll be there soon."

Kai reactivated his [Stone-Scales] then Qi-enhanced his entire body before he went down the cave.

The cave had no obvious signs of being used but Kai was sure that this was the right place. After a few minutes, he finally reached a massive door made out of thick steel.

Kai slowly stroked the door and felt how thick it was. He didn't know if he could break it down, but he also didn't see the need to do so.

"Mina, do you know how they have been opening this door?"

"I heard them knock on it three times then someone on the inside will knock on it once. You'll have to knock twice after that and they should open the door"

"Secret knocks huh, sounds like a lame idea, but let's give it a try" Kai murmured to himself. He knocked on the door three times and waited just as Mina had said.

"Master, someone is coming to the door!"

Kai heard the person on the other side knock once from the inside, to which Kai immediately knocked twice. There was silence on both sides for a few minutes, and Kai was starting to think that he had been discovered when the door suddenly opened.

The door opened inwards and was only a quarter way done when Kai gave it a heavy Qi-enhanced kick. The door was pushed back with a hard bang, smashing into the person who had just opened it.

The bloodied and lifeless body flew across the room and landed on the other side. Kai instantly ran in like a predator ready to hunt its prey.

The guards were shocked by the sudden disturbance. The sleeping guards were also woken up by the sudden noise. In their half-awake state, they scrambled to equip their weapons showing that they were professionals.

However, they all had a look of fear in their eyes when they noticed the creature that had just entered the cave. From their perspective, it was a humanoid beast that was completely covered in smooth brown scales from head to toe. It ran around the cave as if knowing the layout, bouncing around between the guards.

Kai landed next to the second guard and delivered what appeared to be a normal fist to his head, however, the man's head simply exploded, leaving nothing but a headless corpse behind.

The younger guards fell onto the floor when they saw this, completely paralyzed by fear. A more experienced member of the group was able to keep some level of composure while giving out orders.

"Send for reinforcements! the rest of you, group up and kill that thing!..."

Kai made quick work of the surrounding guards but was a little surprised to see the man's head explode.

"I'm a lot stronger than I thought. These guys don't have hard exoskeletons like the bugs I've been fighting so they're a lot easier to deal with". Kai thought as he inspected the remaining guards.

[Human- Mortal Grade-3][ 0 Qi]

[Human- Mortal Grade-3][ 0 Qi]

[Human- Mortal Grade-3][ 0 Qi]

"No internal cultivators, good!"

The remaining guards picked up their weapons and prepared to mount a defensive. While one of them took off running towards a wooden door at the end of the cave. Kai had heard from Mina that the place led to a deeper tunnel, so he wanted to stop anyone from getting down there.

Kai activated [Hare Leaps Over Moon] and landed heavily on top of the man who was running away.

"Help me!", the man yelled with Kai's foot on his back. Kai stomped hard on his ribs, shattering the man's lungs. Kai didn't enjoy killing but knew that sometimes, he had to be ruthless.

The remaining few stood in a group with shocked looks on their faces. One of the younger-looking men dropped his weapon and tried to run for the exit.

"Get back here you fool, where do you think you're going", yelled the person who Kai assumed was the leader. The deserter didn't even turn around as he ran for the exit.

Kai simply picked up the spear belonging to the man he had just killed and threw it at the man who was running away.

His leg was impaled and he fell to the ground screaming. The thought of escaping completely left the minds of the remaining men as they threw down their weapons.

"We...we surrender! please spare our lives!", yelled the leader who had been giving out the orders. He was a middle-aged man with no particular features that stood out. The man dropped to his knees while begging for his life, prompting the younger guards to do the same.

Kai didn't have the stomach to go on senseless human killing sprees. He was still able to draw a distinct line between humans and beasts so killing humans had a stronger impact on him than when he was massacring beasts in the wilds.

Kai looked around the room and finally the cages where the captives were held. There were two captives in the cage, one of them being Mina and the other was an old man, perhaps in his sixties or seventies.

Mina was in the cage with her arms, legs, and neck bound with heavy-looking chains. Her once beautiful face and body were swollen with bruises and cuts all over. She tried to speak but only a hoarse sound came out of her mouth.

Mina's tears kept running down her face as she tried to crawl towards Kai despite the heavy chains. As she moved, the chains tightened, making her scrunch her face in pain.

Kai used his 'telepathy' skill to talk to her instead.

"Mina, what did they do to you..."

Mina's eyes were blood-red as tears rolled down her face. "Master...I'm sorry, because of my weakness I... I..."

Kai clenched his fists and look up to the ceiling as she narrated what had happened. Kai had never had any real sense of justice and always thought he could disconnect himself from the troubles of others. He was always powerless so worrying about other people was useless when he couldn't even take care of himself. But for some reason, seeing Mina's current state ignited a rage that even he never knew he had.

Kai turned back to the guards with cold emotionless eyes. "I don't enjoy killing humans, but since you're all nothing more than beasts...I'll be doing humanity a favor by getting rid of you all!", Kai's voice was heavy and laced with undisguised hatred.

The man who had just begged for his life felt his heart drop when he heard this.

"Dammit!" yelled the man as he stood up and ran for the exit as quickly as he could, pushing down his terrified comrades in the process.

Kai's cool-down on [Hare Leaps Over Moon] was over, but he didn't even bother using it. He just super-enhanced his legs then took off. The speed was almost comparable to using the skill at this point. He reached the man quickly and delivered a Qi-enhanced fist to his back. The hit reverberated throughout the tunnel as the man's chest cavity exploded, leaving a bloody hole on his torso.

The man died with a look of both utter fear and disbelief plastered on his face.

Kai turned to the remaining men and decided not to waste any more time with thoughts of morality.

None of them would leave this place alive.