In the most eastern part of the eastern region, inside a symmetrical cave.
"Kekeke... The weirdo finally started. I heard one city disappeared."
"Ho... that’s right, Duha. The weirdo is starting and even though I didn’t believe it at first, right now I will! We can finally meet the requirement to ascend!"
"Don’t be complacent. We still need to be sure if he’ll use that method he was saying to please us. If not, and he decides to use it for his own, we’ll be doomed."
"Tulo... Kekeke! Don’t be like that. That weirdo isn’t someone who can cultivate. I’m sure he won’t be using the energy he got for his own or he’ll die!"
"Usa, why do you think so? Now that I think about it, how can he do it?"
"Duha, the weirdo has a treasure. If not for that treasure, he’d be doomed and useless kekeke."
"Usa, Duha, stop. We are not talking about this ever again. Even if we try to get that treasure from him, we can’t be tainting our foundation. It will be foreseen in the upper heaven."
"Kekeke. Tulo, we can’t defeat stronger magical beasts and monsters. How can you talk like that? If so, we can just join a dark sect. There’s no need to worry about keeping our purities."
"That’s right, Usa. Don’t be too obsessive with being pure, Tulo. After agreeing with it, you just became the same as us."
"Tsk. Stupid. I couldn’t imagine why you two became my siblings."
***
"Hm... Why is this place different from yesterday? I don’t see bad souls here." The person mumbled as he passed through a city with all mortals living in it, without one cultivator.
He just passed through it without any worries, then headed north as he continued on his journey.
After a few minutes, he again saw another city, but this time there were ’bad souls’ here. There were at least 200 cultivators, and as he thought that they were ’bad souls’, he created a red light again.
He descended and took everyone’s attention.
"An expert!" They all shouted and formed a line then bowed at him in an instant. All of them were cultivators, paying their respects to their ’senior’. But this ’senior’ wasn’t pleased with them.
The person enlarged the red light and as soon as it started touching cultivators, it absorbed them and sucked them inside the red light, which inside was an alchemy circle.
Everyone who saw this pondered for a few seconds, but as soon as they realized that a fellow cultivator disappeared as if eaten by the light created by a ’senior’, they all panicked and used their spiritual energies to boost their movements.
All of them were at least in the Apprentice Spirit Realm, which was why they greeted someone who could fly. But as they seemed to have made the wrong move, they all faced horror.
One by one, cultivators were absorbed. Mortals who were on the side watching the cultivators also ran away in fear. Some cultivator just made someone disappear and obviously, this was an abuse of power.
But they couldn’t complain about it as he was just targeting cultivators. So the mortals thought that it might be only a cultivators’ problem. Despite that, they still focused on running away, afraid of getting involved in cultivators’ matters.
The person looked at the red light that started becoming an orb. As soon he touched it, he was tempted again to absorb the energies inside. It had two energies, and even though he didn’t want to take it and save it for the ’old men’, he just absorbed it, ignoring the word he made with them.
As soon as he absorbed them, he noticed that his core had enlarged again. And right now, the mana in his core was becoming less similar to normal mana.
This sight made him ponder and decide to insect his core.
"Why is my mana’s concentration becoming much weaker but plenty?"
As he just observed more his core, he noticed that the energy inside his core had doubled.
"What is this?!" And so, as he was curious about it, he created a magic circle in the air and used a spell.
It was a blast of white light that destroyed every building in his sight. And just after it, he continued observing again.
"It becomes less powerful, but I have more spare energy to use. Then does this mean I am equal to master?!"
The person jumped to the conclusion and celebrated. Although his celebration was zero-budget, he just used his time to celebrate and enjoy the meaningful moment he had.
Unbeknownst to him, the citizens in the city started leaving the city. They all ran into a nearby city and asked for help. Reporting everything about it, some cultivators asked for help at a nearby sect.
When the sect heard it, they all rejoiced, since they finally had the opportunity to shine. An evil cultivator that wore a weird robe was their perpetrator, and it means that he was causing terror on their land. If they could apprehend or remove him, they’d shine more, and supporters and funders would surely come to their back because of this.
They all gathered and prepared the ten strongest cultivators of their sect.
After an hour, the citizens came to ask for a request to defeat an evil cultivator. They all left their sect and then headed to the said city.
When they reached there, they could see a blast of white light coming from one location.
They pondered. They saw the evil cultivator blasting a little light from his palm.
"He is surely difficult to handle, but who are we? We are the strongest of the Violet Lotus Sect! We can defeat this evil cultivator."
As soon as they arrived carrying their hostile intent, the person felt a strong presence. And so, he looked in a certain direction and saw ten people gathered who he assessed as ’bad souls’.
"They are all bad souls! They must die."
"Shit! We’ve been discovered! Prepare a battle formation! Start making the group technique!" A leader shouted, ordering his subordinates.
He was the sect master of the Violet Lotus Sect. Even if they were a lesser-known sect, they had powerful cultivators ranging from early in the Master stage to the peak.
What they were about to do was a group technique, a powerful offensive technique that could only be activated by a group. However, their shout was annoying to the person, and thus, he launched a ball of red light at them. In an instant, they disappeared and were magically absorbed by the light.
"They were more difficult to convert into the weird energy. But still, it was plenty! I will become more powerful than master!"
And so, he absorbed it again, forgetting about his true goal.