Chapter 27

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Inside an estate, a few dozen bandits roamed as they drank.

Although they were soon going to battle, they didn't stop consuming alcohol, but rather increased the consumption of it.

They seemed totally drunk, however that was just the precursor of the heinous crimes they were about to commit. They were preparing themselves both mentally and physically, having completely let go of their humanity.

Most of the bandits hung out at the entrance of the estate's dungeon, finding it the most comfortable place to rest.

Since the entrance was the place where the previous dungeon staff had their accommodation and offices, it was pretty comfortable.

The bandit leader didn't hang out with his henchmen however, and occupied the estate all to himself, sealing countless rooms to be used only by him.

Of course, the others didn't even bother to disobey the leaders rules due to the large difference in strength between them.

The current head was the one that brought them such prosperity to begin with.

He was the son of the previous leader, who possessed at best average talent when it came to cultivation. Even the higher ranking members of the den didn't know how he achieved the third rank at the age of 35 with his mediocre talent, but they didn't care enough to pry into his secrets.

After all, they were bandits, a ruthless bunch that slaughtered and looted. They couldn't care about anything else but their own hide.

One of the bandits poured the remaining booze he held down his throat and then looked at the now empty container in a daze.

Realizing he had already drank all of it, he looked around for more bottles, but to his dismay, there were none left.

After grumbling for a bit, he decided to go to the cellar and bring some more.

He headed inside the cellar, with the only thing brightening his path being the light coming from outside the door.

Suddenly, the door closed, as he was shrouded in darkness.

The bandit didn't panic, thinking it was the wind that shut the door, not realizing he was inside the dungeon, where air currents didn't flow.

Grabbing at his belt, he pulled out a match stick and lit it up with leisure. After turning it on, he looked around to find more full booze bottles.

However, what he saw in front of him was not a wine rack, but the chest of a human being.

Since the chest was already on his height, he had no other way but to look up, being greeted by a cold looking youth.

Before he could even react, his neck was snapped in an instant, his now dead body falling on the floor.

Rui looked at the corpse of the bandit with no emotion and then glanced at Liliang who had taken care of the bandit.

After discussing things for a while, they came up with a suitable plan of eliminating them one by one.

Since they were sure to run out of alcohol and they would take long to notice the disappearance of the rest of the people they had disposed of, they decided the quickest method being to eliminate the majority of them without disturbing the den leader.

The den leader usually didn't include himself with the actions of his subordinates, being as far away from them as possible when they weren't on an expedition, using his henchmen to order them around.

Thankfully, Rui had used his skills on his henchmen earlier, realizing that they were no issue to deal with.

The were only a few that were hard to deal with and needed to be taken care of separately. One of them being the short man they had just killed.

[Kaisu De, 83

Cultivation stage: Middle Sea stage (spectral spiritual roots)

Physique: Ghost Speed Physique

Combat power: 15302

Character personality path: Degraded killer

Luck: 8]

Rui had no idea how someone with the Raido rune ended up becoming a disgusting bandit, but it was clear that he had gone through a lot.

The ghost speed physique was a physique of the spectral grade, it was a physique gifted in speed and maneuvering, having the cons of being hard to increase in physical strength and on par with mortal physiques when it came to cultivation speed.

The person they needed to take care of next was an elderly man, who was the most powerful one after the bandit leader.

[She Du, Age 120

Cultivation stage: Middle Sea stage (spectral spiritual roots)

Physique: Spectral poison physique

Combat power: 17050

Character personality path: persistent snake

Luck: 10]

He was a lot harder to deal with due to the fact that he wasn't drinking anything, being the only bandit with a clear mind.

At the same time, he possessed an annoying personality and physique, the spectral poison physique.

It was one of the few physiques that were able to naturally generate poison inside their bodies, of course the spectral grade only being fatal at large doses.

Although the short bandit was easy to kill due to the surprise attack, both Rui and Liliang knew, that when it came to experience in combat, they would have had an impossibly hard time winning against him.

Making their actions quick, taking the corpse with them, they exited the room through a hole in the wall, which they had used to infiltrate inside.

It was time to initiate their second plan, having taken care of one of the variables.

Inside the estate, in the main hall where gatherings were held, a man stood there alone.

He had short ginger hair and red eyes, his body covered in weird runes shining with a eerie dark red hue.

He was half naked, the only thing covering his body being a towel.

The rune on his forehead had long become warped, being completely unrecognizable.

Walking towards the center of the hall, a giant array was placed, being written in what seemed like blood.

The man stared at the array with a smirk. He flipped his hand and dark red energy shot through all directions, cutting ropes that were hanging on the ceiling.

All of a sudden, what seemed like over a hundred sacks fell, covering the array in an instant.

Seconds later, blood started pouring from the fallen sacks, making the array shine in the same eerie light as the man's runes.

Feeling the changes in the array, he slowly approached its center, removing the towel covering his lower half.

Sitting down cross-legged, he breathed in the fresh smell of blood, completely engrossed in what he had done.

Runic energy came in from the sacks, as the man relished in it, baptized by the sheer amount, gaining a vast amount of energy in what seemed like an instant.

After a while however, the energy stopped coming in and the man's delusional state dissipated, being thrown to disharmony in an instant.

His face scrunched up, being completely angered by the lack of progress.

"Fuck, why is it so slow now! It only took a few on the earlier stages, but now I can't even progress through a stage even with a dozen of rituals! Fuck!"

He clutched his head and wretched at the reality of his situation.

In his flustered anger, he kicked one of the sacks, sending it flying and spilling its insides.

What seemed like a human babies remains could be seen inside. They were mangled and even disgustingly shaped, making the scene more horrifying.

Calming himself down, the man slicked back his hair and grabbed the sacks and threw them inside a spatial ring.

The spatial ring was something he had acquired after countless months of searching, only finding the lowest quality one sold in the black market.

Since he was a new third rank rune master, the privileges he had were quite small, only those with a long background in the underworld could get a hold of good materials and items, unless he became an underling of such people.

Xue Liequan, was an individual with strong pride in himself, despite possessing average talents, so going under someone would be his last resort.

Since his father was a bandit leader, he was illegally awakened. All his life, he had spent it seeing death and thievery. In this sort of environment, most people would get a warped personality.

He had advanced using the family methods left by his father's predecessors at the beginning, but as time went on, he got more and more dissatisfied with them, contributing his lack of talent to the methods and not to himself.

He was arrogant, egotistical and psychotic, a perfect fit for someone who would almost certainly take the wrong path in life.

It was five years ago, a time where his father was still alive. He went on a pillaging raid with his den and found an abandoned house in the edges of the village.

Of course, his curiosity took over him and he went alone to explore it, getting his hands on a forbidden cultivation method of a dead rune master.

It was a cultivation method that utilized the energy of young babies and children, using them as nourishment for ones body, essentially absorbing their life energy to increase their cultivators level.

A cultivation method of the evil path.

What Xue Liequan didn't expect however, was the incredible cultivation speed of this method, being countless times more effective. But of course, that effectiveness had a large drawback.

After reaching the third rank, this method had become essentially useless, only being good enough to increase his runic energy by minuscule amounts.

Contributing his previously fast progress to his incredible talents, he could not understand the lack of speed in the cultivation method, so he came to the conclusion that the method had gotten hold of was only for the second stage.

Xue Liequan got up and prepared to head to the dungeon to order his underlings.

Suddenly, he felt a chilly air grazing him and before he realized it, he could see his own body.

As the vitality of a third rank rune master was incredible, he didn't die instantly and just looked on in confusion, as he still couldn't see who had killed him.

Only after his head had completely lost life did a shadow descend and take his belongings.

Guang Xin looked on from the shadows, as the battlefield was being set.

He had placed both Rui and Liliang in the dungeon, knowing the situation to a certain extent and being confident they could handle it themselves.

Looking at the blood covered array, Guang Xin frowned, realizing that the situation was far more complicated than he had imagined.

He originally wanted to use the bandit leader as the final boss for the two, as he was an opponent who lacked a proper foundation and only knew how to act like a wild animal. It would have been the perfect training for two newbies…

However, looking at the man who was doing such vile acts and increasing his strength through evil cultivation methods, Guang Xin decided to get rid of him, to avoid any future troubles.

It only took a single motion of his hand to completely decapitate him, ending all signs of his life in an instant. He waited a couple of seconds, before promptly going down, grabbing his belongings and disappearing once more.

Scanning through the man's spatial ring, Guang Xin frowned at the sheer amount of corpses, being disgusted to the core.

Not wanting to let the man off with just a painless death, he chanted something, as the mans soul could be slowly seen appearing above his body.

The man glanced around in confusion, but before he could do anything, grandpa Xin pulled out a flag and absorbed his soul, strengthening the flag by a small amount.

"Though not at the level of a demon, his soul is still as vile as it gets. Truly disgusting, but at least, he is good nutrition for my thousand ghost flag…"

Said grandpa Xin while laughing mischievously.

As he had resolved the biggest problem at hand, he couldn't wait to see how the young ones would solve their own situation…

His figure melted into the air, completely erasing any trace of his existence, as if he never was there to begin with.

The only thing that would show that there was a difference, was the bandit leaders body, lying on the floor, headless and lifeless.

She Du had been quite tired lately, as his sixth sense had been constantly warning him about danger.

He was a man who trusted his gut, so he couldn't help but worry, especially since he was now part of a filthy group of bandits.

Life had taken him many places, from a village chief, to even a noble adviser, but due to his greed and innately evil heart, followed by his countless unforgivable actions, had led him to his current point.

Nothing more than a lowly bandit, that was even lower than cultivators of his same level, when it came to the hierarchical ladder.

Thanks to his strength however, he was able to live a comfortable life, but he had daily nightmares about being caught.

And today was an especially weird day for him, as his instincts were screaming for him to leave, however, his rationality prevailed over him.

At his current situation, he had nothing to worry about, since he was surrounded by countless rune masters, who he would not hesitate to use as meat shields.

If the opponent chasing after him was third rank, he had the protection of the bandit leader and if the enemy was a rank even higher than that, he had no point in hiding, since he would be found even if he traveled to other continents.

The power difference between ranks was immense, being increased logarithmically rather than linearly, making a fourth rank rune master at least a hundred times stronger than a third rank.

Unlike the other bandits, She Du didn't enjoy killing and stealing. What he enjoyed was taking from the strong, be it their lives, fortunes and even wives. He was a snake like bastard through and through.

If you gave him an inch, he would take a mile. If you told him to back off, he would only take a step back, only to reach for your neck the next moment.

Since he was feeling insecure, he stood in the center of the room, acting like a server for the drunk bandits.

All of a sudden however, a commotion started, as two bandits started shouting at each-other.

They were having a heated argument over who had stolen the most stuff, clearly not having any rationality whatsoever.

Looking at this scene, he frowned and went over to them, wanting to separate them.

Having the bandits fight with each-other, especially at a time where they had to go on an expedition, was not a good idea for their morale, as it would cause strife between the small factions.

It was better to keep things under control, as he was a man that liked taking over things.

He approached the two hood covered bandits with a helpless look, trying to mediate them.

Placing his hands on both of their shoulders, he console them, empowering their actions and helping them come to a conclusion.

The two men calmed down and listened to him quietly.

In fact, they were too quiet, as if already expecting him to come over.

She Du felt his instincts run wild, as he sensed death looming over him.

One of the two bandits grabbed his arm and forcefully pulled him down.

Having no time to react, She Du was pulled over as a knife was stabbed into his vocal cords and his mouth was covered.

He tried to resist by shaking his body, but an immense pressure pressed him down, making him unable to move.

He died being held on to.

Seeing that the man showed no signs of life, the bandits screamed once more, praising the intelligence of She Du and that he was a great leader.

The surrounding bandits, hearing his words agreed, cheering the dead She Du on.

Seeing that the crowd was extremely excited after what he had just said, the two men got up and hugged each-other, reconciling their argument.

At the same time, they made their exit, taking She Du along with them.

The other bandits didn't even bother with where they were going, dragging over Shen Du, since they trusted that Shen Du could take care of himself as an experienced cultivator.

Rui took a deep breath, as cold sweat soaked his back.

This was the riskiest thing he had done in his two life times.

He had essentially completed an assassination in front of the enemy without them realizing the situation.

It could be said that his luck was great, and the execution of the plan was flawless.

Thankfully, they guessed his actions correctly.

Although he had felt suspicious of the situation, Rui's quick actions were able to kill him before he could even act.

As such, all they had left to do, was distract the bandits and exit with the women and children.

It sounded easy, especially compared to what they had already accomplished, but every bandit had a mind of their own. They weren't mindless beasts that would repeat the same actions.

Disposing of She Du's corpse, Rui and Liliang started the final phase of their plan.

Rui split up from Liliang, as he headed towards the bandits.

Since he had already mapped the dungeon, he could even bet that he knew the layout better than all of the bandits combined.

He arrived outside of the gathering area, wearing the bandits clothes he wore before.

He entered with leisure, completely blending in with the joyous environment, even grabbing some of the alcohol laying around and fake drinking it.

Of course, he didn't even dare to put his mouth to the lid, as these bandits probably had countless diseases, be it sexually transmitted, or not.

He used runic energy to cover his lips and hands, making sure he didn't actually touch anything, not even leaving a fingerprint behind.

This was an action that required precise use of runic energy, so a strong bowl and body was required to perform at such a stage of cultivation.

Thankfully he only did it once, not wasting his time with acting.

He went to the area where the strongest individuals stood, using his skills to identify them, and pulled out [Sun Cutter] underneath his robes.

In an instant, [Sun Cutter] grew to the size of a longsword, as Rui swung it using [Dimensional slash] and [Beginning Sword], instantly ending the lives of the strongest bandits within the den.

The area turned silent, as all of the bandits turned his way in shock.

Not waiting for them to process what had just transpired, Rui used all his strength to run towards the inside of the dungeon, wanting to completely lose them.

Seeing Rui run back inside the dungeon, the bandits shock faded, as anger covered their faces.

They rushed behind him with their full force, of course, they were unable to reach him due to the large gap in power…