Evil Samurai In Cultivation World

"The Headmaster seemed impressed with your skills." Senior Beldon said as the two walked towards his residence, and Claude nodded his head. "I'm guessing he was. After all, he did spare us from sharing the same fate as our previous master." Claude said. "It's the least we could do for him."

"I'm guessing he - as well as the rest of the faction members - will look at you more favourably after this contest," Senior Beldon explained. "I sure hope so," Claude replied. He didn't want to tell Senior Beldon about his deal with the Headmaster.

After saying their goodbyes, Senior Beldon departed, and Claude entered his room. As soon as he took one step inside his room, Claude stopped in his tracks, and his eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute," Claude murmured under his breath, as a frown appeared on his face. He walked towards the centre of the room, and began scanning his surroundings, before whispering to himself, "Something's wrong."

He was channeling his spiritual energy, and although faint, Claude could sense a disturbance with the spiritual energy that was inside the room. It was as though there had been a slight change with the atmosphere. As though it has been meddled with.

Step, step, step…

Claude walked up to his chair, and lightly rubbed his fingers over it, and closed his eyes as he tried to get a feel of the spiritual energy.

"I feel something.. strange.." He whispered under his breath. He could feel a small drop of a different spiritual energy from the chair that he was touching. It was definitely not from the room, as Claude already was familiar with the surrounding spiritual energy by now. 

"Someone has been here.." He released his hands from the chair after a few seconds and scratched his chin, mumbling to himself. 

But who?

Claude raised his eyebrows. This was bad. Who was after Claude? Was it the Azure Lion Clan? Perhaps they had found out about his intrusion into Elizabeth Carter's room. Or perhaps they were after the White Dragon's teeth and they had somehow linked it back to him.

Or was it really the Azure Lion Clan? Claude thought to himself. It could be those groups of people whom he had seen in Gryfino forest along with Elizabeth Carter. Claude remembered. 'Of course, there was a chance that it could be the both of them as well,' Claude narrowed his eyes. He didn't know who the people trying to kill Elizabeth Carter were, but if they were also part of the Azure Lion Clan, then they could both be working together to find out Claude's location.

'Whatever the situation might be, it appears that I'm in trouble,' Claude clicked his tongue. He definitely didn't like being caught up in a mess, and yet here he was, caught in a sticky one. Although Claude was definitely powerful on his own, he still was, nevertheless, on his own. While the people who are chasing him could very well consist of any number.

'Hold on a minute, Claude,' Claude said to himself, and he took a deep breath. He was reminding himself that perhaps he might be overthinking this situation as usual. He definitely did have a habit of overthinking, so it could very well be that.

'Calm down.' He inhaled in and out, trying to relax. He had to think slowly. 'This residence did belong to Senior Beldon, so it could very well be enemies of him.'

It definitely was possible. Perhaps their real target was Senior Beldon, and Claude was simply caught up in his mess. But that turned out to be not the case when Claude began to investigate the rest of the residence. He couldn't find even a trace of the different spiritual energy that Claude had previously found on his chair.

"So whoever entered my room is only after me," Claude murmured under his breath. But then again, this person doesn't even have to be affiliated with the Azure Lion Clan. After all, this was the Royal Academy. A cultivation academy that has the backing of the Royal Family and the new King of Argria. Not many people would even consider entering the Academy since doing so would mean risking making the entire Royal Family their enemy. Of course, it doesn't necessarily rule out the Azure Lion Clan either, but seeing as it was a giant clan which would need connections with other powerful people to function properly, they most likely wouldn't risk it. 

'It could be Ian or one of his ex-lackeys,' Claude thought. After all, Ian was expelled from the academy, and he could have shifted the blame onto Claude. Or it could be one of his lackeys, who were all now under Claude. Claude knew that the lackeys harboured an immense amount of hate for him. He also knew that he couldn't do anything to them, for it would mean straining his relationship with the Headmaster as well as the academy itself, and this also applied to the lackeys as well. Of course, sometimes, hatred could overcome sensible thinking.

After thinking for a while, Claude shook his head. 'It definitely couldn't be those idiots,' Claude thought to himself. They couldn't even stand up for themselves, let alone mess with his room. 

It could be a third party, whom he didn't know. 

'It's a good thing I hid the White Dragon's teeth someplace else,' Claude leaned back on the wall as he thought to himself. He had already known that there were a lot of people after the White Dragon's teeth, so he knew that keeping it with him would be a mistake that he would definitely regret making. So, he had chosen a different hiding place just for the teeth.

He then moved back to his room, trying to analyse what the hell these intruders were up to and what else they had come into contact with, but other than the small traces of variant spiritual energy he could find on the chair, there was nothing that could help Claude learn what the intruders were doing. 

Unsatisfied with the results, Claude sat down on his chair and let out a long sigh. "Well, at least the intruders didn't directly come for my life." He mumbled. From what it looked like, the intruders only entered his room, went through his room and got out. Which meant that although they were confident entering the premises of the Royal academy, they weren't confident of actually encountering him directly.

"So I guess this means that I'm safe within the academy," Claude said with a bitter smile. Although it wasn't much, this was still better than having no hiding place. This meant that the people who were after him weren't exactly cultivation gods who had the ability to defy everything. They still had limitations. Lines that were not willing to cross. And that meant that they had weaknesses.

'But nevertheless, for now, I still have to be careful and cautious about my surroundings, since I seem to have people after me,' Claude frowned. He didn't exactly enjoy being low key. But since he didn't even know who his opponent was, it was definitely a good idea to stay vigilant and not do anything risky for the time being.

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Elsewhere.

In the depths of Gryfino forest, a figure shot forward, moving through the trees, leaping from one branch to another with frightening speed.

"GRAAAAR!" A giant, wolf-like beast roared loudly as it charged from behind, aiming for the quickly moving figure through the dirt road below and opened its mouth, shooting a burst of bright red energy beam straight up the trees!

BAM!

The figure turned his head around. Behind him, he could see the bright red light that was fast approaching him, quickly reducing the distance between them. The figure turned its attention to the front again and immediately made a decision.

Swish!

He hastily turned and did a quick flip by kicking his feet on the trunks of one of the trees, shooting through the jungle diagonally, changing direction in an instant, right before the bright red light struck the tree with a loud explosion, burning it and everything surrounding it into ashes.

TWIP! TWIP! TWIP!

The figure had now changed the way he moved, now shifting to using the tree trunks to move from one tree to another.

"GRRAAAAR!" The wild beast, now enraged at the fact that it couldn't injure its prey, roared loudly once again and opened its mouth, charging up for another round of energy beam, as its throat began to brighten up.

Whoosh!

Right then, the figure shifted his direction, kicking the tree trunks and using the force to shoot towards the creature, appearing in front of the wild beast in an instant, surprising it!

"White Lightning Rapier Technique!" The man whispered softly, and in his hand appeared a silver rapier which glowed brightly, illuminating the entire forest for just a split second.

Step!

After the light disappeared, the man and the beast were on opposite sides. Suddenly, the man waved his hands and the rapier in his hands vanished into thin air, and at the same time, the creature that was behind him split into two pieces, before collapsing down onto the ground.

The man turned around, revealing his identity to be Dayton Palmer, who murmured, "That was a good shot!"