Naked Sword Art

[ Black Lake ]

The water was calm, the air was chilly, and there was a subtle mist eerily building up over the lake.

Since nothing happened for a while, Li Lian eventually opened her eyes.

Xiao Fang was pleased to see that she finally built up the courage to do it. So he stopped massaging her scalp then he let her raise her head off his lap.

"How do you feel?" He asked.

She turned her head to look him in the eye, then with a soft tone she said,

"I'm ready."

Xiao Fang smiled.

"Good."

[ Reaper's Grasp ]

Suddenly, several figures appeared to be jumping out of the water when, in fact, they were being pulled.

The 12 men screamed, but it sounded as if they were shouting their battle cries.

[ No Sword Style: Divine Sword Cutting Air ]

Xiao Fang whipped his arms in both directions, creating two crescent blades of Sword qi that cut everything it touched within a 10 meter radius.

The screams abruptly stopped and it was followed by the sounds of human chucks splashing into the lake.

The blood from the mutilated corpses polluted the water, making the reflection of the moon and stars appear blood-red. The thick stench of blood was nauseating, and it made Li Lian feel as if she were living a nightmare.

Suddenly a strange energy seemed to be escaping their dead bodies and it entered Xiao Fang's. When he felt it flowing into his dantian, the curse marks quickly began to fade.

Despite not being able to see the mysterious energy, Li Lian could see the effects it was having on his body. There were no physical changes, but there was something about him that made him seem as if heavy shackles had been finally removed from his body.

Xiao Fang wanted to laugh out loud. All this time, the curse mark made him feel as if he was dragging heavy weights around, but now that the marks were gone he felt as if he could finally breathe again.

The rower stopped rowing the boat. He was paralyzed in fear. He eventually fell on his butt, which reminded Li Lian that he was still alive.

She thought that Xiao Fang had spared his life because he had nothing to do with it. However, in the next moment, he was also starting to be pulled towards Xiao Fang with [ Reaper's Grasp ].

He desperately tried to hold on to something, clawing at the boat till his nails peeled off. His screams were so horrifying and desperate, but Xiao Fang didn't stop pulling him closer. Li Lian wanted to cover her ears, but she braved through it.

The man was no longer being pulled. Xiao Fang had walked around him then pulled him up by his hair to put him on his knees.

"Xiao Fang, what are you-"

"Kill him," Xiao Fang suddenly said.

-

-

-

Later that night Xiao Fang and Li Lian returned back home. As soon as he opened the door Xun Wei was there hopping on the spot. Li Lian didn't pay any attention to Xiao Hei as she went straight to bed. Xiao Fang understood how she must have felt so he didn't bother her.

"Xiao Fang, do you notice anything different about me?" Xiao Hei said while looking up at him with her cute round eyes.

Laying on the bed, Xun Wei rolled her eyes when she heard Xiao Hei bragging about what she got from Song Du's spatial pouch. She made it seem as if it were some sort of treasure when it just looked like an ordinary accessory.

Xiao Fang reached down to Xiao Hei's neck to feel the thin black fabric wrapped around her neck.

"What is it?"

"It's a choker."

Despite seeming harmless, it was actually a sex tool used to choke women during intercourse to heighten the experience.

This was the first time Xiao Fang was hearing about a sex tool because it didn't exist in this country, or at least it was extremely hard to come by. Even from the country Xiao Hei was from, the weakest of tools like the collar she wore around her neck were accessible to commoners, while the medium grade, and high grade stuff were only accessible to the most wealthy of individuals.

The more she explained it to Xiao Fang the more interested he got. Although the choker were pretty weak sex tools, it was something only someone from a major family could get their hands on in this country.

...

As the two of them discussed more about sexual toys, Xun Wei was in bed slowly falling asleep, but then she suddenly felt someone hugging her from behind.

"Li Lian? What's wrong," she said as she turned her body around to face her.

"Xiao Fang... he made me kill someone today."

"..."

"Who did you kill?"

Li Lian sighed.

"That's the thing, I didn't know anything about him. He didn't do anything to us, but I killed him anyway."

"Oof, that's tough. Now that you brought it up... I also killed someone today."

Li Lian raised her head as if she finally found someone she could relate with.

"You seem to be handling it pretty well. Who was it?"

"Do you know Song Du?"

"Yeah, I met him a few times when I was younger. He had a lot of girls crushing on him, but he never seemed interested in any of them."

"I killed him."

Li Lian's jaw dropped.

"Are you insane," she whispered.

"Not much worse than killing Gao Chen," Xun Wei joked.

"Hmph, that had nothing to do with me."

Xun Wei snickered.

"..."

"Are we bad people?" Li Lian asked.

"That depends on the perspective. Don't think too much about it. The sooner you get used to this sort of thing, the better."

"Do you think we'll need to kill again?"

"Definitely. Cultivation resources become even more scarce the higher your cultivation gets, we might need to kill to get the resources we need. Kill your enemies to get stronger, kill your enemies to survive, and kill for revenge. As cultivators, it's a part of our lifestyle. This is just the start, so it's best that you get used to it. We aren't little girls anymore."

Li Lian curiously asked for more information, so Xun Wei opened up to her about her past. The more she spoke the less Li Lian thought about the events that took place today. No matter how tragic Xun Wei's story was, it made Li Lian realize the cruelty of the world, and it started to change her worldview.

The two of them eventually went to sleep, and Li Lian started feeling better about what she did.

Xiao Hei gave Song Du's spatial pouch to Xiao Fang. Even though there weren't many useful scrolls for him to use there were plenty of useful cultivation pills and merit points. Combine that with the 12 men he killed he now had well over 100,000 merit points to spare.

Xiao Fang went outside then crossed his legs before meditating to cultivate the [ Death Reaper ] method. With the dense energy of death filling his dantian and the valuable spirit cultivation pills that were now in his possession, he was easily able to breakthrough to the 1st stage of the [ Death Reaper ] Spirit Refinement realm.

A torrent of air entered his nose as he breathed it in, then a narrow stream escaped his lips as he calmly exhaled.

Xiao Fang had finally reached the prerequisite to practice new [ Death Reaper ] techniques so he browsed through the techniques that were in Xiao Hei's mind-space then chose one that was to his liking.

"Are you sure, Xiao Fang?" Xiao Hei asked, questioning his decision to practice the technique he chose.

"I'm sure."

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Technique: Fear

Type: Debuff attack

Realm: Profound Realm

.

1st level: Eye of the abyss

> Prerequisite:

• Spirit Refinement Realm,

• Bloodlust

> Invoke fear to a single target.

.

2nd level: Death Aura

> Prerequisite:

• Spirit Core Realm

• Bloodlust 2nd level

> Emit a terrifying aura that could make anyone within it have a strong urge to flee.

.

3rd level: Nightmare

> Prerequisite:

• Profound Spirit Realm

• Bloodlust 3rd level

> Trap someone in a temporary nightmare

.

[ Bloodlust ]

1st level: 10 kills

2nd level: 100 kills

3rd level: 1,000 kills