Jhaelyn’s willow eyebrows shot up, but Jared lifted a hand to stop before could speak.
He stepped forward, looking at the masked man as though at a speck of dust on the road. “Move…”
“Move?” The masked man acted as if had heard the greatest joke in the world. “Kid, do you know who I am? I‘m Wyler, young sect leader of Black Fiend Sect! Kneel, knock your head on the ground three times, leave those two beauties behind, and maybe I’ll let you keep your corpse in one piece!”
The disciples around Wyler erupted in raucous laughter, spitting out vulgarities.
Everett tugged nervously at Jared’s sleeve, his face bloodless. “Mr. Chance, perhaps we should go around them. Black Fiend Sect…”
“Around them?” Jared interrupted, the corner of his mouth lifting in an icy arc. “When I walk, I never yield the path.”
As the last word left his lips, didn’t even draw a sword. He merely flicked a finger.
Bang!
A clear, ethereal sword cry seemed to descend from the skies. Invisible sword intent leapt forth like a bolt of silver lightning, faster than thought, faster than sight.
Wyler’s savage grin had not yet faded when felt a sudden chill at his throat, and the world began to spin.
Looking down, saw his own body still frozen in mid-laugh while a hair-thin crimson line appeared across his neck.
“You…”
His head hit the ground and rolled, eyes bulging with incredulous terror. Even afterlife drained away, the eyes remained wide open, refusing to close.
Silence fell over the clearing.
The Black Fiend Sect disciples stared at their young sect leader’s body, severed in an instant. None of them had even seen how the stranger had struck. A frigid dread shot from the soles of their feet straight to the crowns of their heads.
A Wandering Immortal Realm Level Seven expert, erased with a flick of the man’s finger?!
What kind of monstrous power was that?!
Jared did not even deign to look at the body at his feet; with both hands folded calmly behind his back, spoke to Everett. “Lead the way…”
Everett trembled from head to toe.
Almost crawling in his haste, scrambled forward, terrified that the slightest delay would leave sharing Wyler’s grisly fate.
Flaxseed gave a shrill whistle, bared his teeth in a grin at the remaining disciples of Black Fiend Sect, and drawled, “Well, gentlemen, do any of you still feel like blocking the road?”
Those disciples dared not tarry for even a heartbeat.
Screaming, they scattered like startled birds, too frightened to even bother with Wyler’s corpse.
Jhaelyn and Jemima gazed at Jared with open adoration, to their eyes, the elegant flick of his finger that had ended a life moments ago looked more effortless and majestic than the handiwork of any god in the heavens.
“Jared, your talent for grandstanding is getting more incredible by the day!” Flaxseed raised a hearty thumbs-up.
Jared answered with a faint smile. “Still room for improvement…”
***
The party continued onward. The coppery reek of blood in the air grew a shade thicker, yet no other short-sighted faction dared step out to hinder them again.
Three days later, they entered the boundary of the Barbaric Clan.
The landscape here was utterly alien to the outside world. The sky glowed with a sinister, dark-red hue, and countless towering black monoliths jutted from the earth, every stone slab carved with ferocious totems.
A savage, violent aura drenched the very air.
In the distance, a colossal city clung to the mountainside. Its ramparts, hewn from black rock, were scarred by the rakes of talons and the hacking of weapons, radiating the raw ferocity of some primordial behemoth.
Suspended above the city gate hung a huge plaque fashioned from the bleached bones of a beast, on which two ancient characters, written as though in fresh blood, spelled out, “Barbarian City”.
Yet something about Barbarian City felt distinctly amiss.
Every guard at the gate wore a grave expression. Fresh blood still stained the beast-hide armor at their waists, and the eyes with which they surveyed the land beyond the walls were filled with wariness and unease.
Their Barbaric King had been missing for several days with no word at all. The Grand Elder had already declared martial law throughout the city!
The moment Everett approached the gate, was blocked by several hulking barbarian warriors brandishing massive axes.
The leader, a burly giant with blue war-paint streaked across his face, barked, “Members of Azurecloud Sect? What business have you in the territory of our Barbaric Clan?”
Everett had just opened his mouth to reply when a rapid peeling of bells burst from within the city.
At once, a troupe of elders in long robes of beast hide hurried out, surrounded by scores of barbarian warriors.
