Lute opened his eyes to meet the owner of the voice. In front of him was a youth much shorter than he was. Standing at about five foot six and a mass of black hair tied neatly back into a hair band, the youth had the unmistakable eyes of a swindler. He simply looked no good as a human being, from this much alone, Lute could guess that the smile was false and this person had a rotten personality.

With a quick glance at the newcomer’s compatriots, Lute couldn’t discern anything from them aside from the fact that one of them was a female. So he simply disregarded them, turning to meet the disgusting fake youth before him, Lute noted all important information he could.

The boy had what appeared to be a short sword and vials attached to a belt. Other than those, nothing else was apparent about his appearance. His cultivation on the other hand was a different matter altogether. Just from how unreservedly he let it show, Lute could tell this person had pride in their ability to cultivate quickly. It was almost as if he was subconsciously boasting about his cultivation.

Compared to the Water Serpent, he might have a higher level, but in truth, even Lute in his limited experience could easily tell that this cultivator was nowhere where his strength should be for a ninth level cultivator in the Foundational Qi Realm. Even the eighth level cultivator was nearly of the same strength as this person. To think they wanted to kill the Water Serpent, it seemed impossible when such an unintelligent and boastful person was the leader.

Lute already had a polarized personality, the only person he ever opened up to was Isla, being in the wilderness had only honed it even more to the extreme, giving Lute the appearance and mannerisms of a savage when interacting with anyone but Isla, and it was clearly visible when he seemed to look directly into the cultivator’s soul before him.

His piercing blue eyes were as cold as ever, seeming to cut right into anyone. His crimson hair flowing freely as if dancing in fire, but the most noticeable, and most intimidating was he hadn’t released his Slaughter Aura but pressure still seemed to suppress the cultivator in front of him, a cold sweat clearly forming on their brow.

“Watch your tongue boy, if I want to say no, I will.” Responded Lute to the pompous brat before him. His voice was extremely sharp, not caring about any formalities with people who he felt no need to fear or associate with.

Silence pervaded the surrounding area, Lute didn’t say more than a few words, yet it seemed to hit the cultivator’s nerves. His face began to swell into a bright red color. Putting a palm on his short sword, he completely forgot about the ominous feeling of before.

“You dare to take the authority of the Fallen Tide Hall to be unworthy of respect?”

Lute smirked at his answer, clearly this piece of trash thought that being offended himself was the same as offending his sect, while that may be true if he held a high position or degree of power within the sect, Lute doubted that they’d care about a measly disciple with no real talent to speak of.

Flipping his overgrown hair back, Lute locked eyes with the cultivator and replied as sarcastically as possible, “Well I wonder about that, does it really count as offending a dignified sect when they are ashamed of the trash that uses their name so flamboyantly. Who ever said I was mocking your sect and not just your personality.”

The cultivator was stunned, within all the people he was associated with, not one of them dared to offend him like this, after all he was the best at cultivation within his age group, there was no one at the same level as him, as such he commanded absolute respect with those he was affiliated, and if he could become an elders disciple, his status would rise by leaps and bound.

“You dare mock me?! I am Glen!” replied Glen in a commanding voice, “This entire mountain range is under the Fallen Tide Halls authority, this Water Serpent and all its possessions belong to us, to dare poach it when we were sent to retrieve it is a grave offense. You must be used as an example for those who disobey my sect’s authority.”

A murderous glint appeared within Lute’s eyes, apparently the younger generations emotions were easily aroused, even more so, they seemed to think they wielded power which they did not have. He wanted to see what punishment Glen would arbitrarily decide upon with his own annoying sense of self-righteousness.

“Oh, just what kind of punishment is one such as you capable of administering?”

Glen drew his short sword and pointed it towards Lute, an arrogant look of one who didn’t know his place in the world, was what Lute thought he looked like.

“You have two choices, one, surrender to me here and now, bring me to your village of barbarians and hand over all materials and cores obtained from Vicious Beasts. Or two… I’ll cripple you...”

A cold grin appeared on Lutes face, however that smile never reached his eyes, “Sorry to shatter your petty world, but to the first condition, I don’t have a village I live in, I am a solitary existence.”

Suddenly, Lute let loose the suppressed Slaughter Aura he had; it immediately covered the surroundings making all four of the cultivators flinch. A look of fear appeared upon the two seventh level practitioners figures. They were barely able to raise their heads to meet Lute’s eyes and trembled as he replied, “As for the second condition, I am afraid that is far too soon for you to think that I can be crippled by the likes of you or your companions.”

Not only his companions, but even Glen was shocked. The savage before him was only at the seventh level of the Foundational Qi Realm, and yet he couldn’t feel the depths of his strength, it felt like an immovable mountain was pressing upon him. Even he knew what this was; every cultivator obtained it at some point it was Killing Intent. Although he misunderstood, Lute's Slaughter Aura for Killing Intent. In the Mortal Realm it was quite likely no one knew about the realm of Slaughter Aura that came after Killing Intent.

Mustering up what little courage he had, Glen looked at Lute with a face full of anxiety due to the Slaughter Aura pressuring him, clearly he had never felt any real life and death battles, otherwise this pressure would be nothing to him, after all Lute’s own Slaughter Aura wasn’t even one percent of what Isla’s was.

“We shall not falter before you; having such an evil aura simply con…confirms the fact you need to be disposed of.”

With a fiendish grin, Lute simply looked at Glens companions, one of which looked as if he was on the verge of pissing his pants. These young teenagers had clearly never done anything except fake sparring before, or maybe they only killed extreme early stage Foundational Realm Vicious Beasts.

“Oh…Now you say it is you and your companions who will cripple me, what happened to it simply being just you doing it yourself?”

Glen swallowed loudly, his face drenched in sweat, “Silence! Enough, there is no more need to listen to someone who is about to die anyways. Everyone, gather and attack as a group, this is a beast in human form. It is suppressing its cultivation, with effort; we shall bring its head back to the sect for an even greater reward.”

Despite feeling immense fear, the other three members of Glen’s group were spurred into action; they had relatively simple thought processes, even for cultivators who should be cunning. They believed that no matter how strong Lute was individually; he was still only at the seventh level of the Foundational Qi Realm. With the four of them working in tandem, their survival rates should increase by a large margin.

Common sense however, shouldn’t have been applied to Lute in the first place. If these cultivators had any attention to the basics they had learned. It was that a cultivator will typically fight a beast one or more levels below their cultivation because a Vicious Beast’s rank didn’t depict their complete strength.

This water serpent was confirmed to be at the eighth level, which meant that its strength was actually at the ninth level of the Foundational Qi Realm. Lute, who was at the seventh level had actually killed it and with minor injuries as well.

Whether it was due to ignorance, or they simply didn’t have the frame of mind to think properly in this situation, all four of them failed to realize this point. Not one of the four had the mental capabilities at this moment to think rationally and notice the problem with the scenario of a dead Vicious Beast and Lute who had only a minor cut upon his forearm.

The four cultivators of Fallen Tide Hall approached Lute in a semi-circle formation. Each armed with a short sword, which was probably the standard weapon for all the lowest level disciples of the sect.

Lute had already released his Slaughter Aura at full strength, and effects were already apparent in his vison, his opponents seemed to move sluggishly, hesitation apparent in all of their steps, the hands holding their weapons shaking slightly.

Lute quickly entered into one of the stances he learned, with experienced movements, the air about him seemed to change, now the pressure that felt like a bludgeoning tool seemingly transformed into a powerful sword, an air of sharpness seemingly able to cut through anything.

Glen, who was at the forefront and closest to Lute finally scraped up whatever courage he could, with a high-pitched cry, he sliced at Lute with and overhead arc. It couldn’t have been more basic of a strike, but behind that strike was his Qi.

Lute snorted, such simple maneuvers wouldn’t work on him. While keeping an eye on the other opponents’ positons, Lute sent out a palm, as if swatting an insect from the air and made contact with the flat of the blade. His palm had no Qi at all increasing his strength; it was strike completely from his body strength which was slowly increasing every day.

But it was more than enough against Glen who had extremely impure Qi even by the worlds’ standards. All of this was because he thought it was better to cultivate quickly. To achieve the same strength compared to someone at his cultivation that had cultivated properly, he’d most definitely need to utilize all of his Qi to block one strike.

With the force of the blade redirected, Glen went flying off to the left, stumbling and falling to the ground. Although his eyes were following Glen’s figure, Lute was by no means unaware of three simultaneous attacks coming at him. Three more swords were aimed at his vital points that were exposed.

Instead of trying to dodge, Lute never stopped moving even after he made contact with Glen’s blade and kept up the momentum, further increasing it. Spinning at an angle, Lute sent out a fist, this time filled with a portion of his Qi because he was dealing with three attacks at once.

The fist made complete contact with wrist of the closest Fallen Tide disciple, the apparent youngest one who almost pissed his pants. The disciple even utilized Qi to cover the wrist, but it was to no avail, when Lute made contact, forget about the wrist being injured. The Qi being used for defense was dispersed, and a cracking noise could be heard from not the wrist, but the entire arm.

In that one second, every bone from his wrist and throughout his arm had suffered severe damage. The wrist bones were shattered, perhaps beyond repair; his hand had several broken bones, and the arm up until just after the elbow joint had cracked. Despite how young he was, the disciple would probably never fully recover from that one fist.

Lute was never lenient when it came to fighting after all, for him it was either injure your opponent until they pose no threat, or do the much safer method which guaranteed they won’t be a threat, and that was to simply kill them. Part of this resolve came from surviving for years on his own, but the vast majority was taught to him by Isla, and Lute agreed, it was better to have not even the slightest chance of death because of deciding to be lenient.

The seventh level cultivator, a young youth who had thought he’d have a decent future within his sect, had just lost all hope, his dream shattered. Screaming in pain, he fell to the ground unconscious, cruelly falling onto the injured arm, further adding to the injury.

But Lute didn’t have time to think about how weak that boy was as there were still two opponents left. One was the female at the eighth level of the Foundational Qi Realm and the other was another boy who looked remarkably similar the one he’d injured. He was in a rage, seemingly having lost all fear, perhaps they were twin brothers?

Without thinking, Lute acted on instinct as the cultivator in a rage blindly swiped at him, with ever increasing power behind his sword swings. Lute could even begin to feel a tinge of Killing Intent beginning to emanate from his opponent because of his intense emotions.

Revolving his Qi at maximum strength, Lute chose not to retreat from the flurry of blows, but instead jumped forward into them, with a flick of the wrist he grabbed the sword blade, letting it slice into his palm, but there was no injury, Lute’s Qi was on a different level of strength after all.

As quickly as he went into frenzy, the youth just as quickly left it, in its place was terror. With bulging eyes, he tried to pull the sword from Lute’s grip, but it failed. Instead he let go of the hilt, and revolving his Qi at maximum strength, he sent a fist flying towards Lute’s dantian, hoping to cripple him as he saw his sect member approaching Lute from behind, hoping to slice his neck.

Lute, who although in his opinion thought he didn’t have enough battle experience, already had more than even some Nascent Qi Realm cultivators, this was the difference between fighting in life and death battles every day and sparring in a controlled environment. The differences were just too numerous between the two, so even though Lute seemed to be in a precarious positon, in reality he felt no fear, instead his heart was racing in anticipation, fighting multiple opponents at once was something he enjoyed almost as much as fighting a Vicious Beast, provided they were all near his strength, or somewhat close in capabilities.

With a fist headed towards his dantian and a sword at his neck, Lute’s eyes narrowed in anticipation, emitting Qi to cover his whole body, despite the trust he had in his physical strength alone, Lute suddenly lurched forward and grabbed the opponent in front of him by the collar of his leather tunic while avoiding the punch that attempted to cripple him.

With a speed that shouldn’t be possible for someone at his cultivation, Lute turned around and viciously thrust the paralyzed lump of meat that was his opponent in front of him. The youth had already stopped moving due to fear, and all he could do was watch in terror as his fellow disciple who had already put her full strength into a killing attack plunged her sword directly into his neck, severing the arteries and veins.

Blood spurted from the wound and fell upon the cloak and blade of his accidental killer, shock was apparent in her eyes. Dropping the fresh corpse onto the ground, Lute had a devilish grin, he felt no remorse of such actions at all, since they wanted to take his life, they should’ve been prepared to put theirs at stake as well.

Looking at the girl before him, Lute was about to end her life when a sudden dangerous feeling appeared, turning around, he narrowly swatted away Glen’s blade, but rather than follow through with the attack, Glen used the opportunity to move past Lute and grab the girl, leaving the other youth to die like his brother.

Lute simply stared as Glen vanished into the distance, perhaps he wasn’t such an idiot after all, if he wanted to live, running away was the best course of action and that was exactly what he’d done.

Ah well, perhaps my time in the forest will become more lively, there is no doubt that he’ll come back for revenge with his personality type. They’ll probably at the least be peak Foundational Qi Realm Cultivators for maybe they will be in the Nascent Qi Realm. With such a threat, I should probably leave this area, and find a new home in the mountains for now, until I am strong enough to fight off all the trash that is sent my way.

Off in the distance, Lute narrowed his eyes, what he could see was a pair of yellow eyes staring back at him. It was the wolf pack leader he had come to terms with before. Looking at the unconscious youth before him, Lute made a sick and evil smirk, quickly grabbing a remaining sword, and tearing the cloak off of the fresh corpse, Lute looked at the pack leader again.

He pointed at the dead brother and the unconscious one while saying, “They are all yours, I have no need for anything on them, they are my gift to you.”

With his statement finished, Lute casually turned around and walked off deeper into the forest. Minutes later he heard the dying screams of the remaining brother. The world was cruel place, and Lute had no intentions of escaping it, he would be cruel if he needed to be, since someone aimed at his life, they deserved to die in a horrible manner. Was he too cruel? Absolutely not, strength was all that mattered, if you had it then no matter what actions you took, they would be overlooked by those who would oppose them.