Evil Samurai In Cultivation World

"Just remember one thing though.. The Golden Crown tournament is inevitably going to end!" Claude said with a smile, and every single one of the lackeys felt a chill run up their spine.

Gulp! They were afraid.

"Alright then!" Claude nodded his head and he clapped his hands, focusing the attention on him yet again and said, "You can go ahead and tell your owner that I've returned. I don't want him to make up any excuses the next time we fight!"

Claude then turned around and walked away, leaving the five lackeys in a state of shock and disbelief.

"Oi!" After a brief period of silence, Link called out to Brenden, who stood there like a statue, not moving an inch. He pressed his hand on Brenden's shoulder, causing him to flinch before calming down. "What are we going to do?"

"What else?" Brenden said as he breathed slowly. "You heard what he said, right? We have to tell Ian!"

The other lackeys looked at each other and nodded, and Link asked, "Do you think Ian can beat him in a fight?"

Brenden looked at Link, and Link returned the gaze. Neither of them said a word, but they knew. They knew that their junior was a monster. 

*******************

Slam!

Ian's hand slammed against the wooden table, causing it to explode into little fragments because of the power his attack contained.

"He said what?" Ian looked at his lackeys with anger in his eyes. "He said that he doesn't want me to make any excuses? That son of a b*tch! Who does he think he is?"

Brenden and Link, who were standing in front, couldn't help but sigh in their minds. They knew that Ian was now completely delusional. 

They had told him that Claude Rayforth had successfully completed the closed seclusion training, which meant that he was most probably more powerful than before, but Ian just didn't listen. It was as if he couldn't come to terms with it.

'I guess I won't be getting any money for standing guard today,' Brenden wanted to cry as he thought about his misfortune. 

Far away from Ian's residence, a figure stood on top of one of the roofs of the inner disciple division, their gaze stuck on two men who were standing in front of Claude Rayforth's burnt residence. 

This figure was that of Russell Davies, who was watching Claude and Wilfred Beldon from afar. With a sinister smile, he said, "Interesting!"

******************

"Well, I guess I'm in a difficult situation!" Claude muttered under his breath as he stared at what remained of his residence.

"They'll get you a new residence. You don't have to worry about that." said Senior Beldon, who was standing next to him, and Claude nodded his head.

"And what about the people who did this?"

"Well, they didn't technically break the Headmaster's promise, so I heard they got away with a disciplinary fine." Senior Beldon replied, and then looked at Claude and asked, "What are you planning on doing about it?"

"Only a disciplinary fine, huh..." Claude muttered to himself before shifting his gaze to Senior Beldon and asked, "Do you have any information about Ian Jefferson's family?"

"Junior brother Claude..." Senior Beldon raised his eyebrows as he looked at Claude, who was smiling innocently at him. "You really aren't someone who goes easy on people, are you?"

"An eye for eye, right?" Claude shrugged his shoulders, and Senior Beldon shook his head. "More like a dozen eyes for an eye."

"Perhaps," Claude waved his hands dismissively in the air and let out a faint chuckle "But he should've known that when to make someone your enemy, you're not just placing yourself on the table. You're placing everything you hold dear on the table as well. Just because you don't play like that doesn't mean others won't. At the end of the day, there are no rules when you're making enemies. Only chaos."

"I'm starting to feel as though you're not too fond of Ian.." Senior Beldon said in a sarcastic tone and Claude let out a snort.

"Oh, and by the way..." Senior Beldon turned towards Claude and said with a grin on his face. "Congratulations on breaking through! I guess you really were confident when you said you were going to enter the closed seclusion chamber."

"You didn't believe me?" Claude asked with a wide grin, and Senior Beldon scratched his cheeks, looking embarrassed. "No, no. I did believe you. In the sense that I did feel like you were genuinely confident. I just thought that the variables this time were simply too vague and unable to comprehend. After all, even geniuses can lose, even if they are extremely confident."

"You're saying that the mystical realm was too unpredictable and therefore you were unsure about the chances of me succeeding?" Claude asked after thinking about his answer for a while and Senior Beldon nodded his head.

"That's right! Even a simple system could show extremely unpredictable behaviour, which is why I usually do not try to predict the outcome of an event, rather simply wait for it to happen. However, when it comes to you, junior brother Claude, I usually have a lot of fun trying to see my predictions come to life, even if I'm not entirely sure about it." Senior Beldon said with a smile as both Claude and him began walking towards his residence. "But you see, the mystical realm is simply too incomprehensible and is filled with new and bizzare materials that I didn't have the necessary data to form a prediction."

"So you just guessed," Claude rubbed his hand on his chin and Senior Beldon flashed a bitter smile. "To put it short, yes."

He then tilted his head up for a second as if he was thinking about something, and then glanced towards Claude and asked, "However, you must've known all of this as well, junior brother Claude. I'm sure that most people would be a little bit cautious about going into an unknown realm, especially since almost all who have entered the realm are either dead or scarred for life. So why weren't you?"

"Hm, that's a good question!" Claude said as he crossed both of his hands and thought for a few seconds. After a brief period of silence, Claude opened his mouth to reply. "I guess it's because I've already come face to face with death before."

Claude wanted to say that he had, in fact, died once. However, he didn't wish to reveal this information to Senior Beldon, so he made the sentence a bit more vague.

"Another reason is that… how do I put this?" Claude paused for a second as he contemplated on what to say, before continuing. "I feel as though I've already been to different realms?"

"What do you mean by that, junior brother?" Senior Beldon asked, clearly interested in what he was talking about. Claude simply shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Exactly what I said. I felt a sense of familiarity with the mystical realm. As though it wasn't anything new to me. I do not know how to describe it. Perhaps I'm just too good at adapting to various environments?"

Yet again, Claude couldn't reveal the fact that he was from another world. And since the martial world was a hundred times more violent and deadly than his previous world, he expected the mystical realm to be even worse. And since he had already crossed over to another world once, interealm travel certainly didn't mean much to him.

"Interesting..." Senior Beldon nodded his head, clearly intrigued by Claude's words. Claude, who clearly didn't expect his senior to take his words seriously, simply sighed in response.

But the 'interrogation' did help raise some questions in Claude's mind. 

"Now that I think about it, if the method of travelling to the mystical realm is somewhat similar to my reincarnation process, then does it mean that cultivation can help access other realms and worlds?" Claude thought to himself. 

It could be possible. Even though the mystical realm was inside the cultivators' mind, given how differently the surroundings work inside of it, it could very well be called a different world.

'More importantly, did this mean that I can also go back to earth?' Claude thought to himself. It was certainly an interesting notion. Especially if he can bring his cultivation skills with him.

'That is most definitely an enticing situation.' Claude thought. Unfortunately, his understanding about the limits of cultivation was still far too little. 

And most importantly, he was still nowhere powerful enough to actually attain such a vast understanding. After all, in cultivation, strength and understanding goes hand in hand. Which meant that if he wishes to travel through different realms and worlds as well as return to earth, then he had to get stronger.

'This world just gets more and more interesting the more time I spend in it,' Claude let out a chuckle as he walked forward, and Senior Beldon followed close behind.