A Small Breakthrough

Bloody heads and dismembered bodies littered the floor, so Yu Hao was more than willing to quickly leave here.

He looked at the man in Zhang Baichi's hands again and frowned. "He'll die if you leave him like that."

Zhang Baichi looked down on his side and glanced at the man. "Oh, yeah? Do you have a healing pill of anything of the likes? Something that works on regular mortals."

"Regular mortals…?", Yu Hao muttered, only noticing that Zhang Baichi had crippled the poor man's cultivation thoroughly now.

A slight shudder ran down his spine and he once again realized that Zhang Baichi was horrendously ruthless to any opponent. 'Killing people without a change in expression, and leaving them in a state like this…'

Zhang Baichi threw the leader of the Broad Wisdom Sect's disciples on the ground, allowing Yu Hao to take a closer look as the latter picked a healing pill out of a pouch on his hips.

Crouched down, Yu Hao saw the small wounds on the young man's legs and arms, as well as their limp flapping. 'All four limbs crippled, his cultivation destroyed, and even gagged so he can't kill himself…'

Yu Hao carefully removed the rags from the young man's mouth a fed him the healing pill. There was no way for such a low-level pill to heal the young man's limbs, meridians, or Dantian, but it would at least close the open wounds and keep him alive for the foreseeable future.

'He's truly terrifying… Thank God I listened to father and befriended him, rather than cross him…', Yu Hao couldn't help but praise his father's foresight, and the fact that he followed that advice.

He gagged the young man again, in the same manner Zhang Baichi did before, and looked up. Zhang Baichi scoured the battlefield with his eyes while waiting for Yu Hao to finish.

The stare directed at his back didn't go unnoticed and he turned to face Yu Hao. "Do you think we should search the bodies first?"

"…What?", Yu Hao didn't follow the sudden jump in topic.

"They could still have some valuable stuff with them. Maybe even things related to their mission in the Mystic Realm.", Zhang Baichi argued.

Yu Hao remained silent for a second before nodding his head. "You're right…"

His voice trailed off at the end, but Zhang Baichi was already busy searching through the bloody corpses.

Without another word, Yu Hao followed suit. The young man from the Broad Wisdom Sect was left at the side since he was unable to flee, anyways.

The two of them found a few pouches with pills, weapons, and other essentials, but nothing truly valuable.

With a disappointing haul now stored in Zhang Baichi's Inventory, they made they way back to the camp with the crippled young man in tow.

"Brother Zhang?", Yu Hao carefully probed.

"Hm?", Zhang Baichi glanced at him, signalling him to ask after seeing the latter's divided expression.

"How… how can you be so calm in a situation like this? We just killed a bunch of people… Some of them might have been innocent, too.", Yu Hao said, his voice slightly hoarse.

Unlike what Zhang Baichi believed, this matter still ate away at Yu Hao a lot. However, he couldn't really find a good answer.

He sighed. "…Seeing your own family get slaughtered right in front of you changes you, whether for the better or for the worse. Once a fight begins, I lose all scruples, and I fight without any emotion."

A heavy silence filled the space around them, until Yu Hao once again spoke up. "In my family, there's only ever been my father, my mother and me. But my mother died when I was young. I won't say that I can understand how you feel, but I think it's incredible that you were able to use that to become so strong."

"Incredible?", Zhang Baichi muttered. The Zhang Baichi that originally lost his family had already died because of this obsession. If not for the system reviving him in this body, he would have never had the chance to become stronger, or to take revenge.

If not for Jian Wubai accepting Zhang Baichi as his disciple and covering for him, he would have died on the Life and Death Arena when he fought Ji Jian.

Yu Hao nodded his head. "Yes. When my mother died back then, I could do nothing but grief for her. This grief controlled my life for years. If not for my father always forcing me to advance in cultivation and martial arts, I would have long since been considered trash. If not for him, I would not be who I am today."

He shook his head with a smile. "I don't even dare to imagine what would have happened to me if he was not there for me. Even when the loss of my mother must have been just as hard for him as it was for me. That's why I think that you're truly impressive."

Both of them remained silent for a short while and Yu Hao's face was slightly rosy; This was the first time he had spoken so openly about his past to someone.

"I think it's terrifying rather than impressive. It's hard for me to gauge my strength. It's even harder for me to stop when necessary. I've hurt people unintentionally before. I nearly killed people unintentionally, too.", Zhang Baichi said.

He looked at Yu Hao and continued. "I would've died for my lack of control if not for Elder Jian Fu. I would've died for taking revenge against Ji Jian if not for the Sect Master. There's nothing impressive about a madman with great power."

'That's right. There's nothing impressive about it.', he continued to look at Yu Hao, his steps slowing down a notch. 'I wish I could fight like you, but I can't. I'm no genius in martial arts, and I can't just rely on techniques alone. My path is different.'

Step by step, he fell behind Yu Hao, not even registering what the latter was saying as he was too absorbed in his own thoughts.

'My sword is a ferocious one. Even something as beautiful as the stars are turned into a killing weapon when I wield them with my sword. Every move I make brings death and destruction… Everything in my way will shatter… The sword and the stars, shattering and fracture…', he finally stopped in place.

"Fracture, Star, and Sword…", he muttered these words as if in trance. While Yu Hao didn't hear him at first and was confused why he suddenly stopped.

With a frown on his face, Yu Hao went a few steps back to get Zhang Baichi to move, but he stopped just short of touching the latter. He did not dare to continue.

A terrifyingly powerful aura was seeping out of Zhang Baichi's body. It felt sharp enough to slice through mountains and rivers, to suppress all who stand before him, and to shatter the Heavens and sunder the Earth.

Zhang Baichi's eyes were half closed and glossy. As if he was in trance, he kept muttering strange words and phrases that made no sense to Yu Hao.

It was clear to Yu Hao that Zhang Baichi must have entered a state of enlightenment for some reason. He grabbed the Broad Wisdom Sect's leader and backed off a bit more.

'Three Intents build the foundation… To fracture, to control the stars, to kill with the sword; It's all the same in the end; It all leads to victory. To overwhelming power and unrivalled explosive force.', Zhang Baichi mused in his heart.

His thoughts were a mess as he mindlessly recited the Fractured Star Sword Technique, his understanding growing deeper and deeper, while his strength, and comprehension over the Intents hidden within the Sword Technique rose sharply.

'The answer was there, right from the beginning. To cultivate the Fractured Star Sword Technique is to walk a path of destruction. One of supremacy in battle, to lead to unconditional victory. I never needed to wonder about my own path, as I had already chosen it long ago.', his thoughts wandered.

The two Quasi-Intents Zhang Baichi had comprehended were only the beginning. The current him had not even laid the real foundation that the Fractured Star Sword Technique spoke of.

Time passed slowly, as two powerful Intents morphed into three, intertwined together, and repelled off of each other, growing stronger with each cycle.

Zhang Baichi could not tell how much time had passed, but his thoughts grew more and more clear; He could clearly feel the powerful Intents forming inside his mind, imprinting themselves into his soul and sublimating themselves.

Soon, he opened his eyes, only to see Yu Hao grab the young man from under his arm and step back; Barely any time had passed, yet it felt like days, if not months, to Zhang Baichi.

His eyes wandered to the side, three small interfaces overlapping in front of his view.

[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for comprehending Sword Intent.]

[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for comprehending Star Intent.]

[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for comprehending Fracturing Intent.]