(MC POV)
"That's the last of them," I said after decapitating the last two guards we saw.
I really am getting rusty; for that guard to easily deflect my blade says volumes about it. Before I could silently kill them with a flying sword, the other one was able to spot it, which, again, was surprising. why was it surprising?
We are in the fricking dark; the fact that he could even see the flying sword is already a miracle on its own.
"Master was so amazing!" Chuyan cheered from the side with shining eyes. Well, as long as my cute disciple thinks I'm still cool after that blunder, then it's worth it.
Even though we had not really spent that much time together, I actually see her as a daughter. Of course I know that she did not tell me her full story, but I don't really care; like I said before, I only care about her being ready to change and accept me.
At first I thought that bringing her was a mistake on my part, since seeing someone getting killed could cause some trauma, but it seemed I was worried for nothing when Chuyan just looked at me innocently when I destroyed the first group we encountered.
Even though we were currently sneaking in, I was not worried that those bandits would react to Chuyan's shout since, according to the bandits we met before, they were relocating, and after some more tor-- cough, interrogation, I heard a name that cleared up the question of how these bandits got that pill: the dark sect.
It seems they were able to catch the eye of someone from the heavenly realm, or even the spirit realm! And the person who could do such a thing is the hero...
Okay, I Know he won't do something like that, but still, he could be the one; you can never know. Back to the dark sect.
They had been around for years, and all the major sects had been hunting them down, yet they somehow always returned stronger and more numerous than before, like someone was printing them out like paper.
Huh? Printing?...
As we headed deeper into the forest, the area around us got dark, and the sounds of yelling and shuffling of feet became louder.
"Dammit, where are these guys? Huh?" I and Chuyan had just passed a tree when we came face-to-face with a man with a bushy beard lighting up a smoke pipe.
Okay, I really am getting rusty. in my defense, the whole place is dark, and visibility is very limited.
"Would you believe me if I said we were just passing by?" I said with what I hoped was a beautiful smile.
What? I panicked, okay? imagine thinking that your mom did not notice you entered the house through the window while she was sleeping on the couch. She said to be back by 9, and here you are arriving at 11, and then you enter the kitchen for water only to bump into her in the kitchen when she had just woken up from the couch to get some water. Sorry for the long description, but I wanted to explain myself thoroughly.
"Intrud--" Before I knew it, a rock spike the size of my thumb jutted out of his neck as it was illuminated by the fire he was using a second ago to light his pipe.
"Did I do well, master?" I looked at Chuyan smiling at me; I could not help but pat her head.
"You did well." I could not really see her expression, but she looked happy, but I noticed her shaking legs, and I knew that she was not yet used to killing, but I know that i can't shelter her for long, so even though it was too early, she would have to get used to it.
After walking past the corpse and seeing the bustling crowd in front of us, I could not help being shocked.
"They did say they were in the hundreds, but still, this is a bit too much," Chuyan said, looking as shocked as I was.
I could tell we were at the foot of a mountain, but seeing this number of people here made me question how I had even passed this place about four days ago and yet never noticed them.
"Look, a cave." Chuyan drew my attention to a cave that had countless men coming out and going in almost every second.
"We need to wait for the others," I said to Chuyan. "Let's go and hide first."
You don't expect me to charge in there blindly, right? I can take on about two hundred mortal humans, but I still have a limit, you know. they won't be able to take me on if there are fifty of them, but close to a thousand? Heck no.
Luckily we did not wait for long before we saw a group of robed men approaching.
"What..."
I quickly covered Chuyan's mouth as I looked at the robed men pass by us, and after being illuminated by the bonfire and seeing the pure white robes they donned, I instantly knew who they were.
"The dark sect," I whispered into Chuyan's ear. "They are trouble."
Their core practitioners wore white, apparently saying that they were the Holy sect and some of their crimes were something only a monster could do.
After meeting some men who looked to be guarding the cave, the dozen or so men suddenly flew up into the darkness, clearly heading to the mountain top.
"Wait here." After ordering Chuyan, I quickly flew up after them, making sure that they were in my sight, and after reaching the top of the mountain, I looked at the courtyard in front of me, shocked.
"Well, would you look at that?"
I had actually even knocked on the door of the dark sect and actually left. who would have thought that these people actually had the gall to create a hideout in the territory of my Ink cloud sect?
I luckily caught a glimpse of them flying over the walls and entering the house in the middle of the courtyard.
Making sure there were no guards, I flew over the wall, expecting some kind of shield or barrier, so seeing none, I continued to the house...
They might have placed some traps in the house, so i had to be careful.
I entered what seemed like a living room, and after passing through, the room opened up to be a huge hall. looking around, I saw that there was nothing in the hall at all. But knowing these guys, I used my wood magic to connect to the floorboards on my feet. I felt an area that had a door-sized gap.
See, they always create some kind of secret room in places like this.
I made my way to that area and quickly made light work of that section. looking at a tunnel appearing in front of me, I headed down with caution and started hearing chants the deeper I went in and also some voices, but I could not hear them very well, but with some wind magic, it felt like they were talking beside me.
"We have to hurry and get the spell working, they said. they sent Master Zen of the Ink cloud Sect."
"Oh, then is that not great?"
"Yes, we can use this spell to get rid of him once and for all."
A spell that can get rid of me? What kind of spell is that?
"What of the sorceress? She is cooperating, but it looks like she might only be to power the spell once and that's it."
Wait, did he say a sorceress?
Oh no, how do things like this keep happening to me? Do these guys not know how dangerous a sorceress is? And here they are actually using one of them to power a spell.
I have to stop them before it's too--
"I am Kabbal, the 78th prince of hell. who dared to summon me?"
Well, shit.