Chapter 84
Black Rose Strikes Again

Chu Shen was astonished at all of this. Martial arts creating images was basic knowledge. That was why there was fist, sword, and claw techniques. And often phantom images would appear in the Qi, for example a claw technique resembling a bird’s claw instead of a human’s fingers.

This truly explained many mysteries that eluded Chu Shen. Before now he simply accepted martial arts intricacies as the way things were. ‘Hmm. It seems as though there is still a science that can be found in such mysterious things. Truly there is no such thing as magic, only misunderstood principles.’

Chu Shen stood up and bowed to grandmaster Qin. “Thank you grandmaster. With your help, I feel I will be able to advance far in mastering my skills.”

Agata Qin quickly waved his hand. “Nonsense. Eventually you would have learned such things. It wasn’t always common knowledge you know. Until the <Doctors Godly Eyes> was created, it remained a mystery. But my ancestor figured out such things and shared it, making these facts public knowledge.”

“It could be said to have advanced the skills of everyone within a thousand miles. Many people were thankful for such a blessing. If it wasn’t for that calamity, we wouldn’t be confined to such a small town.”

Grandmaster Qin shook his head. “Well, anyway. What I have here is a basic martial art technique. A fist technique. Learn it well. I believe with what I have taught you, you should advance far. Now, you can leave. My lessons are over. Tell your friend to come over for lessons tomorrow.”

Chu Shen looked at him for a second. “Huh? I still have one more day left don’t I? So why am I being sent back?”

Grandmaster Qin sighed. “It is just as I said. I have no more to teach you. In order to advance farther you would require at least another month. So instead of ending things half baked, I would rather end it here. As for the day left, just stop by to ask some questions if you encounter a bottleneck.”

Chu Shen nodded. “Okay. Having an expert to question is worth losing a day of training.”

A pain stabbed in his brain making Chu Shen wince. ‘Hey brat! You still have this expert. So why aren’t you questioning me!’

Chu Shen had a strange face on when he heard Master Wu’s voice. He couldn’t say the truth could he? That he didn’t feel like Ti Wu could help him. Otherwise what awaited him could be said to be hell.

He immediately adopted a placating tone mentally. ‘It’s not that master. I just feel like with how strong you are, to ask such basic questions would be considered an insult so it would be better to ask someone like this Grandmaster Qin.’

‘Hmph. What ‘Grandmaster’. In my eyes he is still just a brat. Hey brat. That Qin fellow is looking at you weird, pay attention!’

Indeed, when Chu Shen looked up Grandmaster Qin was staring at him with a look of concern. “Are you alright Chu Shen? It seemed like you blanked out there for a second.”

Chu Shen immediately shook his head. “No, no of course not! I just… I just had an inspiration that was all. Anyways I should head back to the shop to inform Lucas.”

Grandmaster Qin nodded in agreement. “Alright then. Have a safe journey. Don’t forget to give him the Token as well.”

“I won’t!” Chu Shen called over his shoulder as he walked back to the shop.

………………………………………………………………

While Chu Shen received the lecture on martial arts, Lucas went out hunting for primordial beasts. Every week they would close the shop for a day in order to gather beast cores for their experiments. Or more specifically, his. Today was no different even without Chu Shen.

But after an hour of hunting his tracking program discovered four people behind him. Ignoring it, Lucas merely went in a different direction. It wasn’t uncommon to come across people in the forest so it was probably coincidence. However they immediately turned to follow him as well!

Lucas frowned at this. Why would they do that? Were they following him? At this thought he immediately became cautious. Turning, he immediately started running in a zigzag path that would take him back to town. If he got there, they wouldn’t dare fight since it would mean offending the city lord.

However, even though these people were over 800 feet away, once they realized Lucas had discovered them, they immediately took off like a flash of lightning. In less than ten seconds they had already surrounded Lucas.

Lucas seeing who it was that stepped in front of him immediately recognized him. Pointing at him he called out. “You! It was actually you Slaughter!”

Indeed. The man that was hunting him was Slaughter! He laughed at the face Lucas made. “Haha! Indeed it is me. Now that you aren’t in town I don’t even have to bring up the Black Rose Guild. Come on brothers. We can finally collect that rich reward from that artificer.”

The man on the left shook his head. “It’s embarrassing Slaughter that you called us in. This child has no cultivation base so why exactly did you invite us to share in the spoils. It’s not like you.”

Slaughter shrugged. “I wasn’t sure if it was a trap that old guy put out for us. After all, why would someone with no cultivation base come out into the beast forest. Luckily we can’t detect anyone so maybe I’m just paranoid.”

He turned to Lucas. “So brat. You were just a mortal. And a trashy mortal at that. No matter. We just want information. How can you create those fake limbs. Tell us and we just might spare your life.”

Lucas reacted with lightning fast actions. Pulling out the Primordial Pistols, he also dropped two basketball size metal objects from the pouches. The four men were astonished at how fast Lucas moved, but other than that they didn’t really put him in their eyes.

That is, until the primordial pistols fired.

One of them was hit with the earth Primordial pistol, sealing him inside it. The other was struck with the shadow flame, enveloping him in a black corrosive flame along with a swath of forest around him.

“AHHH! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!” Due to the arrogance of facing a mortal, the unlucky cultivator didn’t even have his body shield up. His body started to wither as the black flame caught his skin on fire.

A surge of Qi briefly overwhelmed the flames making them flicker but they were not put out. Instead, they still burned on the cultivators body. Still screaming in pain, the cultivator immediately swallowed a medicinal pill before sitting down to try and suppress the shadow flames.

Slaughter, who was not hit by either shot was immediately stunned at how this ‘trashy mortal’ suddenly became so dangerous. Immediately he put up his body shield, alerted to this pig who became a tiger.

Lucas, on the other hand, immediately took off in a direct beeline for the town. The fourth member, who was not struck by either attack, took off after Lucas. As for the one sealed in rock, cracks already appeared in the shell. After all, all of them were Martial Practitioners Level 3.

However, the one that took off after Lucas was suddenly hit by two red beams of light. His body shield immediately started to dim as his Qi was drained. Stunned he turned to find out where these lights were coming from.

Unexpectedly, those two metal objects had become two spider like drones with lasers mounted on their heads. Running sideways like a crab, these spiders kept up a beam of heat at this man. At the speed of light, there was no way the man could dodge a laser.

But in a flash, the man appeared beside the spiders and struck out with his palm. While it was true he couldn’t dodge a laser, he could move out of its path. He was simply too fast for the turrets to track his movements.

The spiders were able to dodge the palm itself though, but not the faint energy palm that struck both of them, crushing them instantly. In a flash of light, both spiders blew up.

With a sinister glare at the retreating Lucas, a bow appeared in the man’s hands. Aiming, he suddenly unleashed an arrow at Lucas. In an instant, the arrow pierced completely through his leg!

Slaughter, who had already started chasing Lucas after shaking off his shock, immediately caught up to Lucas who had fallen down from the shot. Unexpectedly though, he was not rolling on the ground in pain. Instead he turned towards Slaughter with a strange glove on and fired it.

Before he could blink, Slaughter was pierce completely through the chest, his body shield breaking in an instant. He was hurled up into the air, a large hole appearing where his chest should be. A loud BOOOM and shock wave of air caused the leaves of the trees nearby to be blow off.

The man with the bow was stunned. Without a doubt, Slaughter was dead. Lucas turned towards the man with the bow and raised his hand. In response an arrow flew towards him, piercing through his skull instantly causing sparks to fly out the quarter sized hole.

Lucas, looking stunned, suddenly looked back at the man. Another BOOOM was heard as the man also had a large hole blown through his body. Lucas got up and started running. “Whew. If I wasn’t a cyborg, I would be dead!” Lucas wiped off some nonexistent sweat as he ran.

But suddenly, a sword pierced through his back. The sword sliced upwards, slicing Lucas in half from the waist up! A shower of sparks and wires followed the cut. Another slice came. And another. And another. A torrent of blows came and sliced Lucas up until no piece bigger than a fist remained.

The person responsible, the one sealed in the rock, stood behind Lucas’ torn corpse. He slumped to the ground. “What monster is this! He didn’t even have flesh, only metal for a body.”

The man turned and looked back at the huge swathe of devastation that came from Lucas’ weapon. He shook his head. “I’m lucky I wasn’t hit with that black flame. Even Murder wasn’t able to shake it off and died.”

A sinister smile came over him. “At least I am the only one to receive the treasure this time.” However, an inconspicuous ball in the corpse of Lucas started flashing. Glancing over, the man picked it up. “What is this, his heart?”

Unexpectedly a voice answered back. The voice came from a black box just a little bit away from him. “No, actually that is my reactor. Don’t worry though. You can keep it. It’s the last you will ever see.”

Later a half mile radius of the forest was reported gone, wiped out by some massive explosion. Many people became nervous, fearing that the primordial beasts may be acting up again.

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