After sweeping through the bandit camp, the five core disciples regrouped at the improvised stables at the far right, Qin Li went and released the captured merchants, as soon as their bonds were broken, the merchants started hysterically rambling, screaming that there was a black devil in the shrine building eating the souls of men, with horrified faces they ran bare footed towards the exit of the valley, cursing their creator for not giving them more legs.

Lou Tai then shouted "be on guard the xiantians are coming out"

The two xiantian emerged from the small building, one of medium build and average height with white hair and white beard, his mustache and beard were divided by a sinister grin, he then gave his instructions to the other black robed 3rd layer xiantian with wind affinity, who was slim and tall with blonde hair, he was a younger looking man, he had a plane face with no emotions visible.

"Kill the merchants, leave no witnesses"

said the white haired earth element xiantian.

Small cyclone-like winds formed around the ankles of the lanky plane faced man, stirring up debris and dust which circled around his body, he then shot off in the direction of the merchants leaving a shadow image standing in place where he was a half a second ago.

Hartley reacted the quickest and shouted out "I'll stop him" as he too disappeared with a flicker. The exact head count of the merchants were just about eight and they made their way over the slope and entered forest breathing heavily but no matter what, they were determined to not stop moving forward until their last breath was expended from their bodies, this place was an evil sight that they would not forget for the rest of their naturals lives.

They had seen others tormented and died in agony with the screaming of their soul in corporeal form sucked into the evil man's body, they would rather die from exhaustion.

The wind element expert came up the rear with a shining two handed heavy sword.

The merchants at the back took a look over their shoulders and ran with panic into the people at the front of the narrow path leading out of the forest.

The shrubbery to the side in this part of the forest was so thick, that they dared not risk entering it and getting trapped, all they could do was to try and move forward faster.

The wind element expert slashed out his heavy sword which produced swirling winds and a horizontal green wind blade which moved forward shearing off the trees and shrubbery, leaves and bits of wood flew out in all directions as the wind blade which was aimed at killing all the merchants in the narrow path in one go, lashed forward.

Ten meters in front of the wind blade, blue sparks exploded from the thick shrubbery at the right side of the forest and out came a black haired youth holding dual blades.

Hartley had caught up to the wind element expert with gravity steps, but had to enter the forest with star feet technique which gave the plane looking man a chance to get off the first attack, Hartley could have attacked the man's back and killed him when he was vulnerable but Hartley had an acute sense of curiosity as to why the merchants were so spooked when they were released and why the opponents were determined to kill all witnesses.

What had they witnessed? Hartley's silver blade in his right hand now had a beautiful blue aura surrounding it, he applied 20x gravity to the blade, he did a mid-crouch and with his left hand holding his red short sword pointed backwards and a little behind his body, he slashed with his right hand from mid-left to mid-right with a long flourishing horizontal blue flashing ark.

The strike connected with the green wind blade and pushed it to the right and off into the the dense trees where everything in a coned shape exploded for a distance of 20 meters, stirring up strong winds and fluttering the robes of both combatant.

The debris of leaves, wood bark and tiny sticks fell back to earth like a rain storm. After witnessing Hartley saving he lives of the merchants, the lanky man with a emotionless face moved forward whipping up the debris that just fallen.

With an explosion of blue sparks at his feet,Hartley stepped forward to meet him head on. One sword with a blue aura and the other green clashed in the forest.. BOOM!

The clash was so fast and violent... that it produced a shower of multi-colored sparks and a translucent bluish-greenish dome around both fighters for a split second, which then exploded out flattening a circular pattern around them, all trees and greenery were now just brown earth looking like it was tilled by very enthusiastic farmers this morning.

The merchants scrambled away for their lives in shock as debris inflicted minor injuries on their bodies. The lanky blonde haired man for the first time showed emotions, as his face twisted in pain and he was pushed back 3 steps, the place between his thumb and index finger started bleeding.

Hartley's physical body was a 2nd layer xiantian so he had no such side effects. The man with a grim look on his face switched to a defensive stance holding he sword pointing upwards and out in front of his chest with his right leg slightly behind the left..

Hartley smiled, in a situation like this, offence was one's best defense, to be in a stationery position right now was just inviting death.

Blue sparks exploded from his feet again as he closed the distance with three steps and slid to stop in front of the lanky man, with a twist of his wrist the red short blade sliced at the man's left knee, then the silver blade in his right hand slashed at his right shoulder.

The lanky man struggled to block the first strike and get his sword back up in time to parry the shoulder strike, but he barely managed it as another shower sparks exploded out...

By this time Hartley had already, with the aid of zero gravity applied to his red short sword, aimed a sweeping horizontal strike at the man's left waist again.

With grim look of desperation and concentration the lanky brought his sword down diagonally to protect his left side, while the lanky man was in desperation Hartley took a quick long stride to the right and slashed out with his silver blade again, now with a savage grim look on his face the lanky man brought his sword up to block in panic, but this time he was blocking in the wrong place and his head had already been sent rolling on the newly tilled soil, fertilizing it with a shower of red.

Hartley's strike with his red short sword was never meant to kill the opponent.

It was always a distraction to make him defend the maximum area possible with his heavy sword, in his defensive stance there was a limit to how much space the heavy sword could cover.

With that quick stride to the right that Hartley made, the maximum area to defend had become impossible and he lost his head after a quick four strike combo that ended with what looked like a simple slash to the untrained eye.

The merchants were relieved, they gave Hartley their thanks, updated him about the events that occurred in the bandit camp and then went on their way