Sersa regarded the desiccated corpses with rising intrigue. There were fifteen of them in total, exactly the number dispatched by those from the Ashen domains to take care of the mysterious cultivator that had had been killing their members by the droves. Nothing was known about this individual, as none of the disciples that came into contact with him survived to report on his person. All they knew was that somebody was targeting their people in Ashden, the new and unstable domain that was once known as the northern region of Hauss.

Strange. I can’t sense the slightest sign of a lingering aura. “They were all at the peak of Profound Entry?”

“Yes, Lord Deacon.” A young woman stood at her side, plated brown hair trailing down her back as she considered their fallen comrades with discomfort. “Just like the bodies we’ve found so far. These people have been refined.”

“Tell me Cara, how many deaths does that bring us to?”

“Along with the others that we’ve found today, about six hundred or so.”

No wonder Lord Marcus sent me here.

It had only been a few hours since she’d arrived, knowing only that an unknown individual was killing their people in the north and that she was to find and kill this person. She had wanted to get this pesky assignment out of the way as quickly as possible, so she had immediately sought out an informed guide among those that dwelled within the newly named capital of Greyson and led the obedient girl along to the site of the most recent sighting.

Shortly after arriving they heard a great peel of thunder from off in the distance and had immediately gone over to investigate. They found the remains of a disorderly camp where a small band of disciples had been operating out of for quite some time, according to Cara. The several trees that had served as a natural ceiling for their encampment had been toppled at the bases, beneath which she sensed the flattened remains of five more people.

She gazed at the bodies that remained intact as her mind struggled to make sense of the situation. How were they able to refine them so quickly? Even if it were a seated elder they would still require at least a few dozen seconds to drain a person of their inner essence. Could it be that an elder of the sect had gone rogue?

“The person we’re looking for is at the third level of the Integration stage, at the very least.” Every single member of this group had been an inner court disciple at the peak of the Profound Entry stage, equipped with several martial skills. Collectively, they should have been capable of taking out one or two cultivators at the first level of Integration, and possibly someone at the second.

The girl’s mud-coloured eyes settled on the sky as she gave her chin a contemplative pinch. “A disciple at the third level of Integration… We have a handful of Core members, but all of them are cultivating in the dungeons beneath Greyson. Whoever did this, I don’t think that they’re members of our war parties.”

“This Acquisition has created many Core-worthy members from the inner court. It’s likely that we’re dealing with one such individual.” What bothered her was the state of the bodies that lay before her. Not only had all of their inner essence been drained but there was no sign of any lingering auras. “We’ll find out who did this soon enough.”

Is this really the Blood Burning Heart Technique?

Her tawny hair trailed behind her as she led Cara to the crest of the largest hill in sight. Hundreds of hills spread out before them as they scanned the lonely highlands for any signs of the killer in question. She almost immediately noticed several toppled trees at the top of one of the more distant woodland hills, and was able to pick up on the subtle shifts of blurred silhouettes where dozens of people were in the midst of rapid movement.

“There,” she said, pointing. “A battle is taking place.” As if to punctuate her sentence, another tree fell with a silent scream of cracking wood that they didn’t hear until several seconds after the huge trunk had been severed by some sort of strike.

The chances that the unknown aggressor possessed a higher cultivation than her were slim, though the thought didn’t stop a foreboding tingle from shooting down her spine as a series of trees toppled downward in rapid succession.

“That light,” said Cara with solemnity. “It’s similar to the light that our arts give off.” She was referring to the frequent flashes of scarlet ambiance that almost always accompanied the distant signs of destruction.

Not only was it similar, the light was almost exactly identical. Although the confrontation was taking place nearly a league away, she could still make out the majority of movements that each individual made. With vision like hers she wouldn’t have a problem witnessing the scene even if twice the distance lay between them.

Should I have used of those herbs after all? The great elder had gifted her with the dried out leaves of some unknown plant that gave off an incredible aura, seconds before he disappeared into the sky in the same abrupt manner as he often did. If he’s strong then I’ll just run.

She couldn’t help but recall the strange message that Maxus had sent her via a sound transmission talisman just before he and Rane had set off into the Dragon’s Tail to carry out an unknown assignment for the great elder.

Those black pellets aside, don’t use any cultivation resources that Lord Marcus gives you. You’ll regret it if you do.

This Acquisition had provided her with an untold supply of powerful soldiers to refine, which she had readily helped herself to. She was now at the sixth level of Integration and likely one of the most powerful disciples within the entire sect, but even so she still felt a slight sense of suppression coming from the distant skirmish. This eerie aura drew her attention despite the fact that its source resided beyond the scope of her spiritual sense.

“Let’s move closer.”

She spotted twenty corpses in varying states of dismemberment strewn all throughout the flattened camp alongside shredded tents and scattered campfires. Countless smaller flashes announced the attacks of the inner court disciples that tried in vain to surround a young man with a head of short but shaggy hair, the same walnut shade as his slightly wideset eyes. Although he was quite handsome, his movements were noticeably untrained and there was a drawn-out look to his eyes that told tales of past traumas. Despite his rough style of fighting he was able to elude sharp strikes of the Scarlet Serrated Hand with ease, no matter how many people mobbed him in one instance.

The youth wielded an elegant azure sword as he hacked at limbs and necks with crude but swift attacks. Five disciples at the peak of the Profound Entry stage surrounded him as a pair of others fell dead beside the dirt beneath his feet, five pairs of crimson snakes shooting forth from the arms of each person. Sersa was indignantly impressed as she watched the young man leap over a hundred paces into the air in almost an instant.

Not only had he completely avoided the snapping maws of nearly a dozen scarlet serpents from just as many differing trajectories, he also activated a martial skill the moment that his momentum began to even out. A brilliant red light gathered around his hand as a large mass of projected inner essence began to coalesce in the air above him until it materialized into a huge spear of ridiculously dense energy. The weapon was wider around than the thigh of a man and equal to the length of five long strides. Before he built up too much speed on his fall, the young man hurled the spear downward where his five assailants had yet to react to the rapid sequence of movements that he’d just carried out in the span of a couple of seconds.

The spear penetrated the earth with a terrible crash and caused a network of cracks to appear in the soil, which almost instantly caved in beneath the immense force behind the skill even as a massive cloud of dust and dirt exploded upwards with a thunderous roar.

“That martial skill,” said Cara. “Have you ever heard of it?”

Although the battle was still taking place just beyond the scope of Sersa’s spiritual sense there was absolutely no doubt that the five young disciples had died the second that the martial skill made contact with the earth. Four others that had been standing within ten paces of the site of impact had also lost their lives in the attack.

“It’s called the Life-Severing Spear, and it’s one of the three most powerful offensive martial skills that belong to our sect.”

Cara fixed her with a nervous stare. “While he’s most certainly a disciple of our sect, how could he have learned a skill like that?”

“That’s a good question.” Not to mention seated elders, she had learned from her previous master that the skill they were currently witnessing was one known only to the great elders. “Its destructive power is amazing, though it’s not something I can’t handle.”

“Are we going to help them?”

“We’ll head over in a moment.”

After disposing of a pair of young women, the mysterious youth raised his hand in some sort of signal that stirred a hidden disciple into action. A barrel plummeted down from one of the nearby trees and landed amidst a sizeable group of combatants that had gathered together to face their terrifying attacker. The moment that the barrel touched down the gathered disciples were caught up in an impressive explosion that shook both land and air while a massive plume of smoke reached for the sky with an ever-encompassing grasp.

“What kind of treasure was that?”

Sersa ignored the other girl as she recalled the young man that she had met during the siege of Davenhold, specifically in a dense woodland area in the countryside. The explosive barrels that she’d seen at that time and the ones that she currently beheld, there was no mistaking that these weapons were one and the same. Was there a connection between the two?