It wasn't much in terms of regaining his battle power, but it was better than nothing, and to him it was the sign of an entire hour focused on his healing passing since he first heard the thunder sound and began to feel the urgency of the situation.
At that moment he began to relax a little, 'Seems I was worried for nothing, this "safe zone" is still a safe zone, demonic beasts don't dare to come because of the lingering aura and cultivators hide because of the storm,' he thought with some relief.
After he had this thought, time continued to pass uneventfully. Quickly, the time for an incense stick to burn passed, and then a second—but just as it was nearing the third, Mikael heard something.
"...need to be….reful…demonic….tide….passed."
Brides of conversation reached his ears, instantly putting him in extreme alert. He focused all of his attention on his hearing, trying to identify from where the sound was coming.
After a couple of seconds passed, he was able to identify the source, his expression darkening, 'Fuck me!!!!! I really want to slap myself, why the fuck did I jinx it by daring to think that everything would work out!???'
With an expression uglier than crying he continued, 'Now I am screwed, thank genius me, there is a group of cultivators 800 meters to my west that are talking with each other and the worst… is that they are approaching my location!'
'I need to get out of here and fast! Or else I will probably have to use a—or maybe multiple—talismans, which would be a colossal waste!'
With a mix between his survival instincts and his money grubber instincts activating, Mikael pushed through the pain and fatigue. With an inhuman effort, he placed his hand on the ground before pushing.
Veins bulged in his arms and legs as he tried to raise, his visage taking a red hue as he exerted an 'insane' amount of strength. Finally, his upper body began to rise with slowness and extreme difficulty, but under his effort, he began to raise.
'It's working!'
With a regain of determination, Mikael put even more effort behind his action before finally succeeding in rising and taking a standing position. At this instant, Mikael was panting, looking like he just did a herculean task.
His expression grew ugly. "This is really pathetic, I'm at the end of my rope just from rising, fucking rising!!!! A kid can do it easier than me…" He shook his head in mild frustration. "My condition is truly awful, still no time to delve on it right now, I just need to focus on getting the fuck out of here, especially considering that they are closing on me, now 700 meters from me."
With that thought, he forced himself to grit his teeth before he began to place a foot before the other in a slow, lethargic walk.
600 meters.
Gritting his teeth, Mikael forced his body further, trying to walk faster and faster. Unfortunately, the mind was willing but the body was not, and in this 'chase' the cultivators continued to gain terrain.
500 meters.
Mikael was moving away, but unfortunately he was moving far too slowly, to the point that even the cultivators who seemed to be leisurely walking were far faster than him.
At this point, he had to face the reality that he wouldn't be 'escaping' from these cultivators. Thoughts swirled through Mikael's hazy mind as he tried to find a way to get out of this situation.
The most promising paths he came up with were either trying to play on his Wandering Sword Sect Core Disciple status or hoping that the approaching cultivators didn't have bad intentions, but Mikael was reluctant to execute either plan—they were both far too passive for his taste.
Crack–Boom.
A ray of thunder illuminated the darkening surroundings, lighting up a visage closed in an expression of grim determination.
At that moment, Mikael's gaze landed on a nearby boulder and he had an idea. 'If I can't outrun them, maybe… I could bluff my way out.'
The thought instantly brightened his eyes as he began walking toward the large rock he had seen. At that moment, he was about 20 meters away from the boulder and could hear that the cultivators were 400 meters from his current position.
And once they passed the 300-meter mark, they would get a visual on the devastated battlefield, and on him, which would render any bluff useless if he wasn't already in position.
Understanding this point, he forced himself to go faster.
Fortunately, he was swift enough and reached the boulder just as they hit the 330-meter mark. Instantly, he let his shaky leg give out beneath him, collapsing to the ground without grace, but he didn't care.
320 meters.
Knowing the clock was ticking, Mikael positioned himself so that his back rested on the boulder. His left leg was stretched out in front of him, while his right was bent at the knee, the sole of his foot resting beside the left knee.
With a quick use of his Divine Sense, he took out Sangrelia from his storage ring and positioned her beside him. Her obsidian-black blade with a bloody edge was planted firmly into the earth, its edge leaning gently against the stone.
Satisfied with his current setup, Mikael's head began to rise into a more leisurely posture—until his gaze caught the sight of his tattered Core Disciple Taoist Robes. Instantly, his expression changed.
310 meters.
Having only one arm was acceptable; it could easily be interpreted as a long-standing injury. But a tattered robe? That screamed recent struggle. After all, repairing one's robes required only a touch of Qi—it was practically effortless. Wearing a damaged Taoist robe was suspicious to say the least.
Mikael understood that well. And with his sharp hearing catching that the cultivators were only meters away from arriving at the devastated battlefield, he didn't dare waste an instant.
With 'rapid' movements, he shredded the upper part of his Taoist robe, exposing his extremely toned upper body. His sculpted muscles seemed almost inhuman—like something beyond what mortals could attain through training alone.
Now bare-chested, he tilted his head backward, letting it rest on the boulder while his gaze drifted upward to the darkened sky.
At this moment, his expression and attitude were calm—almost leisurely. Like someone quietly waiting for the storm to pass, his demeanor had no place on the face of a man who was weakened beyond belief, whose every movement brought pain and fatigue…
Fortunately, Mikael finished 'preparing' just in time. Moments later, voices reached his ears—some clearly belonging to women.
"Whoaaa, what happened here?"
"From the aura and the devastation, it should be the result of the fight between some Late-stage demonic beasts that entered into a conflict, no?"
And some clearly belonged to men. "My sisters are probably right… but isn't it strange? Demonic beasts in a tide aren't supposed to fight among themselves."
"You think too much about it, Wenjie. They are instinct-driven creatures, so of course conflict can happen for one reason or another. Even a scholar like you can't pretend to predict all their movements, no?"
"Mmm, maybe you're right…"
Mikael heard all of these voices—two distinctively female and two distinctively male—but he didn't react. His attention remained fixed on the sky, not deigning to look down.
'Two at the 2nd layer of the Spiritual Foundation Realm, and two at the 3rd layers,' he analyzed from the auras he felt, while outwardly maintaining his leisurely demeanor. Inwardly, however, all of his attention was on this group that he could now identify as four people—two men and two women.
Step step step.
The sound of their footsteps striking the cracked earth resounded in his ears as clearly as if he were standing right beside them.
Unaware of the silent listener, the group continued walking, leaving the forest and entering the devastated battlefield.
Then, one of the women gasped aloud. "Gasp, what is this!?" she exclaimed, her voice brimming with shock.
Wenjie answered almost instantly, "This is… a Titanhide Rhino!? And a dead one, no less—which shouldn't be possible, considering how their size is absolutely gigantesque and their defense near impenetrable. Even Peak-stage demonic beasts wouldn't have been able to easily take it down!"
"And considering that in this region there are no Peak-stage demonic beasts… it being dead is illogical. What could have brought it down?"
"Maybe it was a Peak-stage demonic beast that got displaced during the demonic beast tide?" offered the other man of the group, the one apart from Wenjie.
Mikael then heard their steps and felt their auras move toward where he remembered the massive carcass of the Titanhide Rhino lay. Believing them to be sufficiently distracted, he allowed himself to throw a glance in their direction.
As he expected, there were four of them—two men and two women. The men were striking in appearance, both with long hair and an aura that gave them a slightly ethereal air, though the one he identified as "Wenjie" stood out for his white robes and scholarly temperament.
The two women, dressed in flowing blue Taoist robes, shared an eerie resemblance. Both had twin-tailed black hair, deep black eyes, and an almost mirrored beauty that made them look like carbon copies of one another—to the point Mikael instinctively wondered if they were blood sisters.
What caught his eye next was the shared emblem stitched into each of their garments: a wave-like sigil he immediately recognized. All four were Core Disciples of the Stillwater Palace, a first-rate force in the Suncrest Region.
It was a powerful force, not at the level of the Wandering Sword Sect or the two other Overlord Sects, still a level below but nevertheless a formidable faction. Fortunately for the recovering Mikael, the Stillwater Palace and its members were known for their peaceful temperament. They were rarely the cause of conflict.
This knowledge allowed him to somewhat relax. 'Fortunately it's the Stillwater Palace, and not something like the Flame Sovereign Sect or the Iron Blood Hall, or else the probability of a conflict happening would be far higher. At least they ar—'
He froze, his thoughts stopping mid-track as he saw one of the twin-tailed women turn her head in his direction—maybe she had sensed his gaze, maybe it was sharp instinct, maybe it was nothing more than a perfunctory scan of her surroundings—the point is that she turned her head toward him.
Instantly, her gaze was drawn to a figure in a leisurely position with its back resting against a large boulder. For a moment, she wasn't sure what she was seeing—but then she understood. Her eyes widened in shock as their gazes met.
For a moment, both froze, neither having expected this.
Instinctively, Mikael wanted to look away. He had planned to project a nonchalant aura, so being caught watching them was far from ideal. But—'No, I need to project confidence. It wasn't the plan, but now that they caught me looking, I need to project confidence more than ever. Enough so they don't guess my weakened state and decide to take advantage of it to one-shot me!'
Resolving himself, Mikael kept his emerald gaze steady, meeting the stunned black eyes of the fairy without the slightest twitch. His posture remained languid, as if the moment held no weight, yet behind that calm front, his full focus was locked onto her.
Seconds stretched in silence, the air between them charged with unspoken tension. But then—her composure wavered.
Her gaze dropped slightly, drawn to his exposed torso and the inhuman musculature sculpted through relentless tempering. Her eyes lingered for just a breath too long before she blinked, a subtle gulp slipping through as her cheeks tinged pink with a faint blush.
She broke eye contact first, turning her head away just slightly, but it was enough.
The invisible thread of tension snapped, and Mikael, without moving a single muscle, knew he had won that silent exchange.
Author Note:
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Mikael get 'caught' by a group of cultivator but everything is good he successfully bluffed his way through or did he?
I would like to know what you think of this way of the recovery is happening, I had the idea of delaying it and making it truly feel to reader at the place of simply placing a time skip in this way we all life through it with Mikael in a way the only problem is that I fear dragging it too long like usual soo I will do my best not to but I promise nothing.
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