Lute had been staring in awe at the spirit armament Alda possessed. It captivated him to the point he momentarily forgot about Seren and Alda. He wanted his own spirit armament eventually, and someday without fail he would obtain one, even if it was off someone else’s corpse.

But within that momentary lapse of concentration, he missed the short conversation between Alda and Seren. The next thing he knew, the spear was aimed at his throat and closing in at a blinding speed. But this blinding speed was actually Alda suppressing her strength to the absolute limit. Since Seren said he was a companion she couldn’t outright kill him, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t slice that cloak off him and see why he remained hidden.

With her strength suppressed to a cultivator at the first level of the Nascent Qi Realm, Alda thought this much was safe enough where Lute wouldn’t be injured…much. But, although she had suppressed it to the first level of the Nascent Qi Realm, she was an intermediate stage Emperor Qi Realm cultivator so this strength was actually closer to that of the fourth level of the Nascent Qi Realm despite being suppressed. There was nothing amplifying the strike either; it was a simple thrust of the spear.

Lute immediately used all the physical strength he had, the cobblestone path cracked beneath his feet as he bound backwards. But it wasn’t quick enough, the spirit armament managed to cut the ties on the cloak causing it to fall off of Lute, Alda had done what she wanted, exposing Lute for her to see.

‘God damn that was close, had I been a second later she would’ve added another scar to my chest.’

Lute felt adrenaline pumping through his body; he managed to react just in time. For whatever reason, this bitch was now intent on impaling him; this caused Lute’s anger to begin surging. He had done absolutely nothing, not one action that should get him impaled, he hadn’t said a single word, and here someone was trying to impale him. He knew it… he just knew it…. Coming back to the world of man already led to problems arising within a few hours.

It wasn’t just him that felt anger either; Isla who witnessed this began to stir within Lute. Even in the Divine Realm, it was extremely shameless and disrespectful to suddenly attack someone so many Great Realms below you in cultivation without reason. The only time it was allowed was if the weaker one was actively taunting, humiliating or challenging the senior cultivator, but even then they could only discipline them as it would be a shame on their honor to seriously attack someone that much weaker, even if their strength was suppressed. Lute had done none of this, so he didn’t deserve such treatment simply because of the way he “Looked”.

Alda stopped her lunge forward and stared at Lute who was now in full view. He was extremely different to what she expected he was hiding, it all made sense. He looked like a wild savage, no one would want to associate with someone uncultured and uncivilized like this. He was covered in scars which made her think Lute was simply unlucky or didn’t know how to dodge.

But what really caught her attention was his eyes and hair. Under the light of the sunset Lute’s hair which was ragged and overgrown seemed to dance as if it was on fire in the slight breeze. But his eyes, they were far more mature, they were easily recognizable, and she had seen it many times before. Those eyes that showed murder in them, they were the eyes of a person that lived on the battlefield, a veteran of warfare.

How could someone so young look as if they had so much experience in combat? But now Alda understood why Lute seemed so suspicious, he wasn’t like any other child in the Foundational Qi Realm up to the Spirit Opening Realm.

Typically, up until the Spirit Opening Realm, disciples would only spar, maybe compete in regulated tournaments. They also couldn’t take request to kill Vicious Beasts by themselves. If they did, they had to go in a group, and the beast had to be much weaker in cultivation than them to prevent accidental death. Because of this, they wouldn’t have much experience with real combat where a single mistake could lead to death.

As a result, it wasn’t until the Earthen Practitioner Realm would a cultivator become truly experienced in combat. This realm was when they truly started to have life and death experiences. But Lute was different, he’d been fighting all this time, for many months all he fought were Vicious Beasts, he’d even been close to death a few times, or he’d fight at a disadvantage of him alone versus multiple Vicious Beasts, all above him in cultivation.

There was no faster way to garner real experience. If Lute had one disadvantage, it was that he didn’t have enough experience fighting other humans. Vicious Beasts typically fought head on, human cultivators were much more cunning, deceptive and full of guile. But now that he was in a city and about to enter a sect, he would be able to quickly adapt, raising his combat expertise another level due to already being leagues above even some Spirit Opening Disciples in real life decision making that could lead to dreadful consequences if there was even the slightest mistake.

Alda was now interested, she kept her strength suppressed, but this time she took a stance, her killing intent flaring even more. If Lute had eyes like that, then he was like her, someone who had lived and tempered themselves through real combat. She wanted to see just how far he could last under her onslaught.

Seren was horrified, her subordinate might end up really killing Lute and that was a severe problem. She couldn’t lose someone like Lute who had a future.

“Alda what are you doing, I said don’t kill him, he’s a friend!” Screamed Seren I dismay, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Alda only smiled her lust for battle and wanting to test Lute had reached the peak.

“Don’t worry Young Mistress, I won’t kill him, I simply want to test his mettle a bit. I want to see just what captivated you to finally bring someone over to the mansion. And look, he is even willing to partake in this trial.”

“Damn right I am going to partake, you think you can get away with acting so shameless and attacking a defenseless person!”

Seren could only sigh upon hearing Lute’s words, he was about to get thrashed and beat to a pulp. When she’d trained with Alda, she beat her to a pulp as well. But the main reason Seren was now backing away to spectate, she saw Lute revert to the portion of his personality he kept suppressed. But before she backed away, she quickly ran to Lute and took the cores he had, it wouldn’t do to shatter all of them, which was a waste of merit points in the sect.

Despite the calm rational demeanor he kept, Lute’s anger was surging to new heights; he had never been so pissed off. He could no longer contain his violent thoughts and the Slaughter Aura that was suppressed had now reached a new all-time high, its strength almost double what was previously Lutes limit.

Part of this was because Lute was furious and wanted to beat the bitch before him until she was minced meat, no matter if she was an Emperor Qi Ream cultivator or not. The other reason his Slaughter Aura was so strong right now was because of Isla.

She was angry at the shameless actions of what could be considered a senior cultivator picking on a child. Even she, who was insufferably arrogant, would never deign to do such things to someone weaker than her if she still had her body. The anger she felt transmitted through Lute and bolstered his Slaughter Aura. Luckily, this didn’t count as Isla exposing herself, her emotions were simply adding onto Lutes Slaughter Aura as the angrier someone was, the stronger it became, and since the two of them were connected, his Slaughter Aura was feeding off of the anger of two people.

Alda, who knew nothing of Slaughter Aura, was surprised. She thought this was all Killing Intent. But, since she was so far above Lute in cultivation, she didn’t feel the effects that Slaughter Aura was capable of. She felt the same sensation as Lute, a prickling that came from her bones.

The two of them both took a stance, the battle field, the surrounding area in front of the Windcross Mansion as there was no one but the Alda, Seren and Lute present, aside from the guards who were watching from afar. All bystanders left long ago after feeling Alda’s Killing Intent.

Lute focused on the Thousand Ways Scripture, fluidly moving through all stances that prioritized defense, building up momentum and waiting for Alda to attack. He already knew it was disadvantageous to attack since he lacked the reach and Alda had a spear that was quite lengthy.

Alda felt disinclined to use any arts of techniques since it appeared Lute wasn’t going to use any either. Instead, she would likewise use martial arts or in her case weapon arts using only her body and the spear.

Once again Alda lunged forward, but this time Lute was ready, with his body covered in Qi, he skillfully deflected the spear to the side and moved inside its range.

Instinctively knowing that he didn’t have the strength to break through her armor, Lute sent a fist viciously towards Alda’s face, the only portion of her body besides her neck that wasn’t protected.

Two fists collided, Alda had brought her left hand that wasn’t holding the spear, and sent a fist directly in the trajectory of Lute’s. Under the collision, the force between the two caused the entire cobblestone street beneath them to fracture and break apart. They were two immovable sentinels that refused to budge.

In less than a minute, they were locked in a deadly close quarter struggle. Alda was forced to discard her spirit armament as it was useless in extreme close range fighting. The battle had turned into a battle of only martial arts and Qi.

Flurries of blows were happening, every attack was Lute’s full strength, and his Qi was used only for attacking. He relied on the Primordial First Physique to bear the brunt of the attacks from Alda. With his firm willpower, Lute felt that any pain Alda could give him was nothing compared to the First Path of New Beginnings.

Alda also took note of this. Lute’s blows were becoming stronger and stronger; this had already exceeded what a Foundational Qi Realm cultivator should be capable of. His Qi was depleting, but at a much slower rate than Alda thought possible. But what had surprised her was the fact that Lute wasn’t protecting his body with Qi, every attack he took from her, he absorbed with his body alone.

The martial arts he used were even profound; they seemed to maximize the efficiency of Lute’s attacks, defense and movements, while wasting as little Qi as possible. This, combined with the Primordial First Physiques ability to autonomously recover Qi, the rate at which Lute used up his Qi decreased exponentially, and this didn’t even take into account that he needed nearly four times as much Qi due to the size of his meridians so he already had more Qi than another cultivator of his level.

Battles of attrition like this were what suited Lute the most. But, his rate of autonomous Qi absorption wasn’t enough. In the face of Alda whose Qi seemed infinite compared to his, due to the gap in cultivation Lute was steadily starting to lose.

At first he started to only let one attack through, but then as time went on, as he suffered more injuries and used up more Qi, Lute was growing fatigued. Gradually he began to barely be able to deflect Alda’s attacks.

His entire body felt like lead, it was heavy and completely numb; bruises covered his fists from hitting the armor of Alda’s gauntlets every time their fists connected. Lutes eyes were glazed over and he was devoid of thought, his breath coming in ragged gasps, and yet he continued to suffer under what could now be considered a beating from Alda.

His body was also covered in bruises and large red welts with fist imprints had appeared. But Lute still didn’t give in. For people like him, they would die with a sadistic smile on their faces in combat instead of giving in to the inevitable. Even more so, his Slaughter Aura hadn’t weakened in the slightest, if anything, it was continuing to grow stronger the more Lute fought on, as long as his will didn’t falter, and then his Slaughter Aura wouldn’t either.

Managing to block Alda’s right fist, just barely with both hands, Lute suffered an extremely heavy blow to his gut from Alda’s opposite arm, sending him flying back a few meters and landing on the ground. After that last fist, Lute’s body seemed to end up devoid of all energy, he was truly running off willpower alone, his Qi had long since dried up and his body barely responded to him.

Before he could even make an attempt to sit up, Lute’s vision began to have black spots, he spat up a mouthful of blood, and he also suffered internal injuries. But it didn’t matter because now, even with impaired vision and a numb body, he could still feel the incredibly sharp tip of a spear pressed against his throat.

Straining to see, Lute locked eyes with Alda who similarly had a sadistic smile, apparently they were similar in that regard, neither one would die in regret, they would die laughing on the battlefield.

Alda slightly pressed the tip of her spirit armament into Lutes neck, his Primordial First Physique unable to stop it in the slightest from drawing blood, “Do you give in you cheeky bastard, did you really think you could beat me?”

Lute smiled gruesomely, his Slaughter Aura not weakening in the slightest as he struggled to reply, “N…never know until I try, mi…might as well kill me then.”

Upon hearing Lute’s response Alda laughed out loud, her clear laughter surprising the guards and Seren who were spectating. She then withdrew her spear from Lute’s throat. Reaching down, she grabbed Lute by his right arm, forcibly picked him up, and slung him over her shoulder. She began walking towards the Windcross Mansion as if he was a deer she just slaughtered and was bringing home.

“I like you kid, you are much more entertaining than those pretentious brats of Fallen Tide Hall who expect everything to be easy and handed to them on a silver platter, you’ve got more spunk, attitude, and backbone, I can see why the Young Mistress took a liking to you.”

Lute trembled slightly and laughed at the situation he was now in while coughing up blood, he could hardly move. Then he lost consciousness as Alda carried him.

As she approached Seren, Alda could see that she wasn’t happy. “Look what you did; he needs to enter the trials in about eight hours. If he misses them he will have to wait another month.” Seren reprimanded Alda harshly; she didn’t want to make Lute wait an entire month. But Alda was an Empress, it sounded like a child throwing a tantrum instead of a reprimand from a superior.

Alda only laughed and smirked, based on what she just witnessed, those trials would be nothing for Lute, especially the final one. As for him being able to attend the trials, she would take care of that. All her suspicions of Lute from before had vanished; instead she was intrigued, wanting to see just how far his path of cultivation would take him.

“Don’t worry Young Mistress; he will be able to attend the trials.”

“Humph, you better have some method, or you will be hearing from father.” Seren said as she seemed to be pouting after realizing that Alda didn’t take what she said seriously despite the fact she tried to reprimand her for disobeying orders.