“One can never discount that there is always strength in numbers.”

After a time it took to finish a meal, Qai appeared in the meetup place he agreed with the Crag Brothers.

He was wearing his dark brown Cloak over his robe and hanged his new Guandao on his back wrapped with a cloth.

“Haha, I knew you would come.”

“Fellow Daoists, let's skip the pleasantries and get down to business already.”

Qai displayed a look that was one of bravery.

Apparently, he wanted to portray that he was clueless about the brothers' ill intentions.

“That's more like it.”

When the Crag Brothers heard Qai, they unconsciously look into each other—and immediately, dark sinister shadows appeared in their eyes as they grinned.

Of course, this didn't go unnoticed.

Right from the start, Qai was already cautious.

The group then walked outside the east gate of the city and headed into the forest filled with Maple Trees.

Along the way, Qai picked up a couple of herbs he was familiar with—they were exactly the Flame Mushrooms that made him a lot of Contribution Points.

Surprisingly, the brothers did not bother to fight for the herbs. In their minds, anything that their victim could find was theirs to begin with.

After a few miles of walk, one of the brothers who was leading the trip suddenly stopped.

Qai decided to play along with their plot and innocently inquired about the matter.

“Are we lost, fellow Daoist?”

“That must be the case. Here, take a look at this compass. It's a treasure that can sense spiritual Qi fluctuations within a mile radius. But from the way it flickered, we should be already on the spot.”

Qai took it and observed the treasure.

He had no idea how it works but the compass was indeed flickering strongly.

Qai was about to speak when, all of a sudden, he felt a familiar restriction trapping his movements.

It was the same Array formation that Old Bu used against him although a little milder—such restriction still allowed him to move a bit.

He tried to break out from the array but the restriction only got stronger.

Qai sighed in disappointment.

His initial plan was to test his abilities and didn't want to use his Ant colony. But he had no choice at the moment. His life was more important than anything else.

“Fellow Daoist, resistance is futile. Do not worry, we will kill you without pain if you just hand us over all your treasures.”

Qai suddenly grinned and answer back.

“Why don't you two hand me over all your treasures and I will allow you to die a painless death you speak of.”

The Crag Brothers were caught off guard by Qai’s sudden surge of killing intent.

“I knew you two were up to no good, so feel free to die!”

After Qai said those words, he immediately summoned a dozen of level 4 giant Ant Soldiers.

Booom.

The array formation broke just from the spiritual Qi energy emitted by the aura of the giant Ants.

Instantly, the Ant Soldiers moved like shadows and surrounded the escape path of the two.

Things happened too quickly that the 2 Crag Brothers weren't able to react quickly. They immediately froze when they saw how they were suddenly surrounded by Spirit Beasts.

Qai then summoned called the Queen Ant which appeared beside Qai emitting a dark level 5 spiritual Qi energy aura. Then it made some creaking sound as it moved its mandibles as if the Queen Ant were trying to say something.

“Ah, my Spirit Beast Queen Ant hasn't tasted a cultivator's blood for quite some time already. She must be really hungry.”

A sense of deathly crisis welled up in the Crag Brothers' thoughts.

They fell down on their knees with a face ashen.

They had been killing Qi Condensation stage cultivators for as long as they could remember. And each of their victims had different peculiar abilities. But only now they had seen someone who could make more than a dozen level 4 Spirit Beast or so follow his commands.

‘We're finished.’

But then one of them unexpectedly kowtowed.

And hit his forehead on the floor.

“Venerable Daoist, forgive us unworthy bugs. You were right, we deserve a dog's death. We completely made a mistake. We have eyes but failed to recognize Mt. Tai. Spare our lives and we're willing to follow you.”

“Eh!?”

Qai was taken aback.

It was understandable though. It was their only chance to live.

“How can I be certain that you won't stab me in the back?”

“Young Master, we can swear an oath from our Daoist heart..”

Qai did not want to hear such a promise.

He could recognize the change in the tone of their words and how they addressed him. But he was not the one to simply take their words seriously.

It was then that the other of the Crag Brothers spoke.

“Young Master, you can just seal our cultivation so you can rest assured we wouldn't do you any harm.”

By sealing their cultivation bases, Qai could control them since, with just a thought, he could turn them into a cripple. However, Qai didn't have an auxiliary cultivation technique for that.

Unknown to him though, Qai would not need a specific method for it.

Any high leveled cultivator for that matter could do it just by simply overpowering the dantian of another cultivator with a lower cultivation base. Unfortunately, it was not possible for Qai either. If he tried some sealing method, there would definitely some backlash along the way for having a much lower cultivation base—and this was precisely the intent of the Crag Brother who made the suggestion.

However, something unexpected happened.

The two Crag Brothers suddenly screamed in pain and rolled on the ground.

Thereafter, they spat a mouthful of blood.

But when they circulated their spiritual Qi energy in order to recover, their faces turned pale as they realized that their cultivation bases were indeed sealed mysteriously by a dark spiritual Qi energy.

Apparently, it was the Queen Ant's doing.

For some reason, Qai knew what transpired. There was that mysterious connection between him and the Queen Ant—so that even without verbal communication, they could still understand each other.

After a time it took to burn an incense, the 2 brothers got up and bowed to him in unison with their hands cupped.

“Young Master!”

‘Followers, eh!?’

Qai sighed as he swept his glance at the two.

For some reason, he felt that he was back to his aristocratic life.

“Alright, since you two decided to serve me, then that means I will have to take care of your cultivation resources. Quit with your robbery then. That doesn't suit my style. From now on, you will have to work in the shadows and your main focus for now is to gather information for me. I'm sure you must have your own base. Quick, take me there.”

The Crag Brothers just nodded and led Qai away.

The group arrived in a medium-sized hill some miles away far from Maple City.

It was still within the region under the control of Precious Tree Sect but no family or clan claimed it as it's territory. The reason—it had mediocre spiritual Qi energy.

Qai didn't mind such poor place. In his judgment, it almost had the same level of spiritual Qi energy as the nameless village in Kamaria Island.

He inquired about the two and found out that they were real brothers.

The older one of about 30 years of age, who mostly do the talking was named Teng Gui. He had Earth element Spirit Roots and a bit versed in Talisman refinement.

The younger brother was named Teng Hu and had Wood element Spirit Roots but was more inclined to use poison techniques.

However, what came to Qai as a surprise was that Teng Hu had a bit of knowledge with Pill alchemy.

In fact, it was largely because of it that the bothers were able to achieve their current cultivation level despite being rogue cultivators.

In Qai’s mind, he had already thought of things how to use his new followers’ abilities.

“Alright, what we need to right now is to secure this place and find ways to earn Spirit Stones.”