Chapter 446: The Redtree Command Medallions

Technically Kai was "on the run" from some of the most powerful forces in the region, but he found himself surprisingly unconcerned. There was plenty of space to maneuver within the Southern Rivers, he was faster than his opponents, and he could easily evade them by swimming underwater. His monstrous instincts kept him alert enough at night, so he wasn't even worried about ambush.

Truthfully, the only thing that worried him was sect forces attacking the Krysali he'd left behind. He wasn't even worried about Zae Zin Nim or Omilaena being attacked, because they could handle themselves.

Overall, he wasn't sure whether or not the Verdant River sect was underestimating him or just struggling to react to an opponent who didn't fight like a cultivator. If Grandpa Wan Fei had explained about their fight, the squads sent after him really should have been stronger, but either the old man didn't share all the details or Yul Wei Ren just didn't listen to him.

Because evading them was so easy, Kai could be selective and pursue other interests. Aside from training, he analyzed all of the fractional groups in the area, from surviving peasants to fragmentary sects. It seemed like there was a lot of opposition to the Verdant River sect's new violent attacks, but it wasn't organized enough to be any more than an inconvenience.

So far he hadn't been able to contact any of the groups bearing one of the Redtree medallions... and when he got his chance, they were in the middle of a fight with Verdant River cultivators.

He honestly wasn't sure whether this group had been chasing him, killing peasants, or just engaged in other sect business. All he knew was that he ran across a clear conflict between the strong formation of blue-robed cultivators and a scattered group of others doing their best to batter them down from the outside. Rushing water filled with qi protected the group from most attacks, so they seemed to have no trouble with their more numerous opponents.

Perhaps this was the time to jump in and introduce himself? Considering how the Verdant River sect was slaughtering people for unknown reasons, he was basically on the side of the locals just trying to defend themselves. As Kai started to move into battle, however, he saw something burn brightly.

The strongest of the ragged cultivators was just Nascent Foundation, but he wore a red medallion around his neck. And the wild attacks on the water formation, which had seemed ineffective, proved to be a stalling tactic forcing their opponents into a defensive position. Now the leader tore the medallion off and it burst into flame in his hands.

When the medallion screamed across the forest, it left a trail of fire in the air. It pierced through the watery barrier, then exploded in the center of the formation. Some cultivators were instantly consumed by flames while others hit by the shockwave coughed up blood. Even from a distance Kai felt the strength of the shockwave sweep past him.

Immediately the other attackers stopped their wild techniques and began cutting down the disoriented Verdant River cultivators. It seemed their entire strategy had been built around maximizing the use of the Redtree medallion, since it had overwhelming strength. And it had worked... except there was an Earth Soul who had survived the explosion.

The woman scornfully slapped aside qi attacks headed for her and retaliated with deadly qi vines. Panicking, the survivors began to retreat, only to be blocked by vines bursting from the ground. This was a poor group without many flying swords or other treasures, so it seemed like they would be cut apart soon.

Kai landed behind the female cultivator and thrust a quill through her back. She had already been weakened by the explosion, so the spike of poison through her heart finished her off with coughing blood. All of the magical vines evaporated, but the survivors remained fixed, staring at him.

"Good tactics," Kai said, "but you can't fight them all like this."

"What are we supposed to do?" one of the survivors demanded. "The Verdant River sect is taking everything from us!"

"Wait a minute, is that the one they've been talking about?" A woman among the attackers paled and began to back away, so Kai hastily raised a hand.

"Hold on, don't believe the lies they've told about me. What do you actually know? Only that I'm the sect's number one enemy. We'd do more good together than separate."

The cultivators looked surprisingly hostile, and one of the older men stepped forward to speak for them. "Maybe they lied about you, but why should we trust you? Most likely you'd just use us as a distraction in your own fight."

That was uncomfortably close to the truth, so Kai shook his head. "I'm not here to recruit you into anything. There are more groups like yours than you know, but you're separated and the Verdant River sect is picking you off one by one. I don't know where they're taking the bodies, but they're taking a lot of them. The only way you have a chance is to band together."

"Not under you," another survivor said. "Now that the Redtree sect is gone, there's no one left."

The others murmured and whispered, some of them apparently wanting to take Kai up on his offer, but he saw that they weren't going to unite. He spoke to them a while longer, finding out that they were from a local village that had decided to flee instead of being exterminated next, and then let them go. At minimum, he'd protected a group that would keep fighting his enemies.

Kai wanted to do more than that, and as he hunted over the next several days, he considered his options. His strength alone wasn't going to be enough to make any of these cultivators obey him, at least not out of his sight. But he didn't need to create a revolution, just make them band together enough to disrupt the Verdant River sect's plans.

So the next time Kai approached one of the groups, he chose his target more carefully. He had identified a larger group with a more fortified camp, hidden just inside the swampy region, not far from the Redtree sect's ruins. Approaching by water, he made sure he wasn't looking monstrous and then leapt past their guards to get their attention.

Almost immediately, one of the guards shrieked and started to hurl one of the Redtree medallions. For the first time in a while, Kai used Void Gaze with pinpoint accuracy, freezing the medallion in place.

At first he thought that he might have destroyed the guard's hand, but the medallion wasn't smoldering yet. Before it could explode, Kai grabbed it out of their hand and then stepped back, making sure not to look too aggressive.

"Careful, don't waste those," Kai said. "You need them against the Verdant River sect, right?"

No one in the camp relaxed, but at least they stopped actively preparing to attack him. Those with the sense to use their spiritual sight were noticing how much stronger he was than anyone in their group and began standing down. He'd chosen this group specifically because they seemed more organized and focused than the other bands of survivors.

"If you know who I am, then you know I'm one enemy the Verdant River sect will never forgive." Kai smiled and tossed the medallion back to the guards, at a safe distance so it wouldn't seem like too much of a threat. "I'm not saying I'll join you, but can we work together?"

After a long silence, one of the cultivators stepped forward. "We think a Redtree vault survived, not far from here, but we can't get into it. Could you break through?"

"I can try."

There was some grumbling, but the survivors recognized that they couldn't fight him. They didn't seem to have any clear leadership, which was fine for general organization but likely to fall apart when they needed quick decisions. That fact meant that no one could really stop one of the younger members from directing Kai away from their camp.

It wasn't a ruse: there really was some sort of surviving vault in the direction of the Redtree ruins. Still defended by powerful qi techniques. Kai wasn't as proficient as Zae Zin Nim, but he knew a little about such barriers. First he channeled his qi into Tyrant's Claw to shatter the main defensive barrier, then he just walked through the next trap. Flames rushed from the ground, but they barely harmed his skin and the Beggar King's Robes would just regrow, so he basically just cleaned himself off.

When he reached the center, there was a heavy door set into the ground that he had to tear open with his claws. He glanced around at the end, wondering if any cultivators would try to steal the prize, but no one had dared to come after him. So in the end, he was the only one to walk down into the vault.

Most of the shelves were empty, since the Redtree sect had been sorely pressed at the end of its life. The medicinal pills that remained would no doubt be useful to weak survivor groups like those he had seen, if not to him. But the real prize came at the end, behind an additional barrier: a large number of Redtree medallions, stacked neatly in a wooden box.

Kai picked one up and tossed it in his hand, considering. The reputation of the Redtree sect had been impressive enough that even the stray medallions caused cultivators to rally around them. They seemed to have considerable power in and of themselves as well, given that one of their primary functions was exploding.

Could he use these as a symbol? Take these survivors from mere prey for the Verdant River sect to a real thorn in their side? It was tempting, just on an instinctual level, but Kai knew he was very far from home and it was hard to see all the potential consequences.

So instead he used another magical artifact: one of the seeds he'd carried with him. He had resisted using any of them, despite how much he would have liked seeing his wives, because they would probably be the ones to contact him with real news. Now that things had finally changed, he concentrated on Omilaena, planted the seed, and hoped the bonded chakra made the connection.

Not long after the flower blossomed, she appeared above it, peering around curiously.

"Huh, I can kind of see your end," she said. "What do you need?"

"I could use your expertise." Kai held up the box of medallions into her field of view. "We should talk."