WT 20 - Full of untapped potential

 

The killers were all wearing a mask that was painted with a black tree with dead branches to avoid their real identity being exposed. But they did not hide which sect they were from, proudly and tyrannically doing as they please because of other’s fear towards their sect.

 

"Shadow Tree!" The short man bellowed and his hefty stomach trembled from the roar. "Who allowed you to act this tyrannically before asking this elder if you could so?!"

 

He tossed a pill into his mouth, swallowed it down easily without chewing it and his body started undergoing an amazing transformation. The originally short figure became taller, almost half the height of a two-floor building. His mass also enlarged, following the ratio of his new height.

 

"Look who it is. It's the Fruity Tree fat elder," One of the masked men retorted fearlessly and rather disrespectfully to the elder if one recognized how young the voice behind the mask was. Among the orthodox sect, the Fruity Tree sect was the one that detested the Shadow Tree sect the most and often got into a fight to the death whenever they happened to encounter each other.

 

"This old man will teach you, youngsters, how to behave in public!" 

 

The masked men laughed fearlessly at the elder's words but with a single punch from the Fruity Tree's elder, none of them laughed anymore. The unfortunate fella that got punched was sent flying far away, his mask cracked into pieces, revealing a bloody face and a crumpled nose underneath.

 

"Fellow disciples, get serious!" Shiba yelled from the top of the roof. He was the only one among them without a mask, not afraid of being recognized. As one of the inner disciples of the Shadow Tree sect, he could proudly show off his prestige instead of needing to hide one’s identity. He was not the outer disciples that needed to complete dirty tasks without their sect being linked to which would need to risk their lives for.

 

"Teacher, I will rescue the citizens!" Liu Bing hurried out and Prince Heng's guards joined him to evacuate the place. When cultivators fought, they could change the earth and sky discriminately. Mere ordinary mortals could die just from a glance of the spectacular fight. 

 

The masked men were not weak, but the large man's punches were rather painful even with their tempered body. After experiencing once, they nearly thought their soul could have flown out from their body. 

 

"Bunch of useless fools." When he saw none of his people could hold down the big man from Fruity Tree Sect, Shiba scolded without regard.

 

He leaped from the roof with a burst of energy from his feet, and the tiles collapsed behind him. Among the numbered disciples, Shiba was the third strongest when it comes to combat technique. He followed Shiyi to the capital, ordered by their Master, and had been unhappy with it. Shiba believed the matter of retrieving the living pill and grabbing the Flame Spirit was too easy for him.

 

Now that the Fruity Tree sect elder appeared, he finally could flex his muscles and fight without restrain!

 

Against Shiba, the sect elder could no longer settle things with a single attack. When his fist collided with Shiba's short sword for the first time, he felt something sinister crawling into his body. It was not something physical, and he could not see what it was. Whatever it was, it was slowly draining his energy like a leech.

 

"Hmph! Dirty tricks!" The elder ate another pill, which successfully stopped the effects of the leeching from hindering him. 

 

Unfortunately, even without the dirty tricks, the elder still has a hard time landing blows on Shiba. Not wanting to waste time, he ate another pill and the flesh on his arms became tighter and muscular. There were hardly any fats that could be seen visibly, all turned into pure muscles!

 

"Crazy!" Shiba parred the large man's attacks that grew stronger, but he looked happy with his opponent getting stronger. 

 

It had been a while since he could go all out and his Master had told them not to go against the orthodox sect for now, at least until they gained back their strength. But Shiba already started to feel stifled from the restrain. He was used to fighting whenever he wanted and his sect never punished him. That was why Shiba liked the Shadow Tree sect the most.

 

"Is that all you got, crazy old man?" Shiba taunted and his attacks with his short sword became even fiercer. His movement looked like a blur as he slashed the sect elder’s body, but the muscular body had already formed a thick skin that protected him from most attacks.

 

“That tickles.” The sect elder grinned and it was returned by Shiba, only that it looked crazed with battle lust.

 

Some masked men ignored the fight and tried to slip into Fruity Herb shop from another direction, but they were greeted with Prince Heng's folding fan that was as sharp as a sword. 

 

Heng Zhen Gan moved like a studious scholar, treating his folding fan like his custom made brush and forcefully slicing the moving ink stick in order to squeeze out the red ink from its packaging. The bold red ink splattered everywhere without control, and that was what the scholar wanted. To others’ eyes, it was as if the red ink was dancing around the scholar, yet afraid to dirty him with its essence.

 

"If you followed me to join the sect, you will be even stronger," Owner Yu commented honestly, appreciating Prince Heng’s fine-looking movement. Although he had seen much better movement, it was still impressive for someone that had not properly trained in the ways of true cultivation to reach that degree.

 

Prince Heng was full of untapped potential.

 

"I have no interest in the cultivation world." Heng Zhen Gan flicked his wrist and the blood on his fan was flicked away. He had only started cultivating as a way to protect himself, and also because it was not difficult for him. He may have talent in cultivating, but he prefers politics and a more peaceful environment.

 

"Are you sure it's not a certain someone that told you to stay here and support her?" Owner Yu teased.

 

"Just as you choose Fruity Tree Sect for that maiden in white?" Heng Zhen Gan retorted back. "You even have a beautiful dream with her right in the middle of the class."

 

Once again, Owner Yu failed to poke fun of his friend with his dirty material in the other party's hands.

 

Prince Heng eyed the huge sized man fighting the aggressive youth in black. "Your sect's elder won't suddenly die from eating too much pill in such a short time?"

 

"Elder Qing Shu has a special constitution. He might be the only one in this world that won't have any side effects from overeating pills."

 

Heng Zhen Gan had counted the elder had eaten the eighth pill and finally started pressuring the enemy.

 

"Ahahaha! I will keep eating until I'm stronger than you!" Elder Qing Shu looked overly muscular without any soft flesh insight. Even his fleshy stomach was missing and his whole body resembled a solid rock.

 

"Fourth Elder, please do not accidentally kill him. We still need to question him," Owner Yu spoke up.

 

"I will try my best!" After Elder Qing Shu ate a few more pills, he finally overcame Shiba's strength and beat him into a still breathing pulp.

 

"Perfect," Heng Zhen Gan praised as he stared down at the trashed Shiba that no longer had his initial arrogance.

 

His men had confirmed that the guards he had sent out to protect Miss Wan were all found dead in their post. Even his captain of the second team, Lan Yan, could not escape from being murdered. He had been feeling very uncomfortable after hearing the news.

 

“Owner Yu, Elder Qing Shu, would it be better to kill them all and prevent them from doing more evil?” Heng Zhen Gan suggested with a vengeful gaze. 

 

“... That is good. Yes.” Elder Qing Shu felt that if he did not agree, this prime minister might be unhappy. Besides, the evil sect had truly behaved rather outrageously and caused chaos to the innocent people. 

 

The suitable price to pay for their sin was their very own lives. 

 

“Very good. I will entrust the matter of getting information to both of you that have good torture items waiting to be used. Leave the clean-up to us.”

 

Without mercy, Heng Zhen Gan, accompanied by his guards, started slaughtering the injured members of the evil sect. Without any commoners around to watch them, they could be more brutal and cruel with their actions to avenge the death of their fallen comrade. 

 

Elder Qing Shu rubbed his bearded chin as he watched the massacre go on. “Quite a scary young man.”

 

Owner Yu smiled in reply and had Shiba dragged into a room. What happened next should not be witnessed by his staff that was not from the Fruity Tree sect, in case some failed to leave when the accident happened. He was quite pleased with his current employees and does not wish to have to find new workers after tonight. 

 

Surprisingly, Bao Hai followed into the room. “I want to help too.” During her imprisonment days, the others had ignored her, only concerned about her energy outflow, but this fellow liked to put little injuries on her.

 

Just because she was available to be pushed around and was too weak to defend herself, Shiba thinks he could do whatever he wanted with her? To think she could have the chance for revenge on this sadistic bastard, the world must have agreed she had suffered injustice and gave her the chance to exact revenge!

 

"Do you know how?" Owner Yu asked as he stared down at the young girl that was far from adulthood. 

 

Bao Hai bared her teeth, forming a feral grin. "I just need to do what he has done to me."

 

Just realizing that this young girl was actually the child his friend had saved from Shadow Tree, Owner Yu started to realize he had missed some signs from the girl. He had misunderstood her to be Miss Wan’s maidservant and wrongly categorized her as human when she was not. If he could not realize that after a deeper inspection, he does not deserve to be an inner disciple of the Fruity Tree Sect that specialized in pill refinement.

 

No longer worried, Owner Yu gave his green light. "I will take the lead first. We need to know where they had taken Miss Wan."

 

Owner Yu knew of some locations where he suspected to belong to the Shadow Tree sect, but they did not have time to search them all. "After that, you can do whatever you want with him."

 

Bao Hai beamed happily. “Thank you!”

 

Finished with the mess, Prince Heng returned just in time to hear the end of their conversation. He stared at the charitable Owner Yu and the enthusiastic Bao Hai silently. If Bao Hai had not said anything, he would have not recognized Shiba as one of the portraits Bao Hai had drawn.

 

Should he stop Owner Yu from influencing the still uncorrupted Bao Hai?