Chapter 102 - 77 : Am Now The Villian? (1)

Chapter 102: Chapter 77 : Am Now The Villian? (1)

Ethan finished drawing out the useful blood and sealed the storage pouch. What remained in the bodies was little more than what he couldn’t reasonably recover. He glanced at the four corpses before looking toward the road.

Leaving them here wasn’t an option. Even without witnesses, four bodies this close to the road would eventually attract attention. Worse, anyone who found them might take the sight of their drained corpses as proof of the rumors already spreading about him.

Blood demon.

Blood cultivator.

Whatever name people chose to give him, Ethan had no reason to make their stories easier to believe.

He dragged the bodies deeper into the hollow, toward the lowest part of the dry streambed where the ground dipped behind the surrounding earth. One by one, he dropped them into the depression before gathering loose soil and sand over them. A small amount of Qi helped move the earth faster, pushing dirt into the hollow until the bodies slowly disappeared beneath it.

When he finished, Ethan stepped back and looked over the disturbed ground. The wind would eventually scatter the loose soil, but from the road, nothing immediately stood out.

No bodies.

No blood.

No obvious sign that four cultivators had died there.

Ethan glanced down at his robe. A few dark stains from the fight still marked the fabric. He circulated a strand of Qi through the robe, expecting the Dust-Cleansing Formation to remove them along with the dirt. To his slight surprise, the dried blood loosened almost immediately, lifting from the fabric before disappearing completely. Ethan looked down at the clean robe for a moment.

That was more useful than he had expected. He thought as he He adjusted the hood of his robe.

The sun had already climbed higher than he expected. He had spent more time here than planned, but there was no need to rush. The encounter had still given him something, a little cultivation progress, some blood stored for later use, a few coins and resources, and another clear reminder of what the wanted notice was beginning to attract.

Ethan picked up his short dao and checked the blade. It was clean. His arm had already healed, and the warmth of his Living Blood still moved steadily through his body.

He returned the dao to his storage pouch and stepped back onto the road.

Ethan found himself thinking about the people who might come after them.

The four he had just dealt with were not particularly strong. The next group could be different. Still, if word spread that the cultivator described on the notice was no longer an Early Qi Refining cultivator, perhaps the next people who came looking would think twice before making the same mistake.

Ethan adjusted the strap of his storage pouch and continued east. One encounter would not change his path, and neither would four bodies buried beneath the sand. He still had a long journey ahead of him, and until he could put enough distance between himself and Azure Cloud Sect to break free from this cycle of being pursued and hunted, there would be no real peace to his journey.

Over the following week, it happened more than once.

Each time Ethan thought the road ahead had finally gone quiet, another group appeared, drawn by the same notice and the reward attached to it. The first group had not been the last to come looking.

A few days later, another group came from the west. This time, two Early Qi Refining cultivators led five Body Tempering cultivators toward Ethan, their confidence clear in the way they approached him. Seven against one was enough to make them believe they had prepared for anything.

They hadn’t.

The encounter ended before it could become much of a fight. Ethan dealt with them quickly, leaving another group scattered along the road while he remained standing.

Their cultivation resources became his, along with the coins and other useful items they had carried. The blood within their bodies was drawn into his Blood Seed and refined into Living Blood, adding to the reserves already flowing through him. Each encounter left him with a little more, while the notice that had brought them to him continued to draw others from farther along the roads.

After that, the groups became smaller. Some were made up almost entirely of Body Tempering cultivators, while others had a single Early Qi Refining cultivator among them. Their approaches varied. Some followed the tracking talisman openly, while others tried to approach from another direction or waited until Ethan reached a quieter stretch of road before making their move.

None of it changed the outcome. Once they chose to attack, Ethan dealt with them, and when it was over, whatever useful resources they carried became his.

Before long, it was becoming almost routine. They came looking for the reward, and Ethan took their blood. They came hoping to take his life, and instead, their coins and cultivation resources ended up in his hands. In a strange way, the people hunting him were beginning to make his journey easier.

The irony wasn’t lost on Ethan. The world had decided he was some kind of blood demon, yet the more cultivators came after him, the more their own actions seemed determined to make the rumors believable.

Ethan no longer cared much about the name.

If they were willing to risk their lives for the price on his head, he had no reason to refuse what they brought with them.

Still, not every encounter was quite so simple. One particular group forced Ethan to work for the kill.

There were four of them, all Qi Refining cultivators. They moved together with the ease of people who had traveled and fought alongside each other for a long time, each man seemingly aware of where the others were without needing to speak.

One of the cultivators suddenly stopped.

His gaze locked onto Ethan.

For a moment, his expression remained blank, as if his mind had yet to process what his senses were telling him. Then his face changed, the color draining from it as his eyes widened slightly.

"Retreat!"

The other three turned toward him in surprise.

He was already backing away.

"Full retreat!"

"What’s wrong with you?"

The man shook his head, his breathing becoming uneven.

"Don’t ask. Just move."

His companions stared at him, their surprise slowly giving way to concern. They had seen that expression before. His ability to sense danger had saved them more than once, warning them of traps, ambushes, and opponents they had no chance of surviving against. He had never called for a retreat without a reason.

Whatever he was sensing now, it had frightened him badly.

"Trust me," he said, his voice tightening. "We can’t fight him."

Ethan watched them carefully.

Something had changed.

The other three exchanged uneasy glances, their weapons still lowered as they tried to understand what had caused their companion’s sudden reaction. For a brief moment, none of them moved. Then one of them turned toward the man beside him, waiting for an explanation.

"You heard him."

The danger-sensing cultivator turned and ran. The other three stepped forward.

Ethan stared at them for a moment, genuinely caught off guard by what he was seeing. The man was running for his life while the others were stepping forward to face him, as though Ethan were the one they needed to protect their companion from.

A strange feeling passed through him. They were the ones who had come hunting him. They were the ones who had followed the notice, called him a blood demon, and decided his life was worth a hundred and fifty spirit stones. Yet now they were looking at him like he was the villian.

Ethan almost found the situation absurd. Almost. His expression settled as he watched the three men raise their weapons. Whatever their reasons were, he couldn’t let the other man escape.

"Go!" one of them shouted. "We’ll hold him here!"

The fleeing cultivator stopped for half a step and looked back.

"No."

"Go!"

"I am not leaving you."

"Someone has to get out!"

The second man’s voice cracked through the air.

"Go! We’ll catch up with you!"

It was an obvious lie.

They both knew it.

The fleeing cultivator’s face tightened. His eyes moved between his companions and Ethan, his body caught between the instinct to run and the refusal to abandon them.

Then one of the three stepped forward and raised his weapon.

"Brother, go."

The word hung in the air for a moment. The cultivator gritted his teeth, his expression twisting with reluctance, before finally turning and running.

Ethan’s gaze followed him for only an instant before returning to the three men standing in his path. The pieces fell into place.

They were buying time.

Until now, every group that had come after him had fought as though killing him was the only thing that mattered. These three were different. They had deliberately placed themselves between Ethan and the man who had escaped, willing to hold him back so their companion could get away.

Ethan’s expression hardened. He couldn’t let that man escape. If he returned with a clear account of what had happened here, the next groups would come prepared, and the hunt would only become more troublesome.

Ethan moved.

The three cultivators attacked together.