Chapter 128 - 89 : Looking Back (2)

Chapter 128: Chapter 89 : Looking Back (2)

After killing several cultivators without much trouble, he had started looking at these lower-level cultivators differently. He had been a Mid Qi Refining cultivator then, and perhaps, without realizing it, he had begun to think that was enough to make him someone others should fear.

It was not.

There was another danger he had failed to consider. He had assumed that the cultivators who came after him would remain around his level, or at least not be strong enough to pose a serious threat. But what if the information had reached someone far stronger? A cultivator with a higher realm could have followed the trail left behind by the survivors and found him before he even realized he was being watched. Someone strong enough could have ended everything before Ethan had the chance to understand what was happening.

Fortunately, that had not happened.

The cultivators who eventually came looking for him had still been within a range he could handle. But that had been more luck than judgment. If even a significantly stronger cultivator had followed the same trail, Ethan’s plan could have turned against him completely.

Recent sure have taught him just how wrong his assumptions could be. Because instead of driving the cultivators away, his actions had only made him more tempting a target. It was as if he had tried to frighten away a pack of hungry beasts by killing a few of them, only to leave the rest with the scent of blood and the promise of something worth devouring.

Ethan’s eyes remained fixed on the flames as the realization settled more deeply in his mind.

He had thought he was chasing them away.

In reality, he had only shown them that there was something worth coming back for.

They had become more careful, gathered together, used tracking talismans, and eventually surrounded him. What Ethan had intended as a warning had only turned into a more organized hunt. There was something almost impressive about how quickly they had adapted once they realized what they were dealing with. Even a group of rogue cultivators, with little more than a bounty tying their interests together, could find ways to turn a dangerous situation to their advantage.

Ethan’s eyes remained on the sword in his hand, his thoughts settling on the mistake he had made. He had approached the situation from the wrong angle. He had assumed fear would outweigh greed, when the two could exist side by side. A cultivator could know something was dangerous and still decide that the reward was worth the risk.

He had nearly paid for that mistake with his life.

"Don’t underestimate anyone."

Ethan let the words settle in his mind. It was a simple principle, but one he intended to keep with him. From now on, he would be more careful about judging what another cultivator might be capable of, especially when resources or survival were involved.

He had already seen what could happen when he made the wrong assumption.

That was a lesson worth remembering.

Ethan finished the last piece of meat and let the silence of the clearing settle around him. Then he reached over and extinguished the fire.

The morning had already advanced by the time Ethan finally stopped.

He retrieved his map, spread it across the ground, and studied the surrounding landmarks. One mountain ridge remained between him and the territory controlled by the Lunar Echo Sect. Once he crossed it, he would finally be outside Azure Cloud’s sphere of influence.

Ethan’s eyes remained on the map for a while. That ridge had begun to feel like a boundary between two different lives.

He had spent the past several weeks moving through Azure Cloud territory almost without pause. What had started as a simple need to escape the sect had gradually become something far more serious. The bounty on his head had grown, more cultivators had begun looking for him, and the longer he remained within Azure Cloud territory, the greater the chance that someone strong enough to deal with him would eventually find him.

And what he had done at Wailing Mountain had only made matters worse.

He had not merely killed a few cultivators who came after him. He had slaughtered people pursuing a bounty that had been issued by one of the strongest sects in the region. From Azure Cloud’s perspective, Ethan had taken their authority, their reputation, and the weight behind their name and stamped all over it.

That was not something they could simply ignore.

Ethan understood that now.

Perhaps that was why he had pushed himself so hard during the journey. He had traveled through the day and often continued through the night, stopping only when his body needed a brief respite. Whether the road was smooth or rocky, whether the sun was overhead or rain was falling through the darkness, he kept moving. Sometimes he traveled at full speed, and when his body needed to loosen up, he slowed to a steady pace and continued walking before moving again.

He had hardly given himself any real rest.

Even cultivation had been pushed aside. There was little reason to spend time cultivating when he had only recently broken through and was still familiarizing himself with the changes in his body. His Qi reinforcement technique had also been left alone.

Those things could wait. Getting out of Azure Cloud territory could not.

Ethan looked at the mountain ridge again.

The thought of stopping no longer felt like a mistake. Once he crossed that ridge, the pressure would not simply disappear. Azure Cloud could still spread the bounty, and there was no guarantee that the Lunar Echo Sect would turn a blind eye to someone being pursued. But at least he would no longer be moving through the very territory where the sect held authority and influence.

The weight on his shoulders might finally become a little lighter.

Perhaps he could find somewhere to settle down for a while. Cultivate properly. Learn more about this world. Live something closer to the life he had imagined when he first arrived.

Back then, he had thought about traveling across the continent one day, seeing different places and learning about the cultivation world for himself. He had never imagined that he would end up crossing such a distance because an entire sect was trying to find him.

A faint smile touched Ethan’s lips at the thought.

What a strange way to travel.

His gaze returned to the map. Only one ridge remained.

Ethan folded it and rose to his feet. He had already come this far. Now he only needed to get across.

His new realm had made the journey easier, though Ethan had expected that much after breaking through to Late Qi Refining. What he had not expected was just how different moving through the world would feel now.

His body seemed to respond to his thoughts before he had fully formed them. A step could carry him farther than expected, a change in direction required almost no effort, and once he settled into a rhythm, the landscape seemed to slide past him. The journey that should have left him exhausted had instead become strangely enjoyable. His reserve of Living Blood kept him energized, and with the strength of his new realm settling into his body, he could keep moving for long periods without feeling the fatigue a normal cultivator might expect.

There were moments when Ethan simply ran because he could.

The wind rushed past his face, his hair whipping behind him as his feet barely seemed to touch the ground. The sensation gave him a strange sense of freedom. Back on Earth, movement had always been limited by the human body. Here, he could push himself forward and watch the world blur around him. He had admired the idea of cultivation when it was nothing more than fiction, but actually possessing this kind of power was something else entirely. A human being could cultivate and eventually reach a point where running through the wilderness like this was simply normal.

Ethan still found that hard to believe.

He also had no idea how fast he was actually moving.

Ethan had no way of knowing exactly how his speed compared with other Late Qi Refining cultivators. He had never encountered one. Still, based on how his speed had changed from Early Qi Refining to Mid Qi Refining and now to Late Qi Refining, he had a rough idea of where he stood. His current speed felt far beyond what he had been capable of before, and he suspected that even a Peak Qi Refining cultivator might have difficulty keeping up with him without relying on a movement technique.

Been a vampire had always given him an advantage over cultivators of the same realm, and now that he had reached Late Qi Refining, that advantage had only become more obvious.

Naturally, Ethan wanted to push it further.

He began experimenting with his Qi while moving, trying to incorporate it into his steps and see how much more speed he could draw from his body. Sometimes the adjustment worked beautifully. Other times, he misjudged the increase and found himself moving far faster than he intended.

The first time he ran straight through a tree, Ethan had not even understood what happened until he was already on the other side.

Fortunately, it had been a relatively thin tree.

He stopped several meters away and stared back at the broken trunk, a little stunned.

Then he laughed.

His body had already recovered from the impact before the surprise had even worn off. The wound was barely worth noticing, and the experience left Ethan with a strange mixture of excitement and disbelief.

This was only Late Qi Refining.

He was still near the bottom of the cultivation world, yet his body was already capable of things that would have been completely impossible to him on Earth. The thought alone made Ethan want to see how much further he could take it.

So he kept moving, adjusting his steps, experimenting with his Qi, and slowly learning how to make his speed respond exactly as he wanted.

The journey had given him more than distance.

It had given him time to become familiar with the power he now possessed.