May felt adrenaline rush through her body. She didn't have many skills at her disposal, but each one she had was very formidable. Her mind raced into the highest speed.

  She couldn't rely on her strength, that was surely inadequate. However, she had a few aces up her sleeve. The biggest one was the system. Unfortunately, she didn't have much money left.

  But just enough to buy a few cheap things.

  She bought a small potion that could regenerate physical damage. She knew her role—she was only there to help the troll, who was her main trump card in this fight.

  She ran up to him as close as she could and shouted.

  “Give me your hand!”

  He looked at her suspiciously, as he was still a monster at heart, and monsters generally did not like humans. He just roared and ignored her.

  However, the cultivator who had attacked them did not wait for them to come to an agreement and this time tried to attack May, who had approached him! He aimed his sword straight at her. Frondo blocked the blow with his arm, the sword dug into his skin, and he hissed in pain.

  He looked at her angrily; if she hadn't come closer, it wouldn't have been a problem. May, however, took advantage of the opportunity, opened the bottle, and poured its contents onto the troll's wound.

  He hissed in pain. However, he noticed that the wound was healing and the bleeding had stopped. The cultivator looked at the whole situation with curiosity.

  May stepped back, not wanting to interfere again.

  The troll looked at his arm and saw that the pain was slowly subsiding. He changed his attitude immediately, but did not continue to think about it as he was still under constant attack.

  May used [Qi Sensing] and noticed that the man still had a huge amount of Qi. His attacks continued relentlessly.

  Although she had just healed the troll's serious wound, he already had more minor injuries. Slowly but surely, his injuries were accumulating on his body. Meanwhile, Frondo was unable to hit him even once.

  This cultivator is his natural enemy. His technique focuses on swiftness and evasion. It doesn't matter that the troll has greater physical strength if he can't hit him.

  Suddenly, the cultivator was preparing for a strike that May thought could be fatal to the troll.

  May quickly used her martial art, which she hadn't used in a long time, [Water Knight Art], and hit him in the side, knocking him aside.

  This was possible because he was focusing all his attention on the troll and didn't consider that a girl at such a low level of cultivation to be a threat.

  He hissed in pain after the blow. Her strength stat was 17 after all. She was not inferior in strength to cultivators at his level.

  Frondo wanted to take advantage of the opportunity and attack while he was still in shock, but as soon as he got close, the cultivator regained his senses and quickly changed his position.

  Now he ignored the troll and decided to eliminate the unexpected threat - May! Unfortunately for him, May was much faster than the troll. She managed to dodge his sword.

  Frondo also had no intention of letting him attack the person he was supposed to protect.

  “Die!” he shouted in a terrifying voice. The cultivator had to retreat to avoid the attack.

  However, May was clever enough to predict the direction in which he would escape from the troll's attack and was able to use this to her advantage.

  [Water Knight Art] was a terrible technique, no matter how you looked at it. If it weren't for the pill, she wouldn't have made any progress with it.

  However, it had one great advantage: great flexibility and adaptability to the situation! This was also the reason why it was so difficult to learn. However, only May was able to learn it to such an extent in the entire academy, which was thanks to her talent and the system.

  She struck him in the abdominal area. He howled again. His skin was tough, but her fist was even tougher.

  “It's impossible...” he hissed. “Such a brat... Even with talent, it's...”

  “What do you want!?” she yelled, trying to buy some time before Scar arrived.

  “Your death!” he shouted and dropped his sword on the ground.

  Not good!

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  She immediately noticed that he was preparing to use some powerful technique, most likely a long-range one.

  She had nowhere to hide. She knew she would be close to death if he hit her with that technique.

  In his hands, the cultivator gathered layers of energy and manipulated its properties. Finally, he activated his signature technique.

  May saw electrical discharges in his hand. She then thought she was about to be struck by lightning.

  Suddenly, something grabbed her by the arm. It was Frondo, who threw her behind him.

  She fell to the ground. A troll stood in front of her. After a moment, the cultivator released a discharge that resembled lightning. A loud thunderclap echoed throughout the forest. Frondo roared in pain, and his body began to tremble.

  “Run.” Although his body was still being electrocuted, he managed to utter these words.

  He fell to the ground. A hole appeared in his body, from which blood flowed. The upper part of his body was slightly charred.

  May didn't run away, though; it would have been in vain. Even if she was faster than him, she wouldn't necessarily be able to avoid him if he used his lightning technique. Plus, considering his level of cultivation, he probably knew other long-range skills.

  She had to buy as much time as possible before the elf arrived.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “I'm the one asking the questions,” he replied harshly, licking his lips. “What are you doing here with this stupid monster?”

  “His name is Frondo, and he's not a monster, he's a troll,” she replied.

  “I don't give a damn what his name is,” he said loudly. “Trolls are monsters like any other. Talk.”

  With no choice, May had to do as he said.

  “He was watching over me. I ran away from the academy because it was attacked, and Frondo took care of me.” She told him part of the truth, not revealing the elf's existence.

  “You ran away? No wonder, you're not only talented, but also smart. You're at the fifth stage, and how old are you?”

  “Eight.”

  “Eight years old and you're fucking at the peak of the fifth stage? Damn, I hate people like you. You probably had rich parents who pumped you with pills, right?”

  “No, I'm just really talented.”

  “That's even worse. It took me three years to get from the fourth stage to the fifth.”

  May rolled her eyes and figured that he had some kind of inferiority complex about his talent. She didn't really care. However, she was a little surprised by that, because how could he be at the Foundation Establishment stage at such a young age if it took him that long to get from stage 4 to stage 5?

  “But I'll tell you a secret...” He said, looking closely at all over her body. “We poor people have to handle things differently... In less pleasant ways.”

  She finally understood that he was an Evil Cultivator!

  “Such young and talented blood... Your flesh looks so juicy... I haven't seen such a tasty morsel in a long time!” he said, wheezing and raising his sword. “I heard about the academy and wanted to steal something there, taking advantage of the chaos... But looking for silver, I found gold!”

  May began to pant with fear, this guy was looking at her as an alchemical ingredient! She had heard that there were people who used others to increase their own cultivation, but meeting someone like that in real life was terrifying.

  However, in the distance, she noticed a masked figure, Scar had arrived just in time. She breathed a sigh of relief.

  He grabbed her hand, lifted her up, and brought the sword closer to her. He gently cut her skin, raised the sword, and stuck out his tongue, licking the blood from the blade.

  “You're disgusting,” she said to him.

  “Young blood, brimming with growth energy. I will drain every last drop of blood from you until you are nothing but a dry husk!” He began to croak like a frog.

  “I'll spill your blood first.” The elf approached him from behind and held the blade to his throat. “Drop your sword.”

  Fear appeared in the Evil Cultivator's eyes, but with no choice, he dropped the sword to the ground.

  “You'll regret this,” he said.

  “I doubt it,” he replied. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

  “I'm just a tourist. I'm visiting the mountains, really scenic views.”

  “Stop pushing your bullshit on me and tell me the truth, or I'll cut off your stupid face.” The elf replied, not in the mood for his sarcasm.

  “Why so angry, good sir?” he said, smiling. “It's just a misunderstanding, I'm on my way to the academy.”

  “You're on your way to the academy, but you wanted to kill this young girl on the way?” he asked, irritated by the man's attitude.

  “What?! Kill her? Me? Sir, I'm just an honest thief, not some murderer! I'm in the honorable profession of thievery!” he said.

  “Just a moment ago, you threatened to kill her and eat her, and now you've changed your mind?”

  “You must have misheard me.” he replied, shrugging his shoulders.

  “I don't think so. Say, is there any reason why you should not be killed?”

  “Okay, okay. I wanted to kill her, but times are tough, taxes are going up, rent is getting more expensive, and inflation? Don't even get me started. Two hundred for just three pills of Golden Grass? Are you kidding me? When I was a kid, you could buy twelve of those for that kind of money!”

  The elf narrowed his eyes in irritation. For decades, he hadn't had to talk to a single human, and now, in just a few months, he had to deal with nothing but lunatics. He began to miss his lonely living situation in the mountains.

  “What are you talking about? You're annoying, and nothing you say makes any sense.”

  “Oh, sir, it makes perfect sense! The thing is, these days we have to somehow deal with things. That includes me. You may think, ‘Oh, this man is a psychopath who likes to murder people!’ But in reality, I am a good person.”

  May couldn't listen to his babbling any longer and decided to interrupt the conversation.

  “A good man? What kind of ‘good man’ is a cannibal? The kind who wants to murder kids?”

  “First of all, I'm not a cannibal. Turning someone into pills for cultivation and eating their flesh are two different things! And secondly, it's nothing personal, I didn't want to kill you because I hate you, but because it's beneficial to me.”

  “I don't see how that changes anything.”

  “ Well that's because you're extremely short-sighted.” He replied, nodding his head.

  May didn't know what to say to that. She decided she was talking to a complete nutcase. She had no idea how someone like that could have achieved such a high level of cultivation!

  Elf was also tired of talking to this guy, so he decided to sum up the conversation and get rid of him.

  “So, if I understand correctly, you wanted to rob the academy, but you met May and the troll on the way, so you attacked them?”

  “In short, yes.”

  “Well, in that case, I'll just get rid of you.” He said. Even if he wasn't a murderer and an Evil Cultist, he would have killed him anyway. Scar always got rid of people who saw him. With a few exceptions.

  “Oh, I don't recommend doing that.”

  “Why's that?” May asked.

  “You see, I'm here on orders from my sect.”

  “What sect?” asked the elf.

  The man chuckled triumphantly. He licked his lips thoroughly and said.

  “It's called the Three-Headed Snake Sect, I don't know if you've heard of it.”

  At these words, the elf fell into a slight contemplation and silence fell for a moment.