Major Trouble

After a fulfilling meal, Kate skipped towards the stadium. It was a rare time where she didn't hold his hand so Shui enjoyed his slight freedom and watched her back.

"Don't go too far." said Lilia.

"Okay."

Kate responded without turning around and continued to skip. Looking at how carefree she could be, Shui wondered how she was capable of being so serious when it came to cultivation.

"Ahh!"

A sudden scream from their right caught the attention of Shui and Lilia. When they looked, they saw a woman frantically shaking her hand and a fallen pot. Thinking she was probably burned by the pot, Shui turned back.

"Huh? Kate."

Lilia attention shifted to Shui because of his panic, and when she looked she realised that Kate was out of their sight.

"Oh my, where did that girl go?"

They were in sight of the stadium so it would be easy for her to make it back on her own, but both Lilia and Shui were overcome by a bad feeling when they lost her.

"Should we go to the stadium first?"

Lilia agreed with Shui's suggestion and so they ran towards the stadium. Though they hoped their feelings were just illusions, they couldn't find Kate near the stadium. Completely frightened, Lilia dashed into the stadium to find Bartos. In her subconscious mind she thought Shui would follow her, but only when she saw Bartos again did she realise that Shui was no longer by her side.

'Sorry Aunt Lilia. I can't sit around and wait.'

Meanwhile, Kate had fallen into a trance. When an odd yet appealing scent had flitted past her nose, it captivated her attention and led her on an unknown path. She couldn't tell time or distance as she followed the smell. Even when she somehow reached an empty alley, she was stuck in a different world. As they saw her reach the alley, three men with their faces covered in black cloth appeared. They each pulled out a knife and approached her.

When he was in range, one of the three raised his fist before swinging it down towards her head. The hit should have knocked her out but instead, the man's fist rebounded and the impact knocked her away.

The attack awoke Kate and she reached towards her head in pain. Fortunately she was wearing the chestplate that her dad gave her since she didn't have a match, but she still wasn't unharmed. Though her head was fine, the vibrations from the impact still reached her and forced an iron taste to her throat.

"Damn it! She has an artifact."

A man's angry voice brought Kate's attention to the scene in front of her. Though she was familiar with the sight of blood, she could barely stand up when faced by these men's killing intent.

"Wh, who are you?"

Instead of answering her, they came closer and pressured her with their late Mortal Realm cultivation. She knew they were trying to kill her. They were her enemies, she should fight back, she should run. But she couldn't do anything. They were too strong, too scary, she could only stand there. She could only stand there and wait for her death. Those were the thoughts that filled her mind.

As the idea that she might die came into her head, her eyes became watery.

'I'm sorry, Mommy, Daddy. I'm sorry Aunt Suiri, I'm sorry. I'm sorry Shui.'

She was convinced she would die within this alley and that there was nothing she could do to stop that fate. And there was nothing, because she wasn't the hero in this scene.

"Oi."

All four of them turned towards the voice coming from the alley entrance. The one who was there had a face delicate enough to be mistaken for a girl, but the dirt-covered bandage over his eyes seemed to transform him into a vicious demon even with his short height.

"What the hell do you think you're doing with her?"

As Shui stepped towards them, the three men reorganized themselves and decided to kill him as well. Though they wouldn't be paid for it, he was simply a fifth level in the Mortal Realm brat while they were in the eighth level, so it wouldn't even be a fight.

As they added another target to the kill list, Shui made it in front of Kate.

"Shui, you should run! Leave me behind! You have to-"

"Shut up."

Shui flicked Kate's forehead while he turned his head to her. In this moment, Kate thought Shui seemed surprisingly reliable and no longer tried to stop him. She stayed back and watched him in a daze.

Finding Kate wasn't that hard for Shui. With his excellent aura sense, martial intent and nebula one-star soul, as long as he was within thirty cales of her he would be able to pick up on her aura. It wasn't as versatile as spiritual sense, but it was good enough to find who he wanted.

Once he reached the alley, Shui was internally distressed. The three men in front of them could be handled, but the hidden Soul Realm cultivator wasn't someone he could face so he intentionally revealed his cultivation to make that hidden cultivator look down on him. His only option was to hope that they could somehow manage to escape.

Before they came at him, Shui made the first move. He punched the man in the middle straight to the nuts before he could react. From the fainting man's hand, he took the knife and threw it towards the man on the right. He deflected it with his own knife but that was insufficient. Using his martial intent, Shui stabbed the knife into the back of his neck.

The last man kicked towards his head but Shui used his martial intent to slow down the kick so that he could jump and swipe his finger tips across the man's neck. With his excellent control over nature energy, though he couldn't give it a physical form, he could push the concentrated energy into the man and cause the blood vessels in the man's neck to burst. Even without being in a physical state, by controlling the nature energy he put in his body, it was possible to overwork his muscles and organs due to the overabundance of energy.

In a time under three seconds, he had taken care of the three men but he knew he didn't have to pay attention to any aversion he might have felt in the act. He didn't think he would feel it either. From the moment he gained martial intent, his view on life had changed. To him, the value of lives were never constant. If they were a threat, he needed to get rid of them if he wanted to protect his loved ones.

"Let's go."

Shui grabbed the hand of the dazed Kate and ran out of the alley. A short second after he did so, the two of them could feel a strong pressure coming closer.

'So he finally noticed.'

Shui knew he couldn't fight someone in the Soul Realm and he didn't plan to either. Instead, he desperately ran towards the stadium. Though a Soul Realm cultivator should have been able to stop him without physical contact, the inscription for 'Conceal' had been put on the coat he wore. The fur coat he got from Alice wasn't fit for the current weather but once he reached a thirty-five percent success rate for 'Conceal', he inscribed it into the coat. Since it was made from an evolved beast's fur and evolved beasts were the animal counterparts of mutated flora, it was capable of withstanding the symbol.

Once he put the coat on Kate, activated the inscription and restrained his aura, even a late Soul Realm cultivator couldn't accurately pick them out in a crowd.