“This room is off-limits for the next few days,” I said.

“What for? What do I tell the guards? It’s our break room,” Velgo said.

“Well, I am dissatisfied with your cultivation speed, so I'm going to help you out,” I explained. “I'm going to build an array that gathers and increases the density of qi inside, to help you get more qi despite your abysmally small auras.”

“You know how to build qi gathering arrays?” He asked.

“Of course I do. To an extent at least, but designing something simple like this is no problem by now. The amulets you’ll get in the next few days were significantly harder to design,” I said.

“Yes, that does make sense,” Velgo nodded. “How did you learn how to make them?”

“I got a book with a few arrays, I read through it and taught myself how to make them with it,” I said.

“I see. Yes, I shouldn't have expected otherwise,” he said.

“My knowledge about arrays is part of my secrets, but you can freely tell the other workers why the room will be off-limits for now,” I said.

“As always then. I hope you succeed,” he said.

“I will don't worry. I already tested the array out myself, it works,” I said.

---

Feloga of the Waid Clan cursed her luck. Everything went wrong over the last weeks. For her, and for the Clan. First, that traitor Hatsume lost a battle, then he took his wife and nearly a quarter of their promising young members and left.

THEY JUST LEFT!

Losing so many of their young generation had hurt of course, but the loss of two third realm cultivators hurt far more. Somehow, their enemies heard of their misfortune and attacked while they were still reeling from the revelations of that loss. Then the Clan Master, already absolutely livid, actually sent her to kill a random cultivator in the middle of NOWHERE! She considered leaving right then and there and could partly understand why Hatsume did.

But the clan was her life, her everything and she was NO TRAITOR.

So, she swallowed the insults that came to mind, the desire to tell the leader to go and do it himself. Which meant she was making her way toward a backwater town, filled with insignificant no names right now. All just to kill a small, insignificant cultivator that insulted the Clan Head's son. The task itself was already an insult against her, sent to kill a mere second realm cultivator! But no, she had to go because the stupid brat whined to his father. Pah, what berserker couldn't control his feelings?

A useless one!

She sighed, before continuing her run. The clan master apparently stopped caring about face, considering he send her to deal with the girl, with no second realm cultivators to look over. Not that she needed any, a third realm cultivator could easily take on nearly any number of second realm cultivators. They would lose face should this come into the attention of the public though, a clan that sent someone like her for a task like that?

Laughable.

She arrived at the town a few days of uninterrupted running later, the sun had just left the horizon a few hours earlier, and she was ready for a little rest.

This stupid town really was in the middle of nowhere!

“Halt, who goes there?” A voice yelled.

She watched as two weak first realm cultivators in a ridiculous getup moved to block her.

“Get out of my way or regret it,” she warned and moved to pass them.

“By the order of the mayor, HALT!” the speaker yelled, actually daring to touch her.

“YOU DARE!” she yelled, flinging him inside the city. “Do not try to stop me. I won't be so merciful again,” she warned the second.

He gulped but moved out of her way. Good.

Now. Where to? The night was still young, and the guards had annoyed her enough for her emotion to run high, enough to suppress her need for sleep. Which meant she needed that break even more than she thought. Instead of marching towards her target at once, she went inside one of the houses nearby, threw the mortals within out, and went to sleep for the first time in days.

Feloga woke to a kick hitting her head.

Immediately, her arm shot out, blocking a second kick.

“What are you doing here?” a dangerously calm voice asked.

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? HOW DARE YOU DISTURB MY SLEEP!” she screamed.

When a third kick come for her, she finally opened her eyes, and extended her aura, so see who dared attack her. The person, a tall, cleanly dressed man blocked her probe with ease.

Feloga jumped up, wary. That man was a third realm cultivator. And they knew of two confirmed third realm cultivators in the town. A hidden expert and the mayor.

“DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO I AM?” she yelled.

“I do not. But there are rules. Rules even someone like you will have to conform to,” he stated.

“I don't know who you are, but I have the power to ignore rules. You better not do that again,” she warned, her voice dangerously calm.

“I am Vegaro. The mayor of this town. And I have beds ready for all passing cultivators. Those that follow the rules, don't attack my guards. Repeat your actions and suffer the consequences!” He stated, the air around them freezing.

“Suck it. You don't dare do anything to me,” she stated. “I already know you are a spineless idiot. You even let that traitor Hatsume roll over you.”

“So you are another of the Waid Clan then? Get lost rat,” he stated dismissively.

“RAT? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” She yelled.

“I am the mayor of an ever-expanding town. Do you know why I founded this town? Like all people of my age, of my power, I feel the need to settle down in a place that's mine. I moved into this town and made it into what it is now. I got the mother of the girl that's the wheel driving my town ever forward to move here,” he stated. “You though? You are one of the last revenants of a dying, irrelevant clan. I won't tolerate the likes of you anymore.”

The revenants of a dying clan? She would show him what dying meant in time! They only encountered a temporary setback.

“Fine, I'll leave,” she said with a huff. and return to take care of the arrogant upstart later! Nearly immortal, what a joke.

“This was your first and last warning. Cause any more trouble, attack my guards, bother my mortals and you won't have to worry about anything anymore, now get out of my eyes,” he stated, turning to leave.

He would regret that very much. Feloga left the house with a huge scowl on her face, she would have liked to sleep a little longer.

She sighed. She should just go and follow her orders and leave the town right after. She could always return for the mayor later, when she reached immortality. A Waid did not forget!

She thought back to the report she had about her target. The girl lived in a large house at the beach, had several dozen cultivators working for her, all under a heavenly oath.

Nothing to worry about.

Finding her target wasn't hard. There was only one group of buildings of the right hight at the beach, with the biggest one in the middle. That building felt off somehow, and for a moment, she thought about ambushing her target when she left. But in the end? Her target was a mere second realm cultivator and did not have the power to prepare a proper trap. Her aura detected a large amount of qi inside some of the rooms, probably crushed spirit stones to increase cultivation speed. A big secret to increase it, what a joke. The girl just had too much wealth. She didn't care enough to check further, that was enough. There was a second realm aura inside a room that looked very much like an office to her. That had to be her target.

As she entered the building the feeling of danger increased, but she continued ignoring it. Danger was there to sharpen oneself, to become a better cultivator.

"I am here to talk to your leader, take me to her," she stated.

"Do you have an appointment?" the woman sitting at a desk asked with a pleasant smile.

"I do not," Feloga scowled. "And I don't need to. You, a mere first realm cultivator like you better not stand in my way if you like your life."

The woman's eyes widened, and her hand went towards a protective charm hanging from her neck.

“Yes of course. Excuse me, you can follow me,” she said.

The woman opened the door to her left and held it open for her to pass. Feloga ignored her, and strode deeper into the building, moving towards the office she knew was there. Two guards already waited for her, having the same charm the woman had, opening the door for her too.

Feloga strode past them too and allowed her eyes to roam the room.

“And who do you think you are?” a calm voice asked. “Threatening my employees like that.”

“I am Feloga of the Waid Clan!” She stated proudly.

She finished her inspection and focused her eyes on the target.

The girl was of average height, had black hair, bright green eyes and looked to be in the prime of her life. As all long-time cultivators, she was a picture of health and beauty. Nearly a shame she would have to end that life.

“Another one of you then,” the girl sighed and suddenly clapped her hands.

A small being jumped in her arms moments later, and she started stroking it, seemingly unaware of her impending doom.

“So you’re another one of their lackeys? Send to kill me for whatever? It's not like I started our feud, you killed my mother first.”

“I am,” she answered.

Killed her mother? Good she arrived right now then, or things would have gotten dangerous for them.

“Are you sure you want to do that? I gave the people you sent the first time a chance. You won't get another one. The first was the last warning,” the girl threatened.

Rage shot through her as the girl recounted the same words as the mayor did only minutes earlier. Feloga flared her qi, and dashed towards her target, ready to take her out.

Only to suddenly start flying, losing her footing and crashing into the wall.

“You see, I thought about how to deal with the likes of you when I took care of your friend. You seem unable to do anything with your qi that's not affecting your body. It’s just rage, rage and more rage,” the girl said idly stroking her pet. “I have no clue how anyone would ever want to cultivate something so dull, but here you are, stuck to my wall.”

Feloga cried out, and kicked off the wall, moving towards her target, to kill her. Only to severe out of the way, crashing into the ceiling.

“Manipulating gravity is really a wondrous thing, don't you think? Every living being requires it, relies on it on a level so fundamental we can't think of what happens if we lose it,” the girl continued.

Feloga tensed her legs and jumped with all her power. But instead of flying forward, her feet broke through the ceiling, sharp wood painfully scraping against her skin.

“Just look at you, stuck to a ceiling like a dead fly, unable to think up a proper way to fight. And now think what would happen if we were outside. If you had no wall, or ceiling to stop you? You would simply fly up and up and up until no more qi to power the technique is left. Do you think you can survive that?” the girl threatened.

A chill entered her. What the girl said was true. But only to an extent. Qi left her body, stopping any foreign qi from nearing her body. She saturated the entire room with her qi, trying to stop any techniques from being used. Trying at least, for an aura at least as powerful as hers fought her, and powerful qi intent stopped hers from advancing. Still, her sense of gravity returned, and she fell to the ground as things became clear as day.

Hatsune had not been defeated by a hidden expert! Their prey was the hidden expert! And he left after he couldn't convince the clan leader to drop the plan. A plan that was doomed from the moment they attempted it.

Still, she had a few tricks left. To her luck, a cultivator as young as her opponent simply lacked the time to prepare as many tricks as she had. And the small room was more of a problem for her enemy than it was for herself.

“I am not finished yet,” she growled with barely controlled rage.

Immediately, a good chunk of the qi inside of her core exhausted itself, as she shot forwards faster than she had ever shown someone. She would end this fight with a single attack.

She could see the girl’s eyes widen as she moved, a panicked sliver of qi tried to stop her from coming within striking range.

Not again! Feloga burnt even more of her qi, forcing all qi around her to do nothing, to stay in its natural state as she reached the target. Her leg shot out, a shimmer of qi forming on her shin as she kicked, intending to separate her opponent in two halves, to crush her soul and the dantian within, to stop any possibility of recovery. A life crippled would be an even better punishment than a life lost.

Feloga watched as her target was launched across the room, only stopping once she hit the wall. She debated whether or not to finish her off when the girl stood up again.

“That fucking hurt!” she cursed. “I know why I want to avoid fights as much as possible!” A slight chill crept down her spine.

She wouldn't have survived that kick without serious injury.

“Do you know how long it took to create these clothes? TWO WHOLE WEEKS! I had to inscribe each an every single array with perfect precision, and you? You JUST DESTROYED it! the girl ranted.

Arrays? Carefully, hoping not to be seen Feloga moved to leave. She had burnt most of her qi for that attack, while her enemy barely used any.

“Oh no. You are not leaving now. We have some very important things to discuss,” the girl stated.

Once again, gravity stopped working in the way it should. Feloga spun in the air, hoping to follow her enemy's movement.

“Can you survive another such attack?” she asked. “I may let you live because you did survive the first one, but only if you stop this foolishness. You can't win girl!”

“Really? I saw what you did there. You used most, if not all of your qi to do that attack, and ignore my gravity. You're just bluffing,” the girl said, picking up her small animal again. "Just look at you, floating there as you do, why don't you escape again?"

How did that thing survive the fight?

“Guards. We need a carpenter, I need new furniture and someone to repair the ceiling,” the girl yelled, picking up a random stone on the ground as her ferret climbed on her shoulders.

“I will kill you, and any that enter this room,” Feloga lied.

“I don't think so, see you later,” the girl said, and threw the stone at her.

Feloga moved to dodge, but she couldn't move, and the stone moved too fast. She burnt the rest of her qi to strengthen her head, to stop the hit from killing her.

Moments later, the stone arrived, and everything went black.