Back to Second Level

The ten boys were at first stunned by him throwing the rock, but his declaration shook them out of their daze and awakened their anger.

"This little brat."

"Looks like your mom died before she could teach you manners."

"Don't start crying too soon."

They were frightened by the sight of one of them bleeding, but that was simply a surprise attack with a rock. With all of them attacking together, this wouldn't even be a fight so they charged at him.

Shui was also aware that his current self wasn't powerful enough to beat all of them easily.

'But I'm not letting them get away with saying that crap about Mom.'

It wasn't something he thought highly of, but against this many opponents he couldn't be picky. He had to make them realize that they messed with the wrong opponent.

Whether by coincidence or because they were the most eager to attack him, the two boys he met yesterday were the first to reach him.

"Take this!"

One of them threw a punch at his face, but under the empowerment of martial intent, the incoming fist seemed to be approaching at the rate of a snail. Shui easily dodged that punch and landed a clean cross-counter on his face before grabbing his neck. If he fought them normally until they gave up or were knocked out, he would definitely be exhausted before them. And so, while making sure it wasn't to the extent of killing him, Shui drained the boy of his essence. The essence he drained out of him wasn't just his vitality, but also his energy cultivation, and soul. If it didn't reach fatal levels, there would be no irreversible physical damage from having it drained, but he would feel weak and experience a drop in his cultivation.

While he was still choking the boy, Shui used his body to block the kick of the other boy. Before another joined in, he had sucked out enough essence to take away the boy's consciousness, so he threw him to one of them and converted some of the essence into energy that he used to blow away a boy attacking him. Though it would be more useful for his cultivation, his body wasn't strong enough to store too much unrefined essence. Furthermore, even releasing the energy caused his hand to bleed a little.

He was the shortest of them, but that didn't stop him from dominating. Once he caught hold of someone, he wouldn't let go of them until their lights were off, even if he had to take a few extra hits to do so. Once they saw their comrades drop to the ground one after the other, the ones remaining started to fear him. When they hit him, he took it without flinching, but his attacks were knocking them out.

"What the hell did he do to them?"

"I'm sorry man, I'm out."

"Me too!"

Of the four that were still standing, three ran away, leaving the fourteen year old who first insulted Suiri. Of the ones that insulted her, he was only one still on his feet and Shui wouldn't let that be for too much longer.

Since he was by himself, the teen started to get worried, but he remembered that he was in the fourth level while Shui was just in the first level. It wouldn't matter what tricks he had up his sleeve, it would be useless before pure strength.

The boy kicked at Shui's head but he blocked it with both hands. Even so, Shui was still lifted off his feet and flung to the ground. Not only could Shui not compare in terms of strength, he was very tired. His current body's stamina could barely allow him to fight under the empowerment of martial intent for ten minutes, so he wasn't surprised by this. Soon, his strength and speed would quickly drop back to the normal levels and he would be defeated.

Since he was able to fling him away with one kick, the boy regained his confidence and clenched his fists while slowly walking over to him.

"Look at you, not so tough now, are you?"

When he reached near Shui who was still struggling back to his feet, he punched his face to the ground and continued pounding on him.

"That's what you get for acting so full of yourself!"

As his fists connected with Shui's face, he got lost in the ecstasy of beating up someone he thought was much stronger than him. However, despite being beaten black and blue, Shui's eyes showed no sign of giving up. He waited for a lag in the boy's relentless barrage, grabbed the arm he was about to punch him with, and bit down on it.

"Ahhh! What are you, a dog!?"

With Shui's teeth touching his bones, the boy tried to get him off by attacking him with his free arm, but then he noticed that his strength was being drained out of him, which made him even more frightened.

He had the mistaken belief that he was losing too much blood, so he panicked and became even more eager to tear Shui off him, but he quickly became too weak to do any proper damage. As he was brought to his knees, the only thing he could do was look at Shui with horror in his wide open eyes.

Once he was sure he was unconscious, Shui stopped biting him and spat out whatever was in his mouth and then wiped it with his right hand.

'Ugh, I really don't like fighting this desperately.'

Not only did Shui know how to fight by reviewing various forms of martial arts, by mastering the path of martial arts he had the instinctive ability to fight by mimicking wild beasts.

Honestly, he was definitely over his capacity for essence, but he would be fine in short-term. Since his clothes were dirty and tattered, Shui stole a few articles from one of the shorter boys who was passed out on the ground. As Shui staggered away from the fallen boys, he looked nothing like a victor, but the crowd that had formed, quickly parted to let him through. There was somewhere he wanted to go today, but he decided to find a place to refine the essence first.

While he resisted the residual thoughts of the original owners of the essence, it was gradually becoming his. Though they outnumbered him, in a battle of the heart, they didn't have enough quantity to defeat him. Battles of will were similar to battles of the soul, but were on a more instinctive level. Though someone with a strong soul would have a firm will, that didn't mean there wouldn't be gaps in their heart that could be exploited, and this could prove especially fatal in a close fight. This was the reason cultivators not only had to temper their cultivation, but also their heart.

Shui noticed another presence while he was refining the essence in him, but since they obediently waited for him to finish he only left a sliver of awareness outside his mind. When he had completely absorbed the essence, Shui could calmly examine himself who was now at the second level in the Mortal Realm and on the verge of making it to one-star saint body.

Since essence contained everything from an individual, the small traces of transcendent force that was in it helped invigorate him and push him closer to that starting boundary of body cultivation. Anyone aware of this body's talent would say his fast cultivation speed was making his foundation sloppy, but Shui's understanding of the Mortal Realm was at perfection, so as long as he managed to absorb enough energy he would be able to promote himself to the next stage.

'I should find a way to drain essence more frequently.'

While his thoughts were taking a dangerous turn, Shui opened his eyes and looked at the boy who was nervously standing in front of him.

"What do you want, Tin?"

He couldn't guess why Tin would be acting like this in front of him, so he looked at him with suspicious eyes.

Tin stopped two steps away from him and bowed.

"Please allow me to call you Boss."

"Huh? Why? Just because I beat up those fools doesn't mean I'm interested in your little extortion operation."

"No, that's not it,"

Tin looked up and showed Shui his determined eyes.

"I want to be like you Boss. I won't ask you to do anything for me, and you can make me do whatever you want. Just let me call you Boss."

Shui could tell with one glance that Tin wasn't brave enough to face the consequences of switching sides. Even if it wasn't a complete lie, he probably wanted Shui to protect him from now on.

'How stupid.'

"Do what you want."

Shui got up and walked off without looking at Tin who responded with great enthusiasm.

"Yes, Boss!"