Chapter 9: Prey and Predator

Feng Zhiming had reached the hall and greeted the elder, he was ready to go already, but the second elder was especially cautious this time around and had prepared another test.

"Retrieve the artifact stolen by the northern plain bandits, don't leave witnesses and don't make a commotion."

He repeated the mission description to the two people accompanying him as they flew across the Rocky Mountains surrounding the sect.

A woman a little taller than him standing at around six foot one and a male disciple with a particularly long nose, both of them were at the Quasi stage of the Ethereal Core.

Feng Zhiming wasn't one to waste his time analyzing every aspect of a person for no reason, in this case he remembered them via their obviously distinct traits.

"What is the strength of the bandit leader and camp." the male disciple asked.

He sighed deeply, after analyzing the mission briefly and concluded it would be extremely boring, but had ways to have fun regardless.

"First of all, come and shake my hand."

Feng Zhiming replied in an unexpected way.

Although it was unconventional they both took it as some team building strategy and shook his hand, in line with his expectations, they were both natives of this world.

Feng Zhiming had remembered rule number nine, it outlined that shaking hands with no killing intent would expose if they were participants. Even if one of them turned out to be a participant, he was willing to kill them both to cover it up.

"The leader is at the Actualized stage of the Ethereal Core and has a group of 13 cultivators working under him, ranging from QI Condensation to Condensed Ethereal Core."

"What if we pretend to be villagers and get kidnapped?"

"We could act like loose cultivators looking for work."

The two made their suggestions.

"our strength, complexion, appearance and mannerisms will not allow us to act as villagers. As loose cultivators we'd be rejected, If they did find an artifact, they will be cautious about letting anyone into their encampment."

Loose cultivators were people with no affiliations who just happened to be cultivators.

Feng Zhiming could have probably acted as a villager if he had to, but he didn't trust his fellow disciples abilities.

Expectedly blatant disregard of their ideas had not been well received by the two.

"Who are you to make these arbitrary claims." the tall girl spoke, a trace of discontent present in her voice.

"Indeed, we are all at the same level, yet you believe you can order me around." the other disciple added.

Feng Zhiming halted his flying and turned around to look at the two of them, he hadn't been contradicted since he entered this world, so he had forgotten about the existence of idiots.

"I can kill them, but would that really mean anything." he thought to himself.

A smirk appeared on his face as he hatched a plan.

"Very well, if you believe your plan can work better than me, I will let you two try first."

Feng Zhiming cupped his hands and bowed to them slightly.

"I'll show you the difference between common bandits and disciples of one of the three great demonic sects." the boy with the long nose spoke as the two flew away together.

He had truly grown bored since he had been dropped in this world, despite the constant threat to his life he felt as if it was far too stale of an environment for him.

It was finally time to stretch his legs and have fun.

Feng Zhiming had slowed his pace and decided to take the scenic route by walking towards the bandit encampment.

At this point he had crossed the Rocky Mountains and was moving through the forest, there was something about natural beauty that caught his eye.

"The more I look at the world, the more I feel like it lives."

He could not explain it, but there was some sort of satisfaction he felt watching water slide off a leaf, or a small pond in the middle of a forest.

As he was caught up in appreciating nature he noticed a large group of mortals walking through the forest and decided to confront them.

The village chief who seemed to be the one leading them and bowed down, immediately followed by the group of around one hundred people.

"We have seen the immortal." the village chief spoke with his head lowered, although he led a group of body refiners he was at the Qi condensation level himself.

The mortals had to have this level of reverence for them, at this point in his cultivation Feng Zhiming could easily wipe these people with a snap of his fingers.

"What are you doing walking through this forest?" Feng Zhiming was curious about their motivations.

"I answer the great immortal, we are from a village on the border of the wildlands."

The wildlands in Feng Zhiming's inherited memory was a lawless zone where the orthodoxy and the unorthodox groups often clashed, there was no clear authority so naturally it was deemed the wildlands.

"We had to emigrate from there, the bloodshed has been too great recently."

"What's the cause for this?"

He knew tensions were high, but he did not know chaos would come so quick.

"Partly due to the announcement of the Celestial Haven Sect, but recently there have been disturbing stories."

"Disturbing stories?"

"They say that a demon was born in the wildlands, one so violent that it would consume entire villages in one night and leave lifeless husks."

A demon? Now this was getting interesting, he felt as though he made the right choice by talking to this man.

"And the orthodoxy didn't do anything about it."

"They tried great immortal, they sent a group of seven disciples."

"And?"

"The- they were all reduced to lifeless husks, one of them returned, but he had already been driven to insanity."

Feng Zhiming felt his heart racing, he was tempted to leave this place right now and go straight to the wildlands.

"Not yet." he thought to himself.

"Anything else?" he inquired one last time.

"I don't know the authenticity of this rumor, but the insane disciple says that the demon made them kill each other before he turned them to husks. With that type of evil creature around, we couldn't stay there."

Feng Zhiming nodded at the group and let them keep moving.

"Wait." he called out as he decided on something.

The group stopped and waited for his instructions.

"Set up camp here for the night, camping further will attract beasts, and hold on to this for me."

As he said this he began to walk again, the bandit camp would appear sooner rather than later.

"Thanks to the immortal for his wisdom." the group replied to him in unison.

The leader held a strange round object, not sure what it was that Feng Zhiming had thrown towards them.

The mortals abided by his words, unaware that they may have committed to an early death.