Chapter 467: Twelve Cultivators on Deadwaste

As the teleportation faded, before his sight had even returned, Kai skidded over dust and knew that he had returned to Deadwaste.

He had never seen the high hills around him before, and the vibrant trees were nothing like Goralia. But the air itself was familiar: even though it was desolate compared to the rich energies of Rosemount or Cloudspire, the dominant mana reminded him of home. Had they really teleported so far?

Behemoth's Heart was pumping rapidly, bringing him back to focus, but it couldn't fix the purely mental reeling. If he had really been sent so far...

Yul Wei Ren, Grandpa Wan Fei, and all the Earth Souls were standing around him. It looked like Kai had recovered first, though the old man had endured it well and was preparing for a fight. The young master pitched over and vomited, while the Earth Souls were beginning to recover. If he had acted in that moment, he could have killed many of them, but the enormity of his mistake and its potential consequences slowed him.

"Get him!" someone screamed, and the Earth Souls tried to create a binding formation.

Kai had been straining Banchlain's Aura against patriarchs for the entire battle, so it exploded out with excessive force. These Earth Souls weren't weak, so none collapsed, but the brief flare of his aura utterly destroyed their attempt at a formation and they scattered, retreating in all directions.

"How do we get back?" Kai ignored the fleeing cultivators and focused on Yul Wei Ren and his bodyguard.

"We don't." Yul Wei Ren flopped into the dirt and pressed his hands to his head. "It's a punishment, didn't you hear? I have to kill even more stupid idiots."

"But what happens when you're done? Your father must have a way to pull you back."

"Ugh, I wish. Once he left me in the Northern Expanse for half a year because I deflowered some important maiden. Even if I had a way to contact him, he won't change his mind. Once he gets an idea in his head he-"

"Shut up!" Kai started walking in his direction and the young master screamed and began scrambling back. "This is important, you little brat, tell me h-"

Before he could take another step, Grandpa Wan Fei collided with him. The old man definitely hadn't gotten weaker since they last fought, and his shoulder ramming charge was so fast Kai couldn't even block. It didn't hurt much, but it drove them both over the hilly landscape, and the old man gripped around his waist to bind him and smash him into something.

Kai brought up his knee, striking the older man's chest, but his Physique could take it. Infuriated by this distraction, he generated two Manticore Quills and stabbed them down into the man's back, intending to just finish him.

But he'd forgotten that, even though Grandpa Wei Fan behaved like a servant, he was the patriarch of the Deepriver clan. The quills tore his robes, but failed to penetrate his qi-reinforced skin. Worse, his choice of attack gave the old man a chance to smash him into a hillside and then deliver a series of skull-jarring punches.

When the next punch came his way, Kai opened his mouth to bite it. He didn't have Isulfr's Bite prepared in his soul, but Grandpa Wei Fan must have sensed something monstrous, because he pulled his next punch. In that moment, Kai kicked him in the chest and knocked him away.

That gave him time to get up, but his anger was fading. There was no point fighting this group, much less this old man, when Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena could be fighting for their lives back on Cloudspire. But if there wasn't a talisman to take them back...

"Is there really no way back?" Kai demanded. The patriarch shifted into a defensive stance, ready to fight again, but answered with a question.

"You are worried for your comrades?"

"Of course I am!"

"And," Grandpa Wan Fei said very carefully, "if there was a way back, would you take it and allow us to complete our mission?"

Kai's rage finally stumbled to a halt. This group of cultivators had already slaughtered an unknown number of dryads, and those had been growing on Cloudspire. The dryads on Deadwaste would have even fewer defenses, despite the fact that they were completely innocent of the entire business. Would he sacrifice his wives for the sake of strangers? No. But since he had already been thrown across the world, it would be wrong to ignore them.

"I can't let you do that," Kai said. His body felt heavy, as if all the aches and weariness from the battle were finally coming to roost. Behemoth's Heart kept him moving, but his metaphorical heart was tired. "You know these people are innocent. You're too smart to believe otherwise."

"It is not a matter of innocence," the old man said. "I will protect the young master and do as commanded."

"Ugh." Kai threw up his hands. "I don't suppose the Masterful Crown clan has your son kidnapped or something?"

Grandpa Wan Fei didn't answer at first, staring at him strangely before speaking in a lower tone. "You imply that you would help save him, because it would remove me as your opponent?"

"I just can't believe that someone as honorable as you is stuck playing babysitter to a fool. Why would you take any of their orders?"

"You understand nothing. I accept that barbarians have a sort of self-respect, but this has nothing to do with the ties that bind civilization. I am responsible for the Deepriver sect, I am bound to the Masterful Crown clan, and that means that I must serve. To believe otherwise is simply ignorant."

"So you're telling me I need to kill you, then?" Kai raised his fists, and despite his exhaustion, they began to form into claws.

Instead of answering, the old man dissolved into light and streaked toward the horizon. Kai let out an enraged growl and burst after him, pushing Thunderbird's Wings as hard as he could, but the light pulled away from him. As fast he could travel, these greater flight techniques weren't bound by stamina or even friction.

Once he realized it was hopeless, Kai dropped to the ground and landed heavily, skidding for many paces before he came to a halt. The hills looked the same in all directions, with unfamiliar trees and plants... even giant mushrooms he'd never seen before. He knew absolutely nothing about this environment, so he didn't even know where to start.

No, an instant later he realized that was untrue. He shouldn't think like a Deadwaste native, since he had no experience in the Southern Wastes, he needed to think like a cultivator.

When he expanded his spiritual senses, he was surprised at how easily they swept over leagues, as if the thin air provided no resistance. There were various beings with some amount of power, but the cultivators stuck out like sore thumbs. Now he understood how the Brightwind cultivators had been able to find Zae Zin Nim despite all her precautions.

It seemed like they had split in multiple different directions, either as part of their plan or simply in fear of him. His fight with Grandpa Wan Fei had lasted long enough for them to spread out over a significant area. He didn't know if they would really start slaughtering immediately, but there was no sense in wasting time finding out.

Picking the nearest cultivator, Kai made a beeline for his position. It didn't take long before he spotted a town in the distance, much smaller and less fortified than the Goralian cities. He could see the cultivator already, fighting at the edge of the town.

No, it wasn't really a fight, it was a mockery. The average level of strength in the Southern Reaches was higher than Goralia, but this was still a relatively unimportant town. Most of the people he saw there - a mix of humans, dryads, and others he couldn't name - only had around 50 Power, and even their strongest only had a little over 100.

All their attacks did nothing, snuffing out against the cultivator's aura. He had already killed one dryad and he waded into the crowd, knocking people aside with cruel laughter as he advanced on a second.

"Send out all the tree people and the rest of you can live!" the cultivator shouted. "There's no need for all of you to throw your lives away!"

Some of the townspeople fled, but others tried to help the dryad woman escape and a few formed a brave and futile line. They hurled a large amount of mana fire into the cultivator's face, not harming him but briefly blinding him. He stopped, glowering, and began summoning a larger technique to incinerate the entire group.

Kai arrived the next second, claws going through the cultivator's chest. He wasn't using Tyrant's Claw, but compared to the patriarchs, this Earth Soul tore like paper. It was bloodier than Kai had intended, and he saw shock on the townspeople's faces, but there was no time for that.

"Are there more of them here?" Kai asked. "I only tracked this one."

"W-we didn't see a-any others..." an old woman stammered.

"Excuse me. There are more attacking other villages... I can't intercept them all, but..." Kai bent his legs and shot into the sky with the corpse still in his hands.

He shot upward, multiple shockwaves expanding from him as his wings grew out. Once he was high enough that the towns were just specks, he shifted Thunderbird's Wings to qi and hovered in the air. The other cultivators had spread out over a large distance, some of them trying to hide themselves. He intended to hunt them down, but until then...

"Cultivators!" Kai pushed qi into his voice and the word echoed over the landscape. He couldn't bellow over a battlefield like the patriarchs, but he could still project. "Your patriarch ordered you to kill, but consider one thing." He tore the cultivator's corpse in half and hurled the pieces to the ground in opposite directions. "He's half the world away... I'm right here."

After Kai finished speaking, there was only silence. The slight sound of wind moving at such a high altitude. He wasn't sure what he expected... they wouldn't be stupid enough to attack him, and he didn't expect them to surrender. But he also didn't feel any qi being used in all the surrounding villages, because they knew they were being hunted now.

It wasn't enough to stop them, but hopefully it would make them think twice. As Kai dropped back to the ground, he realized that he should have thought more about all the locals: he was a strange foreigner showing up and tearing people apart, then shouting incomprehensible challenges. They would be on their guards against the cultivators, but they might also fear him.

To his surprise, when he landed he saw a host of people looking toward him and smiling.

"I'm sorry," Kai said, "you don't deserve this, but they..."

"You're trying to stop those foreign folks, huh?" A dryad man peered up at him and nodded. "We won't get in your way. Anything we can do to help?"

Kai blinked in surprise, staring at all the optimistic faces. One of their own had died, and he saw anger or confusion there, but they didn't look at him in fear, despite what he'd done. In fact, half the corpse had landed outside their village in a gruesome splat.

"I'm, uh, sorry about that," Kai said with a vague gesture toward the body.

"Oh, don't worry about it," an old man with purple skin said. "You're a Goralian boy, eh? One of my daughters married one of you. Big lad, very loud, very angry. But you're good folks."

Heads nodded throughout the crowd and Kai realized that he truly was back on Deadwaste.

"Alright, there are eleven other people," he told the crowd. "They're all too strong for any of you to face, but their only mission is to hunt down dryads. Do you have root networks connecting towns? Warn everyone you can, and if anyone spots them, bring the information back to me..."

Even though he had just arrived, the people began to bustle about to obey. Kai finished giving orders and then turned back, staring west over the ocean.

He didn't know how long it would take to get back, or if it would be in time, but meanwhile he wouldn't let any of the enemy escape.