Chapter 149 - Finishing the Soaring Crane Sect

Looking down from high altitude, Cale sighed heavily.

"If I want to travel out of this place, I would have to fly throughout this entire cluster of islands," he observed.

[AFFIRMATIVE. BUT THE HOST WILL BE DEPLETED OF ENERGY AND THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF AMBUSH.]

"Heh, ambush? Well, I can try fighting a Sage Stage cultivator. Haha. Let them try."

He jumped from his vantage point, and a few minutes later, his massive wings unfurled — a single flap propelling him to an impossibly high altitude.

"This has been quite the fun trip, heh," he mused to himself.

[INDEED.]

Cale grinned. His system had become noticeably less formal over the past two months, speaking with more personality now. Although it didn’t always provide tactical advantages, simply having a conversational partner made the loneliness of constantly roaming around far more bearable.

As he flew, his mind contemplated the future.

He has only spent six to eight months outside, whereas he had anticipated needing a full year for taking this inheritance and doing some training while at it.

’Oh, right... hehe, let’s do that.’

Initially, he considered simply returning to the Velard continent. But now that the Soaring Crane Sect had been alerted to his existence — and with that Xiong woman likely still pursuing him, a different opportunity presented itself with open arms.

And why would he not hug someone who’s standing to him with open arms.

’Why not just destroy the sect while the high-rankers like Sages and Emperors aren’t there?’

It was a brilliant strategic move. Destroying their sect entirely would deliver a devastating blow that would keep them occupied with reconstruction for at least three to four years. By that time, Cale would already be at Emperor Stage himself, making any future pursuit futile.

Currently, all the peak Emperor Stage and higher cultivators were away with the main team of their expedition. And if he destroyed the sect completely, even the strongest survivors - perhaps twenty to thirty people, couldn’t rebuild and re organize it that quickly.

Three days later, Cale was flying directly above the Soaring Crane Sect’s main compound.

Two guards stood at the gate — one at Master Stage, one at Grandmaster Stage.

One guard yawned, his eyes half-closed from boredom. Then he glanced upward.

His expression immediately shifted to horror.

"Wh-who the hell is that! Go alert the sect members!" he screamed, his voice cracking with panic.

Cale landed with devastating impact.

He kicked the first guard with crushing force, infusing the strike with chaos flames. The guard’s body ignited in black fire as he crashed through the gate, completely obliterating the entrance.

CRACK!

Within ten seconds, the guard’s body had completely incinerated — turning to ash that scattered on the wind.

’Aren’t their constitutions too weak? Even when I was at Master Stage, my body didn’t just burn away like that.’

He dismissed the thought and surveyed the area.

An Expert Stage elder, appearing to be in his forties, rushed out with fury blazing in his eyes.

"What is going on here? Who are you? You dare try to attack our sect!" he roared, his voice filled with righteous indignation.

Others quickly joined him, shouting with arrogant confidence.

"Do you even know where you are? If our sect master and ancestors find out, you’ll be dead! Even your family will—"

Cale simply placed his hands behind his back and began walking casually forward.

The eighteen blades of the Thorned Lotus manifested around him and immediately began their execution.

SLASH! PIERCE! TEAR!

Hundreds of Soaring Crane Sect disciples fell in moments, their bodies cut down without mercy. The blades moved like birds of a feather, seeking vital organs and ending lives.

"You! Why are you doing this to us? What did we even do to you?!" someone screamed in desperation.

"Ahhh! Please spare my life!" another wailed.

"H-help! Somebody contact the elders in the next city!" a third cried out futilely.

But within minutes, it was over. Every disciple in the compound lay dead, their bodies cooling on the ground.

As Cale was preparing to depart, his senses detected something.

’Hmm? Is there someone in the basement? Who the hell makes an entire house underground?’

He extended his perception downward and found a man — in nothing but underwear, currently occupied with two women.

Cale sighed.

’His sect is under attack and he’s focused on something else. Did he seriously think these people would easily manage me?’

He descended and kicked open the basement door with force.

BAM!

The door exploded inward.

The man was stunned, his naked body exposed as he scrambled for covers.

"Ah! Who the hell are you? Didn’t I tell the guards to not let anyone inside!"

The two women — clearly prostitutes, cowered inside the sheets, their eyes wide with terror.

Cale gave the man a long, evaluating look. His aura clearly indicated Apex Stage cultivation.

But something was fundamentally wrong with it.

"You... did you seriously only increase your cultivation by pills and elixirs without a single day of training?" Cale asked scratching his eyebrow in disbelief.

It was like wanting to be a champion boxer while taking steroids but never actually training — technically you had muscle, but zero understanding of how to use it and those muscles too were just fluff.

"You, who are you?" Cale raised an eyebrow.

The man’s fear spiked instantly.

Realizing he was facing something far beyond his capacity to resist, he immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed with desperate urgency.

"Ah, senior! I’m the sect leader’s youngest son, Wu Yunhai! If senior has any needs, please tell me!" he pleaded, his eyes darting between Cale and the two terrified women, clearly hinting that he was ready to even offer them as tribute to save his own life.

An idea sparked in Cale’s mind.

"I killed all of your sect members, yet you still want to help me?" he asked, testing the man’s character.

Wu Yunhai nodded continuously, panic evident in every gesture.

"Yes! Yes! Even if I try, I can’t defeat senior here! And senior seems like a magnanimous person! I hope you can spare my life and take whatever you want!"

Internally, Wu Yunhai was already calculating his survival strategy. ’I will only let you go for now. When my father returns, that will be the last day you’ll live.’

He was a man who understood how to handle circumstances, how to bow when necessary, how to survive through submission, how to plan revenge in the shadows.

But he didn’t know that Cale too was such a person once, he understood his kind when he saw them. Cale grinned.

"Oh! It seems you know how this world works."

"Yes! Yes! Just say the word, senior!" Wu Yunhai responded eagerly.

"I saw that there was a barrier on the treasury," Cale replied, "and by the looks of it, it works only on selected people of the clan..."

He gave Wu Yunhai a pointed look.

Yunhai’s eyes widened with sudden understanding.

"You should’ve started with that! I will take you there right away, senior!" he exclaimed, scrambling to his feet and grabbing clothing.

"Good," Cale said with an amused smile. "It seems you’re a man of honor."