— The Emperor’s Imperial Record, Entry No. 24 —

  Huo Feng ran as hard as he could.

  He could still hear them behind him, laughing like jackals. If it kept going like this, he wouldn’t be able to run for long.

  Huo Feng had to hide.

  Of all the useless things he had been taught by Elder Bai, he had at least learnt one useful thing.

  Mantis Immortal Hidden Art!

  With this art, he could suppress his qi to make himself unnoticeable to cultivators, but there was only one problem.

  He had to remain completely still, and he would only be able to perform it for a few minutes. Qi was like blood; it had to flow, otherwise, as it got more pent up, it would become more and more violent, making it harder to keep in your body and damaging your spirit conduits when it is finally able to travel through.

  But that wasn’t the worst of it.

  He wasn’t yet at the point where he could easily keep his qi within himself. All cultivators naturally emitted qi, and as they got more powerful, the less and less qi they would emit, and the more conscious the act was.

  If he tried to use the technique for too long, not only would he be doing the equivalent of mixing opposing pills in a pill furnace and praying for them not to fiercely shatter the furnace, but if he wasn't able to pull it off, he’d be completely weak in front of the assassins.

  ‘First,’ he thought, I have to lose them. If he used the art while in front of them, they’d immediately know where he was.

  He sped up, looking for something. Anything to lose his pursuers.

  Quickly, he singled out a spot. A small, 3-foot-wide hole in a mound on the ground. ‘Great Skies,’ he thought, I’m saved!’

  He looked behind him to check that they weren't yet upon him.

  Far behind him, his pursuers could almost imagine the kind of rewards Hung Lee would give them as they revelled in what they assumed was a guaranteed kill.

  With such connections, they would have really made it in the cultivation world.

  Huo Feng quickly dove in, not caring for his body as he smashed into the den. Quickly, he turned onto his back and activated the technique.

  His body started to look like his environment, even copying the scales of the snake coiled around his leg.

  ‘Snake!’ Huo Feng thought, hopefully, it wasn't able to cultivate; there was no way he had jumped out of coals into fire, he hoped—

  Suddenly, a small pulse rang out around them. ‘No!’ his qi almost slipped out of his control, but he quickly tightened his hold, ‘It has Qi!’

  He almost moved to do something, but then the assassins came, immediately, he stilled himself, and the snake slowly coiled itself, pushing forward towards his head.

  In this position, his head was facing out of the den and his legs inwards, so he could see the snake and the assassins at the same time.

  “Boss, did you feel that? I'm sure it's that bastard we came here for.”

  The boss responded, “I felt it as well. The pig’s trying to run from the farmer. Not knowing his muddy feet are leaving tracks.”

  Everyone laughed; meanwhile, Huo Feng, trying to keep himself as still as possible, could only move his eyes.

  The snake, and he did not know what type it was, kept coming closer, quietly. As if it too did not want to raise the alarm of the assassins.

  “Mu Qi, where do you think he went?”

  A short man came forward, thin as a stick with a long nose. “Boss, leave it to me.”

  He started sniffing, moving around, and slowly coming towards the den. The snake started moving backwards towards the end of the den.

  Huo Feng continued to keep still. His life depended on it.

  “Boss, look at this. Blood.”

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  Huo Feng almost cried out loud in frustration. ‘You damn, Elder Bai, what sort of technique did you teach me?’ Huo Feng almost cried out in frustration, ‘the day I grow more powerful than you, I’ll make sure you regret this. And that bastard, Hung Lee, too!’

  The boss came and saw the blood, right next to the den, the snake barely out of sight, coiling itself tightly around the end of Huo Feng’s leg, keeping it concealed even further.

  “He must have passed through here. Let's go that way,” the boss pointed above the den, north, along the path Huo Feng would have taken if he had not noticed the den.

  Inside, next to the snake, he almost sighed in relief.

  *Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…*

  The pursuers leaped over the den and went north as quickly as possible. Now that they thought he had escaped, they started moving quickly.

  Huo Feng waited, almost forgetting the snake. But the snake hadn’t forgotten him. It uncoiled itself more as the assassins got further away.

  Huo Feng slowly turned to face the spirit beast. Now that he didn't have to keep up his technique, he could expel his energy safely.

  What better way was there to expel it than to expel it on the spirit beast? Slowly, he angled his arm and palms together properly, right below the snake's head.

  There would only be one chance. He counted down in his head, “Three, two, one.”

  He pushed the qi he had gathered into his hands, channeling it through his veins onto the spirit beast. This snake was at least at the peak of the first stage of the mortal refinement realm. Not yet powerful enough to tell the difference in cultivation strength— A small mercy, especially as Huo Feng was severely weakened.

  Huo Feng calmed himself and made sure the qi was aligned properly; he didn't want it to backfire on him.

  If it did, the running would have been for nothing. Maybe the old elder had known what he was talking about after all.

  Most of the sect barely tolerated Elder Bai. He was too young to fight, too inexperienced to scheme anything mildly dangerous to his superiors, and too stubborn to flatter anybody; he had long been an outcast.

  ‘But maybe he had just been overlooked?’ Huo Feng thought.

  Huo Feng shook his head in doubt. ‘Not a chance under the Skies.’

  With a loud bang, the blast shot forward toward the snake.

  Noticing what was happening, the snake lunged forward. The space was too tight.

  If it couldn’t dodge, it would attack!

  In only a few moments, the snake was biting into his chest, pushing its fangs deeper, when suddenly, Huo Feng adjusted the qi beam and shot it through the snake’s body.

  Now, the snake was a twitching carcass with a smoking hole where its head should have been.

  But Huo Feng had put all his pent-up energy into the beam, and it was still moving forward.

  North.

  Huo Feng got up almost immediately to run away, but noticed something. A cracked sword, short and thicker towards the hilt, with only the hilt being brown, with purple hues, the rest of the sword being silver.

  ‘What was this?’ But Huo Feng already knew. He had heard the stories, read the tomes and scrolls. He’d even dreamt about finding something like this.

  It was a treasure.

  Huo Feng looked around, making sure nobody was around to see what was there, then picked it up, not bothering to check on it, and ripped off his shirt to function as a makeshift scabbard.

  He had to leave.

  The only thing keeping the den bright was the beast's core in the snake.

  ‘Beast core!’ Were the skies truly looking on Huo Feng?

  He took everything and started running, the sword humming ominously.

  Not too far away, a band of assassins hurried through the terrain. One got down on his hands and knees to sniff the ground, not aware of the danger rapidly coming his way.

  A loud sound rang out.

  “Mu Qi—move!”

  “What?” He moved to hear better, but it was too late.

  The qi beam rapidly surged forward. Blasting through trees and shrubbery. It struck the cultivator Mu Qi, right above his heart and through his shoulder.

  “Mu Qi!”

  Everyone was suddenly on a high alert. Looking for any more dangers. When it was clear there were no more coming their way, they turned back to Mu Qi, who was desperately trying to uncork a healing potion.

  “Help me!”

  They just stood there. Watching.

  “Please”

  The boss answered. “You know how it is.”

  “No!”

  One of his assassins took out a small dagger and finished the job that the qi beam did not.

  Mu Qi dropped the healing potion, and it uncorked as it hit the earth.

  “Good job, Li.”

  “Yes, boss… can we…?”

  “Go ahead.”

  They all immediately scavenged whatever they could from Mu Qi. Not a flicker of emotion on their faces.

  After they were done, the boss stated, “He must have been behind us.” He kicked the body, “Dog bastard! Good for nothing.”

  “Let's go back!”

  “What do you mean we are leaving tonight, Khan?”

  “Exactly what I said. We cannot stay here anymore. I don’t know how far the overseer’s influence reaches, and Big Randy told me it would be best if we moved.”

  “So? Since when did you start giving orders around here?”

  I paused. I had overstepped my bounds, but I couldn’t stay and do nothing. This was my fault, and I wanted to fix it.

  Someone had to take them out of this place, and Huo Qianlei wasn’t in the best condition of his life.

  If we didn’t leave, who knew what would happen? Especially for the girls.

  I met his eyes, steady now.

  “Because if we don’t leave tonight…”

  I took a breath.

  “…I don’t know if we will get another chance.”