Chapter 48: Two Strangers

John finally opened his eyes after an unknown amount of time.

"Oww!"

John cried out in pain as he tried to stand up. He sent his divine sense towards his body to inspect the damage and sucked in a cold breath as he finally understood the extent of the damage.

'All my ribs are cracked in several places, several of my organs have been slightly ruptured, and I have several torn muscles. Not to mention, this large gaping wound on my chest. I'm lucky to be alive.'

John finally managed to sit up after a great deal of struggle, at which point he took out a Life Mist Healing Pill and popped it into his mouth. He spent the entire day focusing on recovery before eventually collapsing once more late into the night. The next day, John consumed another pill and once more focused on recovery. John proceeded to eat, heal, and sleep for the next week before he finally recovered enough to stand up.

'Fuck, I nearly died from that battle.'

John thought back to the battle that had happened several nights prior. He started cursing himself for the stupidity of taking a late Mist Creation cultivator's attack head on, relying only on his body to block it.

"Do I really have a death wish?"

After beating himself up for several minutes, John finally calmed down, at which point a smile slowly appeared on his face.

'Even if I almost died from that attack, the only thing that matters is I didn't. My body is powerful enough to withstand an all out attack from a late Mist Creation cultivator. Not only that, but I was able to kill one as well. However, that energy surge from before didn't happen this time. I can't be reliant on it to happen every time I'm in danger it seems.'

Although John could still hardly believe the results of that battle, the truth was laid bare before him. Not only was John powerful enough to kill a late Mist Creation Realm cultivator, he also had a body that was powerful enough to take a direct attack from someone a full minor realm above him without dying. The circumstances of the battle were in his favor however. The man had underestimated John, and so he had used this to his advantage by striking out with his full power right away and trading blows with the man. If the man had time to strike out with his full power attack, John didn't know if he would have survived it or not.

John clenched his fist in excitement at the thought of his own strength.

'With my body and essence cultivation being so powerful, won't I be unrivaled in the same realm?'

His excited thoughts quickly turned sour as John thought of Austin.

"What did that guy say, Stalking Mantis Assassin Guild? I'll be sure to pay them a visit once my strength grows" muttered John in rage. He had taken quite a liking to Austin. Austin had even gone out of his way twice to save John's life, raising John's opinion of him even more. But most importantly, they had targeted him, and tried to kill John. Such a thing was unforgivable, regardless of if he was in the wrong or not.

'Should I get my clan involved? Or should I handle this myself?'

John thought about it for a moment before deciding against including his clan in this matter.

'I'll find out where their base is, and when I'm strong enough, I'll be sure to pay them a personal visit. Although I have no idea how strong the guild really is. I'll have to ask my clan if they have any information on the assassin guild, and if not I'll have to find out some other way.'

John was wracking his brain for ideas when he suddenly thought of something.

'The Duke. He hired them, and so he must be aware of some information regarding their strengths and location of their base. I'll pay him a visit in the future as well.'

Just as John was becoming immersed in his own thoughts of revenge, he heard a loud boom echo from just outside the cave.

'Have they found me?' thought John in a panic. In his haste, he had teleported in a random direction away from the battlefield, but he was sure he had managed to teleport the full one hundred miles.

"There's no way they could find me so fast? Right?" muttered John.

John held his breath and made as little noise as possible in hopes of evading detection of whoever or whatever was outside the cave. After a few minutes of waiting in silence, John finally breathed a sigh of relief as he assumed whatever was outside had passed by.

"Growl!"

John looked up to see a beast standing at the entrance of the cave.

"Another fucking Night Wolf?" John cursed out at the beast in front of him. The cave was apparently the Night Wolf's home, and this particular Night Wolf was at the Late Mist Creation realm.

'Normally I would have no problem killing this wolf, but I'm still injured and my combat power is less than half of normal.'

John grit his teeth at his predicament.

"Fuck it, I'll try to fight my way out of here."

Boom!

Just as John prepared to stand up and fight, the area where the Night Wolf was standing exploded. After the dust settled, John saw the Night Wolf's dead corpse sliced cleanly in half. John was confused at what had just happened before a powerful wave of divine sense scanned over him.

"Fuck. A divine sense this powerful clearly belongs to a Qi Condensation cultivator. Did they find me already?" John hastily stood up to prepare for a futile fight.

John grit his teeth in pain as he watched two people stand at the entrance of the cave and peer inside.

Myriad Annihilation Scythe!

John decided to take the initiative and attack before any words were exchanged and sent a powerful beam of scythe Qi towards the exit of the cave. He figured his only hope of escaping was attacking his way out of the cave and utilizing his movement technique to evade his enemies. As he sent out the attack, his freshly healed wounds once again opened up.

The two people at the entrance of the cave noticed the incoming attack, and one of them slashed out with their own ability.

John widened his eyes in shock as his attack was easily overwhelmed by his enemies attack, at which point it proceeded to head straight for him. Although his attack had weakened this attack by quite a bit, it was still more powerful than anything he could manage.

John hastily dodged to the side as the attack landed at his feet.

"Gah!"

John was sent flying from the immense force of the attack before he crashed violently into the cave wall. He rebounded viciously off the wall and fell hard to the ground.

John coughed up blood as he felt most of his wounds open up once more. Blood flowed out of his mouth as he tried to stand up, but couldn't muster the strength to do so. The last thing John saw before he lapsed into unconsciousness was the two people walking directly towards him.

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