Chapter 172: Strike First and Strike Hard
Kang Lin and her team had barely completed their mission to round up the corpses of the rank seven spirit beasts when she heard two immense lightning strikes in the general direction of the village.
“That’s not good,” she told Hou Yazhu, the Rising Tide Sect guard who had been assigned to her group. “Those strikes were powered with a lot of qi. They didn’t sound like practice to me.”
“Go,” the man said. “I can protect the two juniors in the unlikely event something happens. If there’s trouble in the village, you’ll be needed.”
She briefly thought about arguing. Her job as the highest ranked, after all, was to see to the protection of the team. But the man was right. The sect only had access to three Foundation Establishment cultivators, and she was one of them. It wouldn’t take her long to check what was going on if she ran full out. If it was nothing, she’d come right back. If not… Well, it would be good that she checked.
“Thanks,” she said and took off at a run.
Speed had always been one of her focuses as a cultivator as it resonated with her lightning aspected qi. Though she didn’t actually have a movement technique that utilized the manipulation of external qi, she had long mastered her Lightning Dash in the Qi Gathering realm. At Small Success and to some extent Large Success, the skill had only been useful for short dashes. By Mastery, however, she’d gained enough experience to be able to use it over long distances.
With her advancement to Foundation Establishment and the accompanying increase to all her physical traits, it felt like she was flying over the ground as she sprinted, dodging trees and rocks with ease and never misplacing so much as a single step. A distance that had taken her team more than a day to traverse consumed less than an hour.
She still missed the fights, arriving to find Ye Zan dead and Master having departed. Three presumably Golden Core realm cultivators from the Jade Chameleon sect had attacked, probably in retaliation for the killing of Teng Chun. Which meant that Teng Jian, the boy’s father, was likely one of the assailants.
“It will be fine,” she told Yang Xiu. “This kind of thing happens between sects all the time. They attacked. Master won. The Jade Chameleons will not hold the fight against The Rising Tide Sect, especially since Grandfather warned them against acting.”
The girl glared.
“What?” Kang Lin said.
“You think I’m worried about those scum attacking us again? About our safety?” Yang Xiu said. “I want Master to destroy the sect down to the last member and wipe ever vestige of it ever existing from the face of the planet.”