I studied the two cultivators as they headed in my direction. Both rode atop flying swords. Based on their appearances and the clothing they wore, they were disciples from one of the local sects. I didn’t recognize which one, though both wore fire red uniforms with white clouds on the back. One was in early Foundation Establishment while the other was in mid Foundation Establishment.

  If it came down to a fight, I was confident in my ability to deal with either the early Foundation Establishment cultivator or the mid Foundation Establishment if I went all out. However, I didn’t know if I could face both at the same time. Maybe if I used my full strength right at the beginning. I would need to strike hard and fast if I wanted to win.

  To that end, I pulled out the flying sword that Sidra gave me, as well as the bronze buckler that I received while we were in the Sacred Ironwood Province, though I didn’t activate them yet. From what I could tell, neither of the approaching cultivators had noticed my presence yet. My arrays kept me hidden for now. However, that might change if I activated my two magic treasures, depending on how strong their spirit sense was. So I stopped using the Heartflame technique and waited.

  As the two cultivators approached, the martial idiot in me warred with the cautious part of me. I had a much better chance at winning if I ambushed them instead of waiting for them to discover me. However, I refrained. If we fought, I would have to kill them. I wouldn’t be able to hold back, not if I wanted to win. I wasn’t above killing, though I preferred not to if I could avoid it.

  In the end, I chose not to ambush the two cultivators.

  Several moments later, the two of them landed just a few feet away from me. I used this opportunity to take a closer look at them. Both were men with brown skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. The mid Foundation Establishment cultivator looked like he was in his early thirties and sported a trimmed beard. The early Foundation Establishment cultivator looked like he was in his mid twenties and was clean shaven.

  “Are you sure this is the right place, Junior Brother Shifting Cloud?” The mid Foundation Establishment cultivator asked.

  He frowned as he looked around the area. For a moment, it seemed as if he looked right at me, but then his gaze shifted away.

  “Yes, Senior Brother Relentless Flame.” Cultivator Shifting Cloud, the early Foundation Establishment cultivator, said. He wore a nervous expression on his face. “I found this spot last year, when the Violet Desert hidden realm last opened up. It contained an abundance of Violet Sand. So much so that I didn’t have enough time to harvest it all.”

  I blinked in surprise at that. He managed to find his way back here? Impressive. The terrain in the Violet Desert hidden realm all looked the same to my eyes. Though, to be fair, he was a local. It wouldn’t surprise me if the local clans and sects knew their way around this place.

  “And yet I don’t see anything.” Cultivator Relentless Flame said in a dark tone. “So either you’re mistaken about the location, or someone beat us to this place and harvested all the Violet Sand already.” He turned to the early Foundation Establishment cultivator. “Either way, coming here turned out to be a waste of time.”

  Cultivator Relentless Flame slapped Cultivator Shifting Cloud across the face, knocking him to the ground.

  “You useless fool!” Cultivator Relentless Flame said, kicking his companion over and over again. “I gave up several opportunities to harvest Violet Sand in other locations because of what you promised me! Instead, I ended up with nothing! Did you want to make a mockery of me? Was that your goal?”

  Cultivator Shifting Cloud shielded himself as best he could, though he made no attempt to fight back.

  “No, Senior Brother Relentless Flame!” he said. “I wouldn’t dare! I told the truth. There really was a large deposit of Violet Sand here. Please, believe me! Show mercy!”

  Cultivator Relentless Flame didn’t respond and just kept kicking his companion. By the time he finished, Cultivator Shifting Cloud looked like a bloody mess.

  “Tsk.” Cultivator Relentless Flame said. “I should just kill you here and now.”

  I clenched my jaw when I heard that. From his behavior thus far, I already knew that Cultivator Relentless Flame was an ass. However, murdering his fellow disciple went beyond the pale.

  “You wouldn’t dare.” Cultivator Shifting Cloud said, raising his head. One of his eyes was swollen shut, but in the other one I saw a glint of hatred. “You may be the sect leader’s disciple, but even you can’t get away with murder a fellow disciple.”

  Cultivator Relentless Flame barked out a scornful laugh.

  “Look around you, Junior Brother Shifting Cloud,” he said, “There is no one else around except for us.” He crouched down and grabbed Cultivator Shifting Cloud by the jaw. “I could kill you and no one would be any the wiser. Plenty of disciples die in the Violet Desert hidden realm. One more wouldn’t raise any eyebrows.”

  I realized that he was right. As isolated as it was from the outside world, this was the perfect place to get away with murdering someone.

  “I was thinking the same thing.” Cultivator Shifting Cloud said, before spitting out a cloud of green smoke.

  Cultivator Relentless Flame was unable to react in time and the cloud of green smoke hit him in the face. He stumbled back, coughing and clutching his throat.

  “Shifting Cloud, you rat!” He wheezed out. “What did you do?”

  Cultivator Shifting Cloud pushed himself to his feet.

  “Something that I’ve looked forward to for a long time.” He said in a voice full of malicious glee. “You were always so arrogant, strutting around and looking down on everyone else, all because you were the sect leader’s disciple.” He cackled. “Look at you now.”

  Despair filled Cultivator Relentless Flame’s eyes as he realized that he had been tricked.

  “I’ll kill you!” He screamed.

  He tried to rush towards Cultivator Shifting Cloud, but stumbled forward after taking a few steps and fell to his knees. Starting from his face, his veins turned black, giving him a gruesome appearance.

  “Don’t bother.” Cultivator Shifting Cloud said. “That was a poison refined from the venom of an Iron-shelled Scorpion. Your fate was decided the moment you breathed it in.”

  I had heard of those. Iron-shelled Scorpions were Rank Two spirits beasts native to the Howling Desert province. They were famous for their tough bodies and potent venom. It was said that a sting from an Iron-shelled Scorpion could kill even an early Golden Core cultivator.

  “I’ll… kill… you…” Cultivator Relentless Flame said, gasping in between each word.

  Hatred filled his eyes. However, that wasn’t enough to overcome the poison coursing through his body. Within moments, he fell to the ground and never moved again. Cultivator Shifting Cloud watched all this happen with a sadistic smile on his face.

  “Finally, the bastard is dead.” He whispered.

  He started kicking Cultivator Relentless Flame’s corpse. This went on for several minutes. When he finished, he spat on the corpse before pulling a mirror from his storage ring. It was a magic treasure.

  “Where is the deposit of Violet Sand?” Cultivator Shifting Cloud muttered to himself. “According to the Seeking Mirror, it should be around here. Did someone else find it already?”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  By this point, I had heard enough. I activated the flying sword and sent it towards Cultivator Shifting Sand. He reacted to the surprise attack right away, but it was too late. By the time he started to move, the flying sword had already embedded itself in his chest. Cultivator Shifting Cloud looked in my direction with a shocked expression on his face, before he fell to the ground. Blood spread out from his body, seeping into the sand below.

  I emerged from my hiding spot and looked down at the two bodies, my heart heavy. Cultivator Relentless Flame and Cultivator Shifting Cloud were part of the same sect, yet they both plotted and schemed to kill one another. Well, one could argue that Cultivator Shifting Cloud was worse since it was clear that he intended to kill Cultivator Relentless Flame from the very beginning, but still. The sight of their bodies filled me with sorrow.

  How common was it in the world of cultivation where disciples turned against their fellows? Where they stole from one another and killed each other? I always thought that disciples from the same sect were supposed to be family. Wasn’t that why we all referred to each other as brothers and sisters? Yes, there were disagreements, but even so. I would never turn against my family. However, after witnessing the scene from earlier, I couldn’t help but wonder. Would my fellow disciples, would my own family, ever betray me like this?

  It was an ugly and insidious thought, one born from fear. Yet, no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, the seed of doubt had already been planted. I hated it. My family had given me nothing but love and warmth. They deserved better.

  I shook my head to clear my thoughts, before I went about the macabre business of looting the dead. I started with Cultivator Shifting Sand. He didn’t have that much on him. Just a couple hundred spirit stones, two bottles of Foundation Establishment Pills, and two Shield Talismans. He didn’t have any more of that poison he used, so I assumed that he only had one dose of it.

  The real prize was the mirror. He called it a Seeking Mirror. I didn’t know what it did, but the name gave me a few ideas. Regardless, I planned on studying it in detail later on.

  Cultivator Relentless Flame’s storage ring contained far more items. Not only did he have more spirit stones and Foundation Establishment Pills, but he also had five bottles of mid-grade Healing Pills and five bottles of mid-grade Qi Restoration Pills. He didn’t have any Antidote Pills, which was an oversight on his part. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have died to Cultivator Shifting Cloud’s ambush.

  Cultivator Relentless Flame also had several talismans on him. Three were Shield Talismans, one that increased one’s flying speed, and one that depicted the image of an axe. I didn’t know what the last one did, but it felt more powerful than the others. Since talismans were limited use items, I decided to consult someone about it rather than waste it by experimenting.

  To my disappointment, Cultivator Relentless Flame only had two magic treasures on him. One was a mid-grade defensive magic treasure in the form of a necklace, not that it had done him much good. Cultivator Shifting Cloud’s sudden attack had caught him off guard. The other was a stone spear, which was also a mid-grade magic treasure. Both had an affinity for Earth.

  The last item in Cultivator Relentless Flame’s storage ring was a jade slip. When I studied it with my spirit sense, my disappointment transformed into excitement. It contained two mystic arts and one movement technique suitable for Foundation Establishment cultivators. Even better, the mystic arts were both Fire-aligned, which made them perfect for me.

  The first mystic art was called Burning Cloud Breath. As the name implied, one breathed out a cloud of fire that engulfed a large area in front of oneself. It came in two layers. The first layer of Burning Cloud Breath was a simple, but powerful, attack. The second layer, however, allowed one to breathe in air in order to build up Burning Cloud Breath’s destructive power. The more air one breathed in, the more powerful the resulting attack. However, this also increased the time it took to unleash it.

  The second mystic art was called Corrosive Cloud. Like the first mystic art, it was a breath attack, except one breathed out a cloud of smoke instead of fire. It also came in two layers. For the first layer, the smoke just obscured vision and made it difficult to breathe. I could think of a number of uses for this alone, for both offense and defense.

  However, the second layer was even more interesting. At that point, the smoke would corrode any magical defenses it came into contact with. This made it very useful in dealing with shields and barriers created by mystic arts, talismans, and defensive magic treasures.

  Both of these mystic arts were powerful, and I was glad that I managed to get my hands on them. All of the mystic arts that I knew were for the Qi Condensation realm. I didn’t know any for the Foundation Establishment realm, which had been weighing on my mind. Now that was no longer the case.

  The movement technique was less flashy than the two mystic arts, but it still seemed useful. It was called the Cloudy Steps technique. Using this technique allowed one’s movements to be cloud-like. At first glance it merely seemed like an advanced version of the Lighter Than Air technique.

  However, after taking a closer look I realized that this wasn’t the case. The Cloudy Steps technique helped one maintain one’s balance at all times, which was quite useful in battle. It also increased one’s speed as well as one’s agility. The technique came in three layers. Mastering each layer increased the power of the technique.

  After making sure that I looted everything I could from Cultivator Relentless Flame and Cultivator Shifting Cloud, I burned their bodies and erased all traces of them. I then swept the area around me with my spirit sense. I didn’t notice anything, though that didn’t put me at ease. If Cultivator Relentless Flame and Cultivator Shifting Cloud managed to find this place, then there was a chance that others could as well. Rather than take that risk, I decided to move to a different location.

  I went back inside my arrays, put away my treasure refining furnace, and started collecting the dark sand. My plan was to take all of it with me to a new location and harvest the Violet Sand there. Unfortunately, I could only move the dark sand to another location within the Violet Desert Hidden realm. Taking it outside of the hidden realm would make it impossible to harvest Violet Sand from it.

  I stored all of the dark sand in a spare storage bag that I had on hand. Afterwards, I cleaned up this spot until it looked no different from any other part of the desert. I dismantled my arrays, put away my array flags, before pulling out my flying carpet and flying away.

  After flying around for the next few hours, changing directions at random to avoid leaving a clear trail, I landed near a rocky outcropping and used it for shelter. Once again, I set up my defensive arrays. Afterwards, I pulled out my treasure refining furnace and lit it using the Heartflame technique. While I waited for it to heat up, I pulled out the storage bag containing the dark sand.

  Once the treasure refining furnace had reached a sufficient temperature, I poured the dark sand into it in a steady stream. The moment the dark sand entered the treasure refining furnace, it melted into glass before burning away altogether. This happened so fast that a mortal would’ve just seen the dark sand disintegrate. While the dark sand burned, I kept an eye out for Violet Sand.

  Several minutes passed with nothing to show for it. Just when I started to feel dismayed, I noticed a violet speck within the glass. Before it burned away, I pulled it out with my qi. I stopped pouring the dark sand into the treasure refining furnace and studied the violet speck. My eyes lit up when I realized that it was in fact a grain of Violet Sand. I let out a whoop of joy, before storing the grain of Violet Sand away.

  Buoyed by my success, I resumed pouring the dark sand into the treasure refining furnace. Every now and again, grains of Violet Sand appeared and I harvested them before they burned away. While this seemed simple and easy, it was actually quite difficult. I had to keep the treasure refining furnace at an even temperature, pour the dark sand at a steady rate, and harvest the Violet Sand before it burned away.

  Keeping this up took a great deal of concentration and focus, where even the slightest error could result in failure. If I had been less skilled in refining magic treasures, I wouldn’t have been able to do this much.

  Several hours passed like this, and I lost track of time. I took a few breaks in order to eat and drink, but otherwise I devoted all of my energy and attention towards harvesting Violet Sand. By the time I finished, I felt exhausted and mentally drained. Still, it was worth it. I ended up with a bucket’s worth of Violet Sand. A small bucket, yes, but it was enough to forge a decent magic treasure. From what I understood, one needed to harvest Violet Sand from several deposits in order to get this much. I got lucky by finding that large deposit.

  After I finished harvesting the Violet Sand and put everything away, I laid down on the ground and closed my eyes for a bit. While I didn’t need to sleep, I needed to rest. Today had been a rather eventful day for me. Entering the Violet Desert hidden realm, killing Cultivator Shifting Cloud, harvesting the Violet Sand, and so on.

  Thinking about Cultivator Shifting Sand reminded me of how he betrayed his fellow disciple, and my mood soured. The joy I felt from harvesting a good amount of Violet Sand fled. A part of me wondered if it would have been better if I had ambushed and killed both Cultivator Relentless Flame and Cultivator Shifting Sand. That way, I wouldn’t have witnessed the latter’s betrayal of the former.

  Still, it wasn’t as if Cultivator Relentless Flame had been innocent. He displayed despicable behavior, and even threatened to kill Cultivator Shifting Sand. In that case, was it a matter of self-defense? No. Cultivator Shifting Sand planned on murdering Cultivator Relentless Flame from the very beginning.

  I decided to stop thinking about the matter, since obsessing over it would only harm my mental state in the long run. In fact, if I wasn’t careful, it might even form a heart demon within me. The seed of doubt had already been planted, much as I hated to admit it.

  My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed a commotion at the very edge of my spirit sense. I focused on it and saw two groups of cultivators fighting each other. No. There were three groups. However, two of them had teamed up against the third. One side consisted of a group of Thousand Blade Sect disciples and cultivators from a local sect. The other side… I sat up when I realized it was a group of disciples from the Dawn and Dusk Sect.

  I grinned. Good. Maybe a fight would help lift my mood. I hopped onto my flying carpet and flew towards the fray.

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  This chapter was edited by Radriel7