A feeling, sharp as a pine needle, pricked the back of Gen's neck. He stopped walking. He closed his eyes. He sent his consciousness out, searching through the space around him. He found them—several auras, Six of them converging on the village. He opened his eyes, a frown on his face.
"Trouble," he muttered.
He started running. **Jingdao** made his legs strong. **Shidow** pulled him forward through the air. He became a beam of light moving across the winter, fast, though he could not tear space like the Divine General. In minutes, he came into view of the village center where the old people lived. He knew all their faces after seven months. Buqu never moved, lying on a tree covered in snow as if the situation had nothing to do with him.
Gen could clearly see the figures floating above the village. Cultivators.
He flew to their level. "What is your mission here?"
When the leader turned, covered in a heavy coat and robe, Gen immediately recognized that face.
Kai.
Kai smirked at him. "Gen Jiang. Finally, we find you."
Gen glanced at the three others around him, gauging their auras. Then, without care, he turned his attention to Kai. "What are you doing here, so far in the mountain?" Gen asked in his own voice.
Kai laughed. "Do not act so innocent. The whole world knows you are colluding with the enemy, the Divine General. Your head is for us to collect."
Gen's heart skipped a beat. He instinctively looked at Buqu. Then something clicked in his mind. He wasn't colluding. He was held captive. But after what happened in the Sky Ocean, who could testify to the truth? All the participants had died. Very few had gotten out alive apart from Gen and his friends.
Kai cracked his fist. "King Juo Si has offered a very generous price for your head. Money, title, and even a royal family member. See? You are very highly valued by Juo."
The other lackeys next to him cracked their fingers. "Why discourse with him? Let's collect his head and return before the other assassins find his location."
Kai frowned. "Do not be in a hurry." In his head, he smirked, laughing at his two lackeys. He knew how powerful Gen really was. He was not the young boy from last year in the Sky Ocean. He had already been able to deal with a Sect Leader. Now seven months had passed. As an experienced bounty hunter, Kai would never underestimate the progress of his targets. Instead, he waved at them. "Formation. Get him as quickly as possible. If you give him time, you will all die here. Believe me."
The two lackeys nodded and moved out in formation, sending their Qi.
Gen's muscles tensed as he observed his opponents. In his mind, a lot of things were turning. He was labeled a traitor. Meaning once he stepped out of this mountain, his life would be in constant danger. How could they believe something so absurd? He hated the Divine General. How could he collude with them?
Despite being in mind, Gen's attention never slipped out of combat mode.
The other cultivators unleashed their Qi. One summoned a dazzling storm of orange flames coiling around him like a living being. The other summoned a trident of lightning that hurled into Gen's direction at light speed. Kai stood far behind, observing with a predator's stare.
Gen raised his hands. Without any form of **Jingdao**, he caught the hurling lightning trident between his hands with ease. The lightning pulled out like a storm, raving his body as it moved outward, but with no form of damage whatsoever. The flames poured down from above like a raining inferno, consuming his face, hair, body. His robes turned into ashes in mere seconds, yet Gen never moved, as if basking in sunshine.
Gen glanced at his opponents, a hint of disinterest in his eyes. After so many months of training in this environment, his body had moved beyond a level any of them could imagine, coming closer and closer to embodying the concept of **Jingdao** itself. Although he was still a million years from really touching it, he had embarked on that path.
Gen clapped his hands, and the lightning trident was crushed to dust. Turning to Kai, he said, "You should have brought better opponents."
He moved. He did not leap or fly. He simply tapped his leg on the ground. For him, using **Jingdao** against them was an insult.
The diagram of the Sword of Infinity spread out from his feet. It was not a small circle. It was vast, covering the entire village in a complex, glowing pattern of intersecting lines. The cultivators all frowned in shock, panic seizing their faces. How could they be so stupid to think they had a chance? After all, this was Gen Jiang, the son of the Immortal Jiang. The thought was fleeting. Kai had said he was just a pampered son of a powerhouse. Unaware of all the life and death and tempering he had been through on his way to this day, they had been wrong.
The Sword of Infinity moved without thought. White beams of light lanced up from the diagram, piercing through the heads of the two lackeys with ease. They dropped from the sky.
Gen had never moved, still facing towards Kai. His robes were completely burned, revealing his bare torso under the white winter. His short hair floated backwards as he walked on air as if it was firm ground.
Kai's smile grew sideways. He had never expected them to win anyway. He just needed some time to assess if the other man lying down there would act again. Kai had the worst moment of his life the day Buqu intervened in the Sky Ocean. If Buqu was to act again, no matter how strong Kai was now, he would never be able to escape here. But it looked like Buqu had no intention of moving, which was to his advantage now.
His Qi poured out like a raging storm as he pulled off his extra coat. His body cracked with red beams of light as he condensed a beam of energy on his finger. Pointing in Gen's direction, a beam of light shot out, red like blood in the winter environment. It shone brightly, moving through space.
**The Singing Mercy.**
Gen raised his hand to parry the attack, but the thought stopped him. This attack was still very unknown to him. He still remembered all the mistakes he had made. He needed to treat his body as his temple. Instead, he sidestepped with ease, moving in a blur of images to step out of the way.
The beam of red light landed on the winter soil, turning into a miniature red star and then exploding outwards. The explosion consumed everything in its way, cracking and crying out as if sighing. All that was left was burning white smoke floating out of the hole.
Gen took a faint glance at the hole and nodded. A mixture of three Wheels, then. No wonder it was so strong. Gen turned serious towards Kai. He had learned throughout his fighting that the more complex a spell was, the more Wheels it used, and the stronger its destructive potential. Unbreakable Varja was a good example of complexity that granted incredible power. The Singing Mercy used **Zhidow** to create a beam of energy, used **Jingdao** to reinforce the energy pathways in the wall, and finally **Shidow** to make it vibrate, giving it the sharp, shrieking sound that echoed. But the real danger of the Singing Mercy was the intent embedded within it—to draw blood from its target.
Kai barked out, "You can think all day, but you will never win against me!"
He spread out his arms and shot out thousands of beams of Singing Mercy, falling down like a fiery rain, covering the white winter sky.
Gen unleashed his **Jingdao of the Eternal Body**. Letting the reinforcement go beyond his outer body, he let it enter his inner body—the bones. The **Jingdao** condensed into a white flame that floated about his body. Gen then leaned forward and bolted upward, weaving in between the falling rain with dangerous precision. The red beams zipped past his eyes, his face, and more.
Kai huffed as he waved out, drawing a curtain of energy in front of Gen and himself. But the End of World Finger landed, turning the curtain into shards of glass that floated outwards. However, Kai was already gone far sideways, moving at incredible speed as if propelled by trails of air currents.
Kai then spread out his arms, letting the Singing Mercy rotate in a fan in front of him. Then it spread out in a gigantic web, clicking on each other as if forming a prison around Gen and the old villagers.
*You better make sure nothing happens to any of them.*
Buqu's voice entered Gen's mind.
Gen's eyes snapped downward. The web of Singing Mercy was spreading, a lattice of death descending over the oblivious old people. They moved about their activities, talking, as if nothing covered them.
*Damn it.*
Why were they even there? Was this Buqu's way of testing his limits again?
Gen needed to stop Kai and the web at the same time, but how? The only way was to prevent Kai from spreading the web, but he was too far from either target.
Sweat trickled down his face, not from exhaustion, but from apprehension. He knew Buqu would really let the Damocles fall if the villagers were harmed.
*Damn it.*
Gen gave up on chasing the web and turned to Kai. It was time to use it. Yes, time to try. He had trained it for over two years now, ever since he learned it in the Li family. He had never used it in real combat. But now he had no choice.