Chapter 146 The Butcher
Ken instantly noticed that the discs under his feet melted and knew that shouting out to Tiara wouldn't help. He was sure she noticed her technique had failed, and indeed, a new ice disc formed under his feet right away.
However, this new disc also melted, and he deduced that something was interfering with everyone's techniques or Qi manipulation.
He tried thrusting his sword against the wall but was surprised to feel no feedback, indicating that his attack missed the rocks. He also felt the Blood Tokens slip from his pocket and fly away.
'Weird.'
Ken thought to himself and his mind raced as he tried to find a solution to his plight. Although his body was stronger than the bodies of the best Core Formation cultivators out there, it wasn't exactly indestructible.
'Blood Sense.'
It was the best idea he had. The bloody mist gave him the same sense that he got from sensing bloodlust within others using his technique.
To his delight, it indeed worked. Although he can normally sense only humans as other things didn't hold any bloodlust, everything in the valley was imbued with it. The whole mist was somehow made of bloodlust, and he could only attribute it to extremely powerful elders from stages he still couldn't fathom.
Not only he could sense everything around him, but everything was as clear as if the sun was aiming its rays specifically at the valley. He sensed the stones surrounding him, and even the people wandering around in the fog.
He instantly swung his sword, using its flexibility to make it work like a whip rather than piercing the wall. The sword wrapped itself against a spike jutting out of the rocks, allowing Ken to control his speed.
By tilting his movement vector, he was changing his momentum from directly downward to moving to the side along with the wall, until he finally got full control of his speed.
Unlike the two others who reached the rocky floor faster, Ken descended gradually until he landed safely on his feet.
'The place is screaming for my attention. It's probably because of my Bloodlust Qi.'
His bloodlust resonated with the bloody mist, and he felt like he was in his natural habitat when he used it. Just like the others, he also didn't like the suffocation caused by the mist and used his Bloodlust Qi to repel it.
He tried using his Sword Qi, but he sensed how hard it was to manipulate it. And that was just simple manipulation, not using Heaven-grade techniques. By deactivating Blood Sense, he got a good impression of the way the others must feel inside the mist without Bloodlust Qi.
'haha, this is a good chance to rob some people.'
His technique allowed him to sense people kilometers away. Normally it wasn't that all-encompassing, but with the fog enhancing his ability coupled with the Blood Tokens surrendering their carriers' locations, his range was multiplied many times over.
'So everyone is blind other than me? It's like the person designing the place made it that way for me.'
He could easily tell apart those with elements from those without; the ones walking in straight lines were those with a clear destination as they were following the resonance they could feel with their elements.
In contrast, many others were walking in circles or lying down in exhaustion after depleting their Qi to fend off the mist for too long. Those were the people who entered the fog without knowing the mechanism nor the awards waiting inside, thus they were now trapped without a way to get out.
Ken gave a devilish smile and soon started his journey to easy money and competition elimination. Surprisingly, he didn't care about those who were lost. They couldn't harm him, and he didn't have time to spare. Instead, he cared more about reducing the number of cultivators who can endanger him later, leading him to aim at the fifth-stage cultivators.
The closest people to him were none other than his companions, but since they knew their ways, he didn't bother to reach out to them. He picked his first target by choosing the closest person to him who walked in a straight line.
The child took out one of his favorite masks from his ring, a clear indication of the future to come to anyone who knew his habits.
'Better get rid of those threats now than let them attack me later in less favorable situations.'
Ken thought inwardly as he moved from target to target, slaughtering them easily. His advantage was extreme; they could barely sense anything from a few centimeters away, while those with special techniques and attributes like Alaric managed to perceive things a few meters ahead.
Ken, on the other hand, sensed everything as clearly as he perceived the sun on a clear day. He simply walked through the fog, took small knives he had in his storage ring, and threw them from 10 meters away. He picked them up while looting others because they were sixth-grade knives and he found it impressive.
The knives easily cut through the target's body, leaving a gaping hole in his chest. Ken walked to the injured man and finished him off before absorbing his BP and looting his storage ring.
'He was from the Peaceful Demon Sect. Those guys are really troublesome to deal with, their Buddha Qi calms the mind while their Demonic Qi agitates it. It's much easier to slaughter them from the mist.'
Ken spent a whole day walking around the place and ignoring the strong urge that nagged him to go and check out an especially large chasm in the middle of the territory. Those cultivators were like sheep waiting to get butchered, and Ken played the butcher.
'Oh, this one is interesting. Is it possible I'm sensing a sixth-stage cultivator?'
Ken was intrigued when another being entered his perception range. This human was much more powerful than the other cultivators he met so far, and he was sure that many of them were at the peak of the fifth stage.
With a smirk, he headed to intercept the cultivator on their way to the Fire Chasm, a knife ready in his palm.