Humanity

The rustling leaves and birds' songs stirred emotions. The ashes still burning reminded the witnesses of the flame horses' determined last stand.

The cultivator holding the fiend spirit was so enamoured that he dropped his guard. By the time he realised it, the bloody tip of a sword already made its way to his front side from his back.

"Junior Li Yuan! Y-y-!" Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine the junior brother he was so close to and looked after would turn on him. He thought his junior brother wouldn't mind letting him have it.

"Senior Brother Tang Yang, I admit you have always had my back, but we're both Foundation Establishment Realm Ninth Layer cultivators. We both know how hard it is to ascend. Regretfully, I don't want to wait, and we only have one." Li Yuan sent a trace of his spiritual energy into his sword, destroying Tang Yang's heart.

Tang Yang tried to look over his shoulder, but Li Yuan yanked it out and booted Tang Yang to the ground.

"Sorry, Senior Brother. Rest in peace. I'll tell the sect you met with mishap when you tried to protect me. I promise to light an incense stick for you." Li Yuan wiped his bloody sword on Tang Yang's clothing.

Tang Yang opened his mouth to speak, but the blood inhibited his speech. In the end, he choked on his blood until his light went out. Refusing to be resigned to death, Tang Yang's eyes remained wide open to the very end. The very same unscrupulous means he used to obtain the fiend spirit was the very means that took his life, too.

Though visibly disturbed, Lan Ling'er was able to remain composed thanks to her experience. Knowing it was Mu Yu's first time witnessing a murder, she thought he would be scared silly, so she turned to check on him. To her surprise, his gaze was fixed on the ashes, expression indifferent and breathing steady.

Lan Ling'er pivoted and deflected a sharp needle aimed at her using her sword. She saw someone zoom by swiftly.

"Who goes there?" called Li Yuan, storing away the fiend spirit upon hearing the sword and needle clash.

"Mu Yu, stay on your toes! There are others lurking around!"

Lan Ling'er gave chase. She implied Mu Yu should stick with her, but he didn't because Li Yuan thrust his short sword at Mu Yu. Mu Yu gave the sword the slip and landed on the ground. Mu Yu soon heard the signs of battle in the direction Lan Ling'er disappeared.

Li Yuan lowered his guard when he sensed Mu Yu's cultivation was inferior to his own. Li Yuan aggressively inquired, "You saw?"

Mu Yu shifted his gaze from the flame horse's ashes to Tang Yang. The look in Mu Yu's eye was one nobody ever saw before. Li Yuan froze when he saw Mu Yu's gaze. Those weren't the eyes of a human. Those eyes were the eyes of a collected, bloodthirsty killer. Li Yuan shook the idea out of his head, brushing it off as himself seeing things.

"I take your silence as acknowledgement. You know what comes next!"

Li Yuan twirled his sword and executed his most lethal technique right off the bat, expecting a death touch since he was a higher level cultivator. Mu Yu, however, flicked the tip of his sword, easily defusing the strike.

"Is life so worthless to you?" muttered Mu Yu.

Unlike his usual blue energy, Mu Yu's energy on his sword was a creepy grey that incited despair. Li Yuan finally questioned how a fifteen year old boy had advanced to Foundation Establishment Realm's Third Layer. It took the best member of his sect three years just to reach Foundation Establishment Realm. There was not much time to think, nonetheless.

Li Yuan called his sword back to prepare. The two began to trade blows, rustling the landscape. As the fight waged on, Li Yuan eventually discovered Mu Yu's skills were above his cultivation level and skills were on par with his own.

"Jiuhua Dispel Seal!"

Li Yuan drew swiftly swung his sword around, generating a red pentagon seal before him. He concentrated all of his spiritual energy in the flashing centre. He thrust his sword at the red spot, forming a spiritual energy shield to deflect Mu Yu's flying sword.

Following a brief silence, energy burst from the centre of the seal using the sword as the switch. Golden beams fired toward Mu Yu and exploded upon supposed contact. Beneath the smoke screen was the desecrated landscape!

Li Yuan attack should've blown Foundation Establishment Realm Sixth Layer cultivators to smithereens. Jiuhua Dispel Seal was Jiuhua Sect's mental cultivation discipline reserved for core disciples. As a drawback, using the technique that practically guaranteed they decimated cultivators on the same level was tremendous spiritual energy expenditure, especially in Li Yuan's case for he hadn't mastered it.

Li Yuan's eyes and ears worked on overdrive due to the smoke screen. After waiting and not hearing anything, the corner of his lips tugged up.