Ch. 7 - Unbridled Killing Intent

Xiao Hua stared dazedly at the instant jump in Fang Yuan's cultivation before snapping out of it from a glance from him.

"Un, Xiao Hua will bring Master to a field with Jade Frogs," she said while giving a cute nod of her head. Fang Yuan reached out a hand and patted her head.

Instantly, Xiao Hua felt a warm current of emotions welling up inside her—embarrassment, shyness, timidity, guilt, and contentment.

Her small form shivered under Fang Yuan's palm as she felt his deep and meaningful gaze looming over her.

"Now that I think of it, there is no need to keep calling me 'Master.' Just Brother Zun like before is fine, y'know," he tried to smile warmly but could only manage a cold smile that would have surely frozen mortals in their place.

Though such a sight only seemed to make Xiao Hua blush deeper as she nodded, tugging at her robes while timidly smiling.

Soon, they dropped the topic and headed in the direction where Xiao Hua had come across Jade Frogs before. They both stood some distance away from one in a clearing.

The frog was green and large, dwarfing even the size of wild boars on Earth. Its tongue hung out of its limp mouth, and it radiated an aura of power, occasionally hiccuping.

Due to its high senses, it quickly noticed the two foreign people nearby watching it and turned in their direction with bloodshot eyes filled with anger for those who had entered its territory.

Despite this, neither of the two spectators flinched or reacted to the frog's sudden move. To them, it merely moved...

So slow.

Fang Yuan thought inwardly, narrowing his gaze upon the slow motion of the frog turning towards them. Earlier, he hadn't noticed it much due to the lack of a comparison, but now he understood something new.

His senses, heightened by the cultivation of body and Qi, were no longer comparable to his previous reaction time, thinking speed, and other aspects when he was a normal mortal.

They had risen to such a terrifying level that mortals would probably look as if stuck in time if he were to focus his mental energy on thinking quickly.

As such, he tried to control his body's senses, closing his eyes and breathing in and out, as his thoughts, once comparable to high-speed computing, slowed to what could be compared to a complete stop.

Once again, he opened his eyes and stared at the looming figure about to crash onto him, a sadistic smirk cracking across his face that seemed to freeze the very air around him.

"Weak, too weak," he muttered. In a split second, his mind switched back to its quick-thinking mode. He grabbed the Jiang sword of the evil cultivator he had killed and, with a single swipe, cut the frog apart in one breath.

He moved away from its falling body with light steps, sending a small string of Qi towards where its core was located, ripping it out and placing it into his Spatial Ring.

"Since the monsters here are so weak, I suppose I'll just collect a few monster cores to sell once we reach a nearby city," he said, rubbing his chin.

On that note, since I'll be going to a city, I mustn't look like a beggar in these plain white robes. I'll switch to my other robes once I find the opportunity.

His gaze moved to Xiao Hua, who seemed to be in high spirits, hopping and humming a lullaby as she walked by his side.

Although he didn't have much pride left, he still felt uncomfortable at the thought of undressing before someone he hadn't even met for a month.

As such, he pushed the matter of changing clothes to a time when he could comfortably switch out his clothing for something better from his spatial ring.

Along the way, they faced countless monsters that were easily dealt with by Fang Yuan. His sword soon became covered with blood of different colors, mixing together to form a singular pitch-black hue.

Despite this, no blood or bodily fluids fell onto Fang Yuan or Xiao Hua's robes, as they had kept a barrier made of Qi to protect themselves from such filth.

"Brother Zun, there are people nearby," Xiao Hua said, narrowing her eyes in a certain direction as her divine sense detected three individuals a bit closer than expected.

"I know," Fang Yuan replied in a low voice. He focused on the fight his senses had picked up on and adjusted his direction to head towards it.

Kuku, Flying Sword Sect... Blood Sect.

His lips curled into a cold, apathetic smile as he remembered the names of the two sects from the beginning of the story.

I hope we can play cat and mouse soon, Blood Sect.

...

Three figures, two male and one female, stood a few meters away from a giant lizard with red scales and black lines spreading across its body, giving it a burnt appearance. The lizard moved with great agility, spewing flames at the three cultivators at every chance it got.

"Senior Apprentice-Brother Mo, we need to leave now before we exhaust our Qi!" one of the men yelled, fending off a fire attack with a Qi-infused air palm.

"Junior Apprentice-Brother Wang is right! We can't defeat this monster with our current strength. We should fall back and try again later!" the woman shouted to her senior brother as she launched an attack that the giant lizard easily withstood.

Mo Zhou, the oldest of the three, bit his lip in anger and regret while staring intently at the Fiery Lizard, his mind racing through their options.

Fuck! We'll really die at this rate if we don't escape now!

Will I really have to die by his hands…?

The three had already exhausted almost all of their Qi with numerous techniques to kill the Fiery Lizard, but even the small cracks on the surface of its scales proved that it had suffered some damage, even if minimal.

That is why...

"I refuse! You both can fall back, I'll stay here to fight this bea—" His voice was cut off as the beast before them was instantly turned into a meat paste out of nowhere, leaving only a shining translucent red core as proof of its previous existence.

Wha—

Two figures walked into their field of vision, their steps measured and slow, as if they were merely taking a stroll in their backyard.

The male appeared to be in his late teens, with long black hair that reached a few inches off the ground, neatly combed and so dark it seemed to absorb the very light around him. His piercing, cold, and calculating black eyes roamed over their bodies for a fraction of a second as he moved alongside a ten-year-old girl. Both of them appeared fleeting, like ghosts.

The three cultivators couldn't speak, move, or even look at their faces properly. They immediately lowered their heads when he stepped near them. Their breaths hitched in their throats as they simultaneously froze and stopped breathing, trying and failing to make themselves as small as possible, hoping the person—no, monster—would simply pass by and leave them be.

Question: What do you hear in a forest run by a lion?

Answer: Nothing.

Some may ask why, and the answer is rather simple. Animals have a natural-born instinct, an instinct that separates them from other animals.

They follow the law of the jungle, where the strong rule while the weaker ones can do nothing but become prey.

Humans, like animals, also have such instincts passed down from ancient times when they were nothing but prey to powerful predators, almost ingrained within their very blood.

So, how did the rat survive from the lion?

It hid.

The lion merely passed by, ignoring its insignificant existence. The rat's instincts screamed at it to hide and not make a single sound.

Such instinct, fully activated and understood at this moment, caused the three cultivators to freeze and hold their breath.

Fang Yuan, whose mere gaze could cause the death of a mortal, was instantly perceived as a great threat by these immortal cultivators.

Thus was the law of this world.

Hide! Will yourself to hide under the gaze of the prime predator! Make yourself seem as the most insignificant creature it has ever met, so it may simply lay its gaze on you before completely ignoring your existence!

"Why hello, fellow cultivators." A single sentence. A single, powerful sentence that instantly made the skin of the three crawl with unimaginable fear and dread.

Their lack of response was met with a frown they couldn't even see, as their gazes remained locked onto the shoe-covered feet of the two individuals.

"Brother Zun, they are terrified due to the Killing Intent your body is radiating unconsciously," Xiao Hua quickly noticed the frown framing his handsome face and provided the answer to his unasked question.

"Ah, I see." Fang Yuan nodded. It was only natural his body would be covered in thick Killing Intent after the killing spree he went on for the past hour and a half.

He used his Divine Sense on himself and instantly felt a deathly aura radiating from his body. With a single thought, he willed it to go back into his body and condense within him.

—Huuuu

He breathed out, feeling his tense muscles relax unknowingly, as his gaze opened to stare at the huffing and puffing figures of the cultivators from the Flying Sword Sect. They plopped onto the hard ground, trying to breathe in the air they couldn't intake earlier.

"Now that you're no longer like that, I'd like to introduce myself," Fang Yuan started, his gaze flickering over to Xiao Hua as he gave her a signal.

Xiao Hua, noticing his glance, nodded subtly and took a step back, closing her eyes and straightening her posture.

"My name is Gu Yue Fang Yuan, and I am from the Heaven Refining Faction!" He introduced himself, his smile widening into a grin that sent chills down their bodies, only to quickly be hidden behind his stoic mask again.

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AN - I wrote half the chap with two hours of sleep, so it might sound stupid ToT