Baotian perfectly understood that the situation was bad but at the same time, the need to confirm what he suspected was stronger than his fear.
"You're right, we need to finish it" he said through his spiritual sense. "Before 'that' happened, I was in Seattle, in America, as a baker. And you Zhenyun, where were you before?"
He tried to stay relatively vague, in case one of the Core Formation cultivators with them, or higher level cultivators around, tried to spy on their discussion. Now, he only had to wait for an answer.
'In fact, even if he refuses to answer, it should still be possible to deduce if he's a transmigrator based on his reaction, I just have to be attentive' he thought.
Zhenyun seemed to be about to answer, but was interrupted:
"Baotian… what are you discussing with your junior disciple, that you need to keep away from me?"
The one interrupting was Liu Jianhong. Baotian, snapping back to reality, reported his attention on him, and almost cried on the spot. His eyes carried giant bags beneath them, his hair was disheveled,his skin was much paler and he seemed thinner. Despite having barely exhausted more than a third of his lifespan, he seemed to have aged back to his fifties. To look this way at the Core Formation, Baotian could not imagine what he went through.
"I need to talk to Zhenyun about something important" he said, unsuccessfully trying to talk without his voice shaking. "It is a totally unrelated matter to the Liu clan, and-"
"You're trying to bring him to the demonic path, right?"
Uh? When had he tried such a thing? Baotian tried to deny the accusation, but wasn't given any chance to do so:
"I knew it! My disciples… Ahh, my adorable disciple, Baotian. Baotian! You want to drag your junior brother with you! Make him abandon me like you did! My disciples, I cherish you so much… and you little Baotian, did I ever mistreat you? Did… did I ever treat you differently from little Zhenyun because you couldn't break through? I understand killing the one who insulted your parents. I even understand joining the demonic path to increase your lifespan!
I can understand everything you did, I can forgive everything! But I also know you're not the same Boatian anymore… You're not this mischievous but bright youngling… And, and now, when I see you talking with your junior brother and hiding things from me… Are you trying to bring him along with you? What are you hiding? In the first place, what even brought you to choose this life!"
With bloodshot eyes, he turned toward Bai Zisheng, his killing intent getting thicker by the second:
"Did you do this? I see you filthy demon sticking with my cherished disciple, were you the one to corrupt him? I'LL KILL YOU"
Before anyone could intervene, he threw himself at the demonic cultivator, not caring the slightest about the gap in power between them: he had completely lost his mind.
"I'll kill you, I'll erase you body and soul! Daring to guide my disciple on your rotten path? You're courting death!"
Bai Zisheng was blocking his offense without too much problem but even then, it seemed that he wouldn't be able to keep up without counter-attacking for long. Swords and blood creations were flying everywhere, plunging the space around them into chaos. Baotian, flying around, was barely managing to avoid being struck.
"Please, do calm down, fellow cultivator" Bai Zisheng said as he created a blood snake, wrapping it around his opponent's sword to restrain it. "You're offering a poor spectacle to our juniors"
But Lui Jianhong did not care about his words, however reasonable they were, and attacked with even more intensity, using dozens of swords at once and, from what Baotian could see, preparing a formation killer move. Seeing this, Bai Zisheng actually started to feel threatened, preparing his own formation killer move.
The situation was already bad enough like this but it quickly got worse when Baotian noticed a light shining beside him. Turning toward it, he saw that Zhenyun was preparing a killer move as well, and it did not take a genius to know who he was aiming for. Baotian tried to shout to reason with them but his breath was interrupted as the mix of the three Core Formation level pressures reached him.
At this rate, someone would die. Likely even multiple of them. And yet, he was powerless, unable to do anything.
'Ah, in this world… being weak… is truly a sin, isn't it?'
Just as despair was rising in his heart, a fourth strong pressure suddenly appeared, even more powerful, suppressing the first three:
"Alright, fellow cultivators, you will have all the opportunities you want to fight during and after the contest, so I believe you should stop for now"
Before they could react, both Bai Zisheng and Liu Jianhong were propelled forward by the newcomer, unable to react to the surprise attack, and their killer moves were disrupted. Zhenyun, seeing that the fight had been interrupted, wisely chose to stop his own killer move as well. Baotian found himself breathing normally again, and looked at the cultivator who had just saved the situation: he was tall, nearly seven feet, and had bulging but harmonious muscles, with golden blond hair and hazel eyes. His aura was undoubtedly that of a Nascent Soul cultivator, one that would prompt the respect of cultivators from all over the world.
However, what catched Baotian the most was the traits of his face: they were different from those of everyone else he had seen since his arrival in the cultivation world. Even his skin tone was slightly different. He seemed to be… occidental?
'Yes, these are definitely traits that would fit... a German? American? Danish? He clearly looks European!'
As Baotian's brain stopped working for a second, the Nascent Soul cultivator looked at the two Core Formation cultivators he had just sent flying:
"Are the two of you alright? I am truly sorry for giving you such a rough welcome, but it seemed like someone was about to be hurt, and I didn't have much time to think"
"This junior is not hurt, but I thank you for your thoughtfulness" Bai Zisheng said, with much respect and politeness.
Liu Jianhong, having just snapped out of his madness, didn't reply, barely managing to get up with Zhenyun's help. The cultivator then turned to Baotian and, before the latter realized it, had moved right in front of him:
"And you, junior, are you alright?" he asked. "Did you get hurt in the crossfire?"
Baotian, still barely able to comprehend the current situation, shook his head:
"No senior, I am left unscathed thanks to your kindness" he replied, bowing his head.
"Haha, good, good, good! It's a relief!" the strange Nascent Soul cultivator said, patting Baotian's shoulder a few times. "Now, let's go to your residences, shall we? I assume most of you are participating in the international contest, right? Then you should rest well"
"Ah, the contest? If it's not disrespectful, may I ask for senior's identity?"
"Haha, of course! I am the one in charge of organizing the friendly contest between the Xuanhe Kingdom and our Lands of Yaoling, and the participant of the last match, Hanliang of the Griffin tribe!"
At these words, the four Xuanhe kingdom's cultivators' eyes widened. Just like Zhenyun and the deceased Wu Leihao, Hanliang of the Griffin tribe was considered one of the six geniuses! And not just any genius but the older of them, who had reached Nascent Soul around the age of four hundred years.
'But putting his talent aside… doesn't he have a bad reputation for being a sexual deviant?'
Bad rumors weren't lacking about him. It was said that he used extreme yang techniques, and regularly forced men he took a liking to to lie beneath him. Baotian, internally wincing, fought the urge to slap a large hand away from his shoulder.
'It's alright, there's three Core Formation cultivators here, and Zhenyun and senior Bai are their own weightclass, it should deter him from acting even at his level. Plus, considering these rumors circulated in our Xuanhe kingdom, it's very likely that they're just baseless slander anyway'
Yes, more importantly, the fact he was Hanliang explained his appearance. Baotian had heard about it: when they reached the Nascent Soul realm, Spirit Beast gained a human form they could use whenever they wished, but with some differences. He had wondered what 'a few differences meant', and now he knew.
'Uh, it's strange… the living conditions of this world are completely different, but the appearance of 'humans', and 'human forms', is exactly the same as on Earth? How is that possible?'
As a relatively well-educated person, Baotian knew it was not normal. Precedently, he had dismissed the fact that this world's inhabitants all seemed to be of asian descent as a mix of coincidence and him not having his mind free to think about it, but now, his curiosity was piqued…
However, not much time passed before his thoughts were interrupted:
"Wait a minute, Hanliang, I think I already heard… hey, you're one of the six geniuses too, the man rapist!"
Hearing this, Hanliang's smile froze. Bai Zisheng's smile contorted as well, turning into a strange but humorous expression. Baotian himself facepalmed so hard he felt his head ringing for a moment. At this moment, the latter three were all thinking the same thing:
'This dumb brat!'
Baotian looked at him with renewed contempt: of course their master would go mad if his only smart disciple left for the demonic path and he was left with such a fucking retard!
Fortunately, despite the rumors, Hanliang seemed to have good characters, and so he didn't make much noise about this and just led them to their residences, though with much less enthusiasm.
'Ahh…'
While Liu Jianhong had temporarily been taken out of his pitiful state, first by rage and then by sheer shock at Zhenyun's bluntness, he seemed to have returned to his lethargic state. There was less life in his eyes than there should be in a human being's eyes.
Left alone in a spacious habitation, Baotian first laid down on a comfortable bed. He remained like this for nearly an hour, and then he got up.
"I wonder…"
He went to the bathroom. Indeed, there was a mirror then. He looked into the mirror, and smile:
"Hello, my name is Zhang Baotian" he said. "I'm a blood path demonic cultivator and I'm scum that killed hundreds of people. Every night, I have trouble sleeping unless I completely exhausted myself during the day because I'm a weak person that cannot handle guilt. What do you think, do I still have the will to live?"
Baotian, his expression contorted into a forced smile, looked into his eyes with the mirror's help. After a few minutes, he finally came to a conclusion.
"Yes… I still have the will to live"
And in truth, despite his lifeless eyes, his master likely still had a blazing will to live as well.
This was just how people were: no matter what, they kept struggling to live, until the flow of the world left them behind, and they were swallowed by the coldness of death.
'That is why I must reach immortality… no matter what'
And the first step to reach it was to gain power, more, more and much more power, so he wouldn't be thrust in a powerless position as he had been today. With this renewed motivation, he went to sleep.
"Haha, thinking about it, with everything that happened, I didn't have the opportunity to confirm if Zhenyun is a transmigrator too, damn it"
He closed his eyes, and let himself fall into slumber.
Not long after he woke up, the friendly contest between the Xuanhe kingdom and the Lands of Yaoling started.