Old Friends Die Hard

When Han De looked at the young boy's status, it was just out of habit. He fully expected just to see the usual list of basic information and potential points. Seeing a giant list of cultivation methods, martial art methods, and skills, he was taken aback.

Although Han De always prepared himself for the worst, he didn't think there would be an extra MC here today. He thought maybe it would be someone related to an MC. Perhaps a childhood friend that would get bullied and MC would seek revenge for him later sort of deal.

'What's with the MC encounter rate? Is it because of Ning Bi? Is there some sort of law of MC convergence that I'm not aware of? What, are they gonna say "There can be only one!" and start duking it out? One MC to rule them all?'

By chance, the first thing he saw in the status pop-up was one particular skill.

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[Internal Cycle (Mortal)]

[Allows the user to retain their memories after the soul goes back into the cycle of reincarnation.]

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'A reincarnated MC template!!!'

Han De used all of his will to resist the urge to suck in a cold breath.

He had already made a list of MC templates and developed some strategies on how to deal with them. How to scam naive ones into becoming his disciples, the best ways to defuse tension, best ways to distract them so he could run away, which ones are a good choice to assist, which ones are best kept away, which ones are better of dead, etc.

'A reincarnated former god like this is pretty much the hardest MC template to deal with...'

'Depending on their disposition they may or may not care about their families. All of their grudges are from a different realm. They already have a myriad of different cultivation techniques. Their ascendance is only a matter of time.'

Han De's own synopsis for this MC template was 'Keep out of its way'. To get a better idea of the situation, Han De quickly started reading the absurd status screen.

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[Name: Shen Xing]

[Race: Human (100%)]

[Gender: Male]

[Age: 16]

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[Cultivation: Cultivation: Qi Condensation (7/13) (6.14%)]

[Constitution: None]

[Bloodline: None]

[Roots: Wood (8%)]

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[Potential Points (Total: 30)]

[Will: 10]

[Talent: 4]

[Comprehension: 10]

[Luck: 6]

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'Damn, even with just 8% roots he still has a talent of 4.'

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[Cultivation Methods]

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[Blooming Plum Scripture (Earth)]

[Power: Very Weak]

[Mastery: Grand Master]

[Stage: Qi Condensation (7/13)]

[Expand to view 9854 inactive methods...]

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[Martial Arts Methods]

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[One-Finger over the Heavens (Heaven)]

[Power: Average]

[Mastery: Grand Master]

[Expand to view 25772 inactive methods...]

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[Spells]

[Perfect Mirage (Heaven-Defying)]

[Mastery: Grand Master]

[Minimum Cultivation: 5th level of Qi Condensation]

[Notes: Creates a perfect mirage of a chosen target. Cannot be detected by realms lower than the user's + 9.]

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'What an OP disguise spell!'

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[Devourer's Wrath (Heaven)]

[Mastery: Grand Master]

[Minimum Cultivation: Nascent Soul]

[Notes: Inflict soul damage on a target based on the cultivation difference between the souls.]

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[Devourer's Resilience (Heaven)]

[Mastery: Grand Master]

[Minimum Cultivation: Nascent Soul]

[Notes: Hardens the soul. User's soul becomes invulnerable from attacks below user's realm + 3. Higher realms are able to ignore the effect.]

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[Devourer's Hunger (Heaven)]

[Devourer's Secret (Heaven)]

[Primordial Moon's Tears (Heaven)]

[...]

[Expand to view 54787 more...]

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'What the hell...'

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[Skills]

[Internal Cycle (Mortal)]

[Allows the user to retain their memories after the soul goes back into the cycle of reincarnation.]

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[Way of the Cuscuta (Earth III)]

[Allows user to extract spiritual roots from a person and integrate them into their own. ]

[Notes: Can only extract from a pure root. Extracted root's quality loss is at 0%.]

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'Shit...'

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[Red Letter Day (Heaven)]

[Consumption of blood essence strengthens the meridians of the user.]

[Notes: Target's cultivation must be within 3 realms of the user. Once activated blood essence cannot be used to purge the dantian. Recharge time is 85 years.]

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[External Refiner (Heaven II)]

[User can force their Qi into a target of a higher realm to use them as an external refiner.]

[Notes: Target body must not contain a soul. Externally refined Qi can be directly used in cultivation with 88% efficiency. Degradation of the target body is 8% after a full cycle of the dantian.]

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[Expand to view 14 more...]

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'I have a sneaking suspicion that this guy might be a demonic cultivator. Might be...'

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[Fate]

[Ruler of the 13 worlds.]

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[Notes]

[Very high potential. Would be a core pillar in any sect. Talent level will increase as his roots improve.]

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Han De's heart dropped when he saw the [Way of the Cuscuta] skill.

'No wonder he stared at Ning Bi for a long time. She has higher quality roots than anyone in this region. Perhaps no one can match her roots in this continent, maybe in this entire world. She is the prime target for a demonic cultivator like him.'

Currently, this 'Shen Xing' in front of him was eyeing Ning Bi. Han De's face darkened.

'Even if I can convince him that I can increase the quality of his roots, I can't do it anytime soon. I need 1000 points to buy 5 tokens but I only have 160. Even then, seeing how stingy the System is, those 5 tokens would probably only upgrade 20%...'

Han De knew that if he had offered to be this guy's master he would probably agree on false pretenses and steal Ning Bi's roots at the first chance he got.

'Even worse, with that heaven-defying disguise spell, he probably could get away without any trouble. In fact, this appearance might be a disguise as well. He might be posing as someone to get resources from that sect.'

This guy was pretty much the worst-case scenario for Ning Bi and Han De.

'If he leaves now he will only come back at an opportune time to steal Ning Bi's roots. He will disguise himself as me and get close to her that way. This guy is too dangerous to be kept alive.'

While Han De was coming to a conclusion, the air around them turned strange. Han De was intently looking at the young boy, while the young boy was shamelessly looking at Ning Bi. And Ning Bi was looking calmly at Han De.

The boy, Shen Xing, had already made his plans. He didn't put Han De in his eyes, this arrogant little guy was just a backwater bumpkin. This Ning Bi however, had the highest quality roots he had ever seen. Ever. Just the thought of it was enough to intoxicate him.

As he was about to retreat, he felt a sudden sharp pain in his abdomen. When he looked down, he saw a worn-out sword penetrating his stomach, held by the yellow-robed Han De.

Disbelief appeared in Shen Xing's eyes. What was going on? He had already made his plan and had accounted for every variation! Why was this guy stabbing him with an old sword?!

Shen Xing had survived the torture of the Primordial Moon Guardians for a hundred years. This level of pain meant nothing to him. He also knew healing techniques and could survive such wounds quite easily. His initial shock was entirely due to the unexpected action of that backwater trash.

His 'master' was nearby, he sent a short burst message with a secret technique and continued his act. His cultivation was low so there was no way of breaking off from this Core Formation trash. He continued his 'shocked and in pain' act and patiently waited.

Suddenly, utter shock appeared in Shen Xing's eyes.

"Wait! NO! YOU DARE?!?!"

The sword attack didn't contain any spiritual energy and had only relied on physical strength to impale him. But now a massive amount of spiritual energy was gathered inside the blade and it was directly attacking his soul.

Shen Xing's face became unsightly. He didn't know how but he understood immediately that this backwater trash knew about his origin. Perhaps he was an assassin placed by one of his countless enemies. He did not know. It didn't matter now. For the first time in many eons, he felt despair.

"NOOO!!! YOU!! YOU ARE!! COURTING!!!..."

He tried desperately tried to get away from Han De using his arms, his legs, his spiritual energy, anything. However, he was getting suppressed by Han De, and all his strength amounted to slight twitching of his limbs, his spiritual energy scattered before he could condense it.

"... you... will... knoo...."

Shen Xing had lived for countless years. He had died many times and was reincarnated many times. In all his lives, this was the first time he felt pure terror. He knew that when he closed his eyes now, he would not be able to open it ever again.

"..."

Han De increased the power of his attack once more, just to make sure that not even a wisp of this guy's soul survived. He had already enveloped him completely with his spiritual sense. But he was still deathly afraid of Shen Xing faking it. As he increased the power, the now dull eyes started to disintegrate.

For good measure, he increased the power once more. Shen Xing's body started breaking down. In just a few short seconds half of it turned into ash. Only then Han De stopped.

Shen Xing had many soul related skills. Once he had reached the Nascent Soul level he would become a cockroach. No one would be able to truly kill him. He only needed to lay low during the early stages of his cultivation.

Before attacking Han De had taken precautions. At first he wanted Treebeard or Peng to attack him, but he was afraid that his incompetent lackeys might screw things up again. It always seemed like there was a translation error between his orders and these guy's execution of it. Instead, he placed all of his lackeys around the perimeter to prevent Shen Xing or his soul from escaping.

After getting confirmation from Treebeard and Peng, he breathed a sigh of relief. This disaster was averted.

'Now, the inevitable fallout. Still, this result is highly preferable to keeping this cockroach alive.'

* * *

No one, not a soul on or in this world was aware of the black void that was behind Han De.

{So the little god emperor's little son died in the hands of a frontiersman. HAHAHAHAHAHA.}

{What a delicious face he must be making after hearing his son's soul shard shatter. HAHAHAHAHA...}

{...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...}

{...}

{...}

{...}

{...HAHAHAHAHA... Haaaa...}

{Interesting. Fascinating. Intriguing.}

{Did he know about the butcher's son? How could he? No one seems to have entered this side for centuries.}

{This guy isn't a reincarnation either, and there isn't any abnormalities in his soul.}

{His mastery is nothing short of astonishing, but his talent is barely above the masses. Yet he has such a heaven-defying talent as his disciple...}

{Too many coincidences.}

{Maybe I should open him up and take a look...}

* * *

Fallout arrived sooner than expected.

As Shen Xing's ashes were getting swept away, a Nascent Soul expert arrived. He was wearing the official robes of the Brass Stallion city, a rather imaginative dark blue robe that had a prancing stallion crest and brass colored accents all over it.

'What's with the gaudy robes...'

Even though Han De had just committed first-degree murder for the first time, these robes were able to overwhelm his senses. The person with the imaginative robes quickly came near Han De and politely greeted him.

"Elder De of the Starfall Mountain. Greetings. This humble person is called Tan Xiaodan. I apologize for the unsightly display, Brass Stallion city is popular amongst loose cultivators and small sects. I have already given orders that no one but the auction attendees are allowed in the city by tonight. You will not have to dirty your hands with insignificant fellows like these!"

Against the rapid-fire of Tan Xiaodan, Han De couldn't say anything. He was expecting a backlash, but it was strange that it came like this.

'Gaudy and sarcastic huh... Why didn't I see this information on the report? I really need to re-educate these guys...'

Han De instantly came up with a small show of face for this guy. He pointed towards one of his Nascent Soul lackeys, then pointed towards Xu Fan.

"Slap him. Hard."

It took Xu Fan a few seconds to grasp what was going on. As the Nascent Soul expert with shining eyes walked towards him, he pleaded with Han De.

"Elder De! I didn't do anything! This trash was the one that provoked our Starfall Mountain! He even had dared to look at fairy Ning Bi!"

With his insistence on Ning Bi, Han De finally was able to remember this guy. That day when Xiao Ping was about to go berserk, this Xu Fan was one of the lead culprits that started the commotion that screwed up his plans.

Han De's face darkened even further. He looked at the Nascent Soul again.

"Slap him until he loses his consciousness. Once he wakes up, heal him and do it again until he learns his lesson."

Han De turned to other disciples. He ignored their flinches. Although he had a personal grudge with this Xu Fan, he still had to do an act to mitigate the damage of his previous actions.

"You are Starfall Mountain Sect disciples. If you can get offended by a random nobody during a walk, what is the difference between you and the common rabble? You represent not only yourself but your sect as well. Do not besmirch the name of it."

"This isn't your own backyard. You need to learn to give respect when respect is due. Apologize to the elder Tan Xiaodan!"

Han De suppressed his happiness and watched the disciples collectively bowing and apologizing to Tan Xiaodan. Everyone except Ning Bi was bowing, he had excluded her purposefully. He wasn't about to risk starting a grudge just to save some face to this city.

'With this, I kept my arrogant young master air while still giving face to the Brass Stallion. Perfect. This should get them off our backs, and disciples will be more careful as a side effect. A perfect blend of arrogance and modesty.'

Tan Xiaodan watched the disciples with cold sweat dripping all over his body. His father had clearly warned him not to offend Han De, and even threatened to sacrifice him if relations soured because of his actions. He quickly interjected to appease the obviously offended Han De.

"Elder De! Please! There is no need for such displays. I'm sure your disciples weren't at fault. The fault was completely on that nobody. There is no need for innocent disciples to apologize! On behalf of Brass Stallion I apo-"

Han De shook his head and interrupted him with his hand.

'Shiet, this guy is really rubbing it in huh. Way to take advantage of the situation. Fine, whatever.'

"There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt."

Upon hearing Han De's words, everyone was stunned. Fear replaced the indignance that the disciples were feeling. Tan Xiaodan was deeply regretting ever getting near this guy. It was impossible not to offend him!

While Han De was getting annoyed that this Tan Xiaodan wasn't buying his Arrogant Young Master B act, he noticed Ning Bi was giving a strange look at the remains of the reincarnated cockroach. There wasn't much, just some ashes, some charcoal-like lumps made out of his flesh, and a storage ring...

Han De's eyes shined brightly. This reincarnated cockroach was an MC! Even if his luck was quite low compared to Ning Bi, he was still a bona fide MC. Han De used his spiritual power to retrieve the ring without paying attention to anyone else. He undid the cockroach's seal and sent his spiritual sense inside.

'What a disappointment. Many sets of clean clothing. An ordinary woodsman axe. Some large rocks, a small sheet of spiritual iron... This does feel somewhat familiar. Oh? What's this box?'

Han De saw an unassuming box tucked into an even more unassuming corner of the ring. His spiritual sense couldn't penetrate the box, so he decided to open it.

'This must be what Ning Bi was drawn to. Other stuff is just too ordinary. Who carries around large boulders with them? What kind of...'

Gears in Han De's mind clicked and he finally remembered why this storage ring felt so familiar. Before he could fully lay out his thoughts and make a decision, he received a message from Treebeard.

<Young Master>

<...>

<There is a Nascent Soul expert...>

Han De furrowed his brows. He couldn't make any sense from the sentence. There were Nascent Soul experts everywhere. In fact, he thought there was just too much of them. Weren't those guys supposed to be extremely rare? Why aren't they starting their own sects in the middle of nowhere like they are supposed to?

<...that is heading towards the boy.>

'Hmmm? Is it his master?'

Han De narrowed his eyes, this was actually a perfect opportunity if that was the case.

<He is wearing a similar robe as...>

A person had already arrived. Since Han De didn't say anything, his lackeys had allowed his approach.

"So... This is what my disciple's end looks like. Good! Very Good! Han De... We wil-"

<<CRIPPLE HIS CULTIVATION! NOW!>>

<...the boy who just died.>

Han De didn't wait for the guy to finish his monologue, nor did he wait for Treebeard to finish his report. He sent an area voice transmission to the 20 something Nascent Soul lackeys.

A commotion broke out, many auras suddenly burst forward to the cockroach's master. Although he was an expert at the very peak of Nascent Soul, there was nothing he could've done to prevent so many of them. These shameless guys attacked all at once too. Were these guys even proper Nascent Soul experts? Why were they acting like a group of thugs?! The nameless master of the cockroach felt indignant.

After a brief struggle, the nameless master was crippled. In the fleeting moment he had struggled, he even tried to bring tribulation down to at least kill some of these shameless thugs, but alas, he failed.

Tan Xiaodan watched this sight with horror. More than 25 Nascent Soul experts suddenly attacked this poor guy at the same time! This was too much for his poor heart. He bowed to Han De, used the reception as an excuse then ran away without looking back.

Han De's twitched as he was reminded of the reception.

'Shit, now I really can't afford to ignore it. This guy is already pissed. Well whatever, what's done is done. This was worth offending these guys...'

Starfall Mountain disciples were knocked out from the aura burst, Xu Fan had already lost consciousness before with a pig-like face, while Ning Bi was still standing as if nothing ever happened.

His lackeys brought the man to him. Just a few seconds ago this man was a peak level Nascent Soul expert, ready to transcend his tribulation at a moment's notice. Now his meridians were crushed and his dantian was nearly completely destroyed. He had spent hundreds of years cultivating, but it was all gone in a few seconds. Just like that. The shock was evidently too much for him, even with the mind of a Nascent Soul, such a loss could still break a person.

<Peng.>

<Yes, young master.>

<Choose 10 Nascent Soul experts and rush this guy back with full speed to my father. He is from the hidden demonic sect. My father will know what I mean. This is for his ears only.>

<Yes, young master.>

Han De nodded in satisfaction. A lot of incidents happened in a short time, he was glad that at least he got something back this time. Perhaps this MC encounter was a blessing in disguise. No loose ends!

He quickly went over his mental checklist, then removed the unassuming box from the storage ring.

'Apart from blocking my spiritual sense completely, it really looks like an ordinary box. I wouldn't have looked at it twice if it wasn't in the storage ring of the cockroach. Definitely not something that a normal Qi Condensation guy should have.'

He slowly raised the lid of the box. The moment a small gap appeared on it a dense cloud of Fire Qi surged from the inside. Han De wasn't fazed, but his expression was a little off. He fully opened it and stared at the spiritual herb sitting inside the box.

Since he had narrowly escaped becoming fertilizer just a day ago, he had a deep impression of this herb.

'Crimson Terror.'