Chapter 113 - 82 : The Cage (2)

Chapter 113: Chapter 82 : The Cage (2)

He slowly circulated his Qi, guiding the spiritual energy through the pathways within his body as the Blood Seed continued its own quiet cycle. The energy did not simply gather inside him as it would for an ordinary cultivator. Each circulation passed through the Blood Seed, where Qi and blood were refined together, feeding the Living Blood and allowing the Blood Seed to grow gradually with every completed cycle. Ethan could feel how much it had changed since he began cultivating this way. The accumulation was there, and the Blood Seed had grown enough to reach the edge of another stage.

He carefully drew more Qi into the cycle and pushed it through the Blood Seed, letting the pressure build within him. The Blood Seed responded, its presence becoming heavier as the refined energy and Living Blood pressed against the limit of what it could currently contain. For a brief moment, Ethan felt that familiar edge again. The Blood Seed seemed to strain against it, as though the next stage was already there, waiting just beyond its current form.

He maintained the circulation and pushed a little harder.

The pressure rose, but the Blood Seed did not change.

Ethan held it steady for several breaths, allowing the cycle to continue before making another attempt. More Qi flowed through the Blood Seed, joining the reserve already accumulated within it, but the result remained the same. There was enough to support the growth once it began, enough to give the Blood Seed something to work with, yet the Blood Seed itself had not reached the point where that growth could happen.

He slowly eased the pressure instead of forcing it further.

The pressure faded naturally as Ethan eased off the circulation. The attempt had not strained his body, and the Living Blood continued its steady flow through him. He could still sense the slight distance between his current state and the next stage, close enough to know that the foundation for it was already there, yet not quite within reach.

He opened his eyes.

"Close."

Ethan let the remaining pressure settle and returned to his ordinary circulation, allowing the Blood Seed to continue its quiet cycle without pushing it toward the next stage.

For a while, there was only the wind moving through the valley.

Then Blood Perception stirred.

Ethan’s eyes opened at once. He remained beneath the overhang, his body still and his breathing quiet as he reached outward with his perception. One presence had entered its range, faint enough that he almost overlooked it. It was far away, somewhere beyond the slopes, and for a few breaths it simply remained there. Ethan didn’t move. He listened to the wind and waited to see what it would do.

The presence stopped.

Nothing followed.

Perhaps it was only a traveler passing through the mountain. Ethan didn’t immediately assume otherwise. He had chosen a secluded place, but secluded did not mean empty, and there was no reason to react to every unfamiliar presence that crossed his senses.

Then another presence appeared.

Ethan’s gaze sharpened.

This one was coming from a different direction.

He slowly rose from where he had been sitting, the quiet movement of his robe barely disturbing the air around him. His attention remained fixed on the faint presences surrounding the valley as another appeared, then another. The calm that had settled over him during cultivation was already beginning to disappear. He stood beneath the overhang and listened, his eyes moving from one dark slope to another.

A sorrowful wailing suddenly drifted through the mountains.

It came on the wind, long and mournful, like the distant cry of a woman grieving somewhere beyond the darkness. The sound rolled between the rocks before fading into the valley, leaving the silence that followed feeling even heavier.

Ethan didn’t look toward it.

His attention was elsewhere.

Four.

Five.

The number continued to grow.

He turned toward the ridge, his eyes narrowing as he stared into the darkness. Nothing moved among the rocks, yet Blood Perception told him someone was there. Then one of the presences shifted, moving across the ridge instead of coming toward him.

Ethan’s expression tightened.

That movement changed something but before he could settle on what it meant, another presence appeared behind him.

He turned sharply.

Another followed.

The uneasiness that had been building inside him hardened into something colder. These people weren’t simply wandering into the mountain one after another. Their positions were spreading around the valley, coming from different directions and gradually occupying the surrounding terrain.

Ethan stepped out from beneath the overhang, his gaze sweeping across the darkness as he tried to piece together what he was sensing. He looked down the narrow path he had used to enter the valley. One presence was there.

Then another appeared farther along it.

He turned toward the opposite side.

Two more.

Still, he saw nothing.

His Blood Perception could sense the living presence of those nearby, but the range had its limits. Beyond that distance, the mountain was simply darkness, rock, and trees. There could be nothing there.

Or there could be many more.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed as he stood beneath the overhang, his gaze moving slowly across the surrounding slopes. The people he could sense were enough to put him on guard, but that was only what Blood Perception could reach. Anything beyond that range remained hidden from him, leaving one question he couldn’t answer.

How many more were out there?

Ethan stood quietly for several breaths, his gaze moving from one dark slope to another as the pieces he had been keeping separate began to fall into place. The warning he had meant to spread, the groups that had stopped rushing at him, the cultivators who had watched from a distance instead of attacking, the questions that had started circulating before anyone made a move—he had taken all of it as a sign that people were becoming more cautious around him. That had been his mistake. He had been looking at each change on its own instead of seeing what they meant together.

A faint movement caught his attention on the distant ridge. A figure stood there for barely a moment, nothing more than a dark silhouette against the mountain, before slipping out of sight. Almost at the same time, another presence shifted behind the rocks to his left. Ethan’s eyes followed the movement, then returned to the ridge. His mind worked through what Blood Perception was giving him, comparing distances and positions rather than trying to guess at what he couldn’t know. The people he could sense weren’t closing in on him. They were appearing around him.

His breath slowed.

They weren’t simply coming to the valley.

They were spreading out.

Ethan’s gaze moved toward the narrow path he had used to enter, then to the opposite slope. A presence waited near one route. Another had settled farther beyond it. Two more occupied the other side. None had made a move toward him, and that was what finally made the pieces fit. They didn’t need to rush him. They only needed to make sure that when he decided to leave, the routes he might choose were already being watched.

His expression changed as the realization settled in.

"They’re surrounding me."

The words left him quietly, almost as if saying them aloud confirmed what his Blood Perception had already been telling him. He looked toward the nearest way out and took several slow steps in that direction. Somewhere ahead, a presence shifted.

Ethan stopped.

He turned toward another route.

Something moved there too.

A cold tension tightened across his body. He had thought the danger would come from people charging straight at him, one group after another. Instead, the people around him seemed to be doing something much simpler. They were waiting and watching, leaving him fewer places to go without ever giving him a clear target to attack.

Ethan looked toward the mountain walls. The valley had not changed, yet it suddenly felt smaller than it had an hour ago.

He could still leave. At least, he believed he could.

But every moment he remained here gave the people outside his perception more time to settle into position. The valley was beginning to feel less like a place he had chosen to rest and more like a cage whose bars were slowly being put into place around him. The mountain walls had always been there, the paths had always been narrow, yet now every route out seemed to have someone waiting somewhere beyond his sight.

Ethan’s eyes hardened.

He wasn’t going to wait until the cage was complete. His weight shifted forward, and in the next instant, he moved.

His body shot forward.

The valley blurred around him as he accelerated toward the weakest concentration of vitality he could sense. He didn’t choose it because he knew it was safe. It was simply the opening that looked least guarded, and waiting any longer would only give the hunters more time to close around him.

The moment he moved, a shout rang out from behind the rocks.

"He’s coming! Get ready!"

There was excitement in the voice, but underneath it was something tighter, an awareness that the speaker might be the first one Ethan reached. They had expected him to try an escape, and now the plan they had prepared for was unfolding. Several figures rushed into view, weapons already in hand.

Ethan’s short dao flashed from its sheath.

The nearest body tempering cultivator lunged at him, blade cutting toward his chest. Ethan shifted just enough for the attack to miss, stepped inside the man’s reach, and drew his dao across his throat. Blood sprayed across the rocks as the cultivator stumbled past him and collapsed.

Ethan was already moving.

A spear thrust toward him from the left. He twisted his body aside, feeling the weapon cut through the space beneath his arm, then turned with the motion and drove his dao back into the spearman. The man’s body jerked before dropping heavily to the ground.

Another cultivator rushed in to replace him.

Ethan met him head-on.

One clean strike.

The man fell.

For a heartbeat, the remaining Body tempering cultivators froze. They had just watched three of their own fall almost instantly, and the hesitation on their faces said more than any shout could. Whatever confidence they had carried into the valley had suddenly been shaken. Standing against Ethan at such close range, they were beginning to understand the difference between the cultivation level written on the bounty and the person actually standing before them.

And yet they had still come.

Perhaps that was simply the way of the world. Birds risked their lives for food, and people risked theirs for bread. Give someone enough reason to believe the reward waiting at the end was worth the danger, and sooner or later, there would always be someone willing to gamble everything for it.

This time, the gamble had gone badly.

Ethan didn’t give them time to recover. He drove straight through their hesitation and broke out of their formation.

For three breaths, the path ahead opened.

Then several figures emerged farther down the valley.

Ethan’s expression went cold.

They had already shifted.

He cut toward another opening, but the hunters moved with him, closing the distance before he could reach it. A blade swept in from the side. Ethan raised his dao and caught it with a sharp clang, the impact running through his arm and forcing him half a step back.

Another cultivator attacked from behind.

Ethan turned with the movement, caught the man’s wrist, and drove his elbow into his chest.

A dull crack sounded.

The cultivator folded around the blow, and Ethan finished him with a short slash before immediately turning back toward the others.

Then Qi tore through the air.

Ethan twisted aside as a sharp gust ripped across his shoulder, cutting through his robe and opening a shallow wound. Blood spilled down his arm.

His gaze snapped toward the source.

Several dozen steps away, an Early Qi Refining cultivator stood with his weapon drawn. He wasn’t rushing forward. He was watching.

Waiting.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed.

The weaker cultivators were keeping him occupied while the stronger ones waited for an opening.

It reminded him of a fire being fed one piece at a time. None of the smaller flames were meant to burn him down on their own. They were there to keep him occupied, force him to move, and wear away his options until something stronger could finish the job.

Another cultivator moved at the edge of his vision, and Ethan’s grip tightened around his dao. He had already understood the purpose of the formation, but now he could feel the real danger of it taking shape around him. The men were not simply trying to stop him, they were slowly forcing him into a fight that would only become harder as more of them closed in. And judging by the movement around the valley, this was only the beginning.