Chapter 19 - The Suhn Clan Loses Face

A group of Suhn Clan cultivators who thought themselves particularly clever had set a trap for Li Kang. Two with long range weapons waited in the trees while a third pretended to set up camp. He was actually rigging up a ki rune to trigger and explosion if approached by a hostile party. Li Kang sighed. Now at bone tempering stage 4 his ki aura sensing was enhanced to an even higher degree and he was easily able to detect the cultivators from a distance. 

Getting around their ambush was not the issue. Unfortunately for Li Kang, the fact that they were setting this ambush at all meant that there had been communication between members of the Suhn Clan and they knew someone was hunting them down. He had already taken out about 15 Suhn Clan cultivators, and was using their ki energy to strengthen his ki channels and reinforce his meridians, improving the density of his ki and bolstering his foundation. With the energy he had acquired, he could already be at stage 5 or the peak of bone tempering, but he had experimented with the simple ki refinement method, improving it, and made the discovery that he could use the energy to further improve his power level without going up a stage, up to a certain point. With this knowledge, Li Kang wasn't about to rush things, and instead was focused on getting the most power he could out of every stage.

He stealthily climbed a tree and began moving through the canopy until he was on a tree adjacent to one that one of the Suhn Clan goons had positioned himself in. Drawing the dagger of avarice, he leaped with a ki energy enhanced burst of speed and stabbed the man through the stomach, using his other hand to hold his mouth closed. After cycling the ki energy, he did the same to the other Suhn Clan would-be ambusher. 

The last grunt was still putting the finishing touches on the ki rune. Li Kang used the dagger of charity to cut a piece off of a tree branch and infused it with some of his ki. This done, he precisely threw it at the unfinished rune below. The unaligned ki from Li Kang's infused tree branch wreaked havoc on the rune, causing it to prematurely explode in the cultivator's face. He leapt down from his perch in the tree and absorbed the man's ki energy with his grade one heavenly treasure before covering his tracks.

Flaring his ki senses, Li Kang noticed a particularly powerful ki signature. It wasn't the Wanyi Group cultivator, however.

"It must be one of the Suhn Clan elders," he muttered. Considering that the Suhn Clan would lose face by sending an elder to do this dirty work after the lower level cultivators had failed, he knew they must be getting serious. He was about to break into a run towards the village when he noticed the Suhn Clan cultivators had left a rucksack and tent behind where they set up camp. Li Kang thought of the wet nights sleeping outside and made a mental note to come back and grab the supplies after he was done fighting. 

He broke into a run, moving as quietly as he could, to gain position on the Suhn Clan village before the Elder arrived. Fighting one on one out in the woods with a meridian crystallization level cultivator would not be ideal. However, if he could make it to the village he might have more favorable terrain for the fight. In addition, if the Suhn Clan was losing face by sending one elder, it meant the shame would be unimaginable for them to send more than one. This meant that Li Kang would have the chance to defeat this cultivator and absorb his ki energy before he would have to face any more of the Suhn Clan elders.

He was now within striking distance of the village. He could feel the elder's presence around the west side of a building on the closest side of the settlement. It was time to fight!