Immortal Paladin

The plains were crowded with disciples in black and white robes, all busy with their own tasks. Herds of demonic beasts roamed far in the distance while cultivators chased them, harvested their cores, or stripped their hides. Others knelt among fields of herbs, carefully digging out spirit plants by the roots. Smaller groups hammered ores out of a rocky mountainside. Nearer to the lake, Ren Jingyi led a squad from the Beast Court, surrounding a giant turtle whose shell was covered in moss thicker than a man’s arm.

On the opposite side of the plains, the white-robed Heavenly Temple disciples weren’t doing any of the dangerous work. They were calmly planting flag formations, embedding runes into the ground with practiced movements. Every step was measured, every rotation of their wrist aligned with some invisible pattern. While everyone else sweated, they sat on mats and circulated qi as if they were out for a leisurely afternoon.

External exchange disciples wore black. Internal disciples wore white. Both groups were further divided by waistbands, such as blue for Soul Recognition, green for Essence Gathering, and red for Bloodline Refinement. The Academy loved classifications. They claimed this diversity was beneficial.

Unfortunately, diversity could also mean conflict.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going, idiot!” a black-robed disciple shouted as a group in white marched past him.

“You failed to sense us. Whose fault is that?” sneered a Temple disciple.

“Our hunt was ruined because of your useless little flags!”

“And whose fault is it you can’t even understand a basic formation layout? We take the smart tasks because you fools can only swing swords!”

I noticed the argument from far below but kept my distance. The petty fights between external and internal disciples had nothing to do with us. The Academy’s point system rewarded completed tasks, and everyone had their eyes on those points. Elders accumulated points the same way, so Da Ji was probably drowning in work as she wrote her lecture plan.

“Are you not going to interfere?” Wu Chen asked, staring at the shouting crowd with innocent confusion.

“Nah,” I said as I stepped forward and vanished with Flash Step. “Not our problem.”

“H-Hey! You’re too quick! Wait for me!”

I stopped at the entrance of a cave marked by an old wooden sign: Hidden Dwelling of the Dragon.

According to what I had read, an Elder once secluded himself here for a long time and ascended into immortality. Before he left, he discovered that the mountain held veins of rare minerals and spirit stones. Because of that, this cave was now one of the most lucrative places to earn points.

“Come on, Chen,” I said. “Let’s go.”

“Okay!” she chirped brightly.

Inside, several disciples were already hard at work, swinging pickaxes with rhythmic thuds. Their red waistbands marked them as Bloodline Refinement cultivators, much higher ranked than me or Wu Chen. She wore a green waistband. I wore blue. We stood out immediately.

“Hey, this isn’t the right place for the two of you,” one senior disciple said without even looking up. His black robes matched mine, but his face was unfamiliar. “Qi is thin here. The earth absorbs vigor. If you aren’t careful, your life force might drain out of you.”

“We’ll be fine,” Wu Chen said cheerfully. “I have lots!”

“Stupid girl,” the man muttered before returning to his mining.

Wu Chen wasn’t wrong. Beings born from plant life had absurd reserves of life force. Tan Jin was similar. Wu Chen, despite suppressing her cultivation into the Sixth Realm, still carried more life energy than the entire mining crew combined. As for me, aura protected my body from the draining qi.

I took out two pickaxes from my storage ring.

“Alright,” I said, handing her one. “Let’s start working.”

Wu Chen grabbed the pickaxe with sparkling eyes, completely ignorant that mining was supposed to be tedious. In her mind, this was probably an adventure.

The Hidden Dwelling of the Dragon, more commonly called the Hidden Dragon Cave, had earned its reputation among Seventh Realm disciples for a reason. The Elder who once secluded himself here had refined his bloodline into that of a dragon, leaving behind traces of draconic essence inside the mountain. Every ambitious cultivator dreamed of tapping into that legacy. Add to that the rumor that this entire mountain was built over a graveyard of mythical beasts, demonic beasts, and ancient magical creatures, and it was no surprise this place attracted crowds. If someone happened to mine a bloodstone, they could all but guarantee reaching the peak of Bloodline Refinement. Even unrefined spirit stones brought in massive points, and the rarer metals could push someone into the higher classes in a single haul. The danger of having your life force drained made those points even more tempting.

“Am I doing it right?” Wu Chen asked as she mimicked my movements with surprising accuracy, swinging her pickaxe with steady rhythm and stuffing every chunk of ore into her pocket dimension.

“You’re doing great,” I said, keeping my tone casual.

I swung my pickaxe without much care for efficiency, relying on brute force and aura reinforcement. Each strike loosened chunks of stone and ore, all of which I shoved into my storage ring. After gathering enough, I stopped abruptly. Wu Chen halted as well and looked at me with confusion.

“Is there a problem?”

“I already got the points I need.”

With what I had mined, I could easily step into the star class where the Academy’s elite gathered. I even had enough to help Ren Jingyi climb with me. Wu Chen, judging by how much she had happily shoveled into her pocket dimension, would also be fine. Still, I wasn’t sure it was wise for her to stick to my side too long. Someone might recognize her if they looked closely, and that would be troublesome.

“Hey, we can still do more, right?” she asked eagerly. “The more points the better. Isn’t that what Elder Zhu Bo told us?”

“I’d rather not,” I replied, brushing my fingers against the cave walls.

A deep ache tugged at my chest. I thought it was my imagination, but the sensation only grew stronger. Ghost Soul would have heard this mountain’s whispers more clearly than I ever could, but even with just my instincts and Divine Sense, I could feel the faint traces of bloodlust soaked into the stone. It was the kind that lingered for generations.

“I can almost hear it,” I murmured, lowering my voice. “The wails of the dead.”

This mountain wasn’t a graveyard for beasts. It was a burial ground for ‘people’ and creatures of all kinds, but people nonetheless. They had lived, thought, hoped, and despaired. Now they were only echoes pressed into the earth. The oath within me throbbed, pulling faintly at my core as if calling me to acknowledge them. After so many descents of foreign realms, countless civilizations had collapsed, swept away the Cleanse policies. I wondered how many mountains like this one the Heavenly Temple had built over the dead.

“We’re done here,” I finally said, placing my pickaxe back into my ring.

Wu Chen blinked, but she nodded without arguing as she stuffed her pickaxe to her pocket dimension.

We left the cave and descended the jagged slopes in silence. When I reached a ledge midway down the mountain, I stopped for a moment to admire the scenery. The lower peaks spread out in layers, and thin strands of mist clung to the cliffs. It fascinated me how the qi grew thinner the higher the climb became; it felt almost like the mountain resisted being touched by mortal presence.

“What’s that?” Wu Chen suddenly asked, pointing toward the lake where Ren Jingyi’s group was supposed to be. “Ren Jingyi’s missing…”

My breath stopped, and instinct shoved rational thought aside. I kicked off the ground with Divine Speed and chained Flash Step after Flash Step until the world blurred and the lake rushed up to meet me.

The lake shore was a mess. A massive turtle, easily the size of a small house, lay dead and half-dismantled, its shell cracked open by heavy tools. Black-robed cultivators surrounded it, stripping the corpse for materials and spirit marrow. Several members of the Beast Court lay scattered on the grass, unconscious but alive. Wang Ju, the two-tailed fox, struggled to remain awake, his beastly regeneration barely keeping him conscious. His bloodied fur looked matted and dull, and despite his attempts to remain composed, his breathing was ragged. I felt the urge to heal him on the spot, but I held myself back. I could do it later, when no one was watching.

“Y-you… you’re with Lady Ren, right?” Wang Ju croaked, his voice trembling as he lifted his head. “Please… go. Tell the elder that Lady Ren is in danger…”

Ren Jingyi… in danger.

My disciple.

It took every shred of restraint to keep my killing intent suppressed. I wasn’t her master right now; I was a simple disciple. If I let my aura flare too much, someone would notice something they shouldn’t. As the Animal Path, I was always a step away from baring fangs and acting on instinct. The desire to kill was woven into me as naturally as breathing.

The black-robed cultivators finally looked my way. There were five of them, all wearing the robes of external disciples.

“Oh, great. More of those filthy beasts,” one of them said with a sneer. “Take the rest of your mutts and go back to the dormitories. Don’t stick your head into something you can’t handle.”

I kept my tone even. “Why are you doing this? We’re all external disciples. Aren’t we on the same side?”

“Same side?” the man barked a laugh. “Don’t be stupid. A lowly beast isn’t someone we’d bother sympathizing with.”

Another spat in my direction, and a third waved me away like shooing a stray dog. Wu Chen stiffened beside me. I sensed her qi twist with anger and saw her shift her weight, ready to leap into action, but I turned my head and shot her a single look. She instantly froze. I could feel my pupils narrowing, my vision sharpening, my hearing stretching. My eyes must have looked feral, slit like a predator stalking prey.

“W-what are you doing?” Wang Ju asked, fear creeping into his voice.

“Tell me what happened,” I said, letting my beastly presence roll over him. My will bore down like a wolf hovering over wounded prey. “Don’t leave a single detail out.”

“T-they ambushed our hunt,” Wang Ju stammered, unable to resist the pressure. “Internal disciples showed up… They waited for us to finish. Lady Ren found a precious herb elixir on the turtle’s forehead, one that only blooms once every century. The internal disciples made a deal with them… They get the herb, and these external disciples get the turtle.”

The leader of the group, a muscular man with a green waistband, finally noticed we were still standing there. His irritation flared as he stepped forward. “What are you still doing here? Are you deaf? If you were told to get lost, then—”

He didn’t finish.

I activated Zeal Aura, flooding my body with silver martial light. Speed exploded through my limbs. Divine Speed carried me behind him before he registered movement. My palm thrust out, wrapped in War Smite, and tore through his torso with a thunderous crack that sent him flying into the lake. Water erupted in a violent splash.

“Let me fight with you,” Wu Chen said eagerly, her eyes gleaming, her small childlike form trembling with excitement.

“No,” I said, never taking my gaze off the remaining disciples. “They are my prey.”

Among those left, three wore blue waistbands of the Soul Recognition realm. The last one wore green, marking her as Essence Gathering. Under normal circumstances, I’d consider them decent opponents. But right now? Against my angered heart, they were nothing. I understood that complex emotions belonged to the Human Path, but when filtered through the mind of a beast, such emotions lost nuance. Anger wasn’t sadness, frustration, or indignation.

Anger was simply the desire to kill and hurt.

The twin brothers, both in Soul Recognition, lunged at me in a practiced battle formation. One wielded a spear, the other dual swords. The spearman was the arrowhead, faster and sharper, while the swordsman waited for his brother’s momentum.

I strengthened Zeal Aura, concentrating it in my legs and eyes. Divine Sense sharpened every grain of sand beneath my feet and every drop of sweat on their skin. With beast-like dexterity, I sprang upward, planted my foot on the tip of the spear, then seized the shaft in mid-air. The spearman’s eyes went wide.

“Too slow.” I murmured, “Stagger.”

The technique twisted his balance, ruining his center of gravity. As he stumbled, I pivoted mid-air and kicked the dual-sword brother by the wrist. His own blade stabbed his opposite arm, throwing off his rhythm entirely.

With Divine Might flooding my muscles, I swung the spear like a hammer. The force smashed the brothers together, sending them flying into the lake with an explosive splash.

The spear felt light in my hand as I spun it and deflected several energy arrows with Flash Parry. The woman wearing the green waistband fired like her life depended on it, but her accuracy was mediocre. Her arrows simply packed a punch, nothing more.

“Hey! Do something useful!” she shrieked at her last remaining ally.

“Bind!” the blue-waistband cultivator cried. He pressed his index finger and thumb together, invoking a spell circle. “From the four cardinal directions, restrain this beast—!”

I moved with a single Flash Step. The binding formation never touched me.

With a controlled Thunderous Smite, I hurled the spear. It pierced straight through the woman’s shoulder, pinning her to the grass. She screamed, her bow dropping from numb fingers.

The last blue-waistband disciple started shaking, urine running down his leg as I walked past him without even glancing his way.

“Y-you can’t kill me!” the woman sobbed as I pulled the spear out of her shoulder. “It hurts, you dirty mongrel! I am from—!”

She didn’t finish. Her eyes rolled back and she collapsed, unconscious. The boy fainted moments later.

“D-Did you kill them?” Wang Ju asked, horrified.

“No, silly,” I replied. “I’m not a monster. But they definitely deserved the beating.”

Before I finished the beating, I used Divine Word: Rest. It was a technique that drained what little quintessence I could muster in this state. Ugh… I’d need a recharge.

Wu Chen approached and offered her hand. I took it, absorbing the quintessence she willingly lent me.

“W-what is happening…?” Wang Ju asked, staring at our hands glowing faintly.

I ignored him and cast Cure repeatedly on him, on the Beast Court disciples, even on the unconscious woman bleeding from her shoulder. The holy light knitted flesh and soothed qi pathways.

“Go retrieve the idiots I threw into the lake,” I said. “Wu Chen, stay here and protect the others. I’m going to settle my own business.”

“Where are you going?” Wu Chen asked.

“To my disciple, of course.” My voice sharpened as I picked up Ren Jingyi’s trail. “If she’s dead, I might lose control. Does the Heavenly Temple not teach virtue or character to their disciples anymore?”

I kicked off the ground with Zealot’s Stride, rising to a vantage point and estimating Ren Jingyi’s direction with her lingering scent. She wasn’t far.

Before I left, I glanced at Wang Ju. “Forget everything you saw today. Understand?”

“Y-yes,” he answered meekly, then asked with trembling courage, “J-just who are you?”

I flashed him a toothy grin, letting my beast side peek through. “Just a ticked-off beast.”