Chapter 47: Talisman

John quickly turned around and looked towards the sound of the voice. Several hundred yards away, John spotted the source of the voice and narrowed his eyes.

'That's all the men from the campsite. I won't be able to run from this.'

John silently looked towards the men. The group consisted of six men, one of which was the powerful Qi Condensation cultivator. All the men wore pure black uniforms and face masks covering their faces. Clearly, they wanted to keep their identities a secret, although John knew they came from the Stalking Mantis Assassin Guild from the loudmouth he had killed earlier.

'Even in my peak state, I can only die in front of that man.'

John looked towards the powerful Qi Condensation cultivator, as he had been the one who had just spoken up.

The Qi Condensation cultivator looked around at the battlefield, his eyes searching for something.

"Where is Bolton" asked the man in a cold, threatening voice.

"Bolton? Sorry, I don't know a Bolton" responded John in an equally cold voice.

"Don't play dumb with me. Where is the man who we sent after you?" asked the man once more.

The man and his group had been sorting out the treasure situation from all the storage rings back at the campsite. After they had finished sorting everything, the man and his group proceeded to head in the direction of the battle that was taking place. Although they had heard loud booms echo through the forest from the battle, they had assumed they were from Bolton who was in the process of killing John.

When the group finally arrived on the battle scene, all they saw was a severely injured John walking away.

"Oh, that guy. He was quite annoying, so I sent him to the afterlife" stated John with an indifferent tone. With the situation he was in, nothing would be able to convince the men to let him go, and so John wasn't about to plead for his life.

The man narrowed his eyes as he looked at John. He was just about to speak up when John interrupted him.

"You should really be thanking me instead, after all, a useless cultivator who cant even kill a middle Mist Creation boy isn't someone worth worrying over."

Slight anger appeared on the man's face as he responded back to John in a raised voice.

"It seems you don't know the situation you're in. Once we capture you, I'll make you beg for death" The man stared at John, his eyes glowing with rage. Although Bolton wasn't a strong cultivator within the assassin guild, the man still considered him a close friend. Hearing he had been killed ignited his rage. He would make sure that John suffered as much as possible before death.

"Hahahaha"

John started laughing profusely as blood continued flowed from his lips from his earlier battle. He coughed out some blood several times before looking towards the man as if he was a fool before a small round disk suddenly appeared in John's hands as he stared at the man with a mocking look.

The man looked at the object before his eyes widened in shock.

"Stop him now!" yelled the man as he dashed towards John with all his speed and sent out his fastest and most powerful attack. The men beside him all did the same, although they were unsure of why their boss all of a sudden lashed out in panic.

John watched the approaching attacks with an amused expression.

"I'll be leaving for now, but don't worry, we'll meet again soon enough." His hand crushed the object, at which point he disappeared moments before the attacks landed violently where he was previously standing.

"God damnit" the man cursed out in rage. From what had happened, he knew the current situation just got a lot more complicated. One of his men walked beside and asked him a question.

"Boss. What just happened? Where did the boy go?"

The man narrowed his eyes before responding in a cold voice, "The boy just used a spatial talisman to leave the area. Even if we wanted to, there's no way we can find him now. Not only that, spatial talismans are quite rare, and even I've only seen one in my life before. If a boy that young has one, then his status may be something our guild cannot handle. I need to inform the Guild Leader about this."

The underling drew in a cold breath at the description of what just happened. After a few seconds, he thought of something and spoke up.

"Boss, even if the boy has a powerful backing, we should be fine. After all, there's no way he knows who we are, right?"

The boss thought about it for a moment before nodding, his expression becoming much lighter. "You're right. Even if he wants to take revenge, there's no way he can link this to us as long as the Duke says nothing. We'll be fine."

While the men were talking, John found himself suddenly teleported to a different place.

"Ahhh!"

John screamed as he crashed violently into the ground. His wounds once again opened as his body felt like it was on the verge of collapse.

"Fuck. Couldn't this talisman have teleported me onto the ground instead of fifty feet up in the air" cursed John.

Gritting his teeth through the immense pain, John channeled his remaining strength and barely mustered himself to stand up. He looked around in all directions before spotting something and walking towards it.

John limped for several minutes before he found himself at the mouth of a cave. The cave was a few dozen yards deep, and John could just barely make out the end of it. He sent out his divine sense just to make sure it was empty.

'Good, it appears empty.'

John slowly limped into the cave. He finally managed to make his way towards the back of the cave, at which point he collapsed onto the ground. A wave of fatigue washed over John as he fell unconscious.

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