"Well... That was a bit anticlimactic." Clark whispered and looked sadly at the prospect of more deaths to follow.

He sighed as he floated easily on the spot where the recently lively Fan Ru laid motionless. The old assassin only had a shocked expression for his final photograph.

​​

This man really did not expect to die tonight and definitely not expect that he would meet his end in the hands of a Golden Core Cultivator.

"Ahhh... what a nice feeling to have." Clark moaned when he felt the spiritual essence of the world became pretty familiar to his senses right now. Almost as if a long time friend already.

Before he achieved this realm, he could only influence a part of the elements and bend it to his will.

But at this moment, Clark seemed a lot more aware of the world's forces, its distinct changes and features. Everything about this power was centered at a physical construct directly at his navel.

"So this is one of the perks of being at Golden Core Realm."

"I now have a dantian inside me." Clark muttered softly while he observed the fist sized treasure inside his body.

Its colors resembled every hues in the world as this peculiarity seemed to embody all the elements in existence.

Even now, Clark could feel the gush of rushing energy that seemed to conceptualize its center inside his body.

He did not even have to borrow the power of the world in order to cast elemental magic to life because he already had a huge energy source deep within him!

"Show me my stats, Nancy." Clark requested.

"BOINK!"

Host: Clark Colter

Level: 23

Power: 1555

Experience: 177,593/820,000,000

Health: 1,200/1,200

Health Regen: 10/s

Mana: 9/1,200

Mana Regen: 3/s

Class: Necromancer

System Shop

Shop Points: 150

Class Skills

Skill Points: 13

Influence

"Nice! I will have to make up my mind for what second class to pick after this conquest. But other than that, everything is peachy!

They say it's very hard to cultivate but I beg to differ otherwise! My path has only been too easy so far!

HAHAHA!"

"I'm sure that even the ones I read in xianxia novels do not have my speed in cultivating!"

"If those mcs could see me now, they could only look at me with eyes full of envy!" Clark laughed openly as he celebrated his accomplishments out there before the burning gates of a city.

He relished the feeling for a few moments before asking his useful system once more.

"How fast could I reach the next level, Nancy? Given my current pace in cultivation."

"One level every hour, host. And it will only get shorter after each level up because of your increasing army of summons." Nancy answered.

"I see. That is good then. I just need another day and I could finally pay a visit to the Demonic Sword Sect and give that evil boy a good beating." A flash of hate passed in Clark's eyes.

"But more than that, I could also finally see Tang Xinyue again. Almost." Clark planned ahead rather excitedly and he would have thought that he needed to turtle inside Nexus for days.

Alas, it appeared that his plan would have to be fast forwarded a few times than he had initially imagined which also brought a pleasant surprise to our bored gamer.

"Hmmm... This place isn't that bad at all. Perhaps I could still spread my influence around here and there would be none the wiser about it afterwards. But I need to play my cards right through it all."

Clark ended with these thoughts and began traversing towards what may appear as his first conquered domain in this mystical xianxia world.

Of course, he did not forget to search and take the storage ring of Fan Ru to make a good addition to his already growing items inside his inventory.

He would take stock of its contents later on because right now, there were more lives for him to reap.

"BANG!" A glowing dark form traveled through the gap and into the general terrain of the humble City of Cresa.

When he arrived, an irresistible pressure suffocated the scene which halted any other tardy escaping figures within a radius 50 meters.

This was the scale of his current range of perception after his upgrade and at this distance, not even a single blade of grass or an insignificant trash could escape from Clark's senses.

"THUD!"

"THUD!"

"THUD!" knees and bodies kissed the ground en masse.

"PLEASE LET US LIVE, SIRE!"

"WE ARE NOT PART OF THE LEAGUE OF THE SHADOW ASSASSINS!"

"WE'RE ONLY PEACEFUL CITIZENS AND WORKING SOLDIERS OF THIS CITY!"

"I STILL WANT TO LIVE! I HAVE MANY WIVES AND CHILDREN THAT AWAITS MY RETURN"

"WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!"

"PLEASE!" These were the pitiful soldiers that were a little bit slower than their assassin counterparts earlier who were smart enough to know what was up before the bomb could truly explode.

"The cowardly rats have gone back to their holes. Tsk. Tsk." Clark clucked his tongue with obvious disapproval.

But since he was really not that concerned for those vermin to escape from his tight encirclement then it was okay to check on some more features done by the system.

Clark looked around and could not help but be surprised at what he found. There may have been 5,000 more or less mortal soldiers in here which wore a complete set of steel armors but this trivial fact alone was not the thing that stunned our good gamer.

It was the truth that amongst these gathered troops, there were only a handful of them that showcased a red tag over their heads.

The good ones had green O's to designate their fate while those marked for death had a crimson X's floating directly over their bodies.

"How did you determine the good ones from the bad, Nancy?" Clark asked to ascertain how this problem has arisen. He would expect half of this lot to appear guilty but reality has proved him wrong it seemed.

Although the mortals had little to no effect to his current exp boost but they were also wise to harvest this early since it would be beneficial to take out the cancerous souls from within the territory that he wanted to conquer tonight.

"The system has only tallied those people who have an excessive tendency for violence, host. All those people included in the filter have at least killed one person in cold blood.

Special circumstances of self defense and such were not included in the algorithm and the system has given a green role to those people as consequence.

Finally, other criminals guilty of petty charges were excluded from the list. Do you want to add another specification for the system to scan?" Nancy queried.

"No. It's okay, Nancy. Let it remain as it is." Clark nodded in understanding.

'It seemed that the system really knows me inside out.' Clark recognized this truth for the umpteenth time.

'Time to break some more hearts.'

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH! MERCYYYYYYYYY!" and after that, there were countless screams that segregated the survivors from that of the fallen.

* * *

Li Hu was escaping for dear life. Alone. He was an orphan and was trained from young by the dark guild.

And being inside the League was really not that conducive to having close relationships to other people. His fellow assassins also did not count because from day one, each of them treated one another as cruel competitors and never a family.

In his 400 years of living in this world, he has had many lovers but none of them remained. This was one of the doctrines of the League of Shadow Assassins.

Love was poison best forgotten!

Connections from mortal affairs would only lead to death and would serve nothing but a burden.

This was the reason why this solo assassin streaked through the night as he carefully maneuvered in the opposite direction from that of city gates.

Panic was everywhere as the news could not have been louder at the moment. The hysteria of the people concerned brought cries of anguish and fear for the safety of their loved ones.

"Love brings nothing but weakness!"

Li Hu spat out when he saw some of the fresh assassin recruits that had been with the guild for only 20 years or so, as they tried to plan for safe passage out of Cresa together with their wives and children. 

"FOOLS!" Li Hu smiled and he was glad to know that his foresight had indeed bore fruits this evening.

He did not let anything and anyone drag him down which was why he reached the outer edges of the back portion of Cresa soon enough.

Just one more leap and he would go over the high walls and unto freedom. Perhaps a fresh start.

"I think it would be better to change profession finally and retire myself to peace."

"Yeah. That's exactly what I'm going to do after this!" Li Hu took a deep breath as he succeeded in going over the top.

Alas, he could not finish his descent because a creature that looked like a combination of fish and bird greeted him warmly along the road.

"NOOOOO!" the aged assassin tried to veer to the left but it was too little too late to save him entirely from this lethal predicament.

"WHOOSSHH!" a harsh wind passed by and when it ebbed to gentleness once more, both assassin and the flying monster was nowhere to be seen in place.