The bodies lay scattered around the cave entrance like broken toys.
Kai stood among them, his new cultivation senses showing him the faint traces of death energy still clinging to the corpses. His hands were steady despite the blood. His breathing was calm. Three men dead by his hand, and all he felt was the cold logic of survival.
[CURRENT SITUATION ASSESSMENT]
[WITNESSES: All deceased]
[EVIDENCE: Significant - Bodies, blood, spiritual energy traces]
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: Disposal and cover story creation]
[TIME UNTIL DISCOVERY: Unknown - Suggest immediate action]
Kai cleaned Zhao Ming's sword on the dead man's robes, then sheathed it. Better quality than his sect-issued blade, and now it was his by right of victory. In the cultivation world, the strong took from the weak. That was the way things worked.
He examined the scene with his Death Vision, looking for anything that might give him away. The spiritual energy signatures were the biggest problem. Any elder with proper cultivation could read how the fight had gone from the leftover qi patterns.
But death energy was different. It faded quickly, leaving few traces that normal cultivators could notice. The shadow energy from his domain was already disappearing from the cave.
[SYSTEM SUGGESTION]
[USE SOUL HARVEST TO CONSUME SPIRITUAL TRACES]
[WILL ELIMINATE EVIDENCE WHILE PROVIDING ADDITIONAL DEATH POINTS]
Soul Harvest. Kai had unlocked the ability but hadn't used it yet. According to the system information that appeared when he focused on it, the technique consumed what remained of a dead cultivator's soul, their final spiritual echoes, and turned everything into death energy.
It was thorough. And disturbing.
"Show me how," Kai said quietly.
[SOUL HARVEST TECHNIQUE - ACTIVATION]
[PLACE HAND ON DECEASED TARGET]
[CHANNEL SHADOW ENERGY]
[CONSUME REMAINING SPIRITUAL ESSENCE]
Kai knelt beside Zhao Ming's body. Up close, he could see the death had been quick, the sword through the heart had been precise. At least he hadn't made the man suffer needlessly.
That thought almost made him laugh. Worrying about suffering while preparing to consume a man's soul. The cultivation world was already changing how he saw things.
He placed his hand on Zhao Ming's forehead and channeled shadow energy.
The technique started immediately. Dark energy flowed from Kai's palm, sinking into the corpse. The body began to... shrink away. Not rotting exactly, but losing its substance. The spiritual energy that had given it life, the soul pieces that stayed after death, everything was being pulled into Kai's cultivation base.
[SOUL HARVEST IN PROGRESS]
[ZHAO MING - FOUNDATION BUILDING 5TH STAGE]
[ESTIMATED COMPLETION: 3 minutes]
Kai watched without emotion as Zhao Ming's body dried up. The flesh shriveled, the bones became brittle, the robes started to decay quickly. Within three minutes, what had been a powerful Foundation Building cultivator was reduced to ancient-looking remains that could have been decades old.
[SOUL HARVEST COMPLETE]
[DEATH POINTS GAINED: 50]
[SPIRITUAL EVIDENCE: Eliminated]
[BODY STATE: Advanced decomposition - Unidentifiable cultivation level]
Kai moved to Wang Shu's body and repeated the process. Then Liu Jian. By the time he finished, three corpses lay around the cave entrance that looked like they'd been dead for years rather than minutes.
[TOTAL DEATH POINTS: 656]
[EVIDENCE LEVEL: Low - Bodies appear to be ancient remains]
Better, but not perfect. He still needed a story that explained what happened to the transport, the guards, the prisoners, and Zhao Ming's group.
Kai sat on a rock and made himself think clearly despite the tiredness creeping into his body. The breakthrough to Qi Gathering First Stage had taken a lot out of him, and the Soul Harvest technique had drained him further.
[SHADOW ENERGY: 89/150]
[HP: 76/100]
[PHYSICAL STATE: Exhausted]
[MENTAL STATE: Stable but declining]
Think. What would make sense to the sect?
The transport was ambushed. That much was true and expected on the eastern road. The guards died fighting. Also believable. The prisoners died in the chaos. Standard.
But what about Zhao Ming's group?
According to everyone at the sect, they'd been "helping" Kai with extra training. If they disappeared the same night as the transport mission...
[SYSTEM SUGGESTION]
[SCENARIO: Zhao Ming's group attempted to help but arrived too late]
[They pursued the bandits into the forest and encountered something worse]
[Old cultivation remnants, spiritual beasts, or corrupted area]
[Their bodies show signs of ancient death energy - Consistent with eastern forest dangers]
It could work. The eastern forest was known to be dangerous, especially near the old meditation caves. Disciples had disappeared here before. If Zhao Ming's group had chased bandits into the wrong area and met something they couldn't handle...
The sect would be suspicious, but they couldn't prove otherwise. And frankly, based on what Kai had learned about Senior Disciple Chen Yun's transport assignments, the sect might not look too carefully. Three more disciples dead in the eastern forest? Sad but not unheard of.
Kai stood and began arranging the scene. He dragged the dried-out bodies deeper into the forest, away from the immediate cave area. Positioned them to look like they'd been running from something. Used his sword to add some extra damage that could be blamed on spiritual beasts or worse.
[SCENE MANIPULATION: In Progress]
[COVER STORY CREDIBILITY: 67%]
The transport cart was still on the road where they'd been ambushed. Kai returned to it, moving carefully through the forest. His Death Vision showed him no other living signatures nearby. The driver had run away, and any real bandits who might have been in the area had wisely avoided the spiritual energy explosions from the fight.
The cart was a mess. Two dead guards, two dead prisoners, blood everywhere, and clear signs of fighting. Kai examined the scene and made a decision.
He used his new shadow abilities to change some of the evidence. Not too much, just enough to suggest the attackers had been numerous and powerful. He scattered some supplies to make it look like looting. Made it appear like a thorough bandit attack rather than three disciples killing witnesses.
[SCENE MANIPULATION: Complete]
[COVER STORY CREDIBILITY: 78%]
Then Kai let himself add real touches. He reopened some of his wounds from the earlier fight, made sure he looked like he'd barely survived. Tore his robes more. Covered himself in dirt and blood.
When sect investigators found him, he needed to look like a survivor, not a winner.
[SHADOW ENERGY: 95/150 - Regenerating slowly]
[HP: 71/100]
[PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: Convincingly traumatized]
Satisfied with his preparations, Kai stumbled back toward the sect. He moved slowly, like someone in shock, sometimes stopping to catch his breath. His new cultivation senses showed him the sect's outer perimeter ahead, guards, patrol disciples, the normal security.
As he approached the main gate, a guard called out.
"Halt! Identify yourself!"
"Outer Disciple Kai Chen," Kai said, his voice rough and shaking. Not entirely an act, exhaustion and the night's events were catching up to him. "Returning from transport mission. We were ambushed. Everyone else is dead."
The guards immediately snapped to attention. Within minutes, Kai was surrounded by disciples asking questions, offering help, escorting him to the medical pavilion.
"What happened?"
"Bandits on the eastern road..."
"How many attackers?"
"I don't know, at least a dozen..."
"Where are the others?"
"Dead. All dead. I barely escaped..."
The questions came fast, and Kai answered them in pieces, like someone in shock would. He kept his story simple and consistent. Ambush, too many enemies, chaos, desperate run into the forest, somehow surviving until dawn.
At the medical pavilion, a healer examined him. An elderly woman with sharp eyes and Foundation Building cultivation, she checked his wounds and his spiritual state.
"You've broken through to Qi Gathering First Stage," she noted. "That's unusual. How long have you been cultivating?"
"I don't know," Kai said, which was technically true. "Everything is mixed up. During the attack, I was trying to escape, and suddenly I felt something... change. My body moved differently. I could sense things I couldn't before."
The healer nodded slowly. "Breakthrough under life-threatening pressure. Rare, but it happens. Your spiritual foundation is shaky though. You forced it through desperation rather than proper cultivation. You'll need time to stabilize."
[DECEPTION: Successful]
[HEALER ASSESSMENT: Breakthrough attributed to survival pressure]
[SUSPICION LEVEL: Low]
"Rest now," the healer said. "Senior disciples will want to question you later about what happened, but for now, you need to recover."
She gave him medicine that tasted bitter and made him sleepy. Kai didn't fight it. Sleep would help sell his cover story, and his body really needed rest.
As consciousness faded, he heard disciples talking outside the pavilion.
"...three guards dead, both prisoners, and now we can't find Zhao Ming's group..."
"...sent a search party to the eastern forest..."
"...probably dead too, that area is cursed..."
"...how did the farm boy survive when everyone else died..."
The voices faded into darkness.