“Don’t kid with me. You’ll break your Clan Oath and cripple yourself.” Ming scoffed when hearing Shuren’s proposal.

  Shuren stood his ground, holding his staff between his shoulders and neck. “It’s fine. If we’re both working together, I need you to be stronger. Besides, it’s just a single move and a breathing technique. My grandfather long gave me permission to teach others if I willed.”

  Ming was stunned for a moment, before asking, “Didn’t you say you were from a distant branch of the Liu Clan? The hell do you mean your grandfather gave you permission?”

  Shuren replied with no words, but a shrug.

  Ming raised his eyebrows with a gaze at Shuren filled with perplexity. That was until he grinned at the realisation. “So that’s how it is, huh?” He walked over to Shuren, slapping his back. A slap that signalled the depths of their friendship. “This junior brother of yours is willing to learn, teacher!”

  Friends were formed with aligned interests and hobbies. Close friends, with opening one’s heart with another and deeper understanding.

  But fellow sword brothers needed none of that. Their bond was forged in battle, honed with their lives at stake.

  Ming breathed with peace, both hands grasping his sword downwards to his side. He dulled the cycle of Qi completely, only hearing his beating heart. With this, Jeros couldn’t use the flow of Qi to detect Ming’s presence, but this would only last for a few breaths. This was his only opening, with the turbulence of his enemy’s emotions and the obfuscation. The gradual rolling of Shuren’s Ruyi Staff at his opponent’s foot only served to distract him for a single moment.

  That was more than enough.

  Mortal Severing. It wasn’t a flashy technique, incapable of destroying boulders or slicing thunder. Yet, it was far more important than all of them.

  It brought calmness to one’s mind, so long as steel was in one’s hands.

  It was mindset. That was all.

  Ming stepped forth, thrusting at his enemy’s heart. The dust in the air shifted, and Jeros noticed right away. A Rank 2 was not easy to sneak attack.

  Shuren flicked his index finger up, and the Ruyi Staff bounced from the floor, slamming into Jeros’s face.

  And at the same time intense Qi cycled at Ming’s foot. The staff dealt very little damage, only moving from the sheer will of Shuren’s extended Qi.

  “Damned brat!” Jeros used a fist to slam the Ruyi Staff away. Ming sped up even further than before, hiding his peak speed up till this very moment.

  A thick cord bulged from his neck, as Jeros brought the battle axe to shield his heart.

  He’s still holding back his true speed? This pampered sect kid loves dancing with death that much?!

  Jeros wouldn’t panic.

  With his heart protected, Ming’s death was guaranteed. Even if Ming diverted his stab elsewhere, it wasn’t enough.

  A sword thrust at the edge of his appendix, nearly missing him entirely. Sweat trickled down Jeros’s forehead as he forgot to defend his previous injury. Even if he reinforced that side of his body’s muscles with Qi, it wouldn’t reduce the sword’s offence by much.

  “Brat! So what!” He lived his arm up, his battle axe ready to cleave this young man in two.

  Ming refused to budge, forcing his Qi to submerge deep into his blade.

  He stabbed his sword further into his appendix, almost poking out through the back. Yet the whistle of the battle axe slammed down into his shoulder In the distance, the sound of three knives clinked on the ground.

  He didn’t flinch. Slowly, Ming sawed his sword across brutally, like a carpenter cutting wood. Blood coloured his robes, and his eyes were closed. He didn’t need his sight here.

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  Just one simple movement.

  The axe dug deep into his shoulder, threatening to cleave his arm off. Even if Shuren was running towards him, Jeros had more than enough time to cut off his arm. If that happened, Wu Ming’s life goal of becoming a swordsman would be cut short.

  But Wu Ming ignored the pain, veins popping out of his face and neck, while his arms remained calm. He slid the sword across a centimetre, cutting into his intestines. His sword had long ago become a conduit of his body, as his breathing technique cycled both throughout his body and his sword at once.

  Qi exuded around his body to the point you could taste the sensation of the Heavens!

  “Arrogant kid. Aren’t you forgetting something?!” He roared, his other arm throwing a summoned dagger at Shuren’s head in failure, before grabbing on Ming’s head, gripping it tight.

  A burst of Qi revolved inside Jeros as his battle axe dug even deeper.

  Until he felt a thud on his battle arm, causing his muscles to be torn at impact.

  For a breath, his battle axe was lifted out of Ming's shoulder, flesh covering its edges. Even if he knew it was coming, he wasn’t in the place to move away.

  Until the arm wielding his battle axe had fallen to the floor.

  Cleanly cut at his elbow.

  Ming had bent his body while taking his blade out of Jeros’s waist, aiming straight for his arm in a single blink!

  Jeros staggered backwards, staring at his own stump with bloodied eyes. Never expecting a mere Rank 1 actually pulling off such a move!

  He was forced to protect his waist, while crushing Ming’s skull with his hand. He didn’t expect his battle arm to be sliced right off, barely having any defences left!

  Shuren stood beside Ming, staff in hand. Both of them held their weapons in tandem, preparing to finish off Jeros in the next blow.

  They were going to cut through the gap to cut down a Rank 2 cultivator!

  “Blade S-”

  “Sacrificial Hex.”

  Jeros’s severed arm on the floor withered on the spot. The hulking mass of meat decayed, first turning into an emaciated arm, then continuing to shrivel until it was nothing but bones.

  The blood of his fellow comrade, the greenhorn man who couldn’t get used to killing, began to run towards Jeros.

  Jeros’s eyes turned crimson, even his Qi aura had visibly appeared, with a slight aura of blood around him.

  And his severed arm’s stump clotted instantly, closing off the wound and stopping the bleeding.

  The blood on the floor, the blood on his axe, and even the blood from Ming and Shuren’s wounds was sapped away, flowing towards the demonic cultivator.

  And with that, both Shuren and Ming’s question had been answered.

  On what Jeros’s Path was. His powers, aside from the use of his spatial storage.

  Shuren had almost thought he was of the Space Path with his constant usage of his spatial storage.

  But no. What he tread on was one of the heretic paths.

  One that if it were to be known that you pursued, you would be branded as a demon across the entire world.

  A path that didn’t allow you to live a life of normalcy.

  Blood Path! He consumes others to get stronger!

  That didn’t stop Shuren and Ming from attacking. Even though Jeros used his technique, they still dashed forward to deliver the finishing blow.

  Someone in the middle of using their technique tended to be at their most weakest.

  “Dearth Hex.”

  Right before Ming struck down upon Jeros’s neck, and Shuren destroyed his ribs, a waterfall of blood formed between them.

  The wall of blood formed crystallised crimson spikes, as sharp as knives with the piercing power of a spear, before shooting out at both Shuren and Ming.

  Without enough room or time to defend, Shuren and Ming both dashed to the sides.

  But the darts of blood split in two groups, following Shuren and Ming.

  Now the battle had shifted into a long range fight.

  Ming grabbed the body of the first man they killed, using it as a shield to block the darts of blood.

  Shuren threw his staff up, causing clumps of earth to fall. He slid beneath it, allowing the darts of blood to stab deep in the earth.

  That was close! Good thing the darts got slower when that Rank 2 had to control their aim.

  Not even Shuren was sure that he could deal with that attack by just focusing on defence. And he didn’t want to find out if it was poisoned or not.

  You couldn’t predict anything with a Blood Path cultivator.

  Forming a gap now, Jeros’s axe was now coated crimson, and he sliced straight towards Ming.

  A brutish, vertical slash.

  Ming dodged with ease, but then realised Jeros’s true plan.

  He cut the body of his own dead comrade in two, absorbing the blood in his body!

  “You two kids of a nice and comfy righteous sect. Let me show you…”

  Jeros’s stump glowed with an eerie, sanguine light as the flesh twisted and writhed.

  The blood from his slain and desecrated comrade gathered towards the stump. It pierced into twisting, bubbling flesh and grew until it formed a translucent crystal arm, shining of a glistening red.

  Jeros summoned a second battle axe, and he clashed both of them together with his arms.

  “How a true cultivator fights!”