It was the next day. A streak of light's ray hit Ling's beautiful face, and he immediately noticed the warm sensation on his cheek.
Ling opened his eyes slowly. His purple eyes began to grow dim at the same moment.
(It seems like while I was sleeping, there are no signs of Wen Clan following me. How many miles did I ran in order for them to lose my tracks?)
Ling opened his palm wide.
(Three-Dagger Killing Formation.)
Two daggers slowly materialized on his palm and began to revolve around his body at a slow pace. Ling noticed the number of daggers that was made from his strange qi.
(Tch. I forgot to absorb the third qi dagger back, because prioritizing my escape over anything else is a must.)
Ling stared at the small, purple qi daggers floating in the air gracefully.
"Well, it is still useful though..."
Ling looked around and detected some wild beasts from a distance.
"I should gather my strength first by looking for something to eat. With those wild beasts, they're enough to satiate my hunger."
Ling cleaned the bloodstains around the area in order to prevent the Wen Clan from tracking him. After he's done with the clean-up, he walked away in order to hunt some wild beast.
On the other side, the Wen Clan was busy with their preparations to hunt the one who caused a great ruckus on their house. They didn't suffer that much thanks to the healing pills they bought.
By the order of the Wen Clan's patriarch, Wen Jian, fourty-nine people were sent to the mission. The group consists of several house guards with Dantian Perfection Stage and Qi Condensation Stage cultivation ranks, including Yao Tian as a commanding officer. The group was led by the patriarch itself.
On the other side, Wen Jian watched the ceremony of the deceased six elders along with her daughter Wen Jia. The elders were buried beside his deceased son.
After the burial ceremony was done, Wen Jia confronted her father, insisting that she wants to come along with them.
"Father! I want to come along with you! Seeing the demise of that handsome bastard, only then my heart would feel at ease!"
Wen Jian sighed and patted Wen Jia's shoulder.
"You should stay here. If we leave all at once, whose gonna guard on our house?"
Wen Jian noticed the dissatisfied look on his daughter's face. Jian thinks of a solution to prevent her daughter from coming along with them.
"Hm. Let's say, it would be your preparation in the future as a Wen Clan's matriarch?"
Upon hearing her father's words, Wen Jia was filled with pride and immediately agreed on her father's order.
"Hmph. Very well then, I shall act today as a temporary matriarch of this house while you were gone..."
Wen Jia clapped her hands twice.
"Servants! Come at once!"
While Wen Jia was busy calling the servants, Wen Jian talked to the twelve guards that was chosen to remain on the house.
"While I'm away to chase that bastard Ling, I want you to guard the young miss like your lives depends on it. Do you understand?"
All the twelve guards immediately bowed their heads in unison.
"We understood, patriarch!"
Wen Jian didn't uttered a word and turned around the guards. The guards began to scatter slowly and walked around the house.
Wen Jian walked towards Yao Tian with a serious look. Tian immediately noticed the patriarch's presence and faced him.
"Tian, are you done with the preparations?"
Tian nodded his head.
"Yes, patriarch. I bought all the resources we need on this mission, including the pills..."
"Hmph. Well done."
Jian looked around, looking for something.
"By the way, the object I ordered you to bring..."
Tian remembered the patriarch's order and immediately turned around, looking for the object that the patriarch was referring to.
Jian saw Tian carrying a small box. Tian stood in front of him and opened the box. Inside of it was a small, purple dagger.
"This was the strange weapon that Ling used while he was fighting us. At first I really thought that this is a physical weapon, but after thorough examination, this dagger is an object made from a condensed qi."
"Did you found out the name of the cultivation technique that the brat was using?"
"Yes. During our fight, I heard Ling shouted the technique, and it was named as 'Three-Dagger Killing Formation'."
"What kind of technique was that? Did he learnt that technique in one of our collections of cultivation books?"
Yao Tian shook his head slowly.
"I asked our clan's librarian if he encountered any cultivation books that had a name similar to the one that Ling mentioned. But to my surprise, the librarian told me that such book didn't exists in our library since the day he was appointed as our clan's librarian."
Upon hearing the name of the technique, Wen Jian's eyes widened and felt intrigued.
"Tch! So it means that Ling obtained that technique somewhere else!?"
"That is also my assumption, patriarch. But in order to verify my claims, we immediately went to the city and asked the Soaring Cloud Pavilion and asked the identity of the technique that Ling used."
"Then what's the librarians of the Soaring Cloud Pavilion's response then?"
"I asked them if they had a cultivation book that Ling possess, and they immediately knew the technique! But there was an interesting reason why they recognize that technique easily..."
"Oh? And what is that?" A curious Jian asked him.
"You're not gonna believe this, patriarch. The technique had such recognition because it was stolen from the pavilion ten years ago. And it caused such commotion because it was a High-Rank Qi Foundation Technique!"'
Wen Jian eyes widened.
"WHAT!?"
The known cultivation techniques were divided into Low-Rank, Middle-Rank, and High-Rank Qi Foundation Techniques. This corresponds to the major realm of the cultivation ranks: The Qi Foundation Realm. The Dantian Formation Stage, Dantian Perfection Stage, Qi Condensation Stage, Qi Saturation Stage, and finally the Qi Perfection Stage were subrealms of this major realm.
Jian lowered his head slowly upon hearing Tian's information.
(Don't tell me that a High-Rank Qi Foundation Technique of the Soaring Cloud Pavilion was stolen by that brat!? But even us, Wen Clan, only got four High-Rank Qi Foundation Techniques, and the first one was passed by our ancestors through generations!)
"So it means that Ling stole a High-Rank Qi Foundation technique despite Soaring Cloud Pavilion's tight security?"
Yao Tian shook his head.
"It is impossible, patriarch. If I remembered correctly, he was still at Dantian Formation Stage five years ago right after we took him under our shelter. Since that book was stolen ten years ago, at that time period he should be a mere mortal."
Wen Jian went silent for a moment.
"Yeah, you're right. The years doesn't add up..."
Wen Jian fondled his beard while thinking.
(Then that means he obtained the technique from the ones who originally stole the cultivation technique? How lucky he was to stumble upon a High-Rank Qi Foundation Technique!)
Wen Jian's face quickly changed, irritated about Ling's fortuitous encounter.
(Tut! If I knew that that brat obtained such valuable treasure, I should've payed more attention to him!)
"No wonder why he could stand toe-to-toe on us even he had a stage lower than ours, it is all thanks to his cultivation technique!" Wen Jian exclaimed.
Jian noticed the unusual state of the dagger. It was hazy and gaseous compared to its solidified state before.
"What happened to it? It seems like it was dissipating over time?" Jian asked.
"Yes. At first, the guards didn't knew the reason why, until one of them touched the dagger with their bare hands." Tian answered.
"In our findings, in order to maintain its solidified state, the qi dagger absorbs qi from other cultivators. Since its last absorption was hours ago, it began to dissipate again."
Without uttering a single word, Wen Jian immediately grabbed the purple qi dagger. Huge amounts of qi got absorbed from his body, and the qi dagger goes back to it's former appearance.
Yao Tian fell silent upon witnessing the patriarch's bold move.
(So this is what a peak Qi Perfection Stage cultivator is capable of. Even I, a fellow Qi Perfection Stage cultivator, wouldn't dare to do that...)
Wen Jian placed the qi dagger back to the box.
"Keep that box safely. We will bring that in our search on that bastard..."
Wen Jian clenched his fist.
"I'll use that dagger of his to end his life. Since he created that sinister weapon, then he shall die by his own creation."
Wen Jian turned around and faced the well-prepared guards waiting for his order.
"On this mission, I want you to find that bastard. Search every village, city, caves, every nook and cranny! Bring him to me, injured or not, and I will be the one to end his life."
Wen Jian walked in front of the formation towards the direction of the forest, which believed that Ling possibly escaped to.
Yao Tian shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Guards, Move out!"