Julius was enjoying himself for the next several days. He was improving and learning quite quickly. He hadn't gained any levels, but his understanding of the balance between the two energies grew. Velmora's help was priceless; her understanding was deeply instinctual, and so it was hard to keep up with her, but he did his best.

More importantly, the valley was a wonderful place to relax in. Absolutely stunning, and with as many food options in his storage ring, he was as comfortable as he possibly could be. What more could he want?

Unfortunately, fate had a way of interrupting his peace, and his spatial senses picked up several people approaching. They were hiding their mana and aura, but he didn’t think they had seen him yet. Velmora had enveloped him in her domain during his training, and that might have hidden him from their detection.

“There are humans approaching,” she said soon after he sensed them. There was a wary and dangerous glint in her eyes.

“I see them,” he replied with a nod. “Let me handle them. Don’t show yourself.”

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then saw his confident stance and eventually bobbed her head in acceptance, slithering back into the water. He followed behind her and peered over the shoreline as he watched a group of five people come out of the canyon.

They were wearing the same robes. They were pure white and had small embellishments all over their sleeves. A golden crane was proudly displayed on the back.

He stayed silent as he observed. She was right beside him as they curiously watched this new group come and examine his campsite.

“Russ, there is fresh food here. He can’t be far,” one of the guys said to their leader. He was slim and had a pair of dangers in both hands.

“I don’t get why they dispatched so many of us,” a man with a large broadsword across his back said impatiently.

“It doesn’t matter, you know what to do if you find him. Now, spread out. Check the outlying area and slowly make your way to the lake. He might be hiding somewhere close,” their leader barked out orders.

Julius peeked around a branch as these people went their separate ways. He noticed that one of the girls was preparing some kind of skill. She bent down and removed her hood, showing her surprisingly youthful face.

Then a set of seven bowls was retrieved from her storage ring. All of these bowls were lined up in front of her as she kneeled on the dirt. The leader watched over her as she infused mana into these bowls.

Julius frowned when these bowls began to hum softly. But they got louder the more mana they collected. Soon, the hum turned into a loud roar.

He felt something snap in his ears, and the bowls exploded with light. His ears were ringing, and then suddenly everything stopped. Vanished as if nothing had happened in the first place.

But something must have worked, because he felt his heart clench when her eyes shot open and stared directly at his location.

Ah shit.

“He’s hiding in the lake,” she said loudly for the rest of them to hear.

He didn’t bother to hide anymore. Firstly, because he didn’t know what they were here for. From the sounds of it, they were looking for him. But he wasn’t sure. For all he knew, they could just be a bunch of pleasant people who were looking for him.

More importantly, he wasn’t scared of these people. From what he could tell, they were only Tier 4s.

Before he revealed himself, he held his hand up to her to make sure that she wouldn’t interfere. He didn’t know what they wanted, but they might not know about her, and he wanted to handle it himself. Admittedly, a small part of him hoped that they would attack him.

She didn’t seem to care, and he felt her slither deeper into the lake, hiding her presence. The water was doing a really good job at shielding them from their perception, adding that to her domain, and they were practically invisible to mana and aura. Which was why it was surprising the bowls had been able to find him. He wondered whether they relied on another method to detect him? Sound perhaps?

He emerged from the water and ran a hand through his hair. The sound of splashing alerted them, and they all turned to look at him simultaneously.

“Is that him?” The guy with the large sword asked, pointing with his large sausage fingers.

“Yeah, looks like it. Matches the description,” the girl with the bowls confirmed.

He frowned. What description? How did they even know where to find me?

“Why are you looking for me?” He asked them, testing the waters.

“We were given instructions to come and find you. We were told that you were lost in this area,” the leader explained, and a relieved expression appeared on his face. “I’m glad that we managed to find you before a bunch of monsters did.”

“You’re here to help me?”

“Yes, now if you wouldn’t mind following us back, we will escort you back to the sect,” the man said with a smile.

Julius smiled back at the guy. “That’s nice of you. Which sect do you belong to, though? Those robes look different.”

“We are from the Heavenly Crane Sect.” 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Julius nodded and continued to smile. He had heard of the sect before; in fact, he heard that the Burning Sun Sect and the Heavenly Crane Sect had been at odds recently. Did they think he was stupid or something? Why would he willingly trust them?

“And how did someone from the Heavenly Crane Sect hear about my plight? Word must travel fast.”

The leader’s smile flickered for a moment, but before he could come up with an explanation, the guy with the broadsword sighed loudly and hefted the weapon with one hand. “Can we just kill him already? Why are you bothering with this nonsense? He clearly knows that something is off.”

The leader’s fake smile slid off his face, and the friendly man was nowhere to be seen. He looked at his group member with an annoyed expression. “Because we get a better reward if we can take him back alive.”

“Yeah, Brad, thanks for ruining that,” the girl who set up the bowls said with a heavy sigh.

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“We can still take him alive. Just maybe a bit bruised up.”

Julius raised his hands, feeling bad for interrupting their moment. “I’m sorry, but I feel a little confused. What is going on? Did I do something to anger you?”

“It’s nothing personal, kid. We are just following orders. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. Just come with us, and we won’t hurt you, I promise you,” Their leader said with a hand over his chest. He seemed sincere, but considering the other one had just been casually talking about killing him, he didn’t feel that he could trust the man’s words.

I know… shocking.

“And if I don’t come along quietly?”

“Then I will let Brad deal with you, and we can drag your unconscious body back with us.”

”You know, I gotta say that is one hell of an offer. But unfortunately, I might have to decline it,” he said and rolled his shoulders gently.

“Don’t do this. I don’t want to beat up a young kid like you. Just come with us, please.”

Julius pretended to think about it before he shook his head. “I’m good.”

The leader nodded softly. “So be it. Brad, deal with him as you see fit, just try and make sure he doesn’t die, okay?”

Julius watched as Brad walked over to him, looking like he had just been given the best thing in the world. Little did Brad know he was the one feeling excited.

Julius had some things he wanted to try, and Brad appeared to be a willing volunteer.

***

Russ POV

He felt bad for siccing Brad on the kid, but the guy had been desperately trying to let off steam for the past few days. Better now than later on their return trip, and let him and the others pay instead. He did spot the others grimace in pity for the kid, though.

When they first got this mission, they were confused. But apparently, this kid was some kind of honored guest at the Burning Sun Sect. Not only was the kid an honored guest, but turns out he had been abandoned by a group of inner disciples. Typical for the cowardly flaming shits.

Still, this was a perfect chance to kidnap the kid and find out the reason he was at the sect. If that didn’t lead to anything worthwhile, then they would at least ruin the Burning Sun Sect’s reputation a little bit.

Plus, the kid seemed weak. He might have been Tier 4, but there was nothing in his aura that would prove otherwise. None of them detected any aura shrouding item or skill either. Lyssa had a skill that would detect if the kid had something like that.

Additionally, he doubted he would have been abandoned if he weren’t weak.

Brad continued to walk towards the kid, taking his time and basking in the moment. Russ didn’t like it, but it was better to let Brad enjoy himself.

“I’m going to enj—”

Brad didn’t even get to finish his words, before any of them could react, the kid moved and reappeared directly in Brad’s face. The pale fist slammed into Brad’s nose with a loud bang. Blood exploded out of his nose, and Brad immediately flinched back, backing away while swinging his unsheathed sword.

Fuck, he’s fast, Russ realized with alarm.

However, the boy moved once again and appeared behind Brad, swiping his leg at the back of the taller man’s knee. The crack of bone rang out throughout the valley, and Brad’s pained shout followed.

Another wild swing followed, but the boy was so quick. He stepped out of the way as if he had all the time in the world. Once the sword swung past, he got in close and pummeled the larger guy with a punch to the throat.

Brad grabbed his neck as he choked. Then, with a casual dismissiveness, the boy kicked Brad in the face, sending him sprawling in the dirt.

They were stunned seeing one of their own get destroyed by a kid, and they just stood by and watched it happen. They all realized that they had made a serious mistake.

The four of them finally dashed in to help. The kid turned around and greeted them with a bright smile.

We should have never given him a chance like this, and now we are down our frontliner, he cursed.

Attacks from all angles threatened to slam into their opponent, but this time around, he didn’t just move out of the way. He vanished.

They were all experienced enough to understand that their opponent had a teleportation skill and a good one at that. He couldn’t sense any hints of the skill, which made predicting it much harder. Even Lyssa couldn’t track him, which was alarming.

They all spun around, desperately trying to search for him. But they found nothing. Then he felt the hairs on his neck prickle, and without a moment's hesitation, he swung his sword behind him, covering the blade with as much wind mana as he could.

He swore loudly when he saw that it was his teammate, not the boy. He was barely able to pull back his strike and avoid cutting them in half. But it was at this very moment that something slammed into the side of his head, sending him tumbling to the ground.

But before he or his group could retaliate, he was gone like the wind. Vanishing once more and leaving them standing there uneasily.

Russ had no idea how the kid was moving around so quickly, without any sign of spatial awareness. All of the spatial skills he had encountered had at least some kind of spatial fluctuation or mana from the exit point.

It wasn’t just that. They weren’t able to disrupt the teleportation attempts either. Which was surprising considering they had combined efforts to do so.

All of their authorities were spread out in a dense sphere. It was only after the fifth time someone got punched in the back of the head that Lyssa must have finally sensed something. He saw her react to something and threw a massive blast of mana at a random spot in the air.

The attack slammed into the boy, clearly surprising him. He was sent flying through the air and rolled in the dirt. Everyone hurled their attacks at the downed figure, but a large barrier blocked most of them.

Then, in an odd display of casualness, the boy stood up and brushed the dirt from his clothes. He was injured on the face and chest, but didn’t show any concern for his wounds. Instead, he looked at Lyssa with a genuine smile.

“You managed to sense my skill?”

She didn’t answer the boy and glanced back at her team with a fearful expression on her face. “We should retreat.”

“What? Don’t lose your nerve now, Lyssa.”

“Yeah, we can take him; his teleportation gimmick will only save him for so long,” Barca, their duelist, muttered, holding her swollen face with her hand.

“No, you guys aren’t listening! We need to leave now. He has—” Lyssa was interrupted when a burst of fire flew towards her face. She was barely in time to get up a barrier, but the impact was enormous. The sheer heat from the attack was enough to sting his skin despite not being directly attacked by the flames.

Her barrier held, but the strain to hold it must have been intense because she fell back, blood dripping from her nose.

Then they all watched as the boy removed what seemed to be a broken shaft of a weapon and, with his own mana, wove together an axe blade. That same maniacal smile was on his face, and to make matters worse, they all saw the injuries on the boy’s chest heal before their very eyes.

In a matter of a few seconds, their enemy had healed back to full health. They all took a step back.

Shit, he has a regeneration skill.

“Wait! We can talk for a second,” Russ tried to talk with the young man.

“I thought you were going to kill me or kidnap me?”

“I think there’s a misunderstanding,” he claimed.

The boy laughed. “Yeah, I think there is. Don’t worry, we can talk after I rough you up a little bit. We’ll have a lot of time discussing why you decided to do this and answer the rest of my questions.”

Russ was barely able to sense anything from the boy’s aura before the axe was lifted from his shoulders, and he charged the rest of their group in one quick step.

The axe swung for them, and a sudden oppressive force crushed down on their shoulders. They were barely able to move. It was an aura attack unlike any of them had ever experienced. They were barely able to move, and that included Brad, who grunted loudly as he tried to fight the aura.

It was all in vain, though; he could do nothing but watch as the axe came crashing down on him. The axe was sharper than it seemed to be, because the axe obliterated Brad’s armor, cutting through the metal like a hot knife through butter.

They all looked on with horror as Brad was practically sliced in half. The loud and unruly guy was dead before he hit the ground. It was then that they all realized in terror that they never stood a chance at all.