Immortal Cultivator System

Chapter 34: First Blood

[ Name: Red Sky Sword

State: Repaired

Sword Technique: Paralyzing Pulse ( Shoots out a pulse that paralyzes everything that the blade is directly touching. )

Rank: Laws Realm, 4th Law ]

Jian quickly ignored the notification from the system and got his sword out of the disciple's hands. The man couldn't actually move his arm anymore, which made him an easy target, however the other disciples had been alarmed. He had to act quickly.

He lunged forward, preparing a full swing of his sword, however the disciples jumped away.

'Damnit. Can't use his arms, but his legs are still a hassle.' Jian thought. He could continue attacking the disciple mindlessly, but he decided to aim for the legs. Even if he couldn't cut them off, just hitting them would allow him to use the pulse. He didn't really know if it was something that he control or if it depended on the sword itself. However he knew it would work.

The disciple was still fast on his feet, dodging everytime Jian swung his blade at him. Jian's swings were large and surprisingly fast, but the disciple was much more skillful.

He was slowly getting on the boy's nerves however, especially when he landed on the Red Sky Sword and smiled smugly. Not a single word was exchanged between the two, this was a matter of life and death, and only one of them would come out of this tent alive.

However the disciple had much more surprises in his bag than Jian thought. He took a deep breath, the air around Jian becoming colder until the boy eventually shivered.

' This must be a technique he learned in his sect. I don't know much about that sect in particuliar, but from the little I know most of their techniques are made to be useful, not powerful or anything...Just useful. And it makes them dangerous since you can't expect them to be normal attacks that can be easily dodged. ' Jian thought as he prepared for anything that would come his way. Anything except the temperature to drop instantly, his body starting to freeze as the frostbite burned him.

The disciple then lunged forward, knowing that Jian was hurt and slowed down by the frost aura. He had no way of dodging this. And yet at the last moment, before the disciple delivered an uppercut that would've knocked out Jian, the boy bent his body backward and delivered a sword swing in a random direction.

"ARGHHHHH" The disciple rolled on the ground, covering his face that was now drowned in blood. Jian had taken a swing that sliced both of the disciple's eyes.

The boy quickly left the tent, the frostbite had taken it's toll on him and he needed to get back to the fire in the middle of the camp to heat himself up. The disciple wouldn't be following him anytime soon.

He found himself in a bad position however when Li Kuo landed right in front of him, his arms covered in bruises as the rest of the disciples appeared. He was already heating up due to the fire, but the situation looked quite...Bleak.

"Jian....Did you get him ?" Li Kuo asked. But all he got as an answer was a shake of the head.

" Damnit. He is most likely gonna heal himself with potions, we're pretty much dead. " Li Kuo said, as Jian felt the need to facepalm....He had actually forgotten about that possibility. However as the leader came out of the tent, still covering his eyes and wincing, Jian realized something.

' They did talk about how it was first come first served, and how the elders had went without them. The camp isn't really that well furnished and there wasn't much in that guy's tent...Hahahah, seems like the Snow Peacock Sect is as stingy as our sect. Those guys don't have potions ! Even their equipments are barely better than what I have. ' Jian thought. Seeing him smile all of a sudden, Li Kuo wondered what that was about, but in the end they were surrounded so he didn't have the time to think about such things.

"Oy, Jian. Did you know why I went to the merchant guild ?"Li Kuo suddenly asked, confusing the disciples and even Jian.

"Huh ?"

" I know the guy who runs the place in the capital. He offered me a good price for the materials I had, and sold me some good stuff."

"Why are you listening to those two ?! KILL THEM !!" The leader shouted, as Li Kuo took out two earrings ressembling little lion heads. He threw one at Jian and put the other on his ear, his body suddenly glowing in yellow.

' What the hell is that thing ?'

[ Name: Lion Heart Earrings

Rank: Mortal Realm 1st Form

Unique Ability: Lion's Last Stand ( The wearer gets stronger the more ennemies he has to fight.

Bonus:

- Slighty enhance the wearer's defense.

Description: Just some earrings shaped after a lion's head. ]

'Well I'll be damned. That sneaky bastard !' Jian thought happily as he saw the effects of the earrings. Li Kuo had prepared in advance it seemed, buying something that would benefit them greatly since they were bound to get through many huge battles during a war.

Two disciples lunged forward, throwing punches at Jian. Due to his superior speed with his cloak equipped he could dodge the attacks, but barely. He swat the two away with the flat part of his sword, and spun around in time to deliver a fatal flowing swing to another disciple who attacked from behind.

The blood coming out of the man's throat ended up on Li Kuo's face, but the noble was too absorbed by his fight to really mind. The Zero Sword couldn't fought by hands. The disciples found that the hard way when one of them tried to deliver an uppercut only to be stopped by the sword and have his hand frozen in an instant.

None of them could get too close to Li Kuo and he used that to his advantage, forcing them to back off against one of the tent. When they reached, it they all fell right on it, and before all of them could get up, Li Kuo had already sent three heads flying.

"You holding up, Jian ?" He asked, not even looking at his younger friend. He received a strong kick to the face, knocking him off a bit, and giving another time for three disciples to charge him at the same time.

"I'm doing better than you !" Jian yelled before throwing his sword at the three disciples, forcing them to squat down to dodge. Li Kuo kicked the sword mid-air to send it back to jian while stabbing his own sword in the ground.

"ZERO ZONE !"

Every single one of the disciples found their feets encased in hard purple ice, while the responsible let out a harsh breath and clutched his heart as if he was in great pain.

Jian looked at him in worry, but had no time to dally around since the leader had just spat out an icy mist. Luckily since the man had lost his eyes, his aim was a bit off and the mist ended up hitting only Li Kuo who ignored it due to his own ability.

Since the leader was still the most problematic ennemy, Jian decided to go after him, jumping high in the air while preparing for a vertical swing. The attack that would've sliced the leader in two ended up useless has a kick deflected the blade.

His sword now stuck in the ground, Jian was open for attacks and quickly received a jumping knee strike. Without having the time to block it, the knee ended up crashing on his head drawing blood from his nose.

' Damn ! System what about that curse I just unlocked ?!' Jian thought in panic. The way the fight had been going gave off the impression that he and Li Kuo were superior however most of the disciples were their equals since they were all much older. Due to the equipments and abilities the two friends had, they could dominate the fight, but a single mistake and they were dead.

[ The first curse is not suited for combat. I recommend looking at it later....You should worry about your friend instead of this. ]

Jian looked to his right just as Li Kuo screamed and saw his friend get stabbed in the stomach by a little dagger. The disciple who stabbed him was quite obviously some sort of sly fox, hiding daggers in his long cloak and attacking in weird patterns so Li Kuo couldn't predict his attacks.

Instead of just going after the leader again, Jian decided to change his strategy. He spat out his envy mist once again to distract the disciples he had been fighting himself. The effects were still on, so the mist would only serve as a distraction, however it was exactly what he needed.

The foxy disciple didn't see him coming and was quite shocked when he was hit by a charging jian that sent him flying on a nearby tent. Exhanging a quick look, Li Kuo and Jian immediately understood each other and both went after that disciple.

They jumped at the same time and landed on the sides of the man. He tried to dodge by going left, but the two had predicted that. By going on both sides, there was no way they could miss. Li Kuo ended up piercing the man's head with his sword and quickly removed before the rest came at them. Weirdly enough it seemed that his sword didn't take to being coated in blood too well. It started to hiss due to how hot the blood was. Fog started to appear around the two friends due to that reaction and Li Kuo got an idea. He quickly went after another disciple and slit his throat, he then made sure the blade was completely covered in blood and went back to Jian. The fog that formed due to the reaction was now thick enough to somehow hide the two, especially with darkness of the night still limiting the disciples' view.

Li Kuo was then tapped on the shoulder by Jian who pointed at his red sky sword and made a weird hand gesture that got the noble to look at him weirdly. Jian would assure him it would work and the noble had no choice but to comply.

The rest of the disciples knew they were dead the moment the swords of the two friends flew out of the fog. Jian and Li Kuo came right after, running after their swords, and just as Li Kuo's sword was block thus frozing the leg of the leader who was the one blocking while Jian's sword cleaved a disciple in half, the two friends both got into a weird stance. Their hands were fully opened and ready to deliver palm strikes, while they had their right leg slightly lifted in preparation for a counter kick. ( Basically a Muay Thai stance but slightly different )

Li Kuo delivered an elbow strike to the leader who blocked it with one hand while trying to kick Jian in the stomach. Said kick was stopped by Jian's knee right before the boy grabbed the leader's head and headbutted him. Li Kuo grabbed his sword and slashed at the leader, finally killing him while the last two disciples unleashed their fury on Jian, throwing out punches and kicks with such frequency the boy had no room to breath. One of them was soon grabbed by Li Kuo who started to repeatedly stab him. His terrified fellow disciple found himself facing Jian who decided to finish in style.

' System....Do tell me what this curse does.'

[ Congratulation User you have unlocked the first curse of the Eyes of the Blight ! ]

[ Curse of the Broken: Completely destroy the target's mind, crushing their every thoughts and transforming them into lifeless husks or rage fueled berserkers. This curse only works on targets that have already submitted to the user, are weak enough compared to the user or are too damaged to resist ]