"Disciple, control yourself! While I have no qualms with the killing of your enemies, there was no need to call out and challenge them." Mei was irate. Lineir could be considered to have done many unnecessary actions in this slaughter.

"I didn't teach you to be so wasteful!" However, Lineir, was breathing heavily, more from mental shock than physical exertion. To be honest, his prior actions, while incredibly fast, had been so gracefully contained, he wasn't even really fighting himself.

"I'm sorry, Mei, something just told me that I should do so, that I could do so. No, not something, someone. It was like somebody subconsciously guided me, and I felt perfectly comfortable following. You saw the characters, this Nine Paths truly has some strange methods. Forgive me, consciously I feel a bit queasy at slaughtering these elders of the Nero Sect for no reason, unconsciously though they were enemies, I just felt so comfortable." Lineir contritely said. While at the time, he had been caught up in the feeling and had simply let this presence take control of him, after it was over he didn't like the idea that he had gone out of his way to murder people. While he was no longer so soft as to shirk necessary bloodshed, this was simply overkill.

Mei was satisfied with this answer, she suspected that something was off with Lineir, while he had done nothing his body was incapable of, his ruthlessness and downright grace in killing was uncharacteristic. he was simply too inexperienced to pull something off in such a spectacular fashion, even if he wanted to.

"Well alright, to be fair, your actions have rather quickly eliminated the elders of the Nero Sect, which one day we may have needed to fight anyway. Your actions could be said to be cutting off the legs of a lion today, so that you might kill it tomorrow. We'll leave it at this. Besides, now you know what you are capable of. This strange happening may actually turn out to be very useful and greatly increase your battle power. Wait..." She stopped talking for a second as if inspecting something.

"Disciple, you've actually grown somewhat more powerful after this fight. Your undead heart is absorbing the Second Heart of that elder. If I'm not mistaken, this snake of yours is the main head of the hydra spirit. You have gained the hydra's most simple ability of devouring the cultivation bases of anything and everything it consumes. While not unheard of in cultivators, this is an unusual and rare ability. Most cultivators must cultivate or use forbidden techniques to absorb the elemental energies in the Second Hearts of others, but it looks like you can actually consume them directly through this snake. How disturbing... it's as if you yourself are a beast."

Lineir closely examined himself internally. It was as Mei said. With his spiritual senses, he could ascertain that in his Second Heart, elemental energy was being fed in slowly piece by piece. The energy was actually quite considerable. Mei was still talking,

"It looks like the energy from this elder is comparable to a tier two monster core. Not bad. Actually, I take back what I said before disciple. Fight as much as you want. If you eat more hearts, it will be much easier compared to hunting magical beasts which are naturally tougher than cultivators. This would be one step closer to becoming powerful."

Lineir who had slowly been greening slightly, felt like he had eaten something bad at this point. But he had to admit, Mei had a point. While he could hunt magical beasts, if such an opportunity presented itself, he could not deny free power. He walked over to the two corpses on the ground with slit throats and willed the snake to appear with the intent to devour their Second Hearts as well.

"I'm sorry, but for my path and growth, I must do this."

Nothing happened. No snake, no red in his eyes, no whispers in his mind.

"Huh?" He opened his mouth as wide as it would go and stuck out his tongue. Nothing. Not even a hiss.

"Maybe it has to be a living cultivator? Or maybe you can only absorb so much cultivation at once." Mei was quick to offer explanations with her experience.

"Whatever, you've already gained a lot from this. Don't bother looting the bodies. With such a backwater sect, I doubt these people even have gold on them. They use the threat of their status and reputation to buy things. Let's go."

Lineir turned to walk, when a glint of light caught the corner of his eye. Refracted moonlight... off of a blade!

"Bastard, you dare incur the wrath of the entire Nero Sect!"

Instantly, the familiar red haze descended over his eyes and his bone scythes came out. Without turning, he swayed to the side and knocked away the immortal sword streaking towards his throat with a bone scythe. Now he could feel the hungry presence inside him. It was definitely still hungry and rather than trying to get it to come out, it was as if he had to fight to keep it in.

"Well... I wasn't going to actively seek trouble, but since such a good meal has presented itself to me..." He finally turned round and stared with slitted crimson eyes at the ambushers behind him.

"Come!"