Marcus Ma still held a grudge ever since the veiled girl made him lose face in front of his fellow disciples.
As the saying goes, a gentleman waits ten years to take revenge, but a petty man doesn’t wait overnight. Marcus Ma knew he wasn’t a gentleman, so that very night, he donned his black outfit and returned to the inn.
He’d already planned out his revenge on the veiled girl: if she turned out pretty, he’d lock her up and have his fun; if not, he’d just kidnap her and finish her off.
Just as he crouched on the roof, ready to lift a tile and figure out which room the veiled girl was staying in, he suddenly felt someone lightly tap his shoulder.
Marcus instinctively drew the short sword at his waist and swung it behind him, but hit nothing. Turning around, he saw the rooftop was completely empty—there was nobody there but him.
"Was that just my imagination?"
Marcus glanced around suspiciously, but found nothing, so he kept lifting the tiles.
But just then, someone tapped his other shoulder, just as lightly.
His unsheathed short sword burst out in a flurry of dazzling sword light, but once again struck only air.
A surge of fear crept into Marcus’s heart. He quickly scanned his surroundings, but still saw no sign of anyone.
He stood on the roof for a while, and only after a gust of night wind blew by did Marcus finally calm down. He decided to try one last time—if someone tapped him again, he’d give up on the plan.
With that thought, he activated his inner qi, gripping his short sword tightly, ready to strike at any moment.
Just as his left hand reached for a tile—
Smack!
Marcus felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. Suppressing his fear and anger, he unleashed all his inner qi in a wild flurry of strikes, the air popping with each blow.
He still didn’t hit anything. His face turned ugly, and he decided to call off the plan.
With that, he hurriedly leapt down from the roof and dashed off in a certain direction.
Inside the room.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, the veiled girl’s lips curled into a faint smile. She muttered, "That guy is really bored. Middle of the night, not sleeping, and still has the energy to mess with a Scarlet Flame disciple."
Marcus Ma sprinted all the way to the inn where he was staying. Just as he was about to climb in through the window, someone tapped the center of his back with a finger.
Then, a gust of night wind blew by—and Marcus Ma vanished.
Ten li outside town, in a small grove, Ian Song sent a Puppet Mastery Divine Art sigil into Marcus Ma’s body, and soon received confirmation that he’d been enslaved.
"How much do you know about the Scarlet Flame Sect’s true disciples?"
Marcus replied, "Master, the true disciples are way above us. I really don’t know much. But I’ve heard that when they go out to have fun, they usually head to Nanhui City, two hundred li away."
Ian frowned. "So do true disciples ever come to this town?"
"Hardly ever—almost never!" Marcus said.
That left Ian feeling pretty disappointed. Suddenly, he stared at Marcus and asked, "Do you know how many King-Grade techniques the Scarlet Flame Sect has?"
"Master, I only know the Scarlet Flame Sect is famous for two King-Grade techniques—Supreme Sunflame Canon and Flame God Canon. Almost all true disciples cultivate one of these. The men use Flame God Canon, the women use Supreme Sunflame Canon."
Ian asked Marcus a few more questions about the Scarlet Flame Sect, then let him go back on his own.
The System only gave him three months. In a world where every faction guarded their advanced arts so closely, collecting ten King-Grade techniques was no easy feat.
Just as Ian was about to leave—
Suddenly, the sound of rushing hooves echoed through the night. Looking up, he saw six young men riding hard under cover of darkness.
All six had similar auras, clearly cultivating the same technique, and all were Divine Sea realm. They must be from the same sect—probably true disciples, since they were all about twenty.
Even though they wore plain clothes, Ian was sure these six were Scarlet Flame Sect disciples.
"Heh, talk about luck—just when I needed a pillow, someone brings me one!"
He flickered and vanished, reappearing on the road the Scarlet Flame disciples would take. He whipped out a formation disk and rapidly performed a sequence of formation hand seals, instantly setting up a trap.
Barely thirty breaths after he finished the formation, the six Scarlet Flame Sect true disciples appeared five hundred meters away.
The hoofbeats grew louder and closer, and he could faintly make out their conversation.
Closer!
They entered the formation.
Ian immediately performed a formation hand seal, and the six disciples suddenly found themselves standing in a blazing desert under the scorching sun.
"Not good, it’s a formation!"
The six instantly reacted, joining forces to try and break the formation.
But soon, despair set in—even working together, the six couldn’t shake the formation at all.
Then, with a loud rumble, stone golems burst up from the sand and attacked them.
These stone golems were incredibly strong—and their defenses were terrifying.
In just ten breaths, the six Scarlet Flame Sect disciples were all seriously injured.
Using Transformation Divine Art, Ian disguised himself as an old man, then appeared and easily grabbed one of the Scarlet Flame Sect disciples.
"Who are you? Why ambush us? I’m warning you—let us go, or the Scarlet Flame Sect will never forgive you!" the captured disciple shouted.
Ian didn’t bother with nonsense. He simply sent a Puppet Mastery Divine Art sigil into the disciple’s body.
Then he did the same to the other five Scarlet Flame Sect disciples, enslaving them one by one and ordering them to write out the techniques they cultivated.
But soon, Ian started cursing his luck.
Because although all six cultivated the Flame God Canon, their manuals were incomplete. The sect only passed out new chapters when disciples reached the matching realm.
So Ian used Radiance of Life to heal their injuries, then gave them two orders: first, do whatever it took to get the complete Flame God Canon; second, lure a female true disciple to the town within three days.
Feeling gloomy, Ian returned to the inn. He took out the Flame God Canon and studied it, finding that this King-Grade art was much stronger than his Profound Heaven Manual—mainly in how quickly it absorbed heaven and earth qi and how much denser the inner energy it produced was. Unfortunately, the six disciples’ version only went up to late Divine Sea Stage.
The six male true disciples didn’t let Ian down. By the second day, they brought three female true disciples to the town.
With telepathic guidance, Ian had them bring the three female disciples to his formation-protected private room. He enslaved them too, then obtained a partial manual of the Supreme Sunflame Canon from them and ordered them to get the complete version.
At the same time, he learned that the Scarlet Flame Sect actually had three King-Grade arts—the Flame God Canon, Supreme Sunflame Canon, and their most advanced, the Yin-Yang Divine Flame Canon. Only the sect master and heir could cultivate the last one.