C17 - Brothers

Yin Kai was passing through the woods when he heard the sound of steel clashing. By this time he had replenished his qi, so he rushed in.

It was a full-on brawl. Seven cultivators from the Martial Fist Temple were fighting against thirteen cultivators from the Frozen Sea Palace.

The Martial Fist disciples would have easily been on the losing side if his senior, Pan Go, wasn't with them.

With a mighty yell, Yin Kai joined in. His first target was a female cultivator holding two daggers. He spit his combined toxin in her face. She died immediately.

Picking up her daggers, he began to dismantle the back of their forces. He took out three before they began to take notice.

A man with a thin nose looked down at him cruelly. "You'll pay for that." He grinned as he began to swing his longsword towards Yin Kai's face.

Unamused, Yin Kai blocked him with one of the daggers. Lunging forward, he nipped his neck with the other.

As the man died, Yin Kai quickly threw both of the daggers. They nestled directly in the necks of two of the Frozen Sea Palace disciples.

Picking up the longsword he stepped into an overhead slice as he directly split another down the middle. As the blood rained down, he bellowed, "WHO'S NEXT?!"

The nearest cultivator stumbled backwards as Yin Kai sliced his abdomen. The rest began to turn from their fights with the members of Martial Fist Temple.

"None left alive!" Yin Kai yelled.

"AGREED!" The men of Martial Fist Palace bellowed in unison.

They quickly made short work of the remaining force. The longsword-user was their strongest member. With him and the others out of the picture, the Martial Fist Temple disciples were able to gang up on those that remained.

With the force from the Frozen Sea Palace defeated, they tallied their score.

Several of the Martial Fist Temple disciples were hurt. Luckily, none of their injuries were life-threatening. Due to Yin Kai's timely and threatening appearance, they were able to take advantage of the flow of battle.

After making sure everyone was alright, Yin Kai turned to their leader, his Senior Brother Pan Go.

"What caused this?"

The sect brother looked annoyed. "Brother Yin, we were forced to fight them due to that man there." He pointed to the Frozen Sea Palace who had been carrying the sword.

"That man's name is Du Sho. His brother, Du Shing, is one of the core disciples of Frozen Sea Palace." Pan Go continued.

"He fancied our martial sister here, and tried to take her by force. Accordingly, we disagreed."

Yin Kai responded in an low-kempt, auspicious tone. "This is the way."

"This is the way." They replied. Splitting the spoils, Yin Kai kept the longsword. Since he defeated half of the enemy himself, he merely kept what was on those cultivators and left the rest of the spoils to his fellow sectmates.

They most likely would have died without him, so none of them had a problem with it.

Together, Pan Go and Yin Kai led them together back to the temple. They discussed various martial techniques as the acolytes trailed behind them.

As Pan Go spoke, Yin Kai secretly listened to the disciples' banter behind them.

"I sure hated him before, but I'm sure as hell glad he's on our side now!" One said.

"Either way, he still terrifies me."

"Right. There's no way I'm challenging him, I just hope he never challenges me!!"

Yin Kai made a mental note to treat his brethren properly. Now that he could no longer challenge them, it made sense to bolster them in other ways.

After an hour they finally returned to the sect. Yin Kai checked in with the Elder Hall and resumed his duties. After feeding his chickens, he visited the sect's treasury pavilion.

He traded in the remains of the two monster beasts and his earnings from the fight with the frozen sea palace disciples.

Doing so, he was able to earn 4200 Sect Points.

He decided to sit on them and trade them for something better later.

He resumed his bitter cultivation. Bae Re did his thing, and he did his. Two weeks later, Bae Re finally gave birth two more prodigious sons.

After some thought, he decided to give them to the sect. The sect had six chicken pavilions. Between the two young roosters and Bae Li, the sect could more than triple their Spirit Chicken production.

In return, the Elder Hall rewarded him with 20,000 sect points. After receiving his reward, he resigned from the chicken pavilion. It was too much work for too little pay.

For the time being, he continued his cultivation.