Jacob used the simplest move in his style. Yes, the simplest, yet the one of the most effective. He wielded the sword toward three enemies, including the guy who had tried to disarm him. Then, in a flash, Sword Energy appeared and sheared through them like scissors through paper.

Three people fell dead, bisected in two at their hips.

John got up and charged him next.

Jacob’s body was a huge wreck. He was pretty sure he had gone blind in one eye to pass the trial after a blood vessel exploded inside because of the external pressure.

Sword Energy required his body to channel it. Even though he was so proficient and took less of a toll than anything else, he could only do so much. He had used his first strike to intimidate the enemy and disseminate fear among them.

The enemies’ boss had clearly ingested so many pills that he had crippled his own cultivation base. Jacob could smell the medicinal scent off him, heavy and rotten. The guy had ruined his future, but he had become powerful enough to neutralize Juliet.

He took a quick look toward his friends and noticed that Joseph was the only one still fighting.

Holy sh*t, I’m an idiot.

Jacob immediately realized why.

Goddamn curse of knowledge.

When someone spent enough time in a field, they became so proficient in ignoring the obscure details that other people would find it hard to explain things. That was close to what happened with him not giving out a Martial Style to each one of them. He had thought that it wouldn’t make much of a difference for the first few days since they wouldn’t be able to absorb much from his teachings.

However, the enemies were currently so clueless that even the slightest hint of technique, like the one Joseph was displaying, would have been a game-changer.

John came toward him in a crouched stance, clearly slightly experienced with some sort of fighting.

Grappling, maybe? Wrestling?

His opponent was much, much faster than he could hope to be at the 2nd Qi level of the Cockroach realm. But he had a sword in his hands and did not worry about anything else.

Jacob looked at his opponent's muscles and used such movements to predict the attack coming his way.

He changed his stance slightly, gripping the sword with both hands.

As soon as John was upon him, the bastard tried to throw some dirt in his face. It was some dust he kept in his pockets. He thought he would catch the kid off guard and gut him like a pig.

After a second, John’s eyes went black.

The boss’s head, an enemy Jacob hadn’t even bothered learning the name of, rolled on the ground.

Everyone froze, uncomprehending.

You are a couple of millennia too green for me, kid.

Jacob laughed to himself, almost choking on the blood that was flooding his lungs.

He swiftly killed almost every other enemy before collapsing to the floor and starting to vomit more blood. He had used another Forbidden Technique during the trial to cross the last steps. Now, his body was a wreck.

Jacob took out some herbs that he had prepared for the others and started chewing on them. Then, he sat cross-legged and almost began cultivating.

Fu*k, I’m going mental. I’m not on my own anymore.

He had almost fallen into a pattern he used in his old life.

Fight, heal, cultivate, repeat. You indeed are a sociopath, old geezer, Jacob thought to himself.

“Juliet,” he went over the platform where the girl was now standing on her feet. Most of her clothes were gone, but Joseph had offered her his sweater. To be fair, Jacob was even less clothed than she had been.

Through their Ancestral Bond, he felt the abject fear, the terror, and the shame she felt.

He wasn’t great with words and just smiled toward her. They couldn’t hide much between them, which meant that sometimes talking was unnecessary.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“I should be sorry,” Jacob said, “it took me too long to come back. I thought it would be three minutes, but it took five times that, instead.”

He saw Frederick tending to the wounded and got distracted for a second.

“He did everything he could, even risked his own life,” Juliet said with a low voice.

Jacob shook his head.

“I’m not good at judging characters when it comes to him,” Jacob said. Then, he took his attention back to the girl in front of him.

She had been one hair away from being raped.

He knew she was not okay, so it felt stupid to even think about asking. Juliet could look like a strong woman, but she was still a kid trying to adapt to this new and crazy world. Jacob had grown used to it, being much more amazed at kindness than any debauchery. He now considered terrible behaviors the standard, as sad as it could sound.

How should you talk to a girl who just faced such a traumatizing experience and who was just getting a taste of how fu**ed up this world was already?

Jacob and Juliet kept staring at each other awkwardly until Frederick came in front of Jacob and, against our guy’s expectations, punched him right in the nose.

Jacob had seen the motion, but he had decided not to dodge nor stop it. He knew exactly what was coming, and he thought it would be helpful for both.

“What are you doing, Fred?!” Juliet shouted to him.

“Why did you take so long?” Frederick’s face was red, and his eyes were struggling to hold back tears.

“I fu**ed up, big time. Nothing can justify it,” Jacob nodded from the ground, feeling a stream of blood from his nose meeting some other blood that came from his mouth.

“We almost died, Jake, we almost fuc**ng died! You said you had a solution, and then you left us alone!”

Jacob looked at the kid in front of him and felt guilty for doubting so much. Being paranoid was good only up to a certain degree.

What he saw on the kid’s face was the same fear he had felt when he had seen his friends die. Frederick knew he had not been strong enough to protect the others and not even himself.

They all needed time to heal from this, literally and figuratively, but there was so much to do…