The remaining men hesitated for a second, not knowing that sliver of time was enough to consider themselves dead...
Inexperienced yet arrogant, death was already coming for them. Jiang Yizu was merely accelerating this process.
"Idiots, what are you being scared for!" The leader roared, forcing the tremor out of his voice as he incited the remaining people to attack again.
With crude coordination, three blades came at once! One low at his left, one straight for the throat at his front, and one angling from above at his right!
Jiang Yizu did not retreat, only mocking the leader with his eyes as he shifted his stance.
His body moved slightly, a movement that caused the first blade to only skim past his robe. His wooden sword rose, intercepting the descending strike with a dull crack, the already fragile weapon finally shattering. At the same time, his foot shot forward, striking the knee of the man aiming low!
Crack!
The leg bent the wrong way, and a hoarse scream tore through the entire cave!
Seeing the slight pause in their movement, Jiang Yizu twisted his wrist, letting the steel blade in his hands slide along the incoming steel blade and redirecting it straight into the throat of its owner.
Puchi!
Warm blood sprayed across his sleeve.
Seeing this bloody scene with two of his partners dying like flies being swatted, he didn't dare to freeze and exerted all his strength in one last strike.
Jiang Yizu tried to redirect the incoming blade again, but it was a bit too close for the entire blade to bounce off. His arm was grazed, and a slit was visible, seeping blood into his robe.
Unfortunately, though Jiang Yizu was once the Supreme Heaven of the Demonic Path, an unparalleled expert in terms of combat skill, he was only a young boy right now. His body wasn't fully developed, and his cultivation was lost.
All these factors contributed to him not being able to unleash his full strength.
Jiang Yizu swiftly countered and drove an elbow into the attacker's chest after redirecting the blade, knocking him out, followed by a clean slice across his neck.
Puchi!
The body fell, and with a loud thud, silence quickly assimilated the entire cave.
In the cave, only three people were left standing. Jiang Yizu, the leader, and the fat man.
Jiang Yizu flicked the blood off the steel sword, slowly walking towards the leader and the fat man.
The leader's sword had long slipped from his hand, and his legs trembled so violently he could barely remain standing.
"No, no, don't come closer!" the leader cried, stumbling back until his spine hit the cold cave wall.
After a few breaths, their eyes were only a small distance away.
He grabbed the youth by the collar and slammed him against the stone with a dull thud.
Jiang Yizu looked at him with a cold and heartless gaze, slowly speaking.
"Who am I?"
The man stared at him dumbfounded. After a while, he seemed to snap back and said: "You, you are Jiang Yizu! Outer sect disciple of Black Blade Sect! You, you always get beaten by us, you are trash, you are..."
Jiang Yizu's grip tightened, cutting off his words.
His eyes narrowed slightly, rummaging through his memories.
Outer Sect Disciple of Black Blade Sect...
Fragments of unfamiliar memories flickered faintly. He seemed to remember something long, long ago.
"Where am I at?"
"S, Spirit Flower Mountain! Outer sect grounds, we were assigned to mine spirit stones here!" the youth answered immediately, afraid that even a breath too slow would cost his life.
Jiang Yizu's gaze did not change.
Finally, he asked his last question.
"What year is it now?"
"Court Calendar, Year 1200!" the youth blurted out without hesitation.
Boom!
At this moment, torrents of unfamiliar memories were surging through his mind. He stumbled backwards a few steps, barely steadying himself.
Year 1200!
The year he transmigrated as a trash disciple of the Black Blade Sect, 258 years ago!
He finally confirmed it. He had regressed—all the way back 258 years ago!
"But why? I wouldn't just regress without a reason!"
Thinking for a moment, he came to a conclusion.
Before everything happened, he was once just a normal office worker filled with burdens and schedules. One random day, a man suddenly stabbed him in the back while he was clocking out of work.
Along the way to the hospital, he heard what exactly was the reason. The man mistook him for the criminal who killed his daughter, so he was stabbed by the man and ultimately died at the hospital due to excessive blood loss.
After he mysteriously transmigated to this world, he planned to live a safe life of longevity to make up for his ungraceful death. He didn't develop connections nor actively provoke people, which made him a unique "loner".
As expected, he was treated as a outcast and bullied by almost all outer sect members. These people here now were the ones who contributed the most to his time being bullied in the Dark Blade Sect.
The only reason he hadn't lost hope in pursuing the dao of immortality was a strange object that transmigated with him.
Heavenly Divinity Tree.
He called it so, because the object was in the form of a tree.
Every time he harvested negative emotions like sorrow and guilt from people, a fruit would grow on the tree. After full maturity, the fruit would fall and assimilate in his sea of consciousness, giving him a random ability or cheat.
At that time, on the verge of death as the Supreme Heaven of the Demonic Path, he finally got his last fruit to fully mature.
Then he transmigated.
...
The cave fell into a strange silence.
Only the ragged breathing of the man could be heard.
Jiang Yizu loosened his grip just enough for him to speak again.
"Who is he?" Jiang Yizu tilted his chin slightly toward the fat young man trembling violently in the ground with a foul stench on his crotch.
The man did not dare hide anything.
"Zhao, He is Zhao Kuan! Illegitimate son of Deacon Zhao from the Outer Sect! He, he oversees this mining area!"
Jiang Yizu's eyes flickered with a cold light.
He had gotten everything he had needed.
For the Supreme Heaven of the Demonic Path, such a thing would translate to:
Your existence in this world is no longer necessary.
A faint, almost imperceptible smile formed on his lips.
"To think the usually stingy Heavenly Divinity Tree would give me a second chance at life..."
At these words, both the leader and the fat man knew they were dead tonight.
Not because they understood what the Heavenly Divinity Tree was, but because Jiang Yizu dared to say it in front of them.
They could atleast tell such a thing would be a secret of his. Saying it blatantly in front of them... He wasn't planning to let them live.
The cold and emotionless gaze finally returned to Jiang Yizu's eyes, equivalent to the high and mighty, heartless Heavenly Dao.
Behind him, Zhao Kuan finally snapped out of his daze.
"Me... Spare me! I can give you everything you want! Women, Fine wine, Spirit stones! As long as you let me live!" he shouted, his voice lacking the earlier arrogance, replaced instead with a pleading cry of help, "I can let this off tonight, and I won't mention a single thing here to my father!"
Jiang Yizu did not even turn his head.
"Look at me."
The leader of the lackeys, a young man not even in his twenties, nodded frantically.
"Why was i beaten?"
The man froze. His lips trembled as he spoke. "T, that..."
"Speak!" Jiang Yizu stabbed the sword in the hard ground.
"Because you found a low-grade spirit stone yesterday and did not hand it over! Big Bro Zhao said you were hiding more, so we..."
Before he could finish, Jiang Yizu released him.
The youth collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air, thinking he had survived. He was wrong.
Puchi!
A flash of steel, and his head rolled across the cave floor with a dull thud.
Jiang Yizu stood amidst the corpses, his grip loosening slightly around the sword.
He slowly turned his gaze toward Zhao Kuan.
That gaze alone made Zhao Kuan's heart stop for a moment.
"You... what do you want..." Zhao Kuan was trying his best to live through this ordeal tonight, furiously thinking what he can offer Jiang Yizu for his life.
"I can even ask my father to recommend you to the Inner Sect!"
He seemed to find a life-saving rope, holding into it violently.
"Yes! The Inner Sect! Isn't that your wish? Fame, money, women, resources, as long as you can enter the Inner Sect, you can get them all!"
Jiang Yizu sneered.
"I don't want much." he said.
"With the Heavenly Divinity Tree and my insights into the future, I'm confident in breaking through the so-called Immortal Realm of legends."
Jiang Yizu looked at him as if looking at a dead man.
"Unfortunately..."
"I simply dislike leaving loose ends."