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Chapter 1 A Friend In Need

What does it mean to reincarnate?

The soul is eternal - and much like a person swapping their clothes, can swap bodies as it undergoes an endless cycle of reincarnation until it at last, breaks free of this cycle.

Tang Ze had heard of such things, but had never experienced anything like this before.

That said, this could not be said to truly be reincarnation, could it?

He knew he had died - that much was certain, but he was not in the body of a crying newborn, but had the same body he had when he had passed away on Earth.

So, this could not be called reincarnation per se- if he didn't know better, he would've thought that he was back on Earth, but this could not be Earth. These woods were nowhere near his home, and it made no sense for him to be here. Not to mention there was… something else in the air here in these woods, something that marked them as completely alien.

Part of reincarnation, though, also includes forgetting all of what you were in the last life.

No trace of who you were previously is supposed to remain in the next life - in a way, it would be as if a slate had been washed clean.

And yet, not only did his memories of his life back on Earth remain, he had carried something… 'special' with him.

Tang Ze couldn't put a finger on exactly what it was, but there was definitely something different about him.

Back on Earth, Tang Ze hadn't lived much of a remarkable life. He hadn't accomplished anything of note, but there was a hobby of his that he had absolutely loved engaging with.

And that was cosplaying!

Buying or making costumes - and then breathing life into them to, if only for a moment, become the character you were trying to emulate.

His free time was always wrapped up in such pursuits. Much to the chagrin of the rest of his family, who had oftentimes told him to focus on studying or something else that was more productive.

Looking back, Tang Ze honestly couldn't say that they had been wrong.

He really should have put more effort into things during his old life.

Then again, there were quite a number of things that he harbored regrets about not doing during his old life…

He shook his head.

This was no time to dwell on that.

He had been given something of a second chance, hadn't he? A second chance to perhaps make up for his shortcomings in his previous life.

As Tang Ze calmed himself down somewhat, he was able to better grasp this part of him that was 'new.' A part of him that appeared to be influenced by his hobby in his past life.

No words appeared on a screen before him, but as he looked inward, he knew them to be true as if they had been written in mile-long flaming letters in the sky above him.

Hidden Talent: When you cosplay a character, you can gain their powers. The closer to the character your costume appears, the closer you will get to their abilities so long as you wear the costume. 

Cultivation Talent: The longer you wear said costume, the more you can permanently imbue yourself with the powers of said character, up to a limit also based on how good your costume is.

Tang Ze couldn't help but laugh.

To think that of all things, his hobby from his previous life could be the gateway to power in this next one?

Of course, this left him with a few problems.

For one, he was in the middle of the woods, away from civilization. Meaning there were probably wild animals that were around that could be dangerous.

Second, his power was kind of useless if he didn't have the tools to make a costume, now then wasn't it? He was in his regular clothes, though thankfully he had transmigrated with his shoes on even though he hadn't been wearing them when he died, strange as that was.

Third, he had no supplies with him. No food or water.

All of these things could be solved by finding the nearest place of civilization, which is what he needed to turn his attention to.

And hope that something like a bear didn't maul him on the way….

Within an hour, he heard something in the distance.

It sounded like the beating of hooves - so unless there were some kind of flesh-eating zebras in this world, this was likely coming from horses.

It was risky to approach the noise, but then again, what other choice did he have? Die of exposure in the woods as he ran around in circles?

The hooves were moving fast, such that the riders had passed Tang Ze a spear's throw away before he could even call out to them, asking for help or something along those lines.

There were seven of them, and they were riding what looked like regular earth horses and not some sort of fantastical mythical beast. What caught Tang Ze's eyes however; was that there was an unwelcome passenger with them, so to speak.

He couldn't tell clearly from this distance, but it looked like this person was a woman, and more alarmingly, she had been tied up.

It didn't take a genius to put two and two together, and realize that she had been kidnapped, or was some sort of prisoner.

The men were wearing some kind of uniform of blue robes, though the finer details were not visible to Tang Ze from this distance.

Naturally, he wanted to either stop them, or to try to rescue the woman.

It was the obvious thing to do.

The issue was that Tang Ze had no method to do so. He was still for all purposes a normal human, and they not only greatly outnumbered him, but were much faster as well, being mounted atop horses.

So much so that the dust cloud made by the stomping of their hooves was a distant sight by the time that Tang Ze could get these thoughts together.

In other words, there was no hope of him being able to do anything.

Still, they had proved useful in the sense that they had led Tang Ze to what was clearly a demarcated path of sorts.

Roads were made to connect two places together- so there were two directions that Tang Ze could go in.

After considering it, he decided that it was best not to follow the people who had possibly kidnapped a girl, and went in the other direction instead.

It was a few hours later that he managed to run into someone.

This person was wearing scarlet robes with an emblem stitched to the breast pocket, though Tang Ze couldn't really see what it was. He was also carrying a rucksack on his back, and was panting heavily as he walked. Wherever he was going, he was in quite a hurry. He looked to be about Tang Ze's age or only slightly older, and sweat coated his brow. He had clearly been running for quite a distance, and his face was flushed from exertion.

Still, at the very least, he didn't appear to be hostile in any way, so Tang Ze figured it couldn't hurt to ask him for directions.

"Hello stranger, I was wondering if you could help me out-"

"Sorry, I'm in a rush!" the man yelled out between breaths. He didn't even send a second glance towards Tang Ze's way as he rushed on past. "I can't stop, I have somewhere to be!"

Tang Ze considered what was going on for a moment- and as to why this man might be in such a rush.

Either he was delivering that bag on his back somewhere, or…

"...are you perhaps chasing after those men on horseback, who were carrying a woman with them?" Tang Ze asked.

The man clearly wanted to stop, but had put in so much momentum that as he tried to do so, he tripped and fell to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Tang Ze asked. It didn't look like much of a fall, but then again, he was carrying something rather heavy on his back.

The man didn't answer, instead grabbing onto Tang Ze, who had offered his hand to help him up, and said, "Where? Did you see them? Where are they going?"

"Hey, easy there," Tang Ze said. "They went in that direction," he said, pointing this person in the direction he had seen the horsemen leave.

The man didn't let me say anything further as he got up and began running in that direction.

It was clear that the kidnapped woman was either his lover- a wife or girlfriend; or a family member like a sister or cousin.

"But wait! No matter how fast you run you won't be able to catch up with them on foot!" Tang Ze yelled out after him. "And even if you do get to them, are you going to fight off seven people on your own?"

Even if the people of this world had magical powers or could cultivate, if his running speed was any indicator of his strength, he was not that much stronger than a normal person.

"I know!" he yelled back, not even turning around. "But I can't give up - I have to go after them."

"At least get rid of what you're carrying," Tang Ze said, pursuing him, now somewhat invested in this man's story. "How are you going to run lugging all that weight behind you?"

"I can't- I have to keep this stuff safe!" he said, though from how red his face was getting, Tang Ze could tell that this man would not be able to keep up this pace for much longer.

An idea began to form in Tang Ze's mind - he didn't know if it would work, but what did he have to lose by trying? "Wait- I think there might be a way that I can help you!"

The man slowed down ever so slightly, giving Tang Ze a suspicious look. "Help me? How? And why?"

"First things first," Tang Ze said, the gears in his head turning. "Do you happen to have a spare uniform? Or just a bit of red cloth?"

The man gave Tang Ze a confused look. "What good will that do?"

"Look, I know you want to save that girl, but you're not going to be able to get anywhere like this," I said. "You're just going to end up running yourself into the dirt, and accomplish nothing."

The words tasted bitter in Tang Ze's mouth - he was all for acts of heroism and did not want to demoralize this person, but even he had to note when things were impossible. Unless this man had a secret technique he was keeping hidden for whatever reason, he didn't have the slimmest chance of rescuing that woman.

And if he had something powerful like that he probably wouldn't have been in this predicament in the first place.

"I know that!" the man said angrily. "I know that! But I can't give up!"

"I'm not asking you to, I'm saying there's a way I might be able to help you," Tang Ze said.

The man slowed down and once again, looked at Tang Ze with suspicion. Tang Ze could understand that - it was odd for a random stranger to be offering a lending hand to someone else, but, from Tang Ze's perspective, this was an easy enough way to endear himself to someone in this new world he'd found himself in.

At least, it should be easy - if his idea worked that is.

"Yeah, I do have a spare uniform," the man said. "Again, why do you need it?"

"If you hand it to me, I might be able to do something with it," Tang Ze said. The man didn't fully seem to trust Tang Ze as of yet, but seemed to be willing to play along, if for no other reason than he had no other choice in the matter if he wanted to save that woman.

Tang Ze watched as the man opened up his rucksack, in which there were several packets wrapped up with the emblem of a phoenix on them, but also a spare set of robes.

"Thanks," Tang Ze said as he took the set of robes, and then tied the sleeves around his neck.

It was a pathetic attempt at a costume, but then again, he hoped it was somewhat close enough that it would get him something.

Chapter 2 Greetings, Zhang Long!

After all, even if his costume was only 0.5% of what constituted a proper costume, 0.5% of the character's power he was trying to emulate was nothing to sneeze at.

"What are you doing?" the man asked.

That confirmed it for Tang Ze that he really was in some sort of parallel world, because anyone from back on Earth would've almost instantly recognized who he was trying to dress up as.

If there ever was a child who wrapped a red towel behind them like a cape and started running around like they were trying to fly, it was easy enough to tell who that child was emulating. That was just how famous that character was.

A character from Western comics who was said to be stronger than a planet! An image that was famous the world over back on Earth.

Costume is 0.7% accurate to character.

Tang Ze knew this instinctively, much like he had with how his talent worked, and he smiled. That was to be expected, all he had was a red cloth which he was wearing like a cape, but even that was enough to get a fraction of a fraction of the character's power.

And a fraction of a fraction of that power is still immense! Just like how even one percent of a top CEO's compensation back on Earth was more than many of their employee's salaries, if you had even around 0.5% of a character that was planetary level, that was still amazing power for a normal person!

Tang Ze bent his knees, and then launched himself into the air, easily climbing for six hundred feet before he slowly began to descend. While doing so, he made sure to clasp onto his 'cape' tightly - not wanting it to come loose while he was moving, else he might end up going back to normal as he would no longer be wearing a 'costume' - and a fall from that height would certainly kill him then.

He felt strong enough to lift up a mountain - no, a mountain was probably too much, but he was probably strong enough to lift up a building on his own.

The man watched with a shocked expression as Tang Ze touched the ground.

"That reminds me," Tang Ze said. "I never caught your name."

"Z-Zhang Long," the man said.

"So then, shall we go try to rescue her? Who was she anyway? Your bride-to-be? Or sister?" Tang Ze asked.

He still wasn't sure who the 'good guys' were here. He had thought it better to choose a side so that he would at least endear himself to someone. In such a situation, it was better to align oneself, from a mere pragmatic perspective, with the weaker side. After all, if Tang Ze helped Zhang Long, he would be greatly indebted to him as the others already looked like they had accomplished what they wanted to do. If he sided with the people who had taken the woman away, what did they really have to gain via his help?

However, that was just from a practical point of view - Tang Ze wasn't going to help someone in the wrong regardless. He wanted to get the full story from Zhang Long before getting into a fight - and whether or not he would believe Zhang Long depended on how much his story made sense.

Zhang Long, however, still couldn't come to terms with what he had just seen.

This man could fly - and that was a technique that would place him in the Nascent Soul realm at the very least! Zhang Long could not feel an ounce of Qi from this stranger, which meant that he either could not cultivate at all, or was more than one major realm above him. It looked like the latter was true.

This branch of the Rising Phoenix sect did not have any Nascent Soul cultivators to its name - only two Golden Core ones (the branch head and the sect janitor). Some of the higher-ups in the sect were at the Nascent Soul stage, but none of them were near a backwater like this, they were either in seclusion, on missions, or in the main headquarters of the sect.

Zhang Long himself was at the fifth minor realm of Qi Condensation, which meant that this man was leagues above him.

And that was why he couldn't believe that such a man had bothered to stop and help him out.

Would a man be bothered by two ants fighting each other?

No, he would not even think twice about such a thing, which is why it was incomprehensible to Zhang Long that this man was offering him his help especially given the fact that they had no ties together. If it were someone from his sect, Zhang Long could maybe entertain the fact that there was a reason for someone to intervene, but as far as Zhang Long knew he had no connections to this stranger.

And even if he was helping him out of boredom - Zhang Long was not naïve enough to think that such help would come without strings attached.

What would he ask of him in return?

Even as he pondered this though, Zhang Long came upon an epiphany: if he wanted to save Jin Zhen, there was no other choice in front of him.

This man could literally ask for Zhang Long's soul, and Zhang Long would find it hard to say 'no.'

There was also the factor that if he was indeed so strong, Zhang Long needed to be more careful about how he spoke to the man.

He had heard stories of high-end cultivators crippling others for so much as sending a glancing at them in a manner which they did not like, and he did not want to find himself at the receiving end of such a blow.

Tang Ze on the other hand, could not understand why Zhang Long's demeanor had suddenly changed in the span of a few seconds as Zhang Long answered.

"Lord," Zhang Long said, bowing deeply. "This one would be eternally grateful for your assistance! However, this one does not have an appropriate treasure or the means to repay the generosity of one such as yourself!"

"I…. don't remember asking for anything," Tang Ze said, rather confused.

Now that made Zhang Long even more wary. It would be one thing if this man had asked for his eternal servitude, or a massive amount of cultivation resources, or for Zhang Long to offer up any of his future daughters to be his concubines- but to ask for nothing?

If anything, the unknown was far more frightening than what was known. Because not asking for anything upfront meant that Zhang Long would be in constant fear of what he might eventually ask for.

Tang Ze on the other hand, seemed to realize what it was that was bothering Zhang Long. "Look, Zhang Long, do you know about… or rather, do you believe in reincarnation?"

"Yes, this one does know about it," Zhang Long said.

Tang Ze looked out into the distant forest, unsure of how to phrase his intentions. "Most people, when they reincarnate, they don't remember what happened in their past lives, do they? Well, something like this has happened to me. You might be wondering why it is that I want to help you - and the answer is, that I want to live this life, my second life, at the very least, without any regrets. There was a time when something happened in my prior life, something that I should've stepped in to prevent, but I didn't. I don't want for that to happen in this life either. I want to… be better than I was in my prior lifetime. Someone who I can actually be proud of." He gave Zhang Long a smile. "You are trying to rescue her, aren't you? So long as your cause is just, I wish to support it."

Zhang Long was somewhat even more troubled now. For one to remember one's memories from a past life - he had heard of some Nascent Soul cultivators who were able to do so, and it was even said that some cultivators of the Eternal Soul realm could influence their future reincarnations and also reincarnate with their memories intact.

That meant that although this man looked to only be in his twenties, he could actually be a five thousand year old monster in terms of experience! Zhang Long had somewhat misinterpreted what Tang Ze was saying - because Tang Ze did not want to frame himself as coming from a separate world, and instead just described it as his 'previous life.'

After some internal deliberation, Zhang Long realized that he had very little choice, and that if this man did not wish to state his desire upfront, he could not very well force him to.

"Yes, that girl is my childhood friend, Jin Zhen," Zhang Long said.

"Right, so how strong are those seven people? Who are they, anyway? And why'd they kidnap her - you know what, the longer we stand here the further away they'll go, hop on, and tell me the story on the way," Tang Ze said, offering his arms.

"What?"

"I'll carry you over there - how else can we outrun them? Well, not outrun per se - but you get what I'm saying, right?" Tang Ze said.

Zhang Long did not want to be carried around like an overgrown child, but at the same time, he truly had no alternative.

"Just make sure that my cape is on tightly," Tang Ze warned as he flew off.

Zhang Long filled him in little by little as they soared. As it was, Tang Ze's top speed was not that much faster than that of a horse's, but that was with him carrying Zhang Long, and they could travel in a true straight line without having to stop for obstacles, meaning they'd catch up to those men soon.

Tang Ze told Zhang Long that he came from a distant land and was unfamiliar with the local geography, and so Tang Ze began to fill him in on things, as well as what had happened to put him in this situation in the first place.

The country they were in was called the Raswatian Empire, which, as per Zhang Long, had stood for a little over one hundred thousand years. Most of its land was managed directly by the emperor, though there were portions of land which were managed by sects instead.

Tang Ze belonged to one such sect - the Rising Phoenix sect, which explained the emblem embroidered into his robes that Tang Ze could now see; a phoenix.

There were seven other major sects - the Jasmine Dragon sect, Emerald Floral sect, Golden Sun sect, Diamond Dust sect, Astral Winds sect, Swift Sword sect, and the Silver Moon sect.

The people who had taken Jin Zhen away were rival members of the Diamond Dust sect.

Zhang Long's village was near this place. This region was very close to the border between the territories controlled by the Diamond Dust Sect and the Rising Phoenix Sect, though the sprawling forest divided the two of them.

"So why did these people decide to mess with you?" Tang Ze asked.

"It's a game for them!" Zhang Long said. "Some of their disciples come into our territory, burn our crops, steal things, and harass our women!"

Tang Ze frowned. "And your sect elders don't do anything about it?"

"Ah, no," Zhang Long said. "Not unless things are really serious - they usually respond with things such as 'we don't want to be bothered with such trivial matters' or the like. If they did something like burn down the whole village, then there would be retaliation, but no one is going to rally to my aide for something like this."

"That sounds messed up," Tang Ze said. "You're one of their members - shouldn't they be helping you? I mean, even if not out of benevolence, but to keep face?"

Zhang Long's face fell. "I am only an Initiate, and we are expected to contribute to the sect, not take from it. My other villager friends aren't strong enough, and to make matters worse, they did this in the middle of one of my sect missions! I was supposed to be gathering herbs to take back, but then right when I was about to be done, they swooped in the moment they saw that I was alone! Mainly because they don't have the courage to fight fair!"

"Is that what you're carrying in your bag? The herbs, I mean," Tang Ze said. Was that why he refused to toss it away even as it was slowing him down?

"Yes," Zhang Long said. He then paused as he saw a cloud of dust in the distance. "Is that them? Are we finally there?"

"Yes, but hold on," Tang Ze said. "You've told me all of this, but I need to know how strong these people are before I challenge them. They're riding on what look like normal horses so I'm guessing they are not too strong but it would be helpful to be sure before I engage them."

"I think two of them are at the Qi Refining realm," Zhang Long said. "And the rest are at Qi Condensation."

"….you do realize that means nothing to me, right?" Tang Ze asked.

It was here that there was yet another misunderstanding between the two of them.

Tang Ze was asking Zhang Long for clarification, however, Zhang Long interpreted his words as saying 'Qi Refining realm cultivators are nothing to me in terms of power,' which, given he thought that Tang Ze was at Nascent Soul at the very least, he understood.

As such, Zhang Long did not answer Tang Ze's question, which annoyed him.

Chapter 3 The Diamond Dust Sect

"Hey, I asked a question," Tang Ze said.

"Hmm?"

"I said that I don't really know how strong they are," Tang Ze said. "So how much stronger are they than a normal person?" From what Tang Ze could tell, Zhang Long might've been in a much better physical shape than he was - but that was also likely because Tang Ze hadn't been quite athletic in his previous life.

As it was, it did not seem like Tang Ze had superhuman strength or anything along those lines.

"Ah… about five times as strong as a normal person," Zhang Long said. Shouldn't a Nascent Soul cultivator know this? Or maybe it had been so long since this man had ascended to a higher realm that he had forgotten what it was like to be at the lower realms? That was a possibility. "And around three times as strong as I am."

Tang Ze nodded. That should've been easily manageable - so long as they didn't have any strange glowing rocks with them. It also explained why they were still using horses, they clearly weren't strong enough to the point where they could get around solely on foot yet. Either that, or they wanted to conserve their stamina.

"Right, so how should we do this?" Tang Ze asked Zhang Long.

"Land in front of them and demand that they hand Jin Zhen back - else we'll cripple their arms and legs!" Zhang Long said.

Tang Ze sighed. "No matter how strong we are, the fact remains that they have a hostage with them, don't they? So what will we do if they threaten to chop off your little friend's head before we can do anything?"

"...ah…"

"So this is the game plan," Tang Ze said. "I'll land a bit behind them, and I'll grab Jin Zhen and take her to safety. Then, we teach them a lesson." He then paused. "Wait - do you think they'll have any special techniques that they can use?" Zhang Long had said that they were only about five times as strong as a normal person, but if they had something say, a skill that could attack one's soul directly or some other kind of ability that bypassed Tang Ze's physical strength and capabilities, he might find himself in a pickle.

Come to think of it, if they knew how to transform living objects, then, he might actually find himself turned into a literal pickle. After all, the character he was emulating did not have any resistance to magic or similarly-based attacks.

"They might know some techniques," Zhang Long said. "But at Qi Refinement, the amount of what they can do is limited to temporarily granting themselves some boosts, or healing, and what little attacks they can do are nowhere spectacular. I'm sure you'll have no problem with them."

Tang Ze was somewhat relieved by this, but was also aware that for whatever reason, it sounded like Zhang Long thought he was a lot stronger than he actually was. The kowtowing near the beginning when he had flown was an example - maybe that was it? Maybe flying was something that was rather difficult in this world?

So, while he was relatively certain of his victory, he would still need to be careful in case one of them looked like they were going to use a special technique against him.

The actual best thing to do would be to wait, and see how his powers worked first. But Tang Ze could not do that - he had been thrust into this situation basically the very moment he had walked into this new world, and if he left, it would leave Zhang Long without any method to save his friend.

And while Tang Ze was not the type to throw away his life when there was some other recourse, he was not overly-cautious to the point where he would not engage an enemy like this.

There were some times when, even if you knew the odds were stacked against you, or that defeat was inevitable, you had to fight regardless!

It wasn't as if Tang Ze was not afraid.

He was running into an unknown situation - and did not know for sure if he could win or not.

His heart was thumping loudly in his chest, and yet, he could not turn around.

He felt afraid, yes, but at the same time, he knew that he couldn't back down.

Why was that?

It was not because of any special attachment to Zhang Long - it was because Tang Ze no longer wanted to be that person he was before.

The coward he had been in his last life.

If only he had had the courage to step up like this back then…

...to step up when it had mattered.

But that was all in the past now!

One could not choose the circumstances of one's birth - though to a small extent, one could choose the circumstances of one's death.

And if Tang Ze had one wish, it was that in his life, that he could go down fighting for what he believed in.

Maybe then, he could make up for his failures.

And so, with a deep breath, Tang Ze landed, depositing Zhang Long a few feet back.

Tang Ze hadn't been noticed yet, and it was at this crucial moment that his actual skills would be put to the test.

He had only recently gotten such strength and speed - he had had no time to practice.

But like an animal who taught its children how to swim by tossing them into the water, he too, would have to learn by doing. And so, Tang Ze launched himself into the air.

The leader of the horsemen who were part of the Diamond Dust sect, was named Li Wei.

He was at the third minor realm of Qi Refining, and had been leading this group for a singular purpose.

And that was to rile up the Rising Phoenix sect!

Such border conflicts, in which low-ranking members of a sect would sneak into the borders of the other sect and then either steal or harass the other members, was long since considered 'fair play' between the sects of the Raswatian Empire.

Not only was this allowed, but it was also somewhat encouraged as a way for the sects to fight amongst each other in a covert way, and to give the newbies some combat experience as well.

It also fostered a sense of camaraderie between those engaging in such behavior together, as well as a sense of rivalry between factions.

Granted, there were still tacit rules to such activities. For one, killing or maiming was greatly frowned upon - while it could be said that the journey of a cultivator was all about strength, and as such, even if someone died in the fighting it wouldn't be 'too much of a deal', Li Wei was not in good graces with his sect, and would like to avoid further censure.

Golden Core and higher ranked cultivators were not sent on such journeys given how much stronger they were, which would no doubt invite strong retaliation from the invaded sect - as it was such cultivators were rare enough that they were busy with other aspects of sect business rather than doing things like this.

As another general rule, mortals were left alone.

Why did they seize this woman then?

When Li Wei had been given a few horses and told to 'sow chaos' in the Rising Phoenix sect's territory, he had happened upon a nearly perfect scene.

He saw an Initiate of the rival sect, along with what looked like his jade beauty! Such an opportunity was perfect for them to have some fun - and to grab her.

The Initiate had been a pitiful Qi Condensation rank cultivator, so there was no real glory in ganging up to beat him to a pulp. Instead, they took her before his eyes and then taunted him before running off.

No doubt that Initiate would run back to his sect, and then they would send some others after them. But that would give Li Wei and his gang a chance to fortify their location and ambush the Rising Phoenix sect's forces!

In so doing, they would emerge victorious over either an equal number of fighters, or maybe even a numerically superior force if Li Wei played his cards right.

Now that - there would be great glory in that as he returned back to his sect!

The Diamond Dust sect would finally be able to recover a bit of its face after recent events at the Advanced Tournament a few months ago. Li Wei also knew that for such a small issue, the Rising Phoenix sect would not send anyone of Golden Core rank or higher to deal with them - meaning that it was would most likely be either evenly matched, or heavily skewed in their favor.

Despite all that they had traveled for, the horses had not tired one bit.

That was because these were special horses - raised by sects and essentially the animal equivalent of a Qi Refining cultivator. They were not that much faster than normal horses, but could maintain their top speed even while carrying weights like Li Wei without stopping for several hours, a feat that no ordinary horse could do.

Naturally, they were almost five times as expensive as normal horses.

It would've been even better for their mobility if they could have something like pegasi or griffins - but there was no way the sect would give such things to Qi Refining realm members like themselves.

Before he could think any further, a flash passed before his eyes.

With his heightened senses, he could somewhat make out the blur pass behind him, in front of him, and could just barely trace it with his eyes as it went out of sight.

What had happened was Tang Ze had flown in, grabbed Jin Zhen after tearing through her restraints, turned around, and then flown back to Zhang Long.

It was actually good that he could only bring out a fraction of the character's power, else he might've done something like snap Jin Zhen's body in two by accident.

Nothing of the sort happened though, and she was quickly reunited with Zhang Long without any issues.

Tang Ze was quite glad that no harm had befallen her - he was still suppressing quite a bit of his power, and it was good to know that she hadn't been hurt when he had snatched her away.

Zhang Long began untying her as Tang Ze turned around to face the perpetrators.

"Whoa there!" Li Wei yelled out as he urged the horse to turn around. It was still an animal and its intelligence was nowhere near the level of a proper magical beast, but it was able to respond to such commands quickly.

Tang Ze knew that he had to act before they figured out what was going on, and made to strike at the nearest horseman.

The thing was that there were two targets here - the horse, and its rider. And though he wasn't one for pointlessly hurting animals, this was a fight, and the horse was the larger target. Not to mention he figured that if he threw the horse off-balance, the rider would also be thrown off and would be out for the count.

Though, in this case, he did end up underestimating how strong he was.

The punch he threw was not practiced or elegant, but carried such brute force that it snapped the animal's spine in half as it was tossed twenty feet back, the point where his fist made impact leaving a huge dent in the animal's body. Without a doubt, it was dead.

All through this, Tang Ze had felt nothing. It was like punching a pillow - but that was where the problem lay. He had not actually meant to do that to the horse, as such the result stunned him slightly.

What if he couldn't control his power?

Chapter 4 [Monkey Stealing Peaches]

This is why Tang Ze would've loved to have some time to train and figure out what he could do, but no dice.

Not only was he faster and stronger, but the world also slowed proportionately to accommodate him. It was as if it took an entire ten seconds for a nearby person to draw their sword, by the time that man was done Tang Ze had already knocked them over and moved on to their neighbor.

These people were only lightly armed with swords and spears, though if they were somehow magical or enchanted, they might end up hurting him.

So it was best to break their arms, so that they couldn't draw their weapons, and also one of their legs, so they couldn't stumble away.

One didn't need to go that far though honestly, merely breaking their wrists and their feet was good enough - though it wasn't until he was at his third victim that this occurred to Tang Ze.

Zhang Long was not sitting idle while this happened - he did not have any weapons on him, but was able to grab a staff which its unfortunate owner had fortunately dropped for him.

Li Wei was the only one who was able to reach for his weapon in time.

What in heaven's name was going on?

It was like a bolt of lightning had struck from a clear blue sky, upending their plans completely.

What made the least sense was the person who was attacking them - a man wearing very strange clothes and with the scarlet robe of the Rising Phoenix Sect wrapped around behind him like a cloak.

Li Wei couldn't sense a drop of Qi from this person - which meant that he either had not started cultivation whatsoever, or that he was more than one major realm above him. Meaning that he was not simply a Golden Core cultivator, but a Nascent Soul cultivator!

The problem was that he couldn't square either of those scenarios as even being remotely possible.

If this man had no cultivation, he couldn't have had the courage to stand before them like this - and his works of strength clearly showed that he was no mortal.

On the other hand, it was basically impossible for him to be a Nascent Soul cultivator. What would someone of that kind of rank be doing out here - in the boonies? He knew for a fact that the Rising Phoenix sect's local influence did not extend to beyond the Golden Core realm - for that matter, not even his own Diamond Fortune sect branch had more than one Golden Core member with them.

And a Golden Core cultivator would've definitely thought of this as far below their pay grade, let alone a Nascent Soul cultivator.

So what gives? The more he thought about the situation, the less it made sense to him.

Could this man simply have some sort of technique which stopped others from sensing his Qi? Li Wei had not heard of such a technique, but perhaps there was a hidden secret or a treasure that could do so.

How would such a technique work? Qi was the lifeblood of cultivators, to hide it was like trying to hide your own heartbeat.

Still, there were ways to slow down one's heartbeat, were there not?

Even Li Wei could to some extent suppress his Qi if he so desired - it was not completely far-fetched to believe that one could take this a step further and block other's from sensing one's Qi, even if one was just at the Qi Refinement stage.

Or maybe there was another explanation.

Li Wei glanced towards the Initiate who he had targeted, and then back towards Tang Ze.

The two of them looked to be of the same age - though the issue with cultivators was that looks could be quite deceiving. The one he was fighting could be that Initiate's great-great-great-grandfather for all he knew.

Following that line of thought, could it be that this Initiate was the descendant of some powerful lineage? And that was why a Nascent Soul cultivator, one of his ancestors, had come to his aide?

No, Li Wei thought, there was no way this Initiate was some kind of young master. He hadn't even said 'Junior, you dare!' or 'Courting death!' even once, let alone threatened them with his parental heritage.

So, Li Wei came to the conclusion that his first idea was most likely the correct one.

This man likely had some kind of technique that suppressed his Qi.

Building on from that thought though, and considering things rationally - he couldn't keep doing that, now then could he?

Even if one learned to slow one's heart rate during meditation, as some monks were able to do, when they went to exercise, surely it would increase again?

By that same logic, even if this man could suppress his Qi in a resting state, while fighting, he most certainly would have to loosen some of his control over the same.

And so, Li Wei pointed his weapon at his target - there was only one sure way to find out!

He charged - though before he could take even three steps forward, he found that the man was no longer standing in front of him, and that a blur had swept out his feet from under him.

The world did a somersault before Li Wei as he suddenly found his face firmly planted on the ground.

Roaring, he made to get up, before he heard something that chilled him to the bone.

"If you don't give up - I'll have to resort to my ultimate technique," Tang Ze said. "[Monkey Stealing Peaches!]"

With that, anyone who was in Li Wei's group who was still somewhat conscious instinctively crossed their legs.

"No - NO!" Li Wei said, all fire in his heart gone. He had heard of that demonic technique, and did not want to be on the receiving end of it.

More importantly, he had been keeping a close eye on his enemy when they had charged at each other, and he still hadn't felt a drop of Qi from his enemy, something he would've expected if Li Wei's earlier theory about him suppressing his Qi was true.

Either he had achieved such mastery over his Qi that he could keep it suppressed even while fighting - or that Li Wei had not even been enough of a challenge for him to lose control of his Qi.

Both of these possibilities was equally terrifying.

Meaning that the odds that this really was a Nascent Soul cultivator suddenly shot up!

Of course, Tang Ze did not know such a technique. He didn't know a single technique actually - but in the many web novels he had read back on Earth, these words would have struck fear into many of the characters.

After all, even if his bluff did not work out- what did Tang Ze have to lose? He was clearly at an overwhelming advantage already, he just wanted to do something to end this fight quickly.

Tang Ze feared that the longer that they fought, the higher the chance was that they might notice some weakness of his that they would exploit. Without having a deeper understanding of how this world's cultivation system worked and what kind of techniques he might end up running into, he would always have to err on the side of caution that his enemies might have some way to one-up him.

"Ah, please forgive me," Li Wei said. While he had his pride, it was not worth risking his jewels. He then tried to give the Initiate a weak smile. "Such small things are just a way of rival sects to build friendship in a way, aren't they, fellow taoist? My friends and I didn't mean anything serious with this…"

Li Wei was cursing his fate internally however even as he smiled outwardly. This was supposed to be a simple task - why was there someone so strong here?

"You honestly cannot be trying to pull the 'it was just a prank bro' excuse here," Tang Ze said. While Li Wei didn't fully understand the context of what Tang Ze was saying, he did understand that what he was saying was not doing a good job at convincing these two.

"Do you really think we're going to let you be after what you did to Jin Zhen?" Zhang Long asked, cracking his knuckles and giving him a death glare.

Tang Ze put two and two together to figure out what he was talking about. "N-No! Ah, we would never think of so much as touching a hair on her head!" There was a good reason for that - all sects had a good proportion of their members as women, and that proportion was slightly higher in the Diamond Dust sect compared to the others.

And so if it got out to the others that Li Wei had a habit of forcing himself onto vulnerable women, it was highly likely that a group of his senior sisters would find him one night and then decide to have their way with him - and not in the way that he would've liked (though maybe some of his junior brothers might've enjoyed even such treatment)!

That said, if maybe that girl had been a little more attractive he might've copped a feel - but that was the main disappointment he had encountered when taking her away!

The girl was homely to the extreme!

Was this supposed to be this man's jade beauty? Didn't the word 'jade beauty' imply that that woman was actually beautiful?

The woman they had kidnapped was extremely below-average in looks!

Li Wei had actually assumed that to be so riled up, she must've been this man's sister instead rather than his lover (though he had heard that in some areas, the two were not necessarily mutually exclusive terms), but it looked like he had been wrong.

"Calm your heart," Jin Zhen said, putting a comforting hand on Zhang Long's shoulder. "They tied me up yes… but nothing like that happened…"

"That's right!" Li Wei said. "I would never! Neither would any of my men! She looks way too much like a pig for us to even think about it, it would be like jumping into gutter because one couldn't find a swimming pool-"

He did not get any further as Jin Zhen had grabbed a sword and nearly cut his head off with it.

"Ah, calm down just a moment!" Zhang Long said, the roles now reversed - with him trying to calm Jin Zhen down.

In his eagerness to prove that they had not done anything to the girl, Li Wei might've ended up saying a bit too much.

"Who do you think you're calling 'pig' you swine! I will fill your sinuses with cow urine!" Jin Zhen screamed at him.

Li Wei hurriedly backed off.

However, now Tang Ze was faced with another problem that he felt was out of his depth to solve, simply because of a lack of experience on how this world worked.

What should they do with these people now that he had defeated them?

The character that Tang Ze was dressed as would've just told all of them to scram or handed them over to the authorities - after all, he was a paragon of justice. But just because Tang Ze was dressed as him- did that mean that he had to act like him too?

His innate sense for his talent hadn't made some things clear, but did part of making an 'accurate' cosplay also include acting like the character? Would it make Tang Ze more powerful?

Well, he had gone to rescue this girl, and that didn't seem to grant him any extra powers, but maybe his acting just needed to be better?

He would need to experiment on that little bit later.