Chapter 33: One after another failure
'Come on! I just came here.'
Ken rolled his eyes upon encountering the Red Tiger. He almost wanted to curse.
Looking at the tiger that was almost three times bigger than him, Ken knew he had to fight.
This was a Late Stage monster. It wasn't going to be easy.
Growl!
The tiger slowly turned its head and stared at Ken. Its mouth opened, and a growling sound came.
It slowly moved towards Ken. The bright red flame flickered on its foot as it moved.
Suddenly, there was a small explosion on the ground as the tiger instantly appeared in front of Ken, pouncing towards him with its front paws.
Ken sneered and clenched his fist. The strength of the elephant, the power of a dragon, and the complete Muscle Tempering Stage strength merged.
When the tiger appeared in his range, he shot out an upper cut on the tiger's chin.
Clack! Bang!
The tiger's claws landed on his shoulder, trying to tear down his skin, before it was punched straight towards the top of the tree.
On the other hand, its hot claws only left small scratches on his clothes.
Thud!
The tiger collided with the tree's top before breaking it apart. It fell behind the tree.
On the other hand, Ken thought to himself.
'That was where Exploding Steps came from. I read the reports. It seems like the elder saw Red Tigers use Fire Element to cause an explosion on their feet to run fast.'
'For a tiger, it wouldn't be a problem since their bodies can be quite resistant to beating. But for humans, it can be quite dangerous.'
While he was thinking about it, the tiger had only jumped on its legs. It was running towards Ken at full speed.
With its exploding steps, it took less than three seconds to reach him.
This time, Ken knew he needed a weapon to fight this creature.
He quickly took out the sword and swung his arm.
He was holding the hilt with both of his hands as he jerked forward, swinging the sword towards its right front claw.
Splash!
The clash between a sword and the tiger claw seemed quite simple. It was a clash between metal and bones.
But the sword slid between its claws and cut through its skin, making the tiger bleed from its paw.
Roar!
The tiger hissed and pulled back its injured paw. It landed on three limbs and growled towards Ken.
Because of its sheer size, it was quite intimidating.
'That was sharp. But why wasn't I able to control the sword?'
Ken thought to himself, only for him to realize that he had been using Sword Energy on the sword unconsciously.
He hurriedly withdrew his Sword Energy but soon realized a serious fact.
'I am not using my Sword Energy. It's sucking my Sword Energy. I haven't even mastered the way to fuse my Sword Aura with my Qi to produce Sword Energy.'
'It's doing all of this on its own. Should I keep it away?'
Ken thought as his hands trembled for a moment. But then he shook his head.
'No, I need to learn to control this sword. If I don't do that, I will not be a good swordsman.'
'This is my sword. I will control my Sword Energy.'
Ken closed his eyes as he focused on his Sword Aura.
Sword Aura was the comprehension of Swordsmanship, and it wasn't truly a level.
It was when a normal Qi could turn into Sword Energy. It was due to a swordsman infusing his swordsmanship with the Qi.
He had to find that Sword Aura. It was somewhere in his mind, and he just had to be able to release it.
'Swordsmanship! Sword Aura! It's all comprehension, Willpower, and Spirit. I just have to find these.'
Locking his psychic plane with his Spiritual Sense, Ken started feeling the intensity of the aura.
It was inside his psychic plane. His understanding had taken the shape of a sword, and now, he only had to visualize this.
When he noticed it and visualized it, his Qi flared and left his Dantian. It slowly moved from his palm and turned into sword energy.
At this moment, Ken realized that the sword was no longer absorbing his Sword Energy forcefully.
By feeding it sword energy, Ken was ready for the battle.
But when he opened his eyes, he was dumbfounded.
The tiger had left.
It had seriously used this moment to escape.
'Damn it!'
Ken cursed. He saw some blood trails, but he didn't chase after the tiger. Instead, he went to search for the cave.
He placed the sword inside the ring and kept moving around. With his Snake Steps, he was quite good at hiding movement.
And, thanks to his good control over the spiritual sense, he was able to shield his Qi as well.
He dodged several tigers in this area until he finally came across a red cave. When he saw that, he was stunned.
There was no Blue Foundation Array.
He was so confused that he hurriedly entered the cave and searched every single part of it.
He found nothing.
Not a single clue or anything about the evil cultivator. Not even his ashes were left behind. This confused him.
But he didn't have much time to think about it. Instead, he had to worry about something else.
'I couldn't change it. I didn't know when he was going there. I never thought it would be so fast.'
'No, if Lee Yun Je becomes an evil cultivator, I can still kill him. But Patrick is a different case entirely.'
'If he gets his hands on Blood Absorbing Technique, it would be a huge problem.'
Without any hesitation, he left the cave.
He rushed towards the Rigid Mountain Hall.
This place was quite close to the Red Forest Area. In fact, the Rigid Hall Mountain was attached to this mountain.
So, he only had to dodge the monsters, and he could easily reach the Rigid Hall Mountain.
Although he was a bit anxious since this was a cursed place, he didn't hesitate to climb the mountain.
Unlike the previous mountain, this didn't have any forest on it. So, he only had to climb this mountain.
But at this moment, it was already a sunset.
When he was climbing this mountain, he quickly realized that he could see Apple Mountain from here.
He took a deep breath and kept climbing until he reached the graveyard. He could feel the air turning cold.
This air had an eerie feeling that kept his guard up. He couldn't help but silently make his way inside the Hall.
'Now, how am I supposed to find the Ancient Blood Devouring Sect's coffin?'
When he thought about it, he looked around. He had never come to this place before, so he was quite new to this feel.
He wasn't surprised when he saw the names on the tombstone, but he was surprised when he saw their complete identity written on them.
When he looked around, he found that only one had the name of the Ancient Blood Devouring Sect.
And, it turned out to be the son of the leader.
When he saw this, he immediately went to the coffin and started digging it.
Because of his past experiences, he didn't feel anything disgusting about it. He had done something similar to this before.
So, he was able to dig quite quickly. When he found the coffin, he opened it and saw a skeleton on the coffin.
Clap!
When he saw the skeleton, he suddenly found his neck being pinched by the skeleton.
"Gah!"
Ken suffocated when the skeleton clutched its hands against his neck.
The skeleton slowly rose from the coffin. It stared at him for a moment, with its dark and gloomy eyes.
"You...give me your body!"
The skeleton slowly opened its mouth, and its words frightened Ken.
A purple gas escaped its mouth and rushed towards Ken.
Ken couldn't even breathe, but thankfully, the skeleton wasn't going to kill him. It was only trying to knock him unconscious.
[Dragon Flame]
Controlling his Qi, he activated his innate ability, releasing the red flames around his body.
At this moment, half of his Qi disappeared instantly. But the red flame was quite powerful.
It managed to burn the skeleton body, but the purple gas was already entering his body through his nose, eyes, ears, and even mouth.
Ken felt an immense pain all over his body. He couldn't help but regret coming here.
He realized that the grasp of the Nether Race on his sect. It started with Makim, but that was only a small thing.
At this moment, he was sure that Lee Yun Je and Patrick August were specifically chosen to inherit these things.
Lee Yun Je was a greedy guy, so it made sense that they would use the inheritance of the Foundation Establishment Realm to attract.
And, with Patrick, they weren't even planning on using him. They were targeting the Ancient Blood Devouring Sect's heir.
'Am I going to die here?'
Ken felt the invasion of the purple gas in his mind. Considering how weak he was, he didn't think he could stand a chance against a power like this.
But at this moment, he heard a sarcastic tone in his system's voice.
[Dude, did you forget me?]